Union Perspectives

Young people who are not yet in the work place will get their first impressions of unions from sound bites or negative reports from anti-union sources like the Republican party and GOP corporations and the media they control. Labor is missing a lot of chances to educate potential members by putting a positive spin on what labor unions are and how they can help workers. Most of our public education system is taught by union teachers. They could tell their students indirect or innocuous stories about how unions have effected their lives and that of the students. For instance, a teacher/professor could say, something like, ‘union negotiations have kept class size down so that, as a teacher, I can have more time with each of those students who might need more help.’ Or, like I’ve heard, ‘Before our teachers unionized, I had to work a second job to make ends meet.’ Teachers could also incorporate labor history into U.S. history, such as when describing the Great Depression or how children ...

Unions have finally recognized that the only person who will work with unions and support new and better laws for workers is Bernie Sanders. He is probably our only chance for unions to grow and unions can reclaim their lost territory. We may even get a national card check in place where 51 percent of workers want a union the company or corporation must start negotiations with the workers. This keeps companies from dragging out the process and bringing in union busters. The unions now need to really get behind Sanders with their support, boots on the ground and ask union members to vote for him and consider donating $27 to Sander’s campaign. Healthcare for all or Medicare for all that covers dental, eyes, hearing and mental health with no out of pocket money will help union workers and owners. If healthcare was universal, unions can bid jobs better against nonunion shops. The unions need more union schools to send members to and union retreats for union families so all union members...

It is very hard to educate and organize at the same time as workers are working 12-hour days seven days a week. You have to work your organizing and protesting in sync with education. Workers must have the knowledge of worker history so they have confidence in what they believe. I once was told by a human resource manager at Point Magu Navy base that the reason labor loses in negotiations is that human resource people know more about labor history than the workers, which is why I study labor history. The Art of War tells us that to win you must know yourself (labor history) and know your enemy. If you only know one of these you will only win about half of your fights, but if you know both yourself and your enemy, you have a better chance of winning all your fights. Also, labor must have a good knowledge of how the capitalist system works for you and fighting for better wages you must understand economics. You can split out the truth and the bullshit and it is not rocket science to lear...

If the wage slave really knew what they are and will be up against in their working lives. I think all would join a union. But little do most wage slaves know is there was and still a concerted effort to blacken and distort labor history. Even today most all labor news of unrest is not published for public consumption, but there is a large labor movement across the world. As a past labor organizer I thought that the wage slaves had not quite slipped to the bottom rung of the economic ladder, but I think now they are on the last rung of the ladder and can feel the bottom. They can feel the bottom and are now starting to look up and some can see a little light at the top. These workers with no means have started to organize and fight, and they are taking on one of the largest wage pollution companies, like Walmart. But they are also taking on the fast food, car wash, oil changing companies in hopes of a good wage of $14 to $16 per hour. I also am noticing that middle management slaves...

Wall Street protesters are now nationwide and worldwide. There is no doubt that the 99ers are at last starting to realize that there is no one person riding in to save them. It will take all of the 99ers working together and, yes, some will do much more and some will do little for now, but as history tells us, the longer they hold out the more support will come in - people, money and political help. The 99ers are now starting to get support and advice from the ‘60s’ protesters, which, if listened to, can be of great help. They have been there and their lessons learned can teach the younger protesters a thing or two about options and pitfalls that happened to them. Recently, Tom Hayden let slip in a recent interview that 10,000 to 20,000 people sitting down on Main Street of New York or L.A. will bring on arrests and then each person demand a jury trial, which would literally shut down the city and court system. Just a hint from the old pros, some do have many options and if the cor...

The thirty-two GOP governors were elected and then they got together with ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the Chamber of Commerce and the Koch brothers to come up with a strategy to destroy their only competition -- organized labor. We can put people on the ground and raise some money to get people elected that will protect workers. Our question should be: Why in the hell we did not know or see what they were planning? Or did some of us know and thought it was too implausible? If we had paid attention to or remembered our labor history, specifically the air traffic controllers, we would have known the GOP eats their own. The air traffic controllers union supported Ronald Reagan and he fired the lot of them. Since President Roosevelt implemented the Social Security Act, the GOP has wanted to kill it. Today, they are making their hardest push to destroy it. Remember, the GOP symbol is an elephant and elephants never forget. Just look at what the GOP corporations have ...

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...