Union Perspectives

Billionaires want to save the capitalism. There are and have been many people with ideas on how to fix the capitalist system so that it will work for everyone. Thomas Piketty (who wrote Capital), Bill Gates, (who created Microsoft) Thomas Paine (who wrote Common Sense Rights of Man), and Peter Barnes (who wrote With Liberty and Dividends For All). There is no silver bullet to fix capitalism. It will take many measures, such as bringing back the cash corporation and the very rich have stashed in offshore accounts. This money needs to be brought and put back into the flow of capitalism. The estate tax needs to be reinstated; the practice of inheriting extreme wealth from one generation to the next in families just allows the family’s power to grow with each generation. There is also the idea of charging payment for the use of our Commons, which some people and large corporations use freely, such as the air, water, minerals, courts, laws, protection of patents, our armed forces protect...

Why are some labor unions supporting Hillary Clinton when labor does not have a seat at the table at the Democratic Convention? Bernie Sanders chose RoseAnn DeMoro, head of National Nurses union, as one of his platform representatives on the platform drafting committee for the convention. She was to advocate for Medicare for All. The rationale for eliminating DeMoro is because unions are represented on the full-platform committee. However, labor has one seat out of the 15 people on this drafting committee. Labor built the Democratic party to represent the working people, and built this country’s infrastructure, and for that we get one person to represent us. As has been said by others, at the Democratic Convention, K Street is better represented than the labor movement. The Clintons’ antilabor legacy is partly responsible for the 2008-2016 world financial crisis. NAFTA went against all labor and sent jobs out of the U.S. and the threat of moving jobs broke the unions and drove wa...

What has the Democratic party and the last two Democratic presidents done for labor? Bill Clinton promised labor law reform, but when elected he wasn’t at all interested. However, he did give labor North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the union presidents were furious, but with some schmoozing and attending White House galas they soon forgot unions were thrown under the bus and all the money they donated. Then along came Barak Obama, who promised the Employee Free Choice Act, also called card check, and it never happened. Both he and Clinton had control of Congress at the beginnings of their administrations, but now it looks like Obama will give us the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), instead. This trade agreement is even worse than NAFTA. NAFTA and TPP are perfect examples of why labor needs to hold their endorsements until there is a solid commitment from the presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton is an extension of Bill, a corporatist and beholden to Wall Street and big...