Your unions are only as strong as your participation.
All union members of all unions need to read and understand their union contracts , and the rules and regulations. They need to know all elected officials of their unions, local and national. Are your dues paid to the local or national union coffers? Also, where, exactly, do your union dues go? What are unions’ supporting or investing our dues in? Trust but verify.
When and where are your union meetings held? When are the election of your officers? What elected jobs are there and what volunteer jobs are there in your union.
What is happens if a union member is charged with a violation of union rules? What training is there for your union?
When you have the answers to the above questions, then it’s time to learn about your union’s history and the labor movement. The good and the bad because you cannot defend your union if you don’t know all bout your union’s history and the history of the labor movement.
Just like the Art of War says, know yourself and also you must know your enemy—the nonunion people and if you know both you have a good chance to win your fight with the ignorant and the GOP anti-union people. This fight will never end. How willing are you prepared to protect your union?
There should be classes and films on our history shown at union meetings and also on how to act on picket lines on strikes. we need to know the laws and history. There are lots of books available on the history and importance of unions--should labor halls have library for books to be available to check out?
There is a lot to know about being a good union member. It is not just paying dues and going to work. There are a lot of greedy people who would like to see unions go away and have you working at a minimum wage with no healthcare, pension, and no safety on the jobs.
Remember, a union is only as good as the members makes it.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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