Union Perspectives

Labor must vote for the person who will support and vote for labor’s best interests. And in turn, labor members have to support those who are running for office who support labor unions and vote down ballots. Voting down ballot gives the person at the top more power to do what’s best for us. This includes elections for city, county and state positions, as well. If you think a four day work week is wishful thinking, remember workers had to fight for an eight-hour work day and a five-day work week. We, labor members and supporters, need to find people who can fight and win. We need to clean the Congress and Senate of the old Democratic guard who have voted repeatedly to hold the working class back while enriching themselves. This would rebuild solidarity in a magnitude greater than anything either party has seen or offered in the last fifty years. If we can bring about the change in the ruling class we can improve all of our lives. This would be the start of the end of the tyranny of the...

The right wing governments of the world are pushing the wage slaves from the ballot box to the streets because the oligarchies have bought the ballot box. This forces the toilers to go to the streets to protest the wrongs of the right wing governments, like in Belgium, Brussels, where 100,000 workers had to take to the streets to demonstrate against planned reforms against public transport, schools, post office and other services. The government wants to cut staffing, services along with companies across the country. This is worldwide and here in the USA workers will be even more under assault by the right wing GOP for they now control 27 states, which will finish devastating the unions, and the oligarchies own the ballot boxes here also and the courts. So all that is left is the streets, which will probably be closed soon by Sedition Laws being passed by cities, counties and states, such as what was done in Ferguson, Missouri, where protestors were not able to stop walking, standing ...

“The wage slaves need more,” said the great labor leader Samuel Gompers. “What does labor want? We want more—school houses and less jails, more books and less crime, more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge—in fact, more opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, and womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.” He was ahead of his time. He went on to say, “What do labor, community justice advocates and environmentalists want today? We want less inequality and more dignified work that contribute to the greater good and is safe from toxins and hazards. We want the material basis of economic prosperity and the ecological bounty required to thrive—clean water and air, fertile soil and wholesome food. We want our children to flourish, their bodies to grow strong and healthy, with full voices and laughter. We want our elders to be honored and treasured. We want vibrant communities of art, creativity, song and learning. We ...

For the capitalist, nonunion oligarchies the most feared word is “solidarity.” This is what wins for the wage slaves and it can be distorted when the nonunion capitalists win. Solidarity means when all wage slaves stick together. They have the power to win and when divided they lose, and labor is the biggest offender of solidarity by using the craft unions where they will in one company or plant divide the work into separate crafts and then sign contracts with their employers to not support the other crafts in their company when a different craft within the company has a dispute. Also, the employers manipulate the crafts to have their contracts expire at different times so the work continues on in the plant or company. This was started by some of our famous labor leaders, such as Gompers, Mitchell, Duncan and Tobin. They earned the title of “Labor Vultures,” among the International Workers of the World. These labor leaders existed only by dividing the workers. They inadvertently did t...

Labor needs to take a historical look at the philosophy of the industrial unionism. The fast food low-wage workers should embrace what Big Bill Haywood shouted out at a meeting in 1905 at the Brands Hall in Chicago, “I do not care a snap of my fingers whether or not the skilled workers join the industrial movement at this time. We are going down into the gutter to get at the mass of workers and bring them up to a decent plane of living.” The International Workers of the World (IWW) were way ahead in its philosophy and tactics, such as it viewed a labor/management contract as an interference with labor’s only true weapon: the strike. Contracts were also rejected because they hampered workers from declaring strikes at the most critical times for employers. Most labor contracts have done more harm in the long run than good, such as stopping strikes. Maybe labor should take another look at Fr. Thomas J. Hagerty’s 1905 scheme, considered the most comprehensive scheme of labor organizations...