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TechnoratiWorkers of America: Wake Up! We All Need a Union!
We workers of America, white collar, pink collar, blue collar, and no collar at all, have just gotten a wonderful example of the power of having a union. It¹s an example that should have every unorganized employee in America looking for a union organizer.
With the recession deepening, it¹s clear that major layoffs are in store, and that employers are going to be putting the squeeze on employees, even if they don¹t drop them. Individually, workers have little leverage in such a situation.
Look what happened to the workers at Chicago-based Republic Windows and Doors. The company was losing business, and according to some of its employees, had been in recent weeks secretly moving some heavy equipment out of the plant, possibly in preparation for relocation to some lower-wage location. Then its bank, Bank of America, one of the nation¹s largest financial institutions, and a recent recipient of $25 billion in federal bailout funds from the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank, informed the company that it would not supply credit for the firm to meet payroll. The workers were told by management that the plant would be shut down in three days.
At many companies across America, such news would be met by groans and tears, but by little else. What can an employee do when the boss says the company is closing its doors? Well, Republic¹s workers, members of the United Electrical Workers union, didn¹t take the news lying down. They took it sitting down on the factory floor.
The company's 300 workers quickly organized a round-the-clock sit-in occupation of the plant, vowing to stay until they got the 60 days notice that the law requires in the event of relocations. They also demanded that they be paid accrued vacation pay, which the company had said would be lost.
Bank of America was initially unmoved, but the workers began a national publicity campaign that was leading to protests at B of A offices across the country (one was planned for tomorrow here in Philadelphia). Boycotts were also being organized of the bank.
Then this afternoon, Bank of America folded, announcing that in the face of all the protests and the bad publicity, which focused much on the fact that the bank that was refusing to lend to a troubled American manufacturing firm had just received $25 billion from taxpayers that was intended to ³unfreeze² credit at the banks, it would after all extend credit to Republic Windows and Doors.
This is a happy ending story for the workers at Republic, who will at least get paychecks through the holidays, even if the future of their company remains iffy.
But more importantly, it is a powerful message to America¹s workers: united we can win. Divided and unorganized, we are going to be trampled.
There is a second message here too. Americans across the nation need to contact their congressional representatives and senators, and President-Elect Barack Obama (who backed the workers at Republic), and demand that as one of the first acts of the new Congress, they pass into law the Employee Free Choice Act‹a labor law reform that would end the ability of employers to stall off union elections for years, and to refuse to bargain a first contract with a new union. The act, which Obama, during his campaign, vowed to support, as did nearly all Democratic candidates for Congress, would require employers to accept the certification of a union whenever a majority of workers at a workplace signed cards saying they want a union, and would require them to negotiate and reach a first contract within 90 days.
Such an act would finally restore some semblance of fairness into the union organizing process, which has been skewed over the last 40-50 years to be almost impossibly in management¹s favor. Little wonder that union membership in the private sector has fallen to below 9% (from over 30% back in the early 1950s), even as polls repeatedly show that a majority of Americans would want to have a union at their job if they could get one.
The Republic Windows and Doors victory is a victory for all workers in America, and is a clarion call for more unions everywhere.
Let¹s get to work and organize.
75 Comments so far
Show AllWow! There was certainly much to attempt to digest here. It seems that the old adage that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" applies in all things. So I postulate that we all must look critically at those institutions, corporations, industries, government, unions where the potential for power exists. One of the important things I have learned in my 67 years is that I must muster the courage to speak up and be heard. Nothing moves forward without an idea, nothing improves without constructive criticism. A nation like ours should never fear new ideas nor ignore criticism. Let the conversation begin. When we are able to put our fears aside and understand that we have to unite for the common good, things will get better. It's quantum mechanics, when the simple majority heads in a different direction, the whole group moves with them.
THE HUMAN UNION---HU ARE YOU.
Membership---Everybody is already in it. Call the 800 # for the US Chamber of Commerce to opt out. Rejoin at any time.
Dues---Pay it forward with solidarity and good will.
Leadership---Organic nantan, talk it up, see what happens.
Tactics---Peaceful, Speaking Truth to Power, Resist, Occupy, Produce.
Goals---Fair pay, Fair play, Justice under the Law, Benefits to the Seventh Generation. No War.
One Planet, One People.
IF NOT NOW---WHEN?
Wealthy southern Republicans have no use for an empowered work force. Never have. Never will.
I guarantee you that if the Auto union is crushed, the non-unionized southern workers for Toyota and other manufacturers will be quickly savaged. Right now these industries are being subsidized by the states. The workers are being strung along with pretty good conditions to prevent their unionization. That will end when there are no unionized industries left.
Joe
These humans in the Southern states of America are the real dregs of human society, they encouraged slavery and slave labor in every thing they do, They will always, find devious ways to legally enslave , abuse and exploit their fellow humans for profit.
They discourage their neighbors in Mexico from uplifting their peoples so that they can have a sustainable pool of cheap exploitable labor
Europeans in Europe found ways to compete without exploiting their citizens or their neighbors
China and the Eastern European block countries are working like beavers to uplift their masses, not devising devious ways to keep them poor and uneducated
The closest to these diminutive of moral peoples from the south is the cast system of India
If workers don't have unions, they have nothing. They have to accept whatever the owners dish out, or not work. When management is in the driver's seat, the worker is not in an equal and voluntary position regarding terms of employment.
Whatever governmental protections workers have were largely the result of organized political pressure by unions in the past. The Republic workers showed that such laws can be ignored unless you fight.
Without unions, companies and municipalities would not protect the health and safety of chemical workers, miners, firefighters. Without unions, management would keep cutting jobs and cutting wages and health benefits and using the savings to give themselves huge self-congratulatory salaries and bonuses. In hospitals where I worked, the unionized workers lived with some promise of stability, the high management took stuff for themselves hand over fist, and the non-unionized layers saw their wages, benefits and conditions seriously deteriorate over and over again.
The management told us we were not getting raises and our health insurance was being cut year after year because they had to pay the union workers their 3% raise. How divisive. While we were supposed to fume over nurses' aides and porters, the managment was giving themselves enormous salaries and bonuses for laughing in board rooms and going out to lunch.
People like Kyl, Cornyn, Corker and McConnell and other manicured Republicans are gung-ho to use the failures of the auto industry to root out the last remnants of those pesky unions. Unions interfere with forced labor and captive labor, which is the dream of such Southern lords. Unions give workers some dignity and strength as opposed to a servile and dependent status.
dlindorff says: "Unions are democratic institutions, much like the US. If workers ignore their duty to behave as union citizens, and allow bureaucrats to take over, in the end they have themselves to blame." How true.
Passivity and intellectual laziness are problems both in the electoral arena and in unions. Unions need to consider the needs of larger society as well, or else they isolate themselves and box themselves in to a situation where they have little public support. For instance in New York transit workers and riders have a common interest in improving public transportation. The union seems to understand that, at least in their ads. My current union, the UFT, is sometimes guilty of betraying student needs and protecting bad teachers instead of uniting with parents/students for a stronger education system. On the other hand, the union is the only protection for teachers from the hideously stupid and incompetent Board of Education and bureaucracy. So you have to use your head, but start building alliances.
It is a shame that there are so few unionized workers. For those who do not want unions, I ask: what is there to protect the working person? I hope unions will start sending out organizers to rebuild their strength.
Joe
Its not that I disagee with you, but what are workers supposed to do whwn their own union betrays them Works with business to give their jobs away?
I think they need to wake up and replace the union leadership.
Joe
this is the most ridiculous article of all time. it is stupid, unpractical and inefficient. good for those workers who are pissed they lost their jobs, but what in the world do they think is going to happen. should that company pay the workers for not working, should that company just produce a surplus that cannot be sold? wtf... stupid, stupid, and even more stupid!
Now, it is unfair that labor takes the brunt of the blow when a firm, or an economy for that matter, takes a down turn. This is not, however, going to serve as an argument for a national labor union. the 8 hour work day, 40 hour work week, safety protocols, and a minimum wage are government regulations. the government is the national labor union.
there is NO place for industry specific labor unions in this modern economy. take the american auto-companies for examples, the big powerful labor unions have run these companies into the ground.
this author needs a reality check.
Even without a union...workers of the world UNITE! That ilk is not prepared to dirty its pretty little hands and thus DEPEND on you. Return all the favours...make them suffer.
Thanks to NFTA and GAT, American workers have not been able to compete with Global manufacturers low labor costs.
Our Government sold us out and also allow corporations huge tax incentives to build manufacturing facilities in other country's.
We are like the frog in the pot of water that's coming to a slow boil, we don't feel the heat of the water until it boils, and then it is too late.
This is what 30 years of Republican rule and one Clinton term has done to us.
We know who runs America, Corporations, Big Oil, and the military industrial complex.
America can not be competitive anymore because we are not playing on a global level playing field,no one complains about the high cost of union labor in the military industrial complex, or the golden parachutes of executives in corporations. Its ok for them to make a lot of money.
The whole country should unionize, hire lobbyists to play this game in Washington, change the playing field with new tax laws and worker protections.
So, here is the deal as it stands, we can not earn enough money to send our kids to college, the more uneducated people we have fighting for low paying jobs , the more low paying jobs are created, see the spiral effect.
We have been loosing high wage jobs to cheap global manufacturing for the last 30 years, thank you Ronald Reagan,the father of economic downward prosperity and the first Union buster.( Remember the Air traffic controllers)
There is good news, you can become a DHS Stazi spy in your community. I hear the government is shooting for 1 in every 25 Americans to become a government stazi rat.
They are hiring, and warrant less surveillance community gang stalking is the new big growth industry.National Security. I know I feel safe, I am being watched 24/7.
Remember , you will either be a spy or be spied on, so not every one can be a stazi rat, you have to have suspects.And everyone will be a suspect
There is one catch, you have to be a religious right wing republican with friends in the IAFF, ( International Association of Fire Fighters) to get in.
The night shift is usually comprised of misfits that are unemployable, they like their cars headlights to be super bright and mis-aligned. That's to give the torture victim the full effect of gang stalking tail gating.A pre-requisite is loud stereos and no regard for noise ordinances. Not that it matters, because the police wont do anything about the noise.Wonder Why???
This is a snap shot of what community watch gang stalking looks like, Welcome to the New Self Righteous, Lunatic Religious Republican Bush/Cheney Stazi America.
BornFreeMen
Surveillance torture victim Bradenton Florida, 24/7 for 2 years and running.
You can take that nasty comment about firemen which included my Dad and my Grand dad and shove it.
The disparaging comment about fireman was uncalled for. I have seen them rush into buildings in the poorest neighborhood during outbreaks of "landlord lightning". They fight in heat and ice. They risk their lives for people who most others would throw away. I have seen how after a fire they can be so weary they have to lean against walls, they pour the water out of their boots and open up their coats to let the smoke stream out.
My regards to your Dad and Granddad. My own grandfather was a miner and was killed in a coal mining accident. I do not forget about the bravery and sacrifice that has gone into building this country.
Joe
ORGANIZING IN THE AGE OF "SERVICE" INDUSTRIES
In the 30's the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) organized millions of manufacturing workers. Today, however, the largest segment of the work force is in "service": teaching, healthcare, retail sales, government, etc. Labor, therefore, should concentrate on organizing "service" jobs. Teaching, nursing, department store work, wait person jobs - they can't be outsourced to China, or even to Alabama. They have to stay in the community.
The distinguishing characteristic of "service" work is that it is always done in full sight of the consumer and of the community. Organizing, therefore, always has to be the result of a labor - community alliance. A boss can fire workers, but not customers. So the boycott is now at least as important as the strike. Can we learn to organize in this way; workers and community together? Of course it has happened in the past. Community support has always been important. But now it is more important than ever.
One interesting organizing technique by the IWW is the "commercial corridor campaign." All the stores and offices in a commercial corridor are targeted for organizing together, with neighborhood help. We are going to raise up a whole new generation of organizers.
They figured out how to substitute cheap labor for service jobs too, just import it, whether with visas or undocumented workers. They've screwed the America worker coming and going--and been doing it for many years now. Finally, the chickens are coming home to roost and, this time, there will be no quick fix. The problems is deeply systemic.
You are absolutey correct.
Yup, the news must have made IL the top choice for new employers looking for places to open a new factory.
bligh4
I have seen both sides of it. As a teenager, I was threatened (verbally and physically) and finally fired for refusing to join the union - I just didn't feel that I could afford the dues, and resented the bullying attitude of the union representatives. Later, after college, I worked for a company where I could not move a computer monitor from one desk to another-that required union workers. It took a day and they sent 2 men to move a monitor 5 feet.
I have also seen the horrible decisions some upper level managers made that cost millions and thousands of jobs- while waltzing away with $$$$.
Unions and managers need to both be held accountable to make a company profitable. And without profit, no sane person would invest capital.
Excellent examples.
And the first is why the non secret ballot is so important to Unions. Coersion of the workers to join.
I'm sorry, the level of coercion that is applied to workers NOT TO JOIN a union by management is so much greater with so-called "secret ballot" elections, which can be delayed for years by management lawyers, during which time organizers and union backers get fired with impunity, that any pro-union coercion pales by comparison.
First of all, what kind of pressure can union organizers apply--peer pressure? Violence doesn't work because it is criminally prosecutable.
How about management? They can fire workers, and then claim it was "for cause." There are no penalties beyond job restoration and back pay. No penalty payments, no damages, no fines in the law.
Unless there were stiff fines for employer pressure and abuse, the only solution is card signing as a measure of union support.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
First of all, what kind of pressure can union organizers apply--peer pressure?
You bet your bippy. They can get very, very nasty and do. And if you don't think they make physical threats you are living in a dream world. They will also have others that favor unionizing go after your family. It can get very unpleasant.
You should see the pressure brought to bear to join the union even if it already exists. The Union will get rid of you if you don't join.
So I'm sorry, the only purpose of this is to give the organizers leverage. If not, why not a secret ballot card check? And I'm not buying "the management won't let us" bull.
"How about management? They can fire workers, and then claim it was "for cause." There are no penalties beyond job restoration and back pay. No penalty payments, no damages, no fines in the law."
I have absolutely no problem with this. Management abuse should carry penalties. But no matter that the proposal was from good intentions, rejecting democracy is never a good idea. It always leads to more abuse.
bligh4
Well, when I was a 17 year old kid, these were the "encouragemnts" that I received to join the union- physically threatened twice, knife in my tires twice, called a scab, ostrocised, given the worst jobs, ultimatley fired for leaving my post when a friend was injured- reported by the local union rep.
so yea, secret ballots are the only way to make sure that a union is the actual choice of the workers- and that they are not being pressured.
Wow. That would be very wrong. Was it a Tony Soprano union? What union was it?
Any union like that does not deserve to be called a union - it sounds more like an extortion ring. Unions like that often act as arms of management in return for dues, a few leadership jobs and some no-show jobs for their loser relatives.
The only way to prevent abuses like that is to fight for democracy in the union. Easier said than done, I know.
Joe
I would like to warn all you anti-union folks out there the consequences of no unions. CORPORATE ABUSE and its been thriving out here in the Deep South the most. MS wouldn't be a poor house if only unions had a chance. Too bad people are still convinced that corporate abuse is perfectly fine and even if unions were to save their asses, they'd be ungrateful !
How about this, the government on behalf of all labour dicate regulations that end corporate abuse of labour, and prevent capital flight to greener pastures which allow the abuse of labour with harsh penalties like taxing capital flight and taxing global income (regardless if it is repatriated). Also, product made in countries which do not protect the environment and human rights should be subjected to large tariffs so American companies are not at a competitive disadvantage. People want to reduce carbon emissions in the US and allow China and India to do business as usual, duh, guess whats going to happen.
Without addressing these issues, unionization will just be signing the death warrant of the American worker who is already on life support. Unions work fine when companies have no choice but to use union labour in America, but globalization means they are free to move on, make stuff elsewhere and ship it back for those in America who still have jobs or credit to buy it. Since 95% of the worlds population lives overseas, and with the American consumer gasping for breath, American global companies are recognizing that they can not rely on the American consumer for their future, and any measures which will add to their costs and not address the real issues regarding the competitiveness of companies doing business in the US will just cause them to move out after closing down or downsizing in the US.
That sounds reasonable. And by the way, I've met Chinese and Indian students from abroad and they've told me a lot about the cheating that's going on back there. In the older days, slavery out here in the south was so obvious, the majority of the country was ready to stop it for fear that it would spill into their territory. Too bad slavery is in places that are separated from our country by the oceans.
Excellent post with some very good ideas. Especially this one " taxing global income (regardless if it is repatriated" Its absurd to allow tax avoidance like this.
Lord knows we need a union where I am. I'm about to call the IWW.
Good for Obama!
In China unions are mandatory. Unions are used by the industries to control the workers by corrupting the union leadership, and to provide cost certainty. If government would legislate, implement and enforce labour regulations that protect the worker and ensure a living wage and benefits, then unions would not be required. Even in America, union leaders are members of the Trilateral Comission and used to convince their unions to accept less in order to protect their jobs.
The biggest problem with corporations competitiveness is the lack of a national health plan like every other industrialized country has, and the fact that US tax policies actually encourage corporations to close down or reduce operations in the US and head for greener pastures as part of Globalization and Free Trade policies.
The burden of providing for profit private health insurance to employees is crippling, to the extent companies like GM move production to Canada despite the higher tax rate. Employees end up paying for this benefit in part with reduced wage increases, after all, the size of the pie each employee can receive is a fixed size, no matter how you slice it, unless you are in executive management, then it's all you can eat. Their compensation is based on how many jobs they move to countries with lower labour costs, which improve global profits, while American workers are left with the option of asking for more and losing their job as a result, or accepting compensation that results in declining living standards.
Unionism will not change anything, it will just accelerate the loss of jobs to countries where labour costs are lower. Address the root cause of your problems America, or else resign yourself to living poorer and being out of a job and without health insurance by the time you reach your fifties. And do not count on social security being around much longer (your government has stolen almost 3 trillion from the trust fund BTW, do not let them forget that).
This issue is a red herring and just letting government off the hook for their collusion with corporate America to sell out the American worker, a process that has been ongoing for almost 40 years.
JFK saw the danger and tried to pass an interest equalization bill that would tax capital earned with the use of American labour that was leaving the country to build factories in countries with lower wages at a rate of 15%, while reducing tax loopholes on income earned overseas (he also moved to drop the tax rate from 91% (effective rate 57%) to 70% to compensate).
After his death, the interest equalization bill was weakened and allowed capital flight w/o tax with various loopholes and only the tax reduction from 91% on income was effectively implemented.
There's more that's coming out on this story.
In Googling "Republic Windows and Doors will reopen in Iowa," you can read about the union-busting action by Republic to rename itself "Echo Window and Doors" and move the company to Red Oak, Iowa. And it appears that Bank of America is financing this sabotage of the Chicago union plant.
This move is truly shameful. This is what unions are up against, even in this country!
Will the workers in Red Oak unionize? "Echo" is gambling that they won't, gambling with our tax money that supports BofA.
Not so fast. I definitely understand the objective of organized labor. But the lesson to be learned by the collapse of the "big three" is (among other things) that labor must not outprice itself. If labor demands are too great, management will just ship your job to China or India or somewhere else. Then you have nothing. Nor do your kids.
This is true not just of the manufacturing sector but of almost all industries. All of the "collars" that you mentioned are impacted. My company has laid off hundreds of workers this year and shipped our US jobs to India. Plenty of Indian citizens now have new jobs in India. But many of my friends and coworkers here in the USA who are US citizens have NO job at all.
Look to the Obama Administration to help keep jobs in the USA. Currently, US law under Bush/Cheney has actually encouraged companies to send jobs overseas. Obama wants to penalize US companies for shipping US jobs overseas. I don't know how it will shake out, but it may be necessary for US workers to lower their salary and benefit expectations. I would gladly work for less pay and benefits if I didn't have to get up every morning and go work each day wondering if it will be my last day on the job. I can live on less. I don't need 5 cars. I don't need to spend $2000 every year at Christmas.
That's well and good - if you have 5 cars and $2000 to spend at Christmas. It's far different if you've got 4 pr 5 kids, a klunkers that needs constant repair to keep going and not enough money to buy a newer klunker, or spend $10 apiece on the kids for Christmas.
These companies won't be satisfied until the workers are getting next to nothing and living like the slaves in the south used to. Meanwhile those at the top, and the shareholders will continue to live like kings.
No. I disagree. The failure of the US labor movement in general and the UAW in particular as one of the vanguard unions, was its decision not to overtly enter politics by forming a labor party. By tying its fortunes to a party like the Democrats, which is not a labor party, but is just another backer of the capitalist class, US labor has condemned itself to political impotence. This has allowed the corporatist government to pursue a globalist agenda that allows companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler to outsource most of their work overseas and then bring parts and supplies into the US--or whole cars for that matter.
If unions were more political, and had a party of their own, they could set a labor agenda that would defend living wages, worker safety, etc.
Until American workers wake up to this reality, the country will continue its pellmell race to third world status.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
$78.00 / hour is much more than just a "living wage". It is highway robbery. Just how do you think that a company can give this wage to all its workers without overpricing its products and putting itself right out of business? This is the kind of union thuggery which is sending the Big 3 down the tubes. That and the impossible CAFE standards by which the automakers have to work.
Toyota pays its people a starting salary of $48.00/hour. I would be darn glad to get that kind of money, and I bet most of the readers here would be also. And what do we see as a result? Toyota can afford to make cars. The Big 3 cannot.
One of our corporate vice-presidents was told of a man who did nothing all day but run a floor scrubber. 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.
And he makes over $100,000/year.
In case you folks don't know what I am talking about, this is a pretty much automated janitorial cleaning machine.
You cannot pay your janitors $100,000/year and expect to run a profitable company.
When unionism began in the late 1800's and early 1900's there was a crying need for it. The wretched conditions of the average worker were appalling, and in more than one case, life threatening. And while the men and women who went to work every day for a nickel a day endured these conditions, the fat cat owners of the factories made more money than they could spend in 30 lifetimes.
But now, unionism has ceased to represent the worker's best interest and instead represents itself and its own "fat cats" who are 6 figure a year union bosses with an agenda. That agenda is, of course, that all business owners are bad, that they all cannot be trusted, and that they need to be unionized. Such a mindset is what has driven a lot of business south of the border.
It's all about greed, folks. And all of us greedy little piggies are busy slopping at the trough while the Titanic gently slips beneath the waves. This is why Capitialism ultimately cannot survive as a system. It is built upon and encourages greed.
Have a nice swim!!
That $78/hour claim is bogus. Read the New York Times (hardly pro-union). Actually, the pay of UAW workers in Detroit is $28/hour, just three dollars per hour more than at Toyota and Honda plants outside Michigan. The $78 figure is arrived at by adding in the pension and health benefit payments to retired auto workers, and the difference is that we're talking about companies that have been around for 100 years and have huge numbers of retirees, whereas Toyota and Honda, etc. hardly have any retirees at this point. In another 10-15 years, their average, using this same bogus methodology, would be about the same.
It's right-wing propaganda.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
dlindorff
OK, I'm confused. Are you saying that the $78 figure isn't true if you add in the health and retirement costs? You have to add thiose to get a true cost per hour per employee.
I read the Heritage release and I thought it made clear that this wasn't a wage figure. (no?)
And do I understad Dave that you favor the Employee Free Choice Act? Just about the most undemocratic and stifiling of free choice proposal I've ever seen? A permission to bully people into joining a union.
No, they won't be because the Japanese automakers don't have lifetime pensions or healthcare. They have 401K plans like most other businesses so their obligation to the employee ends at retirement.
Agree with most of what you said. Just a small point: even when the big labor unions were founded a century ago, they were not out to protect the low-income workers. The big labor unions were organized in the industries with the highest wage levels: steel, then automaking. The pay in those industries were several times the national average for unskilled labor: that of the farm hands. There wasn't a union for back breaking potato picking workers, for example. The purpose of the union was to keep out workers who were willing to take the job for less, even if it meant the lower pay was still way more than the jobs that they had. For example, the unions pushed for minimum wages laws at the beginning of the FDR administration in order to make union wage levels competitive; that caused a huge spike in black unemployment: they were literally outlawed to work because their low paying jobs were outlawed.
WHAT BULLSHIT!
And you really want us to believe that a janitor makes $48 an hour!? Gimme a break. It's been a while since I've heard such virulent, anti-labor myths like this.
I'm sorry, oh superstitious/catholic troll (obvious by your parroting the Heritage Foundation's utter lies about $78 an hour) but your lies cannot go unanswered here, even if Heritage's lies went unanswered on CNN and the Sunday morning talk shows.
The Heritage Foundation arrived at their figure by factoring in all retirees AND THEIR BENEFITS and then spreading it out ONLY OVER THE ACTUAL ASSEMBLY LINE WORKERS! The right can ONLY make their point by distortion or outright lying, just making it up, ala O'Reilly, as they go along. And starting pay for a Toyota assembly line worker is a little over $14 an hour.
But you know what? Even if it WAS $48 an hour, so what? You remind me of people who stole my 16-year-old, multi-colored, half-rust piece-of-shit car in Boston one night 30 years ago. Parked in a row of cars that were all new: BMWs, a Jag, a Benz, and a Caddie. These guys from the South Boston Irish projects steered clear of the big shots' cars and instead picked on someone in the same - or worse - financial straits as they themselves. Afraid of challenging the rich or powerful, they steal from someone in the same plight as themselves.
I don't hear people like you complaining about the over-compensated CEOs. NO! Instead, claw at a fellow worker who maybe got a slightly better deal than you, and haul him or her back down into the gutter with the rest of us. Yeah, they can't fight back like the rich and powerful. And most Americans like you walk around thinking you're gonna be just as rich and just as powerful or famous someday, because you deserve it, you've earned it, and, gosh-darn it, people like you.
A few facts. One of the concessions the UAW gave years ago was a (shudder) two-tier compensation structure (which other unions, such as my own CWA, has copied). Those longer-serving employees in the upper bracket average $18-$28 an hour, whereas the newer workers average $14 an hour (with hardly any benefits). Compare that to the CEO, who makes $9,500 an hour. In fact, UAW workers' compensation is pretty much even with those non-union workers in the south working for foreign manufacturers. One big difference, of course, is health care. In Detroit, the big 3 have to pick up the cost (of the insurance, of course, this being the U.S., which is a hell of a lot more than the actual cost of the health care provided). In Alabama (home to Senator Sessions, so out front in opposing any loan to Detroit), Mississippi, and Tennessee, select workers for Toyota, Hyundai, Mercedes, and Honda have their health care costs picked up by the Japanese or German governments.
Alabama is as much or more an auto manufacturing state than Michigan, and these (R) senators' obvious union-busting tactics should be spelled out in the press for what they are. Favoring foreign companies operating in their anti-worker home states over U.S.-based manufacturers (if we can even call GM and Chrysler U.S. corporations any more. We can, at least, have some control over them, in that their charters to exist originated here.)
If Washington were to give Detroit, proportionately, what Alabama has given to the Japanese -- state picks up worker training costs, land valued in excess of $300 million, state-paid site improvements, construction, infrastructure upgrades, property and other tax abatements, etc. -- we'd be talking about a $500 billion BAIL-OUT and not a $15 billion LOAN.
The UAW has given concession after concession, while management walked away with ever larger and larger bonuses after making stupid after stupid decision. And the simple explanation for their stupid decisions is the same reason found in most American corporations in these post-Reagan years: the change in law that allows companies to compensate CEOs and other upper management with stock and stock options, converting one-time long-serving (average 37 years with a company in the 50s and 60s compared to 5 today) company executives from an owner mentality to a shareholder mentality. Shareholders look a week, a month, or a quarter into the future, whereas an owner looks to the lifetime of a company.
I see it in Verizon today: scrap costly maintenance that keeps a healthy, robust infrastructure in place to serve the customer in lieu of satisfying the ever-growing demands of Wall Street analysts. The Baby Bells, a tightly-regulated (by LOCAL Public Utility Commissions) provided overnight service, staffed customer service centers, and were so cash rich they almost had to struggle to dream up enough employee benefits to drain off the excess capital. Not so today.
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
kgarry,
Thanks for your great post!
It needed to be said.
I totally agree!
Does a Toyota car cost you less to buy than a Big 3 car?
Do UAW workers make too much? Maybe they do. But it's management's responsibility to manage costs. Management agreed to those union contracts.
Yes, unions make managing a company more difficult. Managers would just prefer to reduce costs to as small as possible and increase prices to as high as possible. It stems from short sighted accountants that put no value on human capital and ingenuity, societal impacts, environmental impacts of there price-cost equations.
In the long run a Toyota car costs less because it is well engineered and doesn't break down. That is a result of design and engineering decisions made at the top of the company, not by the unions.
Joe
You´re absolutely right Dave.
One of the biggest problems on the so-called "Left" today is that the most vocal "activists" sit in front of computer screens and wittily exchange trite analyses with other computer geeks but don´t have time to organize at their work site (if they even work) or attempt to get a union drive started.
People glibly toss out words liek "solidarity" but most people spent 40+ hours a week working with a mixed group of people, not simply those who attend the same meetings and blog on the same subjects, and if they were to unite in that context, more and more cracks would appear in capitalims´rough hold on all of us.
Uniting and solidarity means getting together where you are and changing the world from your daily vantage point--not from abstracting a revolution from a bunch of books. I never understood this until I ran for office at the union I used to belong to and became its president. We beat a huge corporation that was trying to take 40% of our sick time away (from 10 days to 6 per year) when they were making 700 million in profit that year. We affiliated with UE and it rocked the industry for a while. People can do it--if they stick together in actuality rather than in cyberspace.
Oh, and when people wonder why unions are important, just mention the weekend--a concept that didn´t exist for workers until we had unions. Or how about worker safety laws, or minimum wages, or pensions, or a sense of solidarity between people you can´t find anywhere else in society.
Like all instituions, they are liable to ossification or corruption. But with real democratic input, they are real important. And nothing has so scared the owners of society (and their lackeys in the Dem and Rep parties) as the prospect that Americans would unite and form a real labor party. now that would be something (and why every country in Europe and most the rest of the world has better deals for workers--because either they have a labor party, or a labor-backed socialist party. Think about it.)
Unions are a necessary reaction to the means of production concentrated into the hands of a few, whether it is the capitalist elite or the communist vanguard that run the factories and own the banks... Organizing your work place is important if you work for a corporation or governmental agency... and can be deadly if you do so in Colombia or Guatemala... but for the self employed and the entrepreneur, it is more important to think on the level of guilds and coalitions...
What I am really interested is seeing Consumer Unions and Buyers Guilds, Cooperatives and Collectives... modeled on the most socialist aspect of our entire government... the Public Library!!!... conscientious Fair Trade products... supporting local cottage industries and services... and boycotting globalist corporate econorasts...!
Today is a good day to call your representatives (or all 535) and demand they support the Employee Free Choice Act.
1-800-828-0498 (White House Switchboard, FREE Call)
Ask the Operator to connect you with ANY member of Congress.
Call as MANY TIMES as you want.
(Include this phone number and message on every board you visit and in your email.)
Obviously Mr. Lindorff didn't get the news that Obama is backing away from his campaign pledge to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
From Counterpunch:
It’s only been a month since hundreds of thousands of union members and their families helped Barack Obama win key “battleground states.” Yet, already, some labor supporters of the president-elect fear he may be backing away from a key campaign promise to workers threatened by recession.
While running for office, Obama said he strongly backed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a long overdue labor law reform measure that should be part of his promised economic stimulus plan. However, when Obama introduced his top economic advisors on Nov. 25 and talked about steps to “jolt” the economy in January, EFCA was not part of the package. More disturbingly, his new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, declined to say whether the White House would support EFCA when he was questioned about it at a Wall Street Journal-sponsored “CEO Forum” earlier in November.
Full unedited article:
http://www.counterpunch.org/early12082008.html
** Obama has backed away from his pledge to re-write NAFTA, rescind the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, appoint progressives to his inner-circle and now is backing away from supporting the EFCA. If there are any Obama supporters reading this please turn off American Idol and stop playing Guitar Hero. Get on a bus to Chicago and boycott Obama's headquarters. I tried to tell you all this would happen but I couldn't get past your hypnotic trance.
Cut the cheap BS. Lindorff, who writes for Counterpunch, and whose article appears on the same page as the above article, only said that Obama had promised to support the Employee Free Choice Act in his campaign.
Lindorff, for your information, is well aware that Obama and many Democratic members of Congress, are backing away.
You can make your point, but you don't have to make up criticisms that are invalid.
What I said is that people need to press Obama and the members of Congress to honor their campaign positions.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Relax, I like Lindorff.
I've read his stuff from Counterpunch, Buzzflash and from his own website.
And I've watched his videos on You-Tube.
His contribution to the Progressive movement is to be respected and admired.
Please beware that the comments section of CD can be a rough playground.
Nobody gets a free-pass here, no matter how famous they are.
Even Cindy Sheehan took a few hits.
We're all peace lovers here (except for a few trolls).
So at the end of the day we shake hands as friends.
Then come back swinging tomorrow.
c..x1isahole: Why do you have such a complex screen name? I'm curious. I am getting used to the style of some of the people who comment on CD. I do skip the nasty, petty stuff. And the overly long repetitive screes/rants. Interesting how different people become memorable.
Nothing escapes me.
http://www.cosmographica.com/gallery/portfolio2007/content/bin/images/large/059_CygnusX_1.jpg
Thanks, to Dave Lindorff and especially to the courageous workers of the UE who began the sit-in with virtually no allies and a presumption of arrest, if not worse. Their actions and Lindorff's piece demonstrate exactly what "law" means in the economic sphere, whether it concerns bail-out billions for BOA or 60-day notice legislation.
Law means absolutely nothing unless it is enforced. In the jungle of labor relations, the best and only enforcement is united workers acting in our own collective interests -- unions.
Until we accept this reality, we can pass all the legislation and resolutions we want. We can sue while we wait for the cows to come home -- and starve to death waiting. Unless we get together in unions -- and take action together -- we will become slaves.
I wonder how many union members, active or retired, shop at WalMart and do business with other companies that don't allow unions? I wonder how many people buy products coming from the countries their jobs were moved to? I wonder how many of these people even think to look for other alternatives?
I remember when I was a kid that just about everything you bought had a "Union Made" seal on it. From beer to newspapers. You did your best to only by union-made products. now its just "made in china".
America needs an enforced legal minimum wage of $14.00 an hour. Is it too much that the slaves might take home ten bucks an hour? I'm happy for union workers but that was always a club I was not part of. How about a decent living wage for the poorest of us? Imagine the effect on the economy of all of America's destitute workers suddenly having money to spend, not just for rent and utilities...but throughout their communities...power to the poorest. Would we need unions if we were paid fairly? If it was OUR government? And health-care has to become a government truth anyway...We retire with Social Security. Just pay us fair.
You are missing the point, which is that unions are not just about wages. Unions provide job security, establish seniority so that older higher-paid workers don't get routinely replaced by new hires who work for less, protect workers by establishing safety rules, and critically important, include grievance machinery and a grievance officer for times that managers abuse workers or ignore contract provisions. Unions insure that a workplace is not a feudal institution. Without a union, that's what you've got. Be nice to the boss or else.
It's time people learned this lesson. You can't say "I don't need a union in the good times," and then expect to have one when you need it. You need a union. Period. Otherwise it's not there when you do need it.
Of course we need a higher minimum wage, but who's going to give us that? We need a powerful union movement to press Congress to enact such a thing. When the US workforce was 30% union, we had progressive politics. With union representation at 9%, we get a pale imitation of progressive politics--a Potemkin progressive politics.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Dave, consider this.
I am one of the only Union folk singers in the State of Florida.
But things won't change until our citizens realize what is goin on with our money supply and who owns it.
It is acknowledged that there is only about 300 billion in hard currency circulating in the USA.
a new added debt of 7 Trillion added to the old 10 trillion has just been pledged by the Treasury and FED to pump into the system. But this is small compared to the more than 60 trillion in Debt Liabilities. (the hidden debt)
Just the new Seven trillion is 21 times more money than now is in circulation.
And the cost of printing, paper and ink will be about equal to the amount of money now in circulation.
That is why they are afraid to even start printing the new money because of this, and this is just the beginning because...
They can't even print new money (which is expensive) until they can find lenders to buy new treasury securities, but now the media acknowledges that the Fed is offering our potential saviors Zero interest and even minus interest to those who would buy Treasury securities....
Off course that is why most everything is electronic money credit, but it still adds up.
Unions and everyone including those on the right need to wake up to what is really goin on because when they start printing even a small fraction off what has been pledged, inflation will shoot up and than things will be even worse.
Cheers
Yep!
dlindorff
Your description of Unions is glowing, but they are all not like that. Some don't protect their members, they protect their dues.
Example...AFL-CIO accepts illegal aliens as union members even though these illegals are replacing their American union members. Not a lot of protection for their members huh? And its mostly older long term members that are being replaced.
You might also want to address the other programs that bring in workers to replace American union workers with cheaper labor.
Unions can be great or they can be the death of families that trusted them.
Unions are democratic institutions, much like the US. If workers ignore their duty to behave as union citizens, and allow bureaucrats to take over, in the end they have themselves to blame.
Don't blame unions for being corrupt as an institution. Blame workers who don't do the dirty work of being active in their unions.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
I guess you could look at it like that, but I'd suggest they aren't bureaucrats that are betraying the American workers....they are crooks that intentionnaly break the law.
And I don't blame the workers for not being able to do something about their disgraceful behavior.
Have you seen one article or one report about what they are really doing? One?
An arbitary minumum wage that hight is fine, as long as you don't mind double digit or worse inflation.
Wages don't drive inflation. Wages are a response to inflation, which is caused by limited competition, collusive behavior, and monopoly capitalism, not to mention a devalued dollar that makes everything we buy from overseas (oil, steel, plastic, manufactured goods, foodstuffs, clothing, etc.) more expensive. Don't blame American workers for inflation. Workers here have been losing real income since at least 1972, while prices have been rising.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
If you think you can double the hourly wage of workers in most of the retail sector without it creating inflation I suggest finding an 8th grade economics book and reading it.
Actually, I have, and more. Prices are determined by supply and demand. There is nothing in that equation about costs. If worker wages across an industry are raised, it will increase demand, obviously, because consumers, or one group of consumers, will have more disposable income. It will raise a store's costs too. But the store doesn't have to, nor can it automatically, pass on those increased costs. Only if customers will pay those costs. It has other options. It can negotiate lower costs in other areas, ie from suppliers. It can reduce management pay. And it can cut profits, as well as dividend payments to shareholders. So you are simply off base. It is a great myth perpetrated by the ruling elites that higher wages mean higher prices.
The reality is quite different.
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Yes, prices are determined by supply and demand. However, there is a minimum price determined by the cost of production. If it costs me $3.00 to produce a Big Mac I can't sell it for less than $3.00 (unless I am using it as a loss leader to get people to come buy another product where I DO make a profit). If the Demand price for a Big Mac, or any other "widget" is $2.99 and it costs me $3.00 to make it, I stop making widgets and find another product to sell. If I own a small bookstore that operates on a very slim margin and I have to double the pay of my clerks I will attempt to raise prices to make that up, and if the product won't sell at that price I call a bankruptcy attorney.
Well, they say now that we're headed for deflation, so maybe a little inflationary pressure would be a good thing. It's funny all those supporting a stagnant minimum wage would never work for it, or scream bloody murder if they had to. They might just have a place for ya at good ole BOA. ;-)
I have worked for it several times, including when it was $3.35 an hour.
Yeah extortion is an age old tactic to alright. BoA caved in this case, though I will be shocked if the loans will be enough to fully cover all severance and owed vacation.
There is an excellent PBS documentary on the Supreme Court, a 4 disc DVD set available in some public libraries, and the second disk discusses a concept called the "right of contract." In the late 1800s the court clung devotedly to the concept of "right or contract" that in essence created a race to the bottom for individuals when negotiating with corporations for employment. It used the 14th amendment to basically outlaw organized labor. Eventually the court had to overturn this idea because of the great hardship it was causing the population in general. But ever since Reagan the unions have been weakened through lack of enforcement, and we are once again seeing the effects.
Some of my right-wing friends insist that "the president doesn't have enough power to influence the economy." Of course, if a democrat had been in the whitehouse when this happened they would be singing a different tune. But the fact is that there are probably enough laws on the books to have prevented this economic debacle, if only the recent administrations had made their justice departments enforce them.
My uncle was secretary treasurer of the Teamsters Union and like he said the large corporations hate the Unions as does most of the whore press. That is why you hear about Union corruption in the MSM, in which they have some culpability, but Union corruption is nothing compared to corporate corruption. All you have to do is look at all the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries where there are no Unions. A plant that my son works in,just relocated to China and where the average wage is around 60 cents an hour. Unions need to put a stop to so many of America's decent jobs going over seas.
"Union corruption is nothing compared to corporate corruption".
Yes. We need to say this over and over.
Joe
F I N A L L Y !
http://flickr.com/photos/libertyy/2960668322/in/pool-828437@N25
Divide and conquer. It's always been part of American foreign policy and now our domestic policy also reflects it. The middle-class is an enemy just as 'terrorists'. Corporate America doesn't want unions which would bring about a much better situation for workers. Union busting was one of Reagen's first punches delivered to the middle-class. The Chicago workers are great examples but I doubt that it will put a dent in the machine they are fighting.
Hoa binh
Great post, Dave! We definitely need to expand unionized labor in the US -- and globally. Too often, when workers try to organize, companies use their massive resources to heavily fight the attempt to form a union. Today is International Human Rights Day and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the right of workers to form and join unions. The International Labor Rights Forum released a list today of 5 multinational companies that violate workers' right to organize. You can find out more and send an e-mail to these companies here: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/List08. Let's get EFCA passed and protest companies that violate workers' rights!