Union Perspectives

May 1st traditionally celebrated the transition into spring, but the day became a union rallying call when a major strike took place with more than 300,000 workers leaving their jobs in 13,000 businesses across the U.S. It began in Chicago when 40,000 workers went out on an eight-hour strike on May 1, 1886 at the Haymarket Square. May 1 became International Workers’ Day to commemorate the loss of life and injuries sustained by protestors when a bomb went off and law enforcement used gun fire to squash the peaceful protest. Tomorrow, May 1, workers from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Instacart, and FedEx, tired of feeling invisible and taken for granted by the corporations and the public at large, are set to go on strike. Many of these companies have not offered the best working conditions, but now with a deadly virus underway workers are being treated as if they are expendable. Suddenly deemed essential workers for a fraction of the wages, these workers’ health is being jeop...

The Postal Clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, was enacted in 1792 when Congress passed the “Postal Service Act.” This Act established the Post Office Department. The republican party is still going after what they consider the holy grail of large unions and doing everything it can to bust the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) union at a loss of thousands of good paying jobs. There are two current factors pushing this effort to destroy the USPS. One cause of the current attack is based on the thin-skinned crybaby occupying the White House. His revenge against Jeff Bezo, who happens to own both Amazon and the Washington Post, is one driving force behind the current attack. The Post runs articles telling the truth about Trump so, in retaliation, Trump is demanding the Postal Service triple or quadruple shipping costs for Amazon packages and the Postal Services gets caught in the middle of these tw...

Our country is on life support thanks to the incompetency of the jester in the White House and the dunces that make up his administration. We are faced with a deadly virus of which we’ve not seen since the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and the ensuing economic collapse, both here and internationally. Trump says he couldn’t have known that the virus would reach our shores yet he did. Reports are saying he was informed in January, giving him plenty of time to activate a plan of action. But since he disbanded the National Security Council unit focused on pandemic preparedness, there was no one in charge to take the helm. Trump’s team was briefed on what to do should the U.S face a pandemic, but apparently no one was listening. Trump refused help from the World Health Organization. He did nothing so he, his family members and other Republicans could benefit from the ensuing crisis. Rather than listen to the experts, Trump chose to listen to and take direction from his son-in-law Jared Kush...

Unions must be smarter when they end their contracts in order to have more power at the table. The Holy Grail would be if all unions contacts ended at the same rate nationwide. To start this we would let the local labor councils like the one in Shasta County in far northern California, which has the Five Counties Council. This council includes represents the unions of school, water, fire districts and cities and counties. The plan would be to get all the labor unions within the different entities to have their contracts end on the same date or as close together as possible so the employees of cities, districts and county would have more power together than alone. County and cities usually divide up the departments and not all are under one union and this benefits the government agencies, not the employees. If the different unions negotiated to end the contracts at a predetermined date, the Five Counties Council could arrange a walkout if needed and the power would be back with the w...

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...

Unions are coming. The workers worldwide are rising up to fight for better wages, healthcare , pensions, union rights, housing and climate change. They are also tired of wars and the exorbitant cost of education. People the world over want a government that represents the 99 percent and not the 1 percent who just want more money to buy more power. This is a real class warfare and we, the people, will win with strong unions, which work and support all workers, unionized or not. At this time, we have the auto workers fighting over tier workers who work by another worker doing the same job but for a lower wage. This is done not only to save GM money, but also to cause division among the work force. The General Motors workers won because all the workers stayed together. Then the Black Jewel miners are still fighting for their wages. They will win if all with a message of solidarity, money, which can be sent to: With Love From Harlan P.O. Box 1621 Harlan, KY 40831. Checks should be payabl...

The professional sports teams’ unions could help their fans, by advocating on their behalf. It is the fans who pay for their very good wages through their purchasing power. Take baseball, they need fans who make enough money to afford the coast of tickets, parking and hot dogs at the stadiums. The Major League Baseball Professional Association should make sure that players aren’t forced to cross other unions’ picket lines as both the Yankees and Dodgers did last year at Boston hotels where workers were on strike. It would have been a significant gesture for a few Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox players to show up and join the hotel workers’ picket line. One way to avoid putting major league players in this embarrassing situation would be to insert language in their contracts that requires teams to stay in union hotels and prohibits therefrom staying in hotels where the workers are in the midst of labor disputes with management. Maybe if the players were given a little education on th...