Tag: Unions

Murder Of The Middle Class

There is a slow and torturous murder being inflicted on the Middle Class in this country.

Since the last half of the 20th century the Middle Class has been struggling to maintain the position and the life that they have been enjoying since the invention of the Middle Class….and sadly it is a losing battle.

Corporations have been chipping away at the Middle Class status with the help of the government….and it began in earnest with the election of Reagan in 1980.

Forty years ago, on August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and barred them from ever working again for the federal government. By October of that year, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO, the union that had called the strike, had been decertified and lay in ruins. The careers of most of the individual strikers were similarly dead: While Bill Clinton lifted Reagan’s ban on strikers in 1993, fewer than 10 percent were ever rehired by the Federal Aviation Administration.

PATCO was dominated by Vietnam War-era veterans who’d learned air traffic control in the military and were one of a vanishingly small number of unions to endorse Reagan in 1980, thereby scoring one of the greatest own goals in political history. It’s easy to imagine strikers expressing the same sentiments as a Trump voter who famously lamented, “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

https://theintercept.com/2021/08/06/middle-class-reagan-patco-strike/

I have written many posts on the death of the Middle Class…..

What’s Killing the American Middle Class?

Who Or What Killed The Middle Class?

The American middle class is dying.

In 2015, it dipped below 50% of the population for the first time since data collection started on the issue. It’s now an official minority group.

Meanwhile, nearly half of Americans don’t have enough money to cover a surprise $400 expense. Many are living paycheck to paycheck, with little to no cushion. And US homes are less affordable than they’ve been in decades—possibly ever.

I’ll tell you why this is happening and how to secure your spot among the “haves” in a moment. But first, let’s take a look at the America that was.

The Long Death of America’s Middle Class

Centrism and corporate control of the government is killing the Middle class….not long from now there will be little left of what use to be the jewel of the American economy…..today it is all about the shareholders and cash….the workers mean NOTHING.

I do not see a reversal of this trend….since cash drives the politics in this country it will only get worse.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Advertisement

One Big Union, Now!

The union leader Trumka has died……

The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, has died. He was 72, and the cause of death was not immediately revealed. Trumka headed the powerful labor organization since 2009, when he moved up to the post from the next level down, secretary-treasurer, a job he’d had since 1995. Before that he’d been the president of the United Mine Workers of America, the New York Times reports. Trumka started his career as a coal miner, the third generation in his family to work that job, the Hill reports. When he was elected president of the United Mine Workers of America in 1982, he was only 33, and the youngest leader that organization had ever had, NPR reports.

His death got me to thinking about the labor movement in this country….in a word…SAD.

As a past organizer for the IWW I have always thought that there should be one union that represents the workers…instead of the willy nilly representation they have today.

And then there is the conserv Supreme Court that has NO use for labor or unions…..

Since 1956, the Supreme Court has applied a well-established framework to businesses that wished to exclude union organizers from their property. On Wednesday, however, the Court effectively scrapped that framework — one that was already fairly restrictive of union organizing — and replaced it with something far more restrictive.

In the process of deciding Wednesday’s case, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, the Court also rewrites much of its existing Fifth Amendment law. Then it adds caveats to its new rule that resemble the reasoning behind an infamous anti-labor decision from more than a century ago. The Court’s decision is rooted in value judgments about what sort of regulations are desirable and what should be forbidden — namely, those protecting workers’ rights. And it was handed down on a party-line, 6-3 vote.

https://www.vox.com/2021/6/23/22547182/supreme-court-union-busting-cedar-point-hassid-john-roberts-takings-clause

Biden has tried to stem off the anti-worker attacks with Executive Order….

Among the 72 initiatives packed into the far-reaching executive order President Joe Biden signed Friday are steps that labor advocates welcomed as important victories for U.S. workers, including a provision calling for the limitation of noncompete clauses that drive down wages by preventing employees from quitting for better-paying jobs.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/09/biden-applauded-executive-order-targeting-insidious-anti-worker-practices

Among some of the portions of the EO…..

  • Make it easier to change jobs and help raise wages by banning or limiting non-compete agreements and unnecessary, cumbersome occupational licensing requirements that impede economic mobility.
  • Lower prescription drug prices by supporting state and tribal programs that will import safe and cheaper drugs from Canada.
  • Save Americans with hearing loss thousands of dollars by allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter at drug stores.
  • Save Americans money on their internet bills by banning excessive early termination fees, requiring clear disclosure of plan costs to facilitate comparison shopping, and ending landlord exclusivity arrangements that stick tenants with only a single internet option.
  • Make it easier for people to get refunds from airlines and to comparison shop for flights by requiring clear upfront disclosure of add-on fees.
  • Make it easier and cheaper to repair items you own by limiting manufacturers from barring self-repairs or third-party repairs of their products.
  • Make it easier and cheaper to switch banks by requiring banks to allow customers to take their financial transaction data with them to a competitor.
  • Empower family farmers and increase their incomes by strengthening the Department of Agriculture’s tools to stop the abusive practices of some meat processors.
  • Increase opportunities for small businesses by directing all federal agencies to promote greater competition through their procurement and spending decisions.

All this is good but does not go far enough….workers need to have political power not just some economic things…..power is only way to insure the worker is protected from all the conserv attacks on their livelihood.

And what happened to these pledges?

Basically typical political rhetoric…..”I got your vote so now you can go f*ck yourself”.

Time for the workers to stop thinking small potatoes and work for the political power they deserve.

What they have now is NOT working for their benefit….too many compromises and little political clout.

We need that One Big Union and not what is representing the worker now…..the IWW is the answer….the only answer.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

To Fight Or Not To Fight?

That is the question.

What made me think of this again was the president’s orders for troops to go help with crowd control and of course there were his mindless threats of extreme us of our troops.

It seems that the spread of Covid-19 has made the leaders (some leaders) think of a cessation of hostilities during the pandemic…

Which nations are most vulnerable to a coronavirus outbreak? Nations without a robust health-care system can’t handle a major outbreak, and perhaps the easiest way to tell which nations those are going to be is to look at which nations are being torn apart by war.

That’s why five years into Yemen’s war they’re a major area of concern. That’s why 19 years into the US occupation, Afghanistan is seen as so vulnerable President Trump wants to leave before the outbreak gets there. Where war goes, coronavirus follows, and fighting the pandemic is wholly incompatible with fighting one another.

That’s why when the pandemic started, the UN Secretary General made the unusual move of calling for a global ceasefire, and slowly but surely, the call is gaining traction, with most of the world now on board. The US and Russia are the last outliers likely to stop the matter at the UN Security Council.

Even there, the idea of a global ceasefire has enough traction that the idea isn’t dead on arrival. With a vote expected soon, some experts say that a few exceptions may be all it takes to get Russia and the US to stop resisting the measure.

Russia wants to be free to strike in Syria if they feel the need to, and the Trump Administration wants to support the ceasefire, so long as it doesn’t hinder any of America’s many, many wars. Reconciling that is easier said than done.

Which isn’t to say the plan isn’t going forward. If anything, it is a testament to how important the ceasefire is that despite the substantial obstacles, there are still efforts to keep advancing the push.

(antiwar.com)

Brought that up to show that some leaders are trying to do the right thing and focus on the pandemic…..

But until it gets more leadership I have a thought about the military……

Think UNIONS!

Back in my years in the military there were a few of us that thought the military should be unionized……..

This is a DoD report in military unions…..https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/734746.pdf

Fascinating reading……

Like the report stated many disagreed and the biggest opposition was what if we had a war and no one wanted to fight…..which is the doctoral dissertation……

Justin Colby deserted the US military due to his belief that the war in Iraq was unjust. “The army did a lot of good things for me. It taught me responsibility. But I won’t bite my tongue anymore and continue doing something I think is wrong.”[1] Colby is deemed a deserter, having refused to return to the war in Iraq, a war he no longer believed to be just. His case represents one of 3,101 US soldiers who refused to fight in the US Coalition in Iraq between 2005 and 2006 alone.[2] Thus representing a growing phenomenon for active military personnel as they act on their moral agency by refusing to fight. The alternative course of action is to apply for conscientious objection status. However, applicants face a steep burden of proof demonstrating “firm, fixed and sincere objection to participation in the war in any form or the bearing of arms, by reason of religious training and belief.”[3] From 2003-2005, the US approval rate was just over fifty per cent.[4] A core dilemma for combatants is that there is no option for selective conscientious objection; a refusal to fight on the grounds of “political, philosophical or sociological beliefs,”[5] permitting the unwillingness to fight on moral grounds. Due to restricted legal avenues and lack of rights associated with military refusal, combatants are left with no other choice but to desert.

By focusing on the notion of combatants’ right to refuse wars which they deem unjust, this essay will challenge the ethics of just war scholarship using a revisionist framework, effectively determining the extent to which soldiers have the right to be held morally accountable for their participation in an unjust war and, further, have the right to refuse. The first section will explore the justifications of orthodox just war theory and the reasons why combatants under just war theory are denied the right to the moral agency to determine the justness of war. The second section will examine the revisionist justification for the reconciliation of just war principles, reinstating moral agency in combatants. The third section will use the case study of the Second Gulf War, led by the US coalition, to assess, first, whether this war satisfied the just war doctrine and, second, whether soldiers had an obligation as moral agents to evaluate its failures and refuse to fight. The final section will explore the hierarchy of moral responsibility, concluding that if moral responsibility is not accounted for in the higher tiers of a military command, soldiers have a moral obligation to apply their moral agency in warfare.

Can Soldiers Refuse to Fight? The Limitations of Just War Theory

As a student of conflict I find this an interesting topic……

Now the pandemic has taken over the news cycle daily…..gone are the reports on the military and as the world suffers the Un has a message and some countries are signing on…..

With the world in the throes of the calamitous COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres is pushing for a global ceasefire, seeing a planet-wide halt to war as a chance to allow an all-out effort to fight the virus.

This is getting some interest beyond NGOs and the Pope. As of Friday, 11 countries have endorsed the idea, including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.

While the UN is still looking for a big nation engaged in foreign wars to really make this a thing, but some of these nations have some substantial domestic conflicts that might benefit from a ceasefire, and countries like Syria may find themselves influencing others.

These are also some of the countries most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemics, with countries like Yemen, Libya, and Syria some of the nations least prepared for an outbreak, with war leaving the countries with little medical infrastructure.

(antiwar.com)

Only a small group of nations have signed on and as we should expect none of the “Big Guys” are willing to give up on war even in these trying times.

What say you about this situation?

Sorry that post was a rambling mess….oh god is trumpitis wearing off on me?  (I need a shower!)

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–04Mar20

“A travesty and a disgrace”

In the past I have worked as a union activist and organizer and still help when I can whenever my union asks….

I have been worried about the lack of concern and members in unions….and one of the best unions was that of the Federal employees….all that could very well change thanks to Trump….

“This administration will not stop until it takes away all workers’ rights to form and join a union.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday quietly issued a memo granting Defense Secretary Mark Esper the power to abolish collective bargaining rights for the Defense Department’s 750,000 civilian workers, a move unions decried as part of the administration’s far-reaching assault on organized labor.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) condemned the memo, which was published in the Federal Register (pdf) Thursday, as “a travesty and a disgrace.”

“The administration’s divide-and-conquer strategy with respect to organized labor is as disgusting as it is shameful.”
—American Federation of Government Employees

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/a-travesty-and-a-disgrace-trump-quietly-issues-memo-that-could-abolish-union-rights-for-750000-federal-workers/#.XlGdg7qxeX4.twitter

Decline in Union membership is not something Americans acre about……

For much of 2019, headlines signified a labor resurgence, particularly among white-collar industries like technology and media. US public support for unions was among the highest levels in 50 years at 64%, according to a 2019 Gallup survey.

Despite the overall support for the cause, the anecdotal evidence has not shown up in the data.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics’s latest available data on annual union membership, released on Jan. 22, shows that 10.3% of American workers were in unions, down from 10.5% in 2018. For context, in 1983, the first year for which the bureau started collecting the data, the union membership rate was about 20% with 17.7 million union workers.

https://qz.com/work/1789615/union-membership-rates-in-the-us-continues-to-decline/

Unions made our middle class and yet no one gives a crap that the middle class is disappearing along with the unions.

Maybe a little rational thought could help explain why they are declining together…..or maybe it is just a coincidence….(I do not believe in those)….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Say Good Bye To Right-To-Work (Hopefully!)

Closing Thought–30Apr19

Tomorrow is the International Day of the Worker….so I thought I would post on labor and its place in American society…..

I live in Mississippi a right to work state….a term that sounds good but in reality means that if you want to work then you will work for less money……what a glorious idea of the conserv pricks in our country……I have written what I think of this idea…..and none of it flattering….

https://lobotero.com/2008/08/27/employment-at-will-vs-right-to-work/

https://lobotero.com/2011/10/10/the-right-to-work/

To say that I am not a supporter of this rip-off of the American worker would be an understatement…….but at least one state is fighting back at the attempt to make right-to-work a stable of their economy…….right to work supporters tried to use this as a union busting move and for the most part it was successful……..but Illinois is fighting back……

With the support of labor unions, a new bill prohibiting municipalities in the state from enacting “right-to-work laws” was signed into law by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker last week.

The “Collective Bargaining Freedom Act” prohibits local right-to-work ordinances and imposes penalties for violations.

Right-to-work laws became a focus for state lawmakers after the village of Lincolnshire, a northern suburb of Chicago, passed one in 2015.

A federal court later overturned the ordinance.

One Big Union

Another weekend and we take some time to reflect on the past week and the one approaching…….since I usually do not post much politics and such on these couple of days……I will do the next best thing….HISTORY (moans, groans and head slapping)……

In my younger days I was a delegate for the IWW, Industrial Workers of the World, the original union in the beginning later came the AFL-CIO and others….my days with the union was spent in outreach and activism to help the workers…..my main work was done with bartenders and casino workers……

Most Americans have never heard of the IWW so I thought I would give them a little history to mull over while they go about their weekend duties……

It all began around the year 1905…….

The IWW changed American trade unionism forever, being the first big union to organise black and white across entire industries, and calling for the abolition of the wage system and industrial democracy. It was largely defeated by a massive campaign of repression launched by bosses and the government.

Source: 1905-today: The Industrial Workers of the World in the US

Before you think you know everything about the labor movement you might want to read this short history……..there is so much more to the movement than what you think you know…..

A few songs of the IWW to close……

 

 

My granddaughter likes Pete Seeger’s song…”All You Fascists Born To Lose”…what a great kid!

Time for me to bow out for the day…TTFN….be back tomorrow with more stuff….chuq

Labor For Life

In my younger more impetuous days I was a labor organizer and since then I am always reading about the movement and trying to decide where it is going in this country…….

In modern politics the word labor and unions are dirty words in conservative circles……..this institution has been blamed for all sorts of woes…it has been blamed for a wide array of situations from the high cost of cars to poor educational performance to the unwanted outcome of elections…..in short…..unions are the anti-Christ in some corners.

The perfectly executed character assassination of unions has, in my opinion, has lead to a weakening of labor’s position in the workplace which in turn has slowly fueled the demise of the middle class….

Fast forward to this week……the ‘big story’ has been the union vote in a VW plant in Tennessee on whether to unionize or not….BTW the union lost out in that vote…..they voted to NOT unionize…….

The obvious loser in last week’s failed bid to unionize the Volkswagen auto plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., was the United Auto Workers. The union was counting on a victory at the German-owned plant, which stayed officially neutral in the unionizing effort but hinted it welcomed a platform for organizing other plants in the South.

But the vote — and the forces that had arrayed themselves against the UAW — could also represent a setback for the economy and blue- and white-collar employees, a number of auto-industry and economic experts suggested.

U.S. management and labor organizations have battled each other —with both sides wasting resources in the process — ever since Frederick Winslow Taylor used his “scientific” methods a century ago to de-skill and control production workers, explained James P. Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and a co-author of “The Machine That Changed The World.” For Womack, the acrimonious fight and vote in Chattanooga was part of a historical continuum that has often hobbled U.S. industry, especially in the face of international competitors who embraced much more collaborative approaches to management.

My personal opinion was that it would not succeed in unionizing the plant….after all it is in the South and Right To Work is strong in the region…….so was the vote a big win for VW?  I thought so until I read another article shortly after the vote…….

The head of Volkswagen’s General Works Councils in Germany is threatening to block any further investment in the southern United States, Reuters reports, after workers at VW’s Chattanooga plant voted against union representation. “I can imagine fairly well that another VW factory in the United States, provided that one more should still be set up there, does not necessarily have to be assigned to the South again,’ Bernd Osterloh said. “We as workers will hardly be able to vote in favor” of one. Osterloh blames US conservatives for stirring up “massive anti-union sentiments.” He serves on a 20-member supervisory board split evenly between workers and management that could block future investments unless Chattanooga gets a German-style workers’ council. VW would still like to create a council without the United Auto Workers union, the New York Times reports, but legal experts say that might violate federal laws against company-controlled worker groups. Some anti-UAW workers have offered to set up an alternative union to get around the problem.

An interesting turn of the screw, right?  With all that info in hgand, who would you say was the big winner in this situation?

Please throwing your hat into this conversation.  I would like to have as many thoughts as possible……

Why The Hate?

I am sure that if you watch or read news reports you have been subject to the attacks on labor unions…..they have been blamed for every bad economic trend in this country……from expensive cars to problems in the schools to voter fraud to….well pick an issue and some mental midget will blame it on unions……..and all the misinformation has been used by red states to want to make their states right-to-work states (anyone who thinks that is a good idea then Google Mississippi stats)…….

If you work for a living then unions have help get you should horrible things as…….8 hour day, overtime, 40 hour week…..workmen’s comp……on and on……..

Union membership is at a 97-year low in America, with just 11.3% of workers belonging to one. Because you’re probably not one of them, you probably don’t care about this low point—but you should, writes Eric Liu in Time. Not only do unions lift wages for their members, they also lift wages for the rest of us “by creating a higher prevailing wage,” Liu writes. “The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom.” But most Americans don’t see it that way—rather, many see unions “as special interests seeking special privileges, often on the taxpayer’s dime.” But consider this: Workers in unions are making a better wage, and are thus less likely to rely on government assistance. “The weakness of labor is everyone’s problem—and its revival everyone’s opportunity.” Click for Liu’s full column.

Before someone thinks they have me pegged….let me say….while I believe that unions have done more good than harm….I do not like the bureaucratic structure….to my thinking the head of a union should make only 20% more than its highest paid member….but as long as we have this sort of set up….unions will be nothing more than expensive lobbyists…..

I realize that most Americans will buy into the BS spread about unions….all I can say is all that wanted to be a right-to-work state…….welcome to low ages and crap jobs……and then it may be too late to remedy the situation…….what’s the old saying, “crap in, crap out”……

Assaulting The System

For years I have been telling people to watch their backs that they were letting the politicians get away with way too much and that it would eventually sneak up and bite them in the butt…..right about now the voter’s ass should look like hamburger!

It began with the hatchet job done on ACORN by Breitbart and his lackey film maker….it seemed that the Far Right had to silence ACORN and the job it did helping poor people register to vote….for those people were “Democrats”…argh!

Then after the 2010 election we had a number of Repub governors attacking collective bargaining and union membership as some how making the deficits worse in their states….states like Ohio, Wisconsin …….after all unions were the major contributors to the opposition…..those “Democrats”…..argh!

And then Repub governors and legislatures started attacking voting…..they passed new laws that limit who could vote or made it extremely hard for some people to register….states like Florida…because these people more than likely would have voted….”Democrat”….argh!

And now there is a new approach…..the Hill is reporting….

A new proposal by the governor of Pennsylvania that would dramatically change how the state awards its Electoral College votes could have a major impact on the 2012 election — and President Obama’s reelection chances.The plan would be similar to the configurations in Nebraska and Maine, which divide their votes rather than adopting the “winner-take-all” system in place in the remaining states plus the District of Columbia. But while Nebraska and Maine have a relatively small impact on the race, due to their size, Pennsylvania’s adoption of the system would have a dramatic effect on the presidential process.

They will tinker with a plan that was stated in the Constitution….remember that document?

This plan would further eliminate the whole  idea of one vote concept….this is the attempt to find ways to prevent Obama from gaining all the electoral votes….these newly elected Repub governors and legislatures are doing what they accused us Leftist of wanting to do in the past….and yet they get support and the Left got vilified……why is that?  To be fair, this idea could well, backfire on them….but that is not important….trying to gin the system for the 2012 election is all that matters at this time…….

I warned yet again…WATCH your backs…….or you will lose what few voting rights you have now…..and there are NOT many left.

Blame It On The Unions

With the revolution, so to speak, that has been festering in Wisconsin and now moved onto other states, the unions are being blamed for everything from the election of a president to e coli…..of course this is NOTHING new….conservs have been doing this for a very long time….almost since the beginning back in the early 20th century…..

Any one that has read Info Ink for any length of time knows that I am a labor supporter but not necessarily a supporter of unions, as we know them today.  Yes, I think that labor should be lead by a separate party, if you will……but NOT an AFL-CIO type of organization……why?  It is too bureaucratic and too top-centric (if that is a word)….this was not the fault of the members but rather a labor leader back in the day, named Gompers who believed economic power was more to his liking than political power…..

If you are a worker, either union or non, there is a lot you can blame on the unions…..a whole litany of issues that conservs have seldom been in favor of in the past and most notably in the present……

  1. Weekends
  2. All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks
  3. Paid Vacation
  4. FMLA
  5. Sick Leave
  6. Social Security
  7. Minimum Wage
  8. Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination)
  9. 8-Hour Work Day
  10. Overtime Pay
  11. Child Labor Laws
  12. Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
  13. 40 Hour Work Week
  14. Worker’s Compensation (Worker’s Comp)
  15. Unemployment Insurance
  16. Pensions
  17. Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations
  18. Employer Health Care Insurance
  19. Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees
  20. Wrongful Termination Laws
  21. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
  22. Whistleblower Protection Laws
  23. Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee)
  24. Veteran’s Employment and Training Services (VETS)
  25. Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)
  26. Sexual Harassment Laws
  27. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
  28. Holiday Pay
  29. Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance
  30. Privacy Rights
  31. Pregnancy and Parental Leave
  32. Military Leave
  33. The Right to Strike
  34. Public Education for Children
  35. Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work)
  36. Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States

(Thanx to bigcorporationusa.blogspot for the list)

The next time you hear one of your potential reps telling you all about the evils of unions ask them about some of the things on the list and ask why they are so hated……so on Labor Day if you want to remember those in the Labor movement and thank them for the rights and benefits you have today….for without their work your life would be considerably more miserable than you think you have it.

Enjoy your day of fun, food and family…..see you tomorrow…….