Union Perspectives

When Starbucks and Amazon go union they should have no crafts, the union contract should be one union for all Starbucks shops. But, if there are crafts, their contracts should end on the same date or there will be no power for them to weld and there will be no power for sympathy strikes. A crucial elements since Starbucks and Amazon have so many stores or warehouses throughout the United States, it is imperative that the different entities stay in contact with each other. The employees from both these businesses work hard, and they deserve the security of a union. The other way is to not have contracts, just sign a truce for a period of time. This could remedy some of mistakes in past years, such as the meat packing plants, which had 56 different craft union contracts. So, when the craft contracts expired at different times leaving the different crafts with no power and no help from the other unions within the same business. The same thing happened to the street car workers. First they...

We are headed for another Occupy Wall Street movement and this time there is another army called the Bernie’s Army, people across the U.S. willing to fight for what’s right, thanks to Bernie Sanders. Now we just need more leaders like Bernie and it is time they step forward. The time is ripe and not only here in the U.S., but the world over. Just look at the union busting going on here and throughout the world. The fight between the corporations/oligarchies who are awash in hundreds of millions of dollars are permitted to loot and pillage the last shreds of wealth, human capital, and resources and the Commons of nations where the poor do not eat and there are no jobs, where the sick die and children go hungry. Now that there is a split in the parties, we must pull the other side into our movement. We want the police and National Guard to know that we understand they are not the 1 percent. The goal is not to get every cop and National Guard member, but to get enough to have a division. ...

Truck drivers and owners should take a look at how Russian truck drivers are protesting a new crippling tax per kilometer. The Caucasus drivers are striking a road tax, dubbed “Plato,” on trucks weighing more than 12 tons are charged more for each kilometer of federal highway they drive. There are more than 2 million trucks registered in Russia. The 1.5-ruble tax is to be doubled in March to 3-rubles-6 kopecks per kilometer. If truckers refuse to pay the tax, entrepreneurs are fined 40,000 rubles ($634.43 U.S. dollars), and companies 450,000 rubles or $7,109.38 in U.S. currency. If a driver makes 40 to 50 rubles per trip, and the trip tax would be 15,ooo rubles, how are the truckers supposed to support themselves? Adding insult to injury, the collection system has been turned over to a private company by the son of a close associate of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian truckers converged on Moscow crippling the beltway in what they called the “snail,” driving slowly tying up traff...

Clashes between capitalists and labor here in the U.S. and worldwide and intensification of the class struggle will cause the ruling class to parliamentary start turning away from democracy and go to fascism to hold onto power to protect the very rich. Then there is the fight for leadership of the movement needed for the final assault on the working class. Just look at the anti-labor people who are wanting to be the president of the United States in 2016. They are bought and paid for and the money people who are backing them are the leaders of a terrorist movement to destroy union and labor here and worldwide. There are the Koch brothers, the National Chamber of Commerce, and the local chambers and the Manufacturers Association, and as the wage slaves gain ground in their fight for $15 and the right to join a union. The capitalist fascists will stop at nothing to break the movement of the workers and our future workers. In fact, during 1937-1938, they used vigilantes, Jersey City use...

Stingray with upgrades costs $640, 000. Stingrays are part of a post 9/11 push by the federal government to step up local police departments Intel gathering and coordination. Since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security has given more than $54 billion to local law enforcement in part for high tech surveillance equipment, like the Stingray, which eavesdrops on phone calls, and with an assortment of add-ons, like the Fish Hawk listens in on calls. The Harpoon broadens the Stingray’s range. The Amber-Jack antenna helps pinpoint individual phones. The King Fish analyzes call patterns, doing in one stroke. The U.S. military developed Stingray technology in the 1990s. The Local law enforcement started using it in 2003. There are at least 48 departments now using this technology. This type of surveillance monitoring and infiltrating of rallies, soap box speeches, arresting speakers and intimidating strikers, which even went as far as shooting demonstrators is not new. These types of tact...

Wage slaves need to understand that they will never be invited to the oligarchies’ country clubs unless it as lawn maintenance or to serve them food and wash their dishes while being paid minimum wage. So why is it that some union workers, who have pensions, steady-good-paying jobs and healthcare, they lean toward GOP candidates or Blue Dog Democrats? It never works out for them to vote for these types of candidates, just look at the postal workers. Some of these American Postal Workers Union employees voted GOP and donated money to Congressman Darrel Issa, who returned the favor by doing everything he can to shut down the postal service and privatize it—all to bust the union. Remember the air traffic controllers? They were once unionized and supported Ronald Reagan for president and we all know how that turned out. What proletarians have to remember is that the GOP and Blue Dogs Democrats are not our friends and never will be and they should never be trusted. This is a class war that...

The low-wage, fast-food workers put up a good fight in their two-day protests. Now they just need to keep it up with well-timed events, which hurt the pockets of the money people, like on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. The low-wage inequality of living standards is just not here in the USA, it is worldwide. Some countries have made great strides in dealing with the needs of their workers. What the wage slaves need to do is cherry pick the best ideas from all over the world and develop a strategy that will make the odds in their favor for winning against the greedy. Look at the Denmark’s wages in fast food, which is $21 per hour versus the U.S.’s $7.25 federally and $8 in California. The cost of a Big Mac in Denmark is only $5.18 versus a Big Mac in the U.S. is $4. Denmark’s fast food workers are unionized. Could this be the reason they receive a living wage when our fast food workers don’t? Then there is Germany, where the corporate leaders sit with the workers and decide what...

Labor fights that were lost or won have always been decided by public opinion, even though there was contributing events, such as the National Guard, law enforcement, and court orders. Public opinion is a largest factor for without public support the elected politicians will not support you whether it’s local government (cities and counties), states, or even federal, for their life is controlled by public opinion, and, of course, lobbyists money, but in the end it still is public opinion that matters. So when labor starts a campaign, it must first test the waters, then plan from there. At this time, the $15 to $16 per hour minimum wage is enjoying very good public opinion ratings, but it needs to be pushed to at least 70 percent of the favorable rankings and made to hold at that rate, which will take money to advertise the benefits and explain about the corporations, that are supporting or leaning in favor of this increase in the minimum wage for all wage slaves in the low-wage indust...

Lady Justice is supposed to be blind. So all law abiding people have an even chance for justice and if usually starts with judges of the court, which should not be obliged to anyone other than Lady Justice and the money to elect judges should be public money not corporation money from oligarchies bent on controlling the country. When the moneyed 1 percent starts funding the election of our judges then Lady Justice will no longer be blind and she will see the large piles of money to be made or put toward elections. The 99 percent wage slaves are in for a losing fight for their share of the economic pie. The oligarchies can just buy the whole damn pie by electing the judges, who will uphold the claims of the 1 percent every time and ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) will keep helping the state governors pass laws, which will be upheld by the 1percents’ judges. If this is what is happening, it will only leave the wage slaves and the ‘have nothings’ with only one way to fight an...

We know why and when the National Guard was started. It was to break labor unrest. The corporations forced the states to fund the Guard to foil labor strikes, but do you know why police departments were started? Well, once again it was to control the wage slaves and protect the people with the money, the corporations. When labor becomes unhappy with their status in life, unhappy with low wages, unhappy with job security and safety, unhappy with the lack of pensions, lack of healthcare and unhappy with job discrimination, they find ways to come together to fix the discrepancies. But, there are people who are always there unseen, the puppet masters who are the old foes of labor. It’s always been that way since the 17th and 18th centuries. In those days it was called the enforcement of vagabondage laws against working people. This was the predecessor of modern prisons or workhouses where convicts were put to labor. The first prisons in the U.S. began in the 1800. They were modeled after ...

American Legislative Exchange Council is pushing the union busting resolutions to make states “right to work” states. Dr. Martin Luther King had said was one of the greatest frauds ever perpetuated on workers. What ‘right to work’ would do is let workers, who are in a union pay dues or opt not to pay. If they opt out they still get the benefits from the union as the dues-paying workers. Some pay, while others get a free ride. I always thought Republicans and the Tea Party members were against free rides – something for nothing. What the ‘right to work’ does is weaken the unions by sharing the benefits in an open shop whereas in a closed shop everyone pays their fair share. Weakening the unions is what ‘right to work’ and ‘pay check protection’ is all about and ALEC and the GOP won’t give up until they succeed in destroying all the protections in place for workers. This is what this is all about. There are currently 23 states with ‘right to work’ legislation; and Arizona is currently...