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 eliminated under the new political administration.
Starting this year, labor must look at all contracts and start trying to get all to expire as close together as possible on or near the same day at midnight. This is what the United Auto Workers is trying to do at this very time.
The biggest problem to overcome is how long can the members last without essentials like food, which can be fixed if we start planning now.
The Sheet Metal union members in my local had, what we called, a Christmas fund where each member put money into this fund in the event of a strike and food banks for members and members who volunteer to train in and participate in the big strike. We could have drills and local emergency training for volunteers.
It will make our unions stronger by starting local and then going statewide, which will give unions experience in striking, providing experience in striking. All this will make unions stronger by working together.
Yes, it is feasible for unions to win a big national strike and obtain a four-day work week with full pay, all forms of healthcare, free education, no tax on Social Security or retirement pay, no property tax on retirees homes so they can stay in their homes. Think these are wishful thinking, check out other countries that provide these and other benefits for its retirees (which, unfortunately are under attack by greedy corporations now).
Labor Leaders of the Month:
Shawn Fain, AUW
Jimmy Williams Jr, IUPAT
In 2012 more than a quarter of all political contributions came from just 30,000 people who represented the 1 percent of the 1 percent, 90 percent who spent the most won. Today, we are an experiment in either a democracy, which started in 1787 or an oligarchy, which is winning. The nonunion people, like Trump and Musk, have most all the tools in their pockets to destroy our unions. They have money, they have the courts, they have law enforcement, they have the media, and 50 percent of workers that don’t know this don’t know the history of the working class people. This is the perfect storm to lose all the gains workers have made whether they’re union or not, even our Social Security and Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. So, now we will have to go way back to the late 1920s and ‘30s and dig up the old labor party books. One book, written in 1964, has the information, The Rebel Voices, an IWW Anthology by Joyce L. Kornbluh, educator, activist, and advocate. The history of our labor...
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