Unions new slogan should be “Organize or Die.” We must be stronger by the 2024 elections because we don’t know for sure what the outcome will be. When we are striking or organizing, our workers will see the need to vote and vote for people who support workers. They see this when on the picket line or when working for a union they will vote for and to keep a union. This is when workers understand what is at stake and who their friends are.
So, in the 2024 election, workers will have a friendly president and government or they will have a president who will turn government on unions and its members. Either way, now is the time for all unions and its members to come together least for this year.
Unions that have problems with other unions have got to set aside their differences and issues at least for this year or we could very possibly lose our unions and the security unions provide to the workers. On the other hand, if union workers prevail in 2024 with the election of a Democratic president, Congress and Senate, we will be stronger with people in high places that support us and we can grow even stronger with more members in more unions.
According to Robert Reich, former secretary of labor in President Clinton’s cabinet, during President Biden’s presidency, the number of workplace strikes in this country hit a 23-year high last year. The number of workers on strike increased nearly 300 percent from 2022. “It’s a historic moment for the labor movement. Workers are done letting billionaires and corporations hoard all the wealth and power,” Reich said.
If Democrats take the elections, we can push for better pay, single-payer healthcare with no out of pocket costs, better pensions and a four-day work week, just to name a few improvements, and put us in line with other industrialized countries.
This is perhaps the most important election of our lives, because, if the Republican candidates win, we will lose the country we know and love and any progress workers have made so vote wisely. Get out and vote.
Unions’ long game is to get all union contracts to expire on the same day nationwide. The United Auto Workers combines contracts ends on April 28, 2028. This could then result in a mass national strike starting on May Day beeginning that year. This could then put enormous pressure on employers, but also on lawmakers. It’s the muscle and sweat of the workers that keeps this country great, not the individual company or corporations. This May Day strike would be the time to change the workers’ world for the better by negotiating for a 32-hour week with the same pay, and the U.S. adopts a healthcare for all with no out of pocket costs. This would also help the employers as they would no longer have to provide healthcare. By striking, the UAW won same pay for new workers, all UAW contracts will end on the same date, a 25-percent pay increase, a cost of living adjustments, a guaranteed right to strike over potential plant closures, and also the right to vote to unionize through the card che
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