College of Political Knowledge

I think we have all about exhausted the story in Wisconsin….the situation and the reporting is becoming redundant…….there is not more we can saw about the issue…only that the people seem to be on the side of unions and the GOP is fighting it tooth and nail…..

I will let it go after I give a bit of history for those that are not aware of what the labor movement has done in the past……back in the early days of the 20th century there was a massive labor movement and yes there were some Leftists involved in it…….but without the fight for fairness in labor we would not have the situation we have today….we would NOT have the 8 hour work day or the 5 day work week or overtime or minimum wage or benefits or a safe work place or a ban on child labor and the list goes on and on….let me ask…what would you working life be like if NOT for the fight of unions of the past?  We soon forget the hardship and sacrifices that our people had to deal with in their work environment….but we should thank unions for the life we have today…..

But wait….history seems to be trying to repeat itself starting in Wisconsin and now moves on to Ohio…..

Another showdown on an Ohio bill to restrict the bargaining rights of public workers could come as early as Wednesday with a vote by a Republican-majority legislative committee whose chairman says he has the support to send the measure to the Senate.Worker rights and collective bargaining have sparked debate in statehouses across the country, most notably in Wisconsin, where a scheduled vote on a similar bill prompted Democratic lawmakers to flee the state.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/02/ohio-ban-worker-strikes-punish-walkout/#ixzz1FS6rV6g5

In many ways, it’s the 1930s again. Just as then, workers and their political allies and other supporters are demonstrating, picketing, marching, striking and otherwise forcefully demanding the basic civil right of collective bargaining – the unfettered right for workers’ representatives to negotiate with employers on setting their wages, hours and working conditions.

Eventually, workers and their millions of supporters won the 1930s struggle. Congress, acting closely with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, granted the legal right of collective bargaining to most workers. Farm workers, domestics and a few other groups were excluded from the law, but all others finally had that vital right.

The 1930s struggle arose primarily because of the economic pressures of the Great Depression that led to massive protests, just as today’s struggle can be traced to the pressures of the Great Recession that also have led to massive protests.

There are key differences between then and now, however. In the thirties, the struggle was to win union rights for workers in the face of strong opposition from large financial interests, powerful conservative politicians and other anti-labor forces. Today, the struggle is to keep union rights from being taken away from workers by today’s anti-union forces. Their main targets are public employees and the pensions and other benefits they won in past bargaining with their government employers.  (Thanx to Buzzflash and Dick Meister)

Once again workers are having to fight for their right to work……it really comes down to the cash that unions and their members are willing to give to politicians that is the real story….it has little to do with the workers themselves just the influence that they can wield…….it is about elections NOT jobs!