Union Perspectives

Union leaders who jumped the gun on the 2016 election thinking the Democrats and Hillary Clinton would win and take charge of the U.S. Supreme Court will now pay for their very bad decision. Also, the leaders of some of the union leaders did not understand the feelings of their members on where their support lay, which was with Bernie Sanders. Labor went to court with three cases on labor arbitration agreements, which now will lose in the right-leaning Supreme Court and end up being the law of the land. In another case, the Court will decide whether public employee unions can collect fees from non-union members. If we lose this case, we can kiss the relevancy of labor unions goodbye. The law will bankrupt the unions and the loss of union membership will be catastrophic. These Court cases will be the Justice Department vs the National Labor Relation Board, which is a federal agency, will oppose each other in Court. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, this will be a fi

While it seems American journalism is dead, take heart in knowing small independents and social media are resurrecting reporting the facts as they are and not as the main stream media’s corporate overlords want it reported. Main Stream Media (MSM) caused outrage by reporting in a biased fashion that San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner without reporting why he chose to remain sitting. Those who reacted in ugly, derogatory ways against Kaepernick’s silent protest showed their ignorance fueled by the MSM neglect to get his side of the story. It wasn’t until The Intercept gave voice to Kaepernick’s protest did other media start to pick up on the truth.  Kaepernick said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. … There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Whether we like it or not, law e

There are unintended consequences of the 1 percent’s greed in offshoring corporations to save on taxes and labor costs. This greed has awakened the Have Littles to the fact that there is and has been a war waged against them by the 1 percent. This has been going on for about 40 years and most of this scheming has gone unnoticed because the corporate media has blocked coverage of it. Now the greed has gone too far and will bite the anti-worker 1 percent in the ass and the governments that support them. The people have had all they can take and are demanding their rights. Rights that include good wages, healthcare, pensions, unions, free education, and protection of our environment and climate. The sad thing is that most of these rights are provided to citizens in other countries, some countries are trying to take them away from their citizens and those countries where the citizens are fighting for these right—the sad fact is that other countries got the ideas to give or take these righ

The Democratic Party can hand the election for president to Donald Trump by not including Bernie Sanders’ platform on its final platform at this year’s convention. Instead, the Democratic committee drafting the platform has rejected Sanders’ proposals. Proposals that would help the majority of Americans and other countries whether they are retired, young or working. The committee has excluded or watered down issues, such as raising the minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, and refusing to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fracking, and addressing the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. They voted against or neutered an amendment to protect pensions, against a carbon tax, against preventing energy companies from using eminent domain for fossil fuel extractions, against making climate change a test for the Keystone Pipelines, against an amendment to add language eliminating use of force in the Syrian conflict, among other concerns that effect the majority of people. The committee instead

President Obama has sold out unions’ pensions when he signed a must pass omnibus bill, which has the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The bill strikes down an enshrined American ideal that money earned for a pension can’t be pulled out from under our feet like a rug once we retire. That promise, once codified in law, was upended by the passage of this reform act. This act will effect some 400,000 participants by cutting benefits for some retirees now, some up to 60 percent. This is the central state pension funds, which is predicted to be insolvent in 10 years and this fund is the canary in the mineshaft as similar multiemployer pension funds are now at risk. If these funds go bust, mortgages won’t be paid, prescriptions won’t be filled, utility bills and groceries will be a regular hardship. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell hates unions so there will be no hope there, and Hillary Clinton is no fan of unions either. This just leaves Bernie Sanders and no one is

Can the Bernie Sanders supporters multitask and hit the 1 percent on many fronts at once? Like wage inequality and single payer healthcare, labor rights, climate change and school debt. Let’s take the criminal interests being charged on student debt. There are 5 million student debt holders. What if they took the skills and knowledge they have and used it in the Sanders’ campaign to build a list of student debt holders, and then using this list to demand the right to bargain with the Department of Education and the banks to reduce or eliminate this debt, or they could just refuse to pay any more on the debts. There are groups out there trying to achieve the same thing, but it doesn’t appear their tactics are working. So maybe it’s time these institutions felt the Bern. Those fighting against student debt could look at what the group leading the FightFor$15 has done and follow their lead or look to how 2,000 doctors have come together to fight for single-payer healthcare under Sanders.

Labor needs to keep the revolution going if it wants to save the labor movement for they go hand in hand. Labor and its members are the only force that can defeat the 1 percent -1.1 percent and corporations. It looks like Hillary and by default Bill Clinton could possibly win the nomination and possibly the election, and there will not be much difference between the two, Bill and Hillary, because neither care about unions. They both are war hawks and both are corporatists, supporters of big banks and Wall Street people over us commoners. No one can count on what they say because it usually isn’t what they usually end up doing. Bernie has pulled Hillary to the left on subjects of Social Security, a minimum wage of $15 an hour, and anti-trade deals, but as soon as she is elected all these stances will revert back to her original, true beliefs. Who in the hell knows what Trump will actually do? Our only hope is staying with Bernie and if he doesn’t win, he can still be a leader in the re

The $15 an hour minimum wage has been virtually stopped by governors passing $15 an hour minimum wage laws that will take years for workers to realize. The slow walking of the minimum wage is nothing more than an attempt to pacify workers and those who support them, but nothing more. What good will $15 an hour in six years do for workers today, especially those effected by minimum wage laws that have lots of loopholes. I cautioned about politicians who would slow walk an increase of the minimum wage a year or so ago and, unfortunately, I was right. New York and California are slow walking the states’ minimum wage increase, but they added such safety valves as having state officials who are to conduct annual analysis of the economy in each region to determine whether a temporary suspension of the scheduled increases is necessary, the government press release states. Now, guess who won’t be on the panel making the decisions on whether or not wages should be increased–wage slaves. The wo

The world financial wealth is $95.5 trillion. This is the cash that keeps the capitalist system running now, what happens when there is 8 percent or $7.6 trillion missing? This is money, which is not circulating in the system, such as wages paid or being spent on durable goods that would need to replaced eventually, stoves, or washers and dryers. It is just a loss to all except the hoarders of the $7.6 trillion. To make matters worse, there is also $190 billion lost in taxes worldwide, $35 billion just in the U.S. and this is money that has to be made whole by the 47 percent. Once again, cash taken out of the capitalist system in ways like pay for our federal, state, county and city government workers, law enforcement, firefighters, infrastructure, schools, colleges, and renewable energy exploration. All would make for good jobs we need, but with no cash no jobs can be created. Our taxes are making up for what these thieves are hiding in other countries. Their excuse is that it’s not i

Why would billionaires feel they need to steal and hide money from the 47 percent from the Have Littles when the Have Littles have nothing in comparison? Is greed a sickness? If this is a class war then why do we, the Have Littles, keep sending out sons and daughters to war to protect the 1 percents assets the world over? It should be obvious to the Have Littles that the 1 percent do not care about their countries, and do not want to pay their share in taxes, but they want us to spill our blood and forfeit our lives to protect their interests and corporations. Do you think the poor in these countries benefit in any way by all this money is being hoarded in their countries? With the exposed murky world of shell companies by the Panama Papers, we can see the evidence of just how wealthy oligarchies conceal their money. Twelve current and former world leaders maintain offshore shell companies and we, here in the U.S., will find out who is not paying their taxes to support our country an

It is not very often in the lifetime of a minimum-wage worker that they can make a monetary investment in their future; but in this election the students and wage slaves can invest in Bernie Sanders’ Revolution. For as little as $3 or an average donation of $27, this investment could provide a lifetime pay out in dividends to you and your family—young and old alike, such as single payer healthcare, unions with pensions, Social Security with raises, free education, a $15 an hour minimum wage, prison reform with the elimination of private prisons, legalization of marijuana, card check for unions, no or new or fair trade policies that help U.S. workers as well as other countries and addressing climate change. If these small donors, who now have skin in the game, vote and support Sanders, it will prove to be just as important as any financial contributions. By giving a small amount in money or time, the donor will have contributed to their and their families’ future. This may be their las

Wall Street wants the clients to keep Wall Street just as it is and for that is Bill Clinton will get another four years as president even though Hillary would be the elected president, assuming she is elected president. She cannot and will not be able to control Bill, and the establishment knows this. They all at Wall Street, corporations and big banks remember what Bill did for them at the detriment of the wage slaves. So why do the wage slaves want Hillary? This includes some of the leadership of the unions. Don’t the union leadership remember NAFTA, and Bill never helped the unions with card check or tightening up the National Labor Relations Board to help keep unions strong. Maybe it was because Hillary set on Walmart’s board of directors. Should we not expect Hillary to support a $15 an hour minimum wage? Also there is the incarceration of black Americans at a higher rate than others. This prison population exploded under Bill’s presidency and now Hillary was getting large sums

In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency during the Great Depression. People were looking for bold leadership and that’s what’s happening now. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a package of reforms to rescue capitalism from collapse and thwart rising labor militancy from growing into independent working class political action. The Have Nots now have a long needed leader in Bernie Sanders, who has devoted his entire life for the betterment of the working class so it perplexes me as to why union members would support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Though we can’t blame Clinton for her husband’s policies, such as NAFTA, mainly because she has enough baggage of her own. Unlike her opponent Sanders, Clinton supported the Iraq invasion, Wall Street bailout, authorizing the Patriot Act twice in 2001 and 2006, supports TPP, which is considered worse than NAFTA, offshore drilling that is killing our oceans, and Foreign U.S. Military intervention that is bankrupting our economy. Her top donor

Every worker needs a union to protect their lives, health and work. In this case, these support workers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. They have no paid sick leave, a poor pension, and low wages that start at $12.22 for landscapers to a high of $22.57 for plumbers and pipefitters. These workers make the CDC run and yet they have to enter labs without being provided personal protective gear and equipment and have to wash their own clothes at home risking a possible contamination of their families. Even fire companies have stainless steel washing machines at their stations to wash their turnouts and clothes. The CDC workers’ employment was privatized to Four Seasons Environmental company and their union is Operating Engineers Local 926. The company has been trying to overturn the election to unionize and refuses to negotiate in defiance of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) rulings. This is a clear violation and total disregard of workers’ rights and lives

Are the days of a two-party system coming to an end? At this time the GOP is split between the Tea Party and the old GOP people. The Democrats are splitting between the centrists/Blue Dogs and the new young people’s party, the Revolutionaries. The wages slaves of the world are demanding a fair share in their lives that they are not getting from their government’s representation. Just look at Spain’s election, which shows strong support for two new upstart parties challenging Spain’s traditional two-party system. Then there is Ukraine’s governing coalition that lost its majority in parliament. There are different reasons for each country, but there is one that crosses lines, which trust and dissatisfaction with their elected politicians. Here in the U.S., we have a broken system in the Democratic party, which can rig elections by using super delegates. Super delegates were established during the 1972 election cycle when George McGovern and Jimmy Carter squared off. Using the 712 super

The Bernie Sanders supporters must be ready for the long-haul fight. Just electing Bernie is just the start, the beginning of the revolution. A true revolution carries the mission until complete change is carried out and taken hold, which means we will have to elect a true Democratic Congress and Senate. Not only do we need to rid the Congress and the Senate of Republican politicians, but also Blue Dog, centrist, and corporate-beholden Democrats, if we want to see the change needed. When we clean house, then we can see real change with free education. Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Slovenia, Chile and Brazil all have free college education and the main reason is that their governments aren’t controlled by corporations and the stock market. When your politicians aren’t beholden to corporations, it’s amazing what can be accomplished. Those who say increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost jobs; you have to ask why would these people say such a thing. When you pull