Union Perspectives

Good news, people, Fox “news” is reporting our country is so great you can work until you drop dead. Isn’t that wonderful? It didn’t report what kind of job you’ll be slaving away at, but you won’t be able to retire so don’t quit your job. Fox did not address stagnate wages, escalating housing and basic needs costs, full-time jobs being replaced by gig jobs and inequality created by the pay gap between CEOs and the workers. In the 1950s and until 1965, this gap was 20 to 1. In the 1970s through 2014, the gap began to widen and then in a steroid induced greed, CEO compensation increased 997 percent compared to the 10.9 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation. Today, the disparity stands at 354 to 1. This doesn’t factor in the disparity between minimum and median wage workers, which is higher in the U.S. than any other industrialized country. On average, a typical median wage worker earns $905 a week versus a minimum wage worker earning $209. There are numerous posts on this

Where is the outrage? Why are the old Fox television viewers not outraged over the gas prices, which are now more than $3.99 and higher a gallon? Food is also escalating in prices, as are the cost of heating and cooling our homes and businesses. Most of the Fox watchers are Social Security pensioners with limited income, which, thanks to Ronald Reagan, is taxed—again. Even with Medicare, most have to drive to the doctor’s appointment and gas at $3.99 a gallon, leaves less in the food and housing budget. All you hear from these old people is crickets about why this is happening. Think back to when President Obama was in office and how loud they screamed about gas prices and how he wore a tan suit—all because they were spoon fed outrage from Fox entertainment news. How are these people paying the difference in these rate increases? Is it by credit cards, skimping on their medications, applying for other government assistance programs, like Meals on Wheels, relying on family members or

Our new leaders have finally come to continue the fight started by Eugene V. Debs and Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the 99 percent. Joining Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in this fight are congresswomen New York’s Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), Minnesota’s Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, Michigan’s Rashida Harbi Tlaib, Massachusetts’ Ayanna Soyini Pressley, California’s Katie Moore Porter, and Washington state’s Pramila Jayapal. It looks like Massachusetts’ Senator Elizabeth Warren may be returning to her progressive roots, as well. These people are thinking of big and bold ideas to combat the deterioration that the 1 percent has caused to our economy and planet. They are sick and tired of the slow walking, do-nothing Congress and Senate that is supposed to represent all Americans, but cater to and follow the direction of the 1 percent. The pressure from these progressives is why the Democrats introduced the Green New Deal last week, championed by AOC and veteran Massachusetts’ Ed Marke