Unions must be smarter when they end their contracts in order to have more power at the table. The Holy Grail would be if all unions contacts ended at the same rate nationwide. To start this we would let the local labor councils like the one in Shasta County in far northern California, which has the Five Counties Council. This council includes represents the unions of school, water, fire districts and cities and counties.
The plan would be to get all the labor unions within the different entities to have their contracts end on the same date or as close together as possible so the employees of cities, districts and county would have more power together than alone. County and cities usually divide up the departments and not all are under one union and this benefits the government agencies, not the employees. If the different unions negotiated to end the contracts at a predetermined date, the Five Counties Council could arrange a walkout if needed and the power would be back with the workers.
Each union would want the best time for its employees, for example teachers might want to wait until spring, retail workers might want to wait for the holidays, building trades and fire districts might want to wait for spring and water districts in the summer—if each union has a best time or even two seasons the power could be split up to every other year.
The more counties we get to participate, the closer we get to a statewide strike. The more statewide strikes in other states could lead to a nationwide strike. With he goal of developing a strategy to implement strikes from seaport to seaport so labor can make an impact and win its’ labor agreements. There are ten major seaports throughout Oregon, California, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Louisiana if they all went on strike, the impact would be staggering and would bring the 1 percent and corporations to their knees.
This could start to make an impact within two years for most labor contract are for two years. It all starts at the local level and builds out the borders and then fill in the center. This is the only way to beat the corporations and the oligarchy. If this does not work, there will be a peasants revolt.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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