Union Perspectives

The last bastion of organize labor is now on the west and east coasts, like New York City, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Labor has mostly given up on the south and the middle of the U.S., is that because unions aren’t up to the fight? We have lost Detroit, Michigan and Wisconsin, which was the start of public unions. These GOP government control states, like govenors Synder and Pence have kicked our union butts. In California, labor has lost all of the rural counties, Orange and San Diego counties; and now San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles counties are our last strong holds. It would not take a lot to lose California. California has elected GOP governors before and with our new federal government now in place and with the Koch brothers, et al, and their money it could be done again. We, union workers, could lose it all. They have started on teachers’ union and they are still trying to break the postal workers union by forcing the pension funds to be funded 75 years ahead of pay...

Is California next on the Koch brothers’ agenda? The Republicans will have 33 governors in office, and in 25 of those states, the Republicans will also control both the governorships and the legislations. The Democrats have six governors and legislations, and the rest of the states are politically divided. Sam Lansing is chief operating officer at the Americans for Prosperity, a conservative super pac bankrolled by the Koch brothers, and he thinks now is the best opportunity to accomplish a lot of the big-ticket items in 10 to 15 states. People in these states will be steamrolled on policies, such as destroying unions, Social Security, Medicare, right to work laws, school vouchers to break the teachers’ union and private prisons, while giving tax breaks wealthy. How long will it be before the GOP and the Koch brothers start in on California and New York, which will now be considered their holy grail for destruction. They decimated the unions in the birthplace of public unions, Wisc...

Instead of cities blaming unions and their union pensions for cities going broke, the cities should take a lesson from unions on how to negotiate with Wall Street who are the ones who, with their financial fees, are sucking U.S. cities dry. In 2014, the labor unions found that Los Angeles city had spent twice as much on bank fees in 2013 as it had on street repairs, which resulted in a campaign slogan: “Invest in our streets not Wall Street.” It was a call to the big banks and Wall Street, thugs who gamble with our pension money and are not willing to help on fees charged, which keeps going up. This is where the cities should take a page from the labor movement and bargain collectively on interest rates and other financial deals. This needs to be done now because during the last 20 to 30 years banking industry has shifted its profits schemes to now rely heavily on fees—the money charged for creating loans and packaging them into securities, selling them and servicing them. They charge...

Once again the oligarchies want to throw the old wage slaves under their greedy bus regarding the Greek pensions. This just shows the disdain the greedy money people think of the worker and this goes on all over the world--just look at Ukraine and Turkish miners. It is bad enough that the people who are working and driving the capitalist system of today are being deprived of their civil/human rights. This has always been the fight and workers understand this war, but when the world’s oligarchs start a war on the retired workers who are just barely making it on their earned pensions just like the governor of Wisconsin and mayor of Chicago, Illinois, are doing here. This type of conduct will not be tolerated much longer and when present wage slaves see there is no hope now or in the future when they get too old to work, what do the greedy money-grubbing GOP anti-union people think the wage slaves of the world will do? At this time we in the free world have enough enemies so why in the ...

In the1920s, the corporations representing capital (money) mobilized for war of the extermination on all labor organizations in the United States, and they never stopped. They have just changed tactics and leaders overtime. Today, the one who is leading this charge is back by the Koch brothers is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who recently signed the right to work legislation into law. This means workers in a union do not have to pay union dues, but still get the same union benefits as dues paying workers. How the hell does this work? When they take away union funds it is like tying one hand behind your back, and then trying to fight a two-handed bully. The anti-union money people have never given up on breaking unions or breaking up the New Deal. The other tactic union busters use is the old divide and conquer—pitting working people against working people so they will tear down their neighbors, who are lucky enough to have union jobs—and this seems to be working. Labor was warned ...

Will California be the next Wisconsin? Will all labor unions be gutted by ‘right to work’ for less laws? Well, this could very well happen for the members of some of the largest unions who are voting Republican, which by name are anti-union and supporting the anti-union candidates just because now it is not popular to belong to a union, and the Right has hijacked the hunting and fishing or owning guns. Postal workers have lost already when they supported Congressman Darrel Issa, who then pulled a Reagan and went after the Postal workers unions and began closing down post offices. Then there are the California Forestry and Fire Prevention (Cal Fire), who have a very good union with excellent benefits and again, a lot of their members are afraid to say they are union members and if they vote for Democrats or liberal candidate, but most vote Republican. The numbers of people in unions or receiving union pensions watch Fox (non-news) and believe the crap it spews about unions or their lea...

How the nonunion, Rand Paul supportering groups and the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation and a newly former nonprofit, Protect My PayCheck, are working together to influence local governments at the city and county levels the same way it was done by state legislatures with Right to Work. Today in Kentucky, Fulton, Simpson and Warren counties, have voted to implement the Right to Work laws. This could be the way California workers could be beaten and see our unions destroyed. Supporters of the these worker-harmful laws say, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are next and that Protect My PayCheck is promising to pay for the legal battles of any local government that tries to implement this legislation. There are numerous counties in California that have bought into the "State of Jefferson" mentality thinking they could control their own local governments, but this short-sighted vision doesn't take into account how to fund their independence an...

Have the Wisconsin wage slaves figured out that forming a band of brothers and sisters is better than listening to Fox News and electing people who want to destroy their financial way of life? If so, maybe this would be the reason union membership is up in Wisconsin. After Wisconsin workers saw the third largest decline in the nation in 2012, it is now seeing the seventh largest gains in membership from 11.25 percent to 12.34. This surprised even the unions because many believed corruptness of the state’s governor and his Koch-backed minion had essentially destroyed the unions in Wisconsin. Does this also mean that the wage slaves have figured out that taking the high ground to do battle is the way to win, which is putting pressure on the anti-union elected officials and electing people who believe in the cause and will not worry about losing their next election to the anti-union GOP opponents? If there is no candidate who fits that explanation, then put your money and energy into buil...

True power is with the states. Most people worry about the federal government taking away their rights, but in reality it is the states taking away our rights. We the 99% should be worrying about the oligarchies buying state governments and convincing people to elect their chosen senate and assembly politicians. With their state puppet government in place, they can do just about anything they want. Take a look at Detroit and other areas in Michigan. They can change the laws regarding abortion, check out the bills dubbed “Fetal Heartbeat,” recently passed in North Dakota; kicked out all unions, Wisconsin is doing this, and making the state a “right to work” state. They are even taking over the educational system, as in Louisiana, a state that can’t afford to be any more ignorant; and even taking over cities, like Benton Harbor, Michigan. State governments control the National Guard and the local law enforcement and fire departments. Their power is unlimited and we, the people, cannot d...

Could the oligarchies buy a state as large as a country? California is the next battle ground between the corporate oligarchies and the wage slave proletariat. The 1% oligarchies went into the heart of where the government unions started: Wisconsin and won. So what would be the 1% GOP’s Holy Grail now? I think it is California If they can take out California and break the unions and the Democratic Party; they will pretty much have control of all the wage slaves. They will start breaking down our society and our social infrastructure, such as our schools in which only the top 1% or 3% will be able to afford to educate their family members. Then the gap will widen to include healthcare, pensions and of course wages where the only jobs will be like in the old days. The armed forces (oh wait, it is there already) the old days and the sad thing is most of California workers and retired people have not thought of this or do not think it could happen here. It has already been tried with the ...

The result was an exhaustion of our troops and the huge loss of our capital and respect. The same results of the Air Traffic Controllers loss. With both of these losses we have embolden the GOP anti-worker bullies, which will now give them ahead start in momentum for the November elections. It’s like giving one runner a 50-yard head start in a 100-yard race and the only way the other runner can win is if the first runner trips and falls down. How are we going to trip up the GOP runner and where are we going to get the troops and money to do battle? I think first we must look at what we have been doing wrong, who do we want to lead us into battle, and what is their strategy to win? There is no doubt that we were suckered into trying to recall Walker, and not sticking to a plan of changing who sits in the Wisconsin state Assembly and Senate. We went for revenge instead of voting out the Republican Assembly and Senate state members. There was some success in the Senate, but labor let th...

Wisconsin will be the turning point in which workers will either prosper or decline on the issues of pay, pensions, healthcare, vacations and all the other worker gains over the last 100 years. The GOP and wage slaves are at a crossroads and if the GOP wins then the dominoes will start falling state by state, which will put the workers in the position, the only option, of having to fight in the streets. We have already lost the U.S. Supreme Court, which is where all appealed cases end up, and they will and have already ruled against the workers. The only thing left will be the streets, which will not be good because the GOP/oligarchies will be able to identify the leaders and jail or, like in the 1800s-1930s, just kill them by trumped-up charges or by mob violence. Some of our labor leaders who were eliminated this way were Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, Walter Reuther, Eugene Debbs and Martin Luther King Jr., just to name a few. This is the old anti-union playbook and this worked time...

Wisconsin was where the public unions started and this could be where public unions die. One reason is that 39% of Wisconsin union workers are registered Republican and are voting for Governor Scott Walker. I just wonder if they are stupid or nuts. How can a union person vote guns, god, and abortion, and forget about food, pension and healthcare? If union workers don’t get their heads straight they will lose all the work that the old pioneers fought, died and went to jail for trying to get union rights. Most of our present day union members have not been shot, beaten, tarred and feathered or hung for fighting for worker rights. The pioneers gave their lives and bled for our rights that some are now voting away. What the hell is wrong with these so-called union members? Is it the unions fault for not explaining how and what was given for what we have today or are they just a bunch of dumbasses? The other day a union supporter watched and listened to a mailman, who was sitting in his ...

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...

Labor has few places where we can call attention to the needs of the workers. One of the places that unions do have control is the Longshoremen; they control the docks, the shipping out and the goods coming in from China or wherever. This is a very important high ground for labor for when being attacked, you want the high ground (Art of War). Is this why there is now dissension on the docks of Longview, WA. As I understand it, a new company took over the dock and brought in another so-called union to do the work. The Longshoremen’s union is fighting back very hard, in the tradition of the Wobblies, to keep their work. What and why did this happen? Is this a divide and conquer, antiunion, GOP-corporation-driven strategy? We do not need this at this time. If it is just union driven, our union leaders need to step in and resolve this conflict. If it is antiunion driven then labor needs to cut them off at their knees. The Wobblies would not have stood by and allowed this to happen. Do ...

The old cliche, “In all adversity there is a window of opportunity,” has never been more relevant than today. We are in a good position for the corporations and G.O.P. have shown their hands. Will we repeat the past and miss our opportunities again? You would think that if you were in a poker game and all the players’ showed their hands except for you that you could win if you stayed in the game; but history has shown that in the past labor has folded and left the game. Now, folding if your hand is not strong at the time is a good play sometimes, but to leave the game is not good poker if you know what their hands are every time. We know what their hands show for they have shown them in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, Michigan, and many other states. This isn’t the first time unions became complacent and failed to see what was going on around them. One has only to look back in history at the missed opportunities. Examples of missed opportunities include, the AFL-CIO’s plan t...

If we depend on courts and lawyers we will lose the battle on union rights. Wisconsin Supreme Court recently handed Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a sledgehammer to further destroy union rights. I was told a long time ago by a union organizer that when we left the streets and picket lines and turned over our fight to the lawyers and court system is when we started to losing the battle against the GOP. Long strikes won’t work nowadays for most working families because they do not have the resources to withstand a long battle and the unions don’t have the resources to back our people. What will work is timing our moves like hit and run, old gorilla tactics. One or two days at a time pick targets where we can get the most support, most media and be able to drive our point home on what we want. Timing, planning, good communication and being well-organized is done through people all supporting each other. Even if it does not at the time affect you, but if we work together, we will bui...

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is a must read for all war colleges and large corporation executives, and there is no doubt that it would also be found in the GOP’s playbook; but it can also be in our playbook. For it states, if we know yourself (our labor history) we can win half of our battles, but if we know ourselves and our enemy (the GOP) we have a better chance to win all our battles. Just look at what the GOP union busting did recently. It went to Wisconsin and drove a knife into the very heart of the birthplace of the government employee unions. Now we have to counter. What we should do is pass card check in every state and then organize all the retail box stores, which buys most of their products from overseas. Corporations can move their factories overseas, but the corporations have to bring the products back to the U.S. to sell. Here is where we the workers can even it up. We must organize those corporations. We do have retail, department stores, restaurants, and grocery sto...