Union Perspectives

The toilers of the world fighting just to stay alive in countries like Ukraine, Malaysia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Iraq, Turkey, Greece and the USA. What would stop all or most of the evil that hovers over the heads of these wage slaves would be good paying, safe jobs, good governments, which looks out for the toiler. But in order to get there, the world needs good peace-loving and smart leaders, not leaders or government officials who are bought by corporations. All toilers need to be educated in labor and government history, and must pay attention to what is happening with labor on a daily basis. One way is through the Militant newspaper and the column, “On the Picket Line” by Maggie Trowe, which relates the labor news from all over, like the dockworkers in the U.S. or chicken butchers in Israel, Walmart and Kellogg workers in the U.S., Canadian grocery workers and the steelworkers union is in a fight with Chevron at the Richmond refinery in the U.S. Jim Payne, Steelworkers Local, s...

What does austerity, union busting, worker lockouts and making it harder to vote have in common? It is starting a worldwide revolution between the 99 percent and the oligarchies, which in most cases have the governments in their pockets bought and paid for. Some of the places and countries that are in the fight today are Belgium’s city of Brussels where 25,000 people took part Friday in a European trade union demonstration against austerity, 20 people were injured. The Kellogg workers in the U.S. are locked out of their jobs because Kellogg hired temporary workers to undercut worker pay. In the Ukraine, their unions and their sovereignty rights are under attack at this time. Also, there are 1,500 union and nonunion Canadian truckers at the ports in British Columbia, Vancouver who are in the financial fight of their lives. This is what standing together looks like. UPS just fired 250 workers who went on a 90-minute protest strike in February for the firing of union activist Jairo Reyes...

The vilification of the union name and labor movements started around World War I, when the U.S. government broke the back of the International Workers of the World (IWW). Some of IWW members were against the war despite that fact that many IWW members served honorably in military. The next onslaught against labor was brought on by the actions of Jimmy Hoffa for abuse of the Teamsters’ union members pensions. The McClellan Committee, led by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. When the McClellan investigation was over, Senator Barry Goldwater went after the Reuther brothers, mostly Walter, who was the United Auto Workers president. The AFL then supported the Vietnam War and fought in the streets against fellow union members, who were mostly Democrats protesting the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. This did not earn the AFL any points with the GOP; in fact, they viewed the AFL members as suckers. Walter Reuther was sickened by the news coverage of union workers beating up protesters. He said it ...