Union Perspectives

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...

Why and when did the GOP become so anti-worker? The Chamber of Commerce, which is GOP dominated and a few unknowing Democrats, has always been against workers having a living wage. At one time there were a few GOP elected presidents that were for wage slaves, healthcare, workers safety laws, environmental laws, and the right for workers to have unions. This was when they, the corporate-run GOP, needed our workers and at that time they just wanted to keep unemployment at a 6 percent or higher unemployment. The reason for the 6 percent and higher was when unemployment reaches 5 percent or lower then the workers would be in a better position to fight for better working conditions, such as pay, pensions, healthcare, work place safety. But now with NAFTA, outsourcing jobs overseas, the corporations don’t care about the unemployment percentage. The GOP politicians don’t care and have no intention to help working class people. Now the large U.S. corporations have traded away their loyalty fr...

Roosevelt said if the private sector could or would not hire 11 million of America’s workers while corporations sat on millions of dollars, then he would and make the wealthy in this country pay for it by implementing higher taxes on corporations and the 1%. It’s the same as today. Roosevelt made it clear how they, the corporations and rich, would ultimately benefit from workers having money to buy products the companies made. He also pointed out that the workers might otherwise take over. Same as the OWS are thinking about doing today. Also the unions were demanding that something be done about unemployment and the suffering of the working people. Same as today. In 1956, President Eisenhower said, “Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of joining a union of their choice.” Isn’t it ironic that he was a Republican? There was enough fear of the 99% taking over at the time that the rich and corporations agreed to pay a far more in taxes then they pay now. Roosev...