Union Perspectives

There can be no doubt that we, the 99%, are in a class war and the oligarchies are draining the treasury of the 99% and the unions, which a classic way to win a war (Art of War). When we, the 99%, have to defend our labor rights, voting rights with a court system that is slanted toward the corporations - Citizens United - (which only supports the 1%) then the oligarchies can, with unlimited money, buy lawmakers, governors, judges and presidents of the United States, which creates a plutocracy-type government. We are very close to a plutocracy government and getting closer with each election. The Koch brothers and Karl Rove’s GPS Crossroads are dedicated to this end. One of the things that can turn this around is the 99%, OWS movement, with the help from labor. Right now labor is working at a disadvantage because of some labor contracts that labor has entered into, such as no strikes, but they might just Wobble like in the old days of IWW movement or when a state or other entity votes...

The Have Nothings are the homeless, the Have a Little used to be the middle class and the Have Some are the new middle class and the Haves are the 1% and they have it all. The wages of the 1% are at an 80 year high. Some of the highest 1%ers are: Oracle’s Larry Ellison with a wage of $77.6 million; Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship at $38.2 million; Zynga’s Mark Pincus at $110 million; Caterpillar’s Doug Oberhelman at $10.4 million; Johnson & Johnson’s William Weldon at $25.6 million; Goldman Sach’s Lloyd Blankfein at $19 million; Ford Motor Co.’s Alan Mulally at $26.5 million; McKesson’s John Hammergren at $469 million; Omnicare’s Joel F. Gemunder at $133 million; TRW Automotive Holdings’ John Plant at $4.5 million; Verisk Analytics’ Frank Coyne at $33 million; CVS Caremark’s Thomas M. Ryan at $ 50 million; Wal*Mart’s Michael Duke at $18.7 million, which is 750 times more pay than the average Wal*Mart worker makes. There as never been such a large inequity in wages....

We can create new jobs and new manufacturing right here in the USA. We could create jobs just like China did and I mean lots of jobs, and at the same time help enlarge and support the businesses that are still here. Remember when Wal*Mart went from all American made to telling their vendors that if they wanted to continue to do business with them the companies would have to send their manufacturing businesses or shops overseas - mostly to China and other countries U.S. corporations take advantage of. The Chinese government, among other countries, has a buy China products only policy; but we don’t and we continue to be subjugated -- at the mercy of others. So why can we not encourage these businesses into bringing these shops back to the USA. All Wal*Mart would have to say is if you want to sell to us your product in their stores the manufacturer’s product would need to be made or - at least for the time being - assembled in the USA. If we could persuade Wal*Mart, Home Depot, Target o...

I was representing the 5 County Labor Council at a Work Force Development meeting recently in San Jose. The meeting was held in a union-organized Hilton hotel and there were hundreds of union people from all over the United States. I was shocked to learn the supposed Democratic mayor of San Jose was pushing a measure to gut workers right. I was waiting for the conference organizers to make a plan for us to hit the streets in outrage; or at least go to city hall. We did nothing that I know of. I also wondered if when the San Jose people voted for Chuck Reed for mayor did they know he would throw them under the bus. Again, when politicians have no respect for us, they will do whatever they want. I remember hearing a mob boss say in an interview that he couldn’t allow anyone to disrespect him because if they did he would lose power. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what has happened to us, we’ve allowed people/corporations to disrespect us. We have lost the power to negotiate, and with no ...

Just not in the U.S.A. Big box stores are told by governments that if they want to operate in their countries the stores have to allow unions to exists or form in their stores. For example, Wal*Mart had to allow its stores in South Africa, China, Brazil, Argentina, and even the England to form unions --- everywhere it seems except in the United States. Why is Wal*Mart spending millions of dollars fighting pro-union legislation, when it could be spending that money on its American workers. Why are other countries taking care of their workers, but our country isn’t? What the hell? It looks like these governments are helping their people. Are their workers more appreciated than our people? Like I’ve said before, the corporations can ship our jobs out of country, but they will then ship their goods back to this country to sell. This is when we need to organize. This is our opportunity to organize the big box stores. Our government could help us by passing the Employee Free Choice Act (...