Union Perspectives

President Obama wants close the gap between the rich and poor, but wage slaves must be aware of the consequences of the slow walk in higher wages. If the wages stop increasing before $15 to $16 an hour all it will accomplish is that wage slaves will be making just enough money to disqualify them and their families from food stamps or other government assistance, which ends up being no help at all. It will only help the government and make the anti-worker GOP happy. The GOP will have you believe that low wage workers are lazy and do not want anything more out of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have poor because we have politicians who make bad decisions impacting the poor even more, such as daycare, Head Start or after school programs. Many head of households are single parents, most often women, and can’t afford the basic needs let alone daycare, so how are they supposed to get ahead if they can’t even make it to the starting line? What the workers must have is wages ...

Now is the time for the Democrats and unions and all wage slaves to attack because the GOP is in disarray. We, the workers, must now also demand what we want in return for our services to the Democratic politicians. And we also must explain to our fellow wage slaves what we will get for our money and time. One thing we deserve is: card check for unions, which will enlarge union membership and tighten up the National Labor Relations Board laws. And for the nonunion workers and their families some of the things we would be looking very hard at the trend of 39-hour work weeks to keep workers off pensions, healthcare, vacation and overtime. Another area to look at is the temporary hiring agencies, which take advantage of the workers desperate for work. The money that the employer pays the temp agency would be more money the worker could earn. The temp agency is a middle man and why are they needed if not for greed? We, the proletarians, need to know just what we are fighting for and tell e...