Union Perspectives

The question is do we want war and low wages and no pension, no healthcare and high debt or do we want safe and well-built infrastructure and less inequality? The workers are now fighting over things that take the attention off of what the workers really need and the GOP cult is very good at distraction and they own or have control of most of the media. They control most of the think tanks whose jobs are to crank out anti-union, anti-worker propaganda daily, which are talking and print points. There is only the unions who can counter this, but we have been splintered by the anti-union propaganda. Our unions, the AFL, which are mainly building trades, and the CIO, which are mainly some types of government unions, need to put their petty differences aside and work together. All unions need to organize all the workers from blue collar to white. To show the power all workers have they need to just not show up for one day and then start making demands for better worker rights. This show ...

What do the jobs look like today compared to the past? One is very few jobs today will last until retirement. Another is jobs today will probably be lost to automation of some type. All workers should have skills in a profession and a trade of some sort. Most jobs today do not pay enough for one person to support a family, which was not true in 1950s—1980s. It was in the 1980s—the Nixon and Reagan years when unions came under attacked by the anti-union GOP and amped up in the 1990s when the corporate Democrats helped the GOP—in the Clinton years. The work available today is becoming more gig jobs or part-time jobs than full-time work. It’s only part-time jobs coming out of labor centers like the temp agencies, Labor Ready, Adecco or Professional Staffing Solutions. The temp agencies convince company owners that they will save money them by doing all the paperwork connected to employees, and, in return, the company pays the hired workers and the temp agency. If a hired workers gets $1...