Union Perspectives

Economics 101 and the bullshit of the austerity: the only people who have benefitted from austerity are the 1 percent by having their jobs safe, their investments continued growing and their taxes were kept low. Do you really think this is the way to keep the economy growing? If yes, you’d be wrong. The longer the austerity last, the less money there is in the pockets of the 99 percent who are most likely to spend the money. There are other players in the game of economics, which is just like the game of Monopoly? The game does not get started until all the players have money, but as the game goes on someone will end up with all the money, the 1 percent. Then the game is over, just like an economy that becomes stagnant. To start a new game you must do what? Yes, put the money back in the hands of the players. One way we should have done this was to take advantage of a once in a generation opportunity to repair roads, bridges, air ports, water lines, electrical grids, gas piping and t...

The $15 to $16 an hour minimum wage fight must have a large outreach of community-based support and education of the public in the overall good that will come from higher wages for the lower wage workers. There are 46 million people in this country living in poverty. Between 2009 and 2011, all the new income generated in this country went to the top 1 percent making the income inequality in this country greater than in any other developed country. It looks like some of the corporations are starting to see the benefits of more money in the pockets of our wage slaves will help not only the workers, but will mean more profits for the corporation. It will not mean fewer jobs, but not more jobs to keep up with the customer demands for the food industry and manufacturers. I think the corporations are really starting to see the benefits of paying a good living wage and benefits. Some of these corporations are Costco, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, Raley’s, among others. They see that one of the ways...