Union Perspectives

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...

Robots—Pensions—Organizing Labors must organize millions more union members. At this point labor is doing nothing, but running out the clock on the very existence of our power, which is the people. The combined union assets is at $35 billion, but the total assets by collectively bargained pension pensions is trillions of dollars, according to labor writer Hamilton Nolar. We also must rethink how we invest our pension money and who is using it for union pensions. We are discovering union pensions have been and are financing labor’s own destruction when used by union/labor busting corporations. Maybe our union pensions should be used like the Southern California Service Employees International Union Local 721, which is pushing for the establishment of a Los Angeles Public Bank, which provide lower cost for affordable housing and more work. What and how is labor to deal with robots? Robots are displacing workers and their wages? One way to counter this would be to tax robots just like a h...

Is it time for a national strike plan? Trump is destroying the union rights of thousands of workers by stripping union rights from six federal agencies, like the National Weather Service, NASA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security Environmental Protection Agency by ending collective bargaining and taking over the office spaces used by unions. Trump has said to just ignore contracts for employees in specific unions. So federal workers who lost rights can no longer fight agencies over contract violations, such as safety and meal allowances. Workers are being fired without cause. Government workers are the core of labor’s power base and there has been no push back. The next thing they’ll go after is prevailing wage laws, which will hurt the non-workers for they will no longer receive the prevailing, which is the same as union wages, but the union workers will still get their union wages and benefits. However, will they fa...

On June 27, 1905, Father Hegarty’s preamble to the International Workers of the World constitution opens with this sentence: “The Working class and the employing class have nothing in common.”
So why are the old Democrats so worried about old guard Democrats so worried about taxing the billionaires? There is always another billionaire to replace one if should one move on from buying votes. The average fortune of the billionaire class is $5.3 billions an increase from $200 million in 2024. Social Justice is not possible without leveling the colossal accumulation of wealth and power that makes a mockery of the idea that we live in a democracy. The workers and unions must declare a class war and fight for what we want and need: good union jobs, four-day work weeks, good pensions, vacation time, healthcare for all with no out of pocket costs, elder care, free education up to an associates degree. The corporations we work for are the ones who benefit the most because they get better and hea...

The AFL/CIO needs to start kicking some union ass. All unions must start having meetings and having union-oriented speakers and focus their meetings on their union history and struggles to get started and how to keep our unions. It's up to us. Unions did not just happen. There was blood spilled in the streets and many spent time in jail, and some even died for the union cause. Men, women and children were burned alive in tents, like at Ludlow, Colorado. Our union members’ families need to know what is going to happen with the GOP in charge they are out to destroy our unions. There is no one coming to our rescue. Forbes identified 902 billionaires on its 2025 list, but in 2024 the World Population Review reports there are 813. At what point does a person realize they have more money than they need or will spend in their life times. They want low wages, no benefits, no healthcare, not even Social Security. They want slave labor so they can become trillionaires. So at every meeting t...

The volunteers/first responders, why do we need to keep them? Lots of union members are volunteer firefighters/first responders. One reason why is that when the State, counties, and cities go broke, the volunteers will still be responding because they don’t do this work as their primary job. There is a commonality between volunteer firefighters and union, both under attack. For them it’s about community and what they can do to make things safer and better for their families, neighbors, citizens, and visitors within that area. It’s about being selfless in a time when being greedy is becoming more commonplace in this country. But the state and federal governments are making this volunteerism harder with the regulations and laws that make no exemptions for the volunteer first responders. These same laws for full-time first responders are the same for volunteers, and it is not done for safety, but to weed out the volunteer first responders. The way it is done is to put more costs and requ...

The under world London, England’s Jack London in 1903 reveals that homelessness was attributed to foreign immigration, especially the migrants of Poland and Russian Jews, who were accused of taking the jobs of domestic workers by accepting lower wages, which lead to a sweatshop system. In the “People of the Abyss”, which recounts the struggles of London in 1903, the unhoused population was made to keep moving by walking all night if they stopped or stood still, the cops would make them move on. At daybreak, the parks would open and the people were allowed to sleep on the benches or grass. Free breakfast were served at the Salvation Army facility. This was called the “peg,” which meant the place where they could obtained a free meal. The people, who partook in the meals, referred to the Salvation Army as “soul snatchers,” because the “free food” came at a cost in that they had to listen to the Salvation Army’s sermons. As was then is now, as cheap wages are incorrectly blamed on immigr...

The trade unions are being franchised. HVAC and plumbing just to start with. How long before the other trades are franchised? And before long how many union shops will join these franchise companies? When the unions go so do all the benefits. So how can non-franchise companies compete with a nation-wide company on price of equipment, advertising and hiring/firing? With that kind of power, franchisers will take over the market. Then what happens? Workers are back to slave wages, benefits and healthcare? At this time I have not heard of any pushback or anything to counter this franchise system. The franchise system has a good message to workers and small shop owners so I hope our trade unions wake up to what is breathing down their necks and recognize what is about to happen to our union shops and union members. I have said for years that our unions should help our members who want to start their own union shops or businesses. Where the owners are union card members. This latest attack ...

This blog was started in 2014 to support unions and workers. We were one of the first to championed a $15 minimum wage, universal basic income, a four-day work week, health care with no out of pocket costs, free education to at least a bachelor’s degree, climate change, and voter rights plus other changes that need to be made. This blog, with 673 posts, has reached more than 280,713 readers, which is about 15,000 a month from 137 different countries at last check. I have forty years as a union sheet metal worker for Local 104, now retired, and forty-four years as a first responder/volunteer firefighter. At this time, the first responders with volunteer fire departments, across the country and around the world need help. I think our unions could be of help to these selfless volunteers by touching bases with the first responders and asking what they can do to help out, like maybe by offering to sponsor a community free CPR class or basic first aid class for all and re-certify the volunt...

Sheet Metal unions and all union labor, they have come for us. Congress is targeting our jobs and healthcare. Congress is “negotiating” a national tax package that could devastate working families and union retirees within Sheet Metal Local 104. The GOP is backing a reconciliation package that will make massive cuts to the very programs that support our work, our families and our health; like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Unions and their members cannot sit this one out. All must pick a side for this is only the start because the wannabe “king” does not like unions and will not be happy until unions are gone and all leaders are in jail or worse—dead. We workers and retirees still have a chance if we act now. We have to stand together, but time is running out. Retirees would be very helpful if they participated in the protests and contacting our elected officials. The more pressure we put on the Trump and his administration could influence their decisions. Companies meeting wi...

As of April 1, there are 288 new billionaires added to the list for a total of 3,028 billionaires with a total net worth of $16.1 trillion. This is what is against us. They want slaves and slave wages here like they pay in other countries. Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick wants the slave labor corporations use in other countries to be brought back and have Americans do the work. “The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America.” It is save to assume if this happened, it will not be at union wages or a livable wage. Unions memers have to be prepared. Our old ways of doing things will no longer work and the oligarchs know this. All union members must start saving money and not go into debt. It’s time to question the difference between a “need” from a “want” before making purchases of any kind. It’s imperative that we become self-sufficient as possible, even to the point of gr...

The AFL is with Senator Bernie Sanders and it is the people’s only chance to push back against Elon Musk, who wants to dismantle our government. Musk family is said to have left South Africa because they could no longer exploit The native/black Africans so he bought Trump and now he’s laying waste to America in the name of progress. With Senator Sanders’ leadership and backing of all labor unions, we could put together the whole of 99 percent of the people and beat back the 2 percent destroying we what once had and stood for while also saving Social Security, healthcare for all, elder care, child care, while working on the climate change crisis (we are running out of time, as the weather is showing us). The workers need to go big, such as a four-day work week like other countries have; universal basic income (UBI) and Medicare for all for unhoused people, which would help get them off the streets. UBI goes right back into the local economies, which supports jobs for the other working p...

It’s time to pick a side. You want to have and keep unions with good wages and pensions, then it’s time to pick a side. You want to keep Social Security for yourself and family, it is time to pick a side. You want to get or keep Medicare and Obama’s Affordable Care Act, then it’s time to pick a side. It is us against the billionaires. The very rich got that way off the backs of workers, and now want to strip everything away from those workers. It’s time to pick a side. The very rich can buy countries, then make the people get on their hands and knees and grovel and beg for scrapes that usually go into the dumpster. It’s time to pick a side. Is this what we want for our family and our future? It’s time to pick a side. Get ready to fight for you and your families’ lives. There is no middle ground with these greedy people for they want it all—all the money—all the power—all the land so where does this leave us when they have all the commons, like water, land and airways? It’s time to pick...

If we can get union people elected to political office, we will expect them to work on getting rid of the Taft-Hartly Act, which John L. Lewis, of the United Mine Workers, said this is the first ugly savage thrust of fascism in America. The Taft-Hartley Act, also known as the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, limited the power of labor unions in the United States. The act was passed by Congress over President Harry S. Truman's veto. Quick run down on this Act. Its main purpose was to weaken unions’ influence, which had grown during the Depression and World War II, and to create a more favorable legal environment for businesses and industry. The Act outlawed closed shops, jurisdictional strikes, and secondary boycotts. It restricted union political contributions and health and welfare funds. It required union officials to file non-communist affidavits. It allowed states to enact "right-to-work" laws. It defined unfair labor practices. It protected employees from uni...

Labor must vote for the person who will support and vote for labor’s best interests. And in turn, labor members have to support those who are running for office who support labor unions and vote down ballots. Voting down ballot gives the person at the top more power to do what’s best for us. This includes elections for city, county and state positions, as well. If you think a four day work week is wishful thinking, remember workers had to fight for an eight-hour work day and a five-day work week. We, labor members and supporters, need to find people who can fight and win. We need to clean the Congress and Senate of the old Democratic guard who have voted repeatedly to hold the working class back while enriching themselves. This would rebuild solidarity in a magnitude greater than anything either party has seen or offered in the last fifty years. If we can bring about the change in the ruling class we can improve all of our lives. This would be the start of the end of the tyranny of the...

There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...

Gerrymandering is the only legal form of voter theft. Workers, our long range plans should involve 1. crushing Citizens United; and 2. getting rid of the Electoral College. We have been trying to get rid of the electoral college since 1876, and we are still waiting for the revolt. Our unions need to start training some members to be our shock troops and if all unions would do this and work with our local Labor Councils, it would be a good start. Our members need to know our labor laws, local laws, and learn how to protest in the streets if necessary. The antiunion people like Trump, Musk and his billionaire friends work together to crush the working people and convince workers they’re doing them a favor and then use them as shock troops against unions and their workers. All union and nonunion working people must come together and work together to protect what we have now. Labor Councils have retired union members and they could work together to prepare to bring the movement forward....