Union Perspectives

Amazon should be the training grounds for union organizing. All unions should send apprentices and shop stewards to do a week on the streets to help unionize Amazon. This could be the training grounds of what works and what doesn’t. The experience the young union people will help build our unions larger and better, and we will be training new leaders. The unions all need to come together as one to win this fight to put a union in one of the largest and richest companies in the world. There are playbooks out there, such as the one about Debs and the Pullman Railroad Strike. The Ford Motor Company employees’ sit-in strike. The big people and corporations have been brought down before. We must all band together like we did in the 1950s with the AFL/CIO, the two largest unions combined as one with one leader. A thorough investigation into the failure of the union attempt at Amazon in Alabama needs to be done before we continue. We can’t just blame the workers and community. We need to u...

If new states were ratified into the Union, it would mean additional senators and could make it easier to pass laws that really help the 99 percent, like single-payer healthcare, voter rights, labor laws, better union protections, and a living wage. This is the precise reason republicans do not want Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. added. Now is the time to add these new states as we have Senator Bernie Sanders and the Squad there pushing for necessary reforms on the people’s behalf. First on the list should be Washington, D.C., with a population of 5,322,000, which is larger than Vermont with 629,932 or Wyoming with 582,328, according to 2020 Census. So, why is D.C. not already a state? One argument against making it a state is that the Founding Fathers wanted it separate as the capital of the United States, and it was formed as a federal district by using land from both Maryland and Virginia in 1790. Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1917 when Spain ceded the island to the ...

The Alabama workers must win their union fight with Amazon. This win has the potential to break the dam against the union busting agents, and allow the power of unions to rush forward and rain down on the nonunion corporate enslavement of workers by the Walmarts, retails stores and fast food industry and others. This win will be just like the snowball rolling down the hill, gaining momentum. It will just get bigger and bigger with the power of the workers. Unionizing the corporate fast food joints like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King and the home health care workers and will give all these low-wage employees a chance for a living wage closer to what it should be of $15 to $24 an hour, which will carryover to hotel workers. By raising the wages to a living wage, it will also raise the wages of union workers like construction trade wages, which encompasses both union and non-union companies. Everyone wins when unions thrive. Unionizing Amazon will be the tipping point for all workers a...

The filibuster must end in order to save our country. Some worry about what would happen if or when the GQP regains all the power again and what they will do with it and against the people. The Democrats must just do a better job and fight like hell for the people and not let the GQP get back into power. It is up to us, the unions and people who want healthcare for all, free education, a living wage, address climate change for clean air and water, the right to vote, and stop the never-ending wars. The filibuster is basically a form of obstruction and used to block legislation from proceeding to a vote. Republicans use this often, especially when the legislation will have a positive effect for the people or making voting easier or whenever Republicans want to have a tantrum. Those who do not pay attention to what happens in the Senate or don’t care so long as the immature Republicans are sticking it to the Democrats, and by extension, the people’s wellbeing, blame Democrats for not pa...

It may be just me, but a lot of today’s union firefighters are thinking differently than they did in the old days about unions? Having spent 44 plus years in the industry, I can say without a doubt firefighters are heroes, brave, gutsy, tough, strong, a little nuts, but they pour their heart and soul into the job of saving others and their pets. So why don’t they do the same for themselves? In 44 years as a volunteer and district firefighter, the four words that still haunt me to this day are, “It’s all I got.” I’ve lost count of the times people begged us to protect their home because, “It’s all I got.” I was on a strike team and we were getting ready to start setting up on houses before the fire hit upon us and an old man came up to us and our fire engine and asked if we would protect his home. He said it wasn’t much, but “it’s all I got.” It wasn’t much, more of a ramshackle old place in the woods. The strike-team leader didn’t want us to spend time on the old place, but I promised ...

This new government administration has a lot of big and little things it can and must do to keep the voters on their side. First among them is that they must beat the virus and at the same time keep people sheltered and fed. This can be done by executive orders and pumping money into where it’s needed most. Yes, the Biden administration is doing a lot of good, but to reach the masses, it must go further. Start with helping unions by tightening up the National Labor Relations Board and its members and rules; and pass card check for unions, which would take the place of union elections and make it easier for workers to unionize. We need President Biden to declare a state of emergency and begin to address climate change to help save the planet while also creating new jobs in green energy, rebuilding our infrastructure with more eco-friendly products. There are a lot of products out there that can replace the old, more damaging products, like these few types recycled steel, using bamboo,...

For a little history in the ways to control people read Joss Sheldon’s book, “Democracy: A User’s Guide.” He writes about the different types of governing bodies from democratic societies, which lasted for hundreds of thousands of years we went to gerontocracies, the rule by elders. Other ways to rule were the priests, sorcerers, prophets and the wealthy, who controlled land, enslaved people and all of the livestock.Then came the militias, who killed anyone who refused to bend to their will. The leaders named themselves “kings” then surrounded themselves with knights, secured their loyalty by giving them land and declaring themselves appointed by god with the divine right to rule, and secured their legacies by handing power down to their offspring. This was done during the age of feudalism and manorialism. Kings ruled over their lords, ladies, princes and priests. These nobles ruled over everyone else, and they all became rich by taking from the peasantry. Much like it is today. Then ...