Union Perspectives

The dreams the old International Workers of the World (IWW) could very well come true because of the capitalist attacks against workers worldwide. At this time, the French workers’ unions are under attack by President Macron, who is out to destroy unions. Then there is the Spanish government’s all out efforts to prevent the referendum on Catalonia’s independence, but 2.3 million people braved law enforcement attacks and voted for independence. The fight was lead by dockworkers, firefighters, public workers and most of all labor groups. Then we have the Kurds, who are fighting for an independent Kurdistan. The Kurds are 30 million strong and have no country to call home. The Kurdish struggle shows that it is possible to stand up to oppression and win. Poland has been slipping into an authoritarian rule for the last two years as the country’s government is cracking down and restricting people’s human rights and ignoring the European Union’s insistence that the government refrain fr...

The workers are losing while our labor leaders sleep or hide out, hoping they can hold onto their position until they retire. Our labor leaders appeared to have given up the rural areas and pulled their efforts into the big cities. This is like having a fort with a moat around it and think they are safe. We all know forts can be conquered in the long run. It’s as if labor leaders learned nothing from the Clinton era. We, at this time, are losing with the Right to Work laws being passed in 27 states, and now there is legislation in Congress for a national Right to Work law. Couple this with legislation in Congress to ban the Davis-Bacon Act on prevailing wage law, and the attacks on union pensions. These things will drive the nail into the heart of unions. This is happening in other countries, like the UK and France, who are electing leaders, such as Marine Le Pen, a far right leader. We, here, in the U.S., cannot just depend on the Bernie Sanders-types. We need new, strong unions wi...

People who receive Social Security, Medicare, government and union pensions and healthcare now, and the people who hope to receive these same benefits have an opportunity to show the politicians and oligarchies who want to take all of this away, this includes the minimum wage. To send a clear message on Jan. 20 to these greedy individuals, you must hit them where it hurts most—their pocket books. Call in sick from work, don’t spend any money any where, and don’t watch the Donald Trump show otherwise known as an inauguration had he been legitimately elected by the people and not the electoral college. Yo can buy whatever you need the day before and you know the media and social media will be all a buzz about the Trump show the next day so you won’t miss anything. This is a do or die situation we’re in. Trump, the Tweeter in chief, has lined his cabinet with the worst possible people he could find and they are going to rape and pillage this country for their own gain. If you thought G...

Labor the world over at this time has no friends in this corporate world, and there is no political part that will support labor because unions don’t have the kind of money politicians are looking for. The political parties now side with Wall Street, corporations, big banks and lobbyists for this is where the money and political power is and where laws can be written—laws that will make them more money. One only has to look at the U.K., France, Ukraine, Spain, Greece, Turkey, South America, and, of course, here in the U.S. where labor laws have been shot full of holes and probably do more harm than good. Now is the time for a revolution of minimum wage workers, students burdened by student loans, all labor unions, people on Social Security, veterans, minorities and all the rest of us to band together to bring voter pressure on the Democrats, if not them, then a new people’s party because what we have now is not working for either party, Democratic or GOP. Are we in the U.S. reverting b...

The people of Ireland came together to show the world how people should be treated whether straight or gay. This vote by the people of Ireland could be the tipping point for the country’s recession and stop the move to more austerity measures. This 62 to 38 percent vote could reverse the economic state of Ireland. The proletarians of the world are watching Ireland and learning how and what it takes to win the impossible. In essence, Ireland took on the Catholic Church and won! Think of the economic implications of such a victory—gay people and their supporters will be flocking to Ireland to spend their money. Some battles we have won, some battles we are still fighting, like the autoworkers in Turkey, who are fighting about the discrepancies in wages paid at the different auto plants for the same work, and the autoworkers in the U.S., who are fighting against the two tiered wage system. Now, do you not think Turkish workers and U.S. workers are talking to each other and supporting each...

The $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage fight is winning with support of the United Healthcare workers #1199 SEIU. This can be effective by targeting the international corporations that pays low wages, such as McDonalds, Walmart, and clothing factories that supply U.S. stores and colleges. There are now hundreds of people and groups across the U.S. and worldwide who are speaking out for the world’s toilers. The wage slaves are showing the low-wage unsafe corporations there is no place to hide. All toilers are demanding what is their civil rights, which is a safe place to work, a living wage, dignity, vacation pay, pensions, healthcare, and a free education to the bachelor’s level, and if the world’s wage slaves can get this then maybe they can get safe drinking water, safe food, toilets, clean air—the things that make life bearable and can give hope that their children will have a better life than the present wage slaves. We, toilers, must understand it is up to us to stop the wars and t...

This could be the year of the Have Nots, Have Littles and even the Used to Haves. The year 2015 will have some good things moving for them, such as in many places the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage has or is being adopted and other wages hikes are being slow walked. Gas prices have put a little extra money in the pockets of U.S. wage slaves. Finally there is talk of free junior college education for everyone, even old people! There is healthcare for more people than ever before. There is a pushback against law enforcement brutality against blacks, poor and anyone recording them. And it looks like Anonymous has our backs. It also looks like workers the world over are talking to each other and supporting each other, like Hong Kong, Ukraine, France, UK, Turkey, Greece, Africa, Canada, Mexico and South America; but, we need to get ready for spring and the fight ahead. The wealthy are going to fight back with everything they have and they are experts in convincing the average person to...

Why do the wage slaves of the world continue to stand still for the way corporations like WalMart treat their workers? When they pay “starvation wages,” work their employees part time to keep from paying benefits and now cutting part-time workers’ health coverage. This latest move affects 30,000 employees or about 5 percent of their workers. This follows on the decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to completely eliminate health benefits for part-time workers, which also pay “starvation wages.” These corporations could not stay in business without the work of the Have Nots, Have Littles and Have Nothing. As long as we shop at these businesses they have no reason to change their business practices of screwing over the lowly workers. Instead, they’re letting the public, the Have Littles and the Not Have Much foot the bill for the low-wage workers to receive food stamps and other government assistance that the workers wouldn’t need if they were paid a living wage. When we subsidize ...

Fifty-five years ago President Johnson declared his war on poverty. At this time there are 47 million Americans living beneath the poverty level. Does that number sound familiar, think Mitt Romney and his infamous talk with some of the 1 percent during his failed campaign for president. Billionaire Warren Buffet said there is a class warfare all right, but it’s my class that is winning. He is calling for higher taxes on the rich and the money to be spent on our crumbling infrastructure, free education, and higher wages. The tax on the rich under Johnson was 91 percent. It is now 39.6 percent for those who pay, but most of the rich pay nothing, in fact. There are many corporations that the poor end up paying for their subsidies and who do you think makes up the difference in these tax rate that is less than half of what it used to be? We also voted in GOP people who retooled our war on poverty to a cynical war on crime and privatized a lot of our prisons. The term criminal came to mean...

It looks like the working people who used to think they were contractors were scammed by their bosses, who kept the workers from earning a living wage and having union representation. They convinced these workers it was better to be independent than "work for the man." Someone (Teamsters) ran this up the flag pole at the National Labor Relations Board and guess what—the NLRB ruled that the Port truck drivers were employees and that they had the rights of union representation. The truck drivers have lost millions of dollars these past years because of this scam of being contractors’ status, which was just pure unadulterated bull crap. Unfortunately, the workers believed the scam to be true. At this time about two-thirds of the 75,000 port drivers in the U.S. are misclassified as contractors. This is not the only place where bosses try to beat the system by classifying workers as contractors. I found while organizing for the sheet metal workers that on prevailing wage jobs, s...

The plight of the Do-Nothing people: Edmund Burke said that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” So this is the mission of the Doers to get the Do-Nothings to start supporting the high wages of $15 to $18 an hour and a return to free education. One way is to never struggle without stopping to catch your breath and take inventory of where you started and how far you have come, like trying to climb up a mountain without stopping. You must first visualize there is a top, like seeing $15 to $18 an hour and free education as the top of the mountain, climb to a plateau. We have reached a plateau of $10 an hour, some even at $15 an hour, but we cannot rest on the plateau for long for if we do the opposition will have time to regroup and counter attack our efforts. At this time, the Have Nothings, Have Littles, Used to Haves, and the Want Mores are winning the wage fight, but the money people are slow walking the wage increase by dragging their fee...

Why is there so much unrest and fighting in the world? Is it just a coincidence that most of the impact is on the toilers? And who or what is to blame? It is not the wage slaves for they are just barely getting by and in some cases being savaged by raped, killed or sold into slavery. It is not only the Middle East or South America or Ukraine, it is everywhere. So what are the commonalities? Oil, gas, precious metals and gems, water and among resources, which then equals money and power. If the governments do not respect the ownership of the commons or its people power than the oligarchies will buy some of us, give guns and take what they want, which is all of it. There is never enough for these greedy people, and once the 1/10 of the 1 percent of the billionaires beat the toilers. They will turn on each other, but we, the workers, will be the ones who are forced to do the fighting and killing while they sit back and watch like a sporting event. We already see this sporting event in t...

The leaderless world revolution and the armies are all around us just waiting for a trigger or tipping point to march and they are all leaders so how are they controlled? It looks, to me, like they have taken a look at history and have written a play book that has taken old tactics that worked and came up with new ones and with that they have added and use our new technology. What we are seeing is it is very hard to kill the snake when you cannot find its head. Brazil is a good example of a tipping point, upping the cost of public transportation that millions of low wage workers would have to pay and then humiliating one person by pepper spraying her in the face for no reason other than they think they can and get away with it. I wonder what the cops were thinking when they were pushed into the ocean up to their waists—power to the people. This is just the start of the Have All against the Have Some and Have Nots. For us, wage slaves, have a right to have a say and a right to an equa...