Union Perspectives

It took a pandemic to get workers to realize how much power they actually have. Calling their movement “Striketober”, workers from John Deer Tractor, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in Hollywood, education employees, healthcare workers, prison guards, and employees from Kellogg and Nabisco, among others are realizing they have the power with employers to make or break the business. In August, 4.3 million workers walked off their jobs. This is the highest number of employees to quit their jobs in the 21 years that the Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey has been tracking these jobs, according to Robert Reich, who calls this movement “an unofficial general strike.” Striketober is the war of the 99 percent vs the 1 percent, and the 99 percent must win to keep our country in a democracy. These strikers are examples of inequality that is ripping our country apart and other countries around the world. The top 1 Percent evaded $163,000,000,000 in taxes,...

The death of our country will be by a thousand small injuries inflicted by the ambitions of politicians for their own shortsighted gains and taking bribes for their votes. These politicians enter politics earning $174,000, but end up bringing home an income in the millions for voting the way special interests instruct them to. Take Senator Joe Manchin, he received $1,004,820 from “Securities & Investment,” $826,403 from “Lawyers/Law Firms,” $24,750 from “Tellurian Inc” and $19,900 “Starkey Hearing Technology.” Senator Krysten Sinema received $2,263,684 from “Retired,” $1,655,535 from “Lawyers/Law Firms,” $55,845 from “Davita Inc.,” and $54,900 from “Crescent Capital Group.” These two bulked at President Biden’s attempts to help the little people. Unfortunately, Manchin and Sinema are just two of the many who have sold their votes to the highest bidder. The citizens take the durability of our country for granted and refuse to vote out or condemn people who sell their votes to the...

Do you know where you stand? What are your political affiliations? Where do you fit in? Are you a populist, a progressive, a libertarian, independent, moderate, centrist, Democrat or a conservative right-wing Republican? Chances are if you vote, you will fit into one or two of these aforementioned groups. What does each of these groups stand for? The populist pits the common good against special interests, the little person against the establishment, rural interests against urban. The progressive wants to remake the Democratic party, often referred to as “netroots”. They want to end wars, energy independence, open transparent government, and promoting civil liberties. The libertarians want to be left alone, minimal government, very little taxes, national defense, and the legalization of drugs and are especially opposed to the legislation of morality. Independents are moderates or centrists. They do not vote for a party but for a candidate that appeals to them the most. Republicans, wh...

There needs to be some very large changes in order to get our country back on track, and keep up with the changing types of jobs, climate change, healthcare, and the cost of living to include food, fuel and Social Security. One thing the current administration could do to help out the elderly is to undo Reagan’s taxing of Social Security followed by a cost of living increase. We need to start lowering the age eligibility for Medicare to at least to the age of 50 and eventually to Medicare for All. We need a universal basic income (UBI) in order to save our capitalist system. People have to have money to spend for without it the capitalist system withers on the vine and dies. Taxes paid on sales should stay within the city and county to fund fire departments, law enforcement, streets, parks, among others necessities. As usual, the republicans will scream, ‘how do we pay for treating our citizens with respect’ or ‘we can’t afford it.’ The same tired garbage they always trot out when the...

The net worth of the top 1 percent is $41.52 trillion while the net worth of the bottom 50 percent is $2.62 trillion. This is a good reason for a universal basic income (UBI) of $2,000 a month for all 18 years and older. Consider that the Walmart chain still costs the taxpayers $904,000 a year in entitlement benefits, such as food stamps and medical coverage. Universities abolished tenure and now pay adjunct professors below poverty wages. The universities hold food drives for the workers it is underpaying. Professor Margaret Mary Vojtko, battling ovarian cancer, worked for 25 years as an adjunct and died in abject poverty on wages of less than $10,000 a year. Just look at the explosion in the payday lenders and pawn shops. Corporations do not hire, they just use non-paying internships. Ours is an economy of survival, and at this time the people, when presented with options, will chose food over violence, but for how much longer? The way to pay for the UBI is by charging rent for all o...

The GOP’s plan to take the country and kill our way of government is an old plan and it has worked in Cuba, it even worked for the U.S. to win its independence from England. China also used this plan by starting in the hills and staying away from the big cities until the leaders had a solid base in the country. The GOP started its plotting in the early 1980s. They wanted to win all local governmental seats, like water and fire boards, school boards of trustees, city councils, county supervisors and all law enforcement command elections. They stayed in small towns and got all GOP people elected. Then they got elected to state positions and went after the unions by getting right to work laws passed. Every state that has implemented right to work laws has seen the standard of living for its people decline. The GOP used to not talk much about this plan, but now they are public about it and flaunt their successes. In a Shasta County, a small county in northern California, they are now thr...

Lose your democracy and you will lose your rights to have guns, free speech or even the right to assemble in a group. Most people are not paying attention to how precarious a situation our country is in right now thanks to the GOP, corporations using Donald Trump’s insatiable greed and disregard for the principles this country was founded upon. The U.S. has outlived our democracy by a long time. From the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli in the Prince, Machiavelli writes there are three types of government: principality, aristocracy and democracy. However, there are actually six types of government because principality can easily become tyranny; aristocracy can become an oligarchy with ease; and a democracy can turn into an anarchy with little effort. This is where we find ourselves today—on the edge. We’ve seen it Washington, D.C., recently when they wanted to kill our elected Congressional members and even Vice President Pence. So, what kind of government would these insurrectionists ...