CEOs Are Paid For Our Work

The working people’s army are marching together for a better life for all working people. Unions on strike or getting ready to strike should follow the example of the Writers Guild of America, this union’s members have been on strike for four months and counting. WGA’s negotiating committee met today with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. No agreement has been met as yet. People thirty and younger are for unions by 88 percent and 90 percent support strikes. Why are thousands of workers across America on strike right now? asks Robert Reich, professor, lawyer, author, artist, and presidents Ford and Carter’s labor secretary. CEO pay has increased 1,460 percent since 1978 while typical workers’ pay increased by 18 percent. When auto CEOs say they can’t afford to pay their workers more, remember that the Big Three have made $250 billion in profits the past decade. Reich points out that stock buybacks became legal in 1982, this is a form of market manipulation. By allowing publicly traded companies to prioritize shareholders and not workers. And this is part of why United Auto Workers strike. The big three biggest automakers spent $66 billion on stock buybacks and dividends during the last decade. This amounts to about $440,000 for each of the roughly 150,000 workers covered by the UAW’s collective bargaining agreements. There’s a term used for campaigns to get people to support unions, “run it through the wallet”, it means when joining a union is explained to people and they see how unions will get them fair wages to feed and cloth their families, provide healthcare, a safe work environment, and more money in a person’s wallet, they are more likely to support unions. These young people are who we need to get out and vote in the local, state and federal elections in 2024 and beyond. We need to do a better job of educating people that labor is not the reason cost of living is going up. Labor is trying to pay the bills of everyday life. The real reason costs are going up is the billionaires and CEOs who just want more of the pie while we fight over the crumbs. There needs to be a cap on billionaires and CEO who are making 300 percent over the workers. In 1961, the owner of a factory I worked in told me he made $15 an hour and I made a take home pay of $42 a week. I could live on $42 a week, but could not save any money, after paying rent, car payment, fuel and groceries. Then I went to work at a union sheet metal shop and I never looked back. So, yes, run it throw the wallet, and support people who are on strike, and always vote your wallet first for yourself and your family. UAW’s Shawn Fain pointed out the most obvious reason to join unions, to say that CEOs are paid for their performance is completely incorrect. “They’re paid for our workers’ performance and it’s a shame that they make those millions off the backs of exploiting workers of poverty wages.” Reich says, the three CEOs pretend they can’t afford to pay workers fairly while they make millions. GM’s CEO is paid $29 million at a ratio of 362 to 1, Ford’s $21 million at a ratio of 281 to 1 and Stallantis $24 million at a ratio of 365 to 1. “As the UAW negotiates a new contract, it is raising a fundamental question that all workers should be asking. If bosses are raking it in, shouldn’t employees be, too?” Reich said.