Union Perspectives

Most of the world’s workers are wage slaves. It is compulsory labor, which takes many workers who are in debt from college loans, credit cards or loans on their homes which now makes them upside down on their loans, and car loans. All this debt just makes them slaves to the capitalist system for most, if not all, their lives. With wages so low and the inequality gap getting wider, each year many people are finding no hope, which will fill the pool of people who will grasp at most anything good or bad to survive and get out of the dark hole of hopeless poverty. These are the people for whom the wages must be raised to a serviceable wage of $15 to $18 an hour at the minimum wage level, not only here, but worldwide where workers are being taken advantage of by greedy corporations. Along with higher wages, we must also address labor safety, pensions, universal healthcare and free education. To all of the countries who read this blog, this could be the year of change: Albania, Algeria, Ar...

Privatizing is just a way to get rid of union jobs, nothing else. It does not save money, as predicted or the excuse given for the privatization. This is what is happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina-Sarajevo today. This privatizing has sparked economic plight and civil unrest with buildings being set on fire and the presidency under siege. When Bosnia abandoned Communism 20 years ago, officials devised a plan to privatize government jobs. More than 80 percent of privatizations have failed. Many well-connected oligarchies have taken companies and stripped them of their assets, declaring bankruptcies and leaving thousands without jobs or with minimal pay and no pensions. Protests erupted on Feb. 4 in the city of Tuzla, where thousands of factory workers burned government buildings and fought police over the selling off of state-owned companies that left workers without jobs and future wages. Privatizations have decimated the middle class and sent the working class into poverty everywhere it...