Unions and Workers on the Move!

[dykeumentary]

(please tell me there is already a thread about what's going on in Wisconsin/Michigan/etc, and that I just couldn't find it...)

What are your thoughts on these anti-worker decisions being made? Would you go on strike in solidarity, if a general strike is called? Have any of you been to the rallies at the state capitals? This is an exciting time!

[wolfbittenpoet]

Antiworker has been relatively normal in FL since its a right to work state particularly for teachers. But now it's even worse since today they passed a bill so union dues can't be automatically taken out of goverment worker pay now. But then again I have such a wonderful governor and legislator it's no surprise.

[Kobi]

This isn't striking me as exciting. This is striking me as very scary.

I understand the ploy. Using an economic disaster as an excuse
to bust flailing unions. Using economic errors in judgement, unbridled
economic greed to take away hard earned gains.

Yet, the underlying issue to me is simply redistributing wealth
and creating a wider gap between the haves and have nots.
And the current pawns in this is public workers.

It seems to be diverting attention from excess in upper classes
to focusing on a contentious tangible that is less threatening.

It would be an error to focus a response to what is being
touted as the issue. It would be more helpful to refocus
attention on what is really being done in the bigger scheme
of things.

Failing to do so is bringing a new and unpleasant reality to
everyday life for everyday people.

The more those with power and power can divert attention from
themselves, their excesses, their schemes.....the easier we make it
for them to impose their ideas and ideals on the mass public.

[AtLast]

One aspect of this that really bothers me is the continued stereotyping of government employees. Many people think it is perfectly OK to put them down. I find this even within more left-wing political groupings (or "liberals")including highly educated people just as it flows very often by the right-wing.

Public and government employees are the scapegoats for our frustrations far too often. It certainly can have racist implications as well sexist origins.

Public employees work just as hard as those employed in private employment. And there are people that slack in both.

[dykeumentary]

Originally Posted by Kobi

This isn't striking me as exciting. This is striking me as very scary.

I understand the ploy. Using an economic disaster as an excuse
to bust flailing unions. Using economic errors in judgement, unbridled
economic greed to take away hard earned gains.

Yet, the underlying issue to me is simply redistributing wealth
and creating a wider gap between the haves and have nots.
And the current pawns in this is public workers.

It seems to be diverting attention from excess in upper classes
to focusing on a contentious tangible that is less threatening.

It would be an error to focus a response to what is being
touted as the issue. It would be more helpful to refocus
attention on what is really being done in the bigger scheme
of things.

Failing to do so is bringing a new and unpleasant reality to
everyday life for everyday people.

The more those with power and power can divert attention from
themselves, their excesses, their schemes.....the easier we make it
for them to impose their ideas and ideals on the mass public.

I hope you'll do me the favor of explaining what you mean in this. What is your fear protecting?

"bringing a new and unpleasant reality to everyday life for everyday people" reads as if everyday people haven't been suffering for quite some time now. Maybe we just have different ideas of "everyday people"??? For workers to simply ask that owners make agreements with them, then honor those agreements -- should be a basic human right.

The underlying issue in the "public worker union thing" is that "public work" can not be outsourced to a call center in Southeast Asia, nor outsourced to a dangerous factory on the US/Mexico border. Corporate owners have been sending (or threatening) to send jobs overseas for decades now. But can your pre-schooler's day care be outsourced to India? Can your trash collection be outsourced to another country with few labor protections? Nope, it can't. So "public sector" workers are the last pocket of labor that has any leverage to bargain with corporate owners, because they *have* to be here.

So for a government to say that those kinds of workers are discouraged from bargaining collectively for their wages and conditions is the last straw before corporations control absolutely everything. (Rembember last year when corporations were granted the right to spend unlimited funds on supporting political candidates?)

So we have two choices: be scared, or be energized that maybe the majority of US citizens, who actually are workers, might be starting to stir and see that we have power to get the life promised us in the founding of the US, to "promote the general welfare and ensure the blessing of liberty..."

[Kobi]

Dyke,

I think we are saying the same thing just in different ways.

The bigger issue is what is at stake here. The bigger issue meaning individuals and corporations who control the power and weath finding more ways to dictate an acceptable standard of living for the masses while protecting themselves from losing anything.

What is disturbing and scary is how well the powers that be are at diverting attention from themselves and their greed. As such, they manage to have the "masses" so to speak going after one another rather than them.

I dont know how things work in your neck of the woods, but here "outsourcing" of local services has become mainstream. Instead of having sanitation workers on the government payroll, the contract is outsourced to private contractors. Charter schools are a way to outsource education monies. It is creeping in little by little.

Public employees, particularly state employees, seem to be under the gun now because the powers have neutered unions and union contracts in the private sector already. Public employees are the next potential victims. Federal employees will be next.

So, now the powers that be are pitting state workers against taxpayers in their quest to break another union. And, they are doing so by exploiting prior ill conceived contract provisions especially in retirement benefits. The states havent the money to sustain what was agreed to.

The tactics bother me. We either raise taxes beyond what people can afford which is political suicide, or we go after those whose contractual agreements we can no longer afford. Either way, the "masses" lose. But in the process, we go after one another rather than the unequal distribution of wealth and power.

It is a momumental control issue. And, if we lose sight of it and focus on one another, we lose. If we dont fight the trends, we lose.

My age is showing here as well. When I was younger, these issues energized me. I fought and fought. What I was fighting for is now either undergoing reconsideration, being dismantled, or has become irrelevant.

Now that I am older and have seen life from a different perspective, I know there are battles you can win, and battles you cant. The underlying issues never change....those are the issues of the many ugly ways greed rears its head.

It is an exhausting, never ending battle. You might win a skirmish here and there. But those with power and money have an incredible arsenault of weapons. And the most effective weapons are those that pit us against one another - they are exploited everyday and in many many ways.

I would love to see people organize and fight back in a thoughtful, ideal driven way. I dont forsee it happening. The times in our history when we, as a people, have fought back, is when we basically had nothing left to lose.

The ideals and rhetoric this country was founded on is buried deep beneath greed and power. It would take an extraordinary revolution led by extraordinary people to exact the fundamental changes we need.

Originally Posted by dykeumentary

I hope you'll do me the favor of explaining what you mean in this. What is your fear protecting?

"bringing a new and unpleasant reality to everyday life for everyday people" reads as if everyday people haven't been suffering for quite some time now. Maybe we just have different ideas of "everyday people"??? For workers to simply ask that owners make agreements with them, then honor those agreements -- should be a basic human right.

The underlying issue in the "public worker union thing" is that "public work" can not be outsourced to a call center in Southeast Asia, nor outsourced to a dangerous factory on the US/Mexico border. Corporate owners have been sending (or threatening) to send jobs overseas for decades now. But can your pre-schooler's day care be outsourced to India? Can your trash collection be outsourced to another country with few labor protections? Nope, it can't. So "public sector" workers are the last pocket of labor that has any leverage to bargain with corporate owners, because they *have* to be here.

So for a government to say that those kinds of workers are discouraged from bargaining collectively for their wages and conditions is the last straw before corporations control absolutely everything. (Rembember last year when corporations were granted the right to spend unlimited funds on supporting political candidates?)

So we have two choices: be scared, or be energized that maybe the majority of US citizens, who actually are workers, might be starting to stir and see that we have power to get the life promised us in the founding of the US, to "promote the general welfare and ensure the blessing of liberty..."

[Corkey]

Public union workers Are taxpayers. They have paid more in taxes than any corporation in these united (but not really) states. Says the non union guy who never worked in a union but supports unions.

[dykeumentary]

Okay Kobi- thanks and you are right. I misunderstood where you are coming from. I appreciate your response!

[iamkeri1]

I went looking for a thread that was focused on unions and was happy to find this one. I have a wonderful poem by Langston Hughes that I want to post and felt it would be appropriate in a union thread (as well as other discussions of where we are going as a country.) I studied Langston Hughes in College and loved his work, but did not remember this poem. It came to my attentions today because MSNBC host Laurence McDonnell commented on the ludicrousness of Rick Santorum using a line from the poem as his (potential) presidential campaign.

I tried to link or imbed the clip, but after four attempts this is the best I can do - look for Rick Santorum vs Langston Hughes

http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/

I have highlighted two lines from Hughes poem that I think particularly apply to the budget fight that has been going on in Congress seemingly forever, and which (please note disclaimer) IMHO is the attitude of the Republican party in general. Other lines I have highlighted, I believe explain our responsibilities as citizens of this country, which I love deeply.Unions have been vital to this struggle in the past, and will, I hope, be revitalized by the current attacks on them, and help lead the way again.

This is a beautiful, moving poem.

Smooches,
Keri

Let America be America Again

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!