Union Perspectives

The time is now to take advantage of the old adage, “In all adversity there is a window of opportunity” in this case for change. There are a multitude of reasons why people are protesting in the street today, and all have a common adversary corporate greed. The last time corporate America was scared of the workers was when the CIO and AFL were going to band together. These two organizations had been at odds for years basically driven by egos, as the CIO workers were less skilled workers than the AFL workers, who were trades people earning more money,. The corporations took full advantage of the animosity, pitting workers against each other. Corporations did not want the two unions forming one large union. Workers figured they were pawns and decided to combine their efforts under one union baring both names: AFL/CIO with George Meany as the president. He was a plumber by trade. The corporations panicked after this happened and started an anti-union campaign, that continues to this day. ...

The billionaires of Silicon Valley and government people are scared and building bunkers and islands in anticipation of society’s collapse. The danger of government people and the very rich having these new 500,000 to 1.5 million bunkers is that they now think they will be safe if and when the big boom drops or the 99 percent comes after them with pitch forks. They may think nuclear war or severe climate change will not effect them and that in the event either of these should occur, they will be better off than the rest of us. These are not just a couple of fringe groups. There is real money behind this movement, hundreds of millions of dollars. These are the richest and smartest people who are probably in the “know” so what do they know that we, poor people, don’t know? Then there are all the so-called rich preppers are buying islands and land in New Zealand. If all government and the 1 percent rich are safe, then do you think they fear earth’s ruin by climate change or a nuclear...

Labor is winning in Silicon Valley. It is a California uprising of low wage workers in the midst of some of the highest paid workers who make $112,610 annually. In contrast, the support workers were making minimum wage to the highest of $13 to $14 an hour. When these workers asked for a union to better their lives, companies like Apple, with a worth of $1 trillion, Google, valued at $383 billion, Facebook, valued at $250 billion, brought in anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis, a notorious union busting firm that uses every trick in the anti-union playbook to scare and intimidate the wage slaves. They pull workers aside and hold long captive meetings preaching the pitfalls of unions. These companies use the Walmart playbook by calling the wage slaves “associates” and tell the workers they are better off directly talking with Walmart management than using a union. Of course, they don’t tell the worker that is the company disagrees that the company fire them on the spot. The first stirring ...

California minimum wage is going to $10-$12 is just enough to move workers off of government assistance, such as food stamps, but still does not give the workers disposal income, which will boost the economy with more jobs and more taxes for local and state coffers. It would be a step in the right direction to stop the taxpayers subsidizing corporations that pay low wages to their workers. Millionaire Representative Ron Unz, of Silicon Valley California, wants to raise the California minimum wage to $12 an hour. Governor Brown wants to raise the state’s minimum wage to $10 an hour; Seattle, WA., mayor wants the minimum wage to be $15 and this is where it should be, $15 to $16 at this time. The increase is being slow walked, but it is going to happen. Whichever state does it first will be the winner. Their jobs and their economy will be a huge success for the state, and if California voters would do the $15 an hour minimum and the legalization of marijuana, California workers and the g...