Labor Union & Workers Resource Website
What's good for the American Worker, is good for the U.S. economy. What's bad for the American Worker hurts the U.S. economy.
American workers are the majority in the U.S. The opinion and needs of the American worker represent the majority opinion in the U.S.
We have a government that was set up to represent the majority ... "We the people ... a government for the people, by the people."
So why do some Congressmen and Senators, especially Republican Legislators, represent the opinions of the wealthiest 5% of our population?
They say the majority of people in their districts voted for them based on the views they expressed during their campaigns.
That may be so ... but what they expressed as promises were lies, partial facts cloaked in omissions ... incomplete expressions of what they intended to do when in office.
The Indians called it speaking with "forked tongue." Today, we call it spin. ... but what it is ... is just plain lies intended to appear as if they will do something the majority of the public wants, but meaning something entirely different ... something that hurts the majority of the public.
Three Biggest Lies in Today's Repubican Politics
1) "We will cut the budget because your taxes are too high and the government is overspending."
This gave us the impression that "wasteful spending" would be cut. Cuts in things that don't matter to citizens. The furniture in the government offices. The size of the offices. The unnecessary trips in special cars and planes. Meals paid for by the taxpayers. Bonuses when times are difficult for average workers. Tax breaks for businesses who intentionally set up competition for locations between the states. I'm sure if we all took a look at the checkbook, not the budget itself, we would find things that we would be amazed at. But what did get cut in most states was public workers incomes and public services or public service budgets and socially necessary programs to keep citizens, families and children from becoming homeless and hungry. Cutting education programs, police, fire, EMS, sanitation workers, postal workers, etc. .... All of these directly impact the quality of our citizens lives. The wealthy don't feel the need for most of these services and would rather not participate in our "society" where they have to contribute to the social needs of those temporarily down on their luck and opportunity.
The next time a Republican candidate says they want to cut yoru taxes and our budget, ask them to tell you specifically what budgets they will cut and who will be impacted.
Would you have voted for Governors like Kasich from Ohio or Wisconsins Governor if they had run on the campaign promise to cut Teachers, Police, FIre, EMS, Sanitation Workers and take away the right for unions to bargain for employees when the employees want the union to represent them. the fact that union employees earn about 5% to 10% higher wages should tell you that most large business budgets have those percentages available to pay employees but would rather give it to the investors or the officers of the company in bonuses. They would try to turn you against a fellow worker making a little more than you do as a non-union worker, while their officers are earning 50 times, 100 times, even 350 times what the average worker earns. I believe in rewarding risk. I believe in reward that come with the stress of building a successful business, but 100 to 350 times the average worker salary is over rewarding, not socialism.
2) "We will make our state Business Friendly to bring jobs back to our state for you."
Of course bringing jobs back to your state sounds like what we want. But what they mean is that they will try to compete with importing countries like China, India, Pakistan, Thailand, etc. To do this, they will lower the wages to be paid to workers and lobby to get rid of minimum wage because they really need to pay you below minimum wage to really compete for corporate profits. They will remove any regulations or laws that say companies have to pay you benefits, sick pay, vacations, etc. There will be no more FMLA. Mandatory overtime will be expected to avoid hiring more employees. Days off regarless of why you need them will no longer be tolerated and you can expect to be fired if you miss work. somebody is already wiaitng in line, desperate for your job, because most families will be hungry and living in whatever shelter they can find for their families. Who can support or sustain a normal life for a family on minimum wage or below. Republican Presidential candidates are already professing to get rid of the Departments of Education, Energy, Labor, and others. These are regulatory bodies that protect workers and consumers from irresponsible behaviors or corporations who have a single minded purpose to optimize profits at any cost. AND THAT IS BUSINESS FRIENDLY ... THAT;S HOW TO ATTRACT A BUSINESS TO YOUR STATE ... SELL YOUR WORKERS INTO NEAR SLAVERY CONDITIONS OR AT LEAST BELOW STANDARD OF LIVING FOR THE U.S.
3) "The Democrats are stopping Job Creators from creating jobs for the workers because they want to increase taxes on investors and business owners and keep costly regulations eating up money that could be paying for new workers."
You have to understand economics to understand this one. You have to think it through. You own a business with 50 employees and sell 6000 units of product per month at a profit of $100 per unit or $600,000.00 per month gross profit. The average cost of each employee is $4000 per month for a total of $200,000. Your overhead costs including reinvestments in the business are $150,000 monthly. That leaves $250,000 per month for owner and officer salaries ... $100,000 to the CEO, $75,000 to the CFO aand $75,000 to the COO monthly. (this is simplified for example). Let us say the government cut taxes and regualtions saving
the budget $10,000 a month in employee costs and $7,500 a month in overhead costss. That $17,500 could be used to hire an additional four employees at a cost of close to $16,000. That would be an increase in employment of 8% for this company.
BUT WHY WOULD ANY SANE BUSINESS PERSON HIRE A SINGLE EMPLOYEE MORE IF THE CONSUMER DEMAND AT 6000 UNITS PER MONTH WAS NOT CHANGING AND COULD BE HANDLED WITH THE CURRENT NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES? THEY WOULDN'T!
They would pay themselves or their investors more. Would they buy new equipment? Not if there current equipment was handling the current demand. But perhaps there is a new piece of equipment that could increase unit production by 20% per employee? They might buy this piece of equipment because once it is installed, they can layoff or fire 20% or 10 of their workers. That would save them $40,000 a month. But what about the workers? IT'S NOT ABOUT THE WORKERS. IT'S ABOUT OPTIMIZING THE PROFIT MARGIN, even if at the cost of putting workers out on the street putting their families at risk of going bankrupt, losing a home, not feeding the family, sending the kids to school humiliated because the had to clean up at the local gas station sink on the way to school.
There are so many other lies by omission or false cause effect reasoning proclaimed in order to get an average citizen to vote people in office that will actually harm them with their new policies.
... and they can LABEL it as SOCIALISM, when a politician has a concern for a fellow citizen, their family, their children's wellbeing. That's human empathy. That's Christian behavior to care and to share if you've been blessed. THAT'S NOT SOCIALISM, THAT'S JUST CARING FOR YOUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS.
... and we certainly don't need to blame all the wealthy people. Many wealthy people built their business from the ground up, may have failed numerous times before succeeding, may have lost a home and their life savings in the process before succeeding. These people are worth the rewards of a high income. But these same people are usually big philanthropists giving back alot of their earnings. Many agree that they have been handled with kid gloves by legislators. Many agree that they should pay a progressive tax since they have bee so blessed. They realize they only need so much wealth to live a great life without being a pig about it trying to get more and more. So let's blame those hiring the lobbyists and those legislators voting in favor of the minority opinion instead of the majority opinion.
... more to come!
on 'Right to Work' ...
Quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans such as 'right to work.' It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.
Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions for everyone ...
Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer, and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking about right-to-work laws in 1961 (h/t Economic Policy Institute)
... and if our weapon is our vote, then the Republican leadership is also trying to disarm us with voter suppression laws demanding identifications that most financially disadvantaged citizens do not readily have.
When a few dollars means whether your children eat today or not, we cannot expect these citizens who have a right to vote, to spend that money on getting an ID from a state run BMV which will try to make them prove their identity to get identification.
Call and/or write your legislators to demand these voter suppression attempts stop now. Call for yourself, your family and for those who cannot do so for themselves.
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This website is now the "unofficial" website and resource for labor union members and workers across the U.S.
I believe in the value of Unions to members and even non-member workers all over the country. Unions are under massive attack from large Corporations, Republican leadership in congress, and Repubican State Governors. It is a well planned and well funded attack using methods currently beyond the reach of labor laws. Only Union members can stay united, get others to understand the value of unions to all workers, and fight back with your voice and your vote. You can fight back with your voice bvy staying informed as to what is happening in politics (beware of the spin and lies from the Republican puppets of Corporate America). Spread the word wtih firends face to face, by email, by social media, writing your federal legislators on issues, writing your governor and state legislators, writing letters to the editor of your local newspapers.
I will continue to write for union members providing news about events of concern to union and non-union workers in the U.S.
This website will remain a resource for Union members and other workers wanting to fight back against the pressure to lower wages, reduce or eliminate benefits, pensions, social security, medicare, and other essential safety net programs paid for by your tax money and provided by your government.
Let me start with this ...
Business Friendly and what it means politically ...
Repubicans say they can create jobs by making the U.S. "business friendly." This is "bad spin" from the Repubican dirty politics playbook. Business friendly means no say in your job, low-wage levels, few benefits if any, demands for higher productivity, work schedules that are not confined to day shift or weekdays and will vary for the needs of the business and demands of the boss. Here is what history tells us that "business friendly" means to big corporations ... slavery (govt abolished), indentured servants (govt abolished), illegal immigrant workers (govt abolished ... but still occuring), child workers in early 1900's to about 1930 (govt abolished), taking advantage of low-wage female workers (govt laws to equalize wages within job titles) ... and when these were abolished, trade laws were changed, lies told about the benefits to the U.S. and consumers about the value of Free Trade without import fees, resulting in millions of U.S. workers out of work as their manufacturing and assembly jobs were moved overseas so corporations could take advantage of desperate low-wage workers in foreign countries ... using children, teens and and anyone who will work 12 hour days in unbearable locations for pennies a week. No wonder big business and their Republican puppets want to shrink government and eliminate government regulations for business (with the excuse that it will lower costs for U.S. business operations so we can compete and hire more workers). But this is a fallacy. Regulations create new jobs. There is an even playing field in this respect for U.S. businesses ... but foreign imports don't have these costs and they can underprice U.S. businesses because of the low-wages in their countries. So don't ruin our country like their country. Instead, charge the appropriate trade import or tariff fees to equalize the cost of doing business between trading countries. This eliminates the huge profits big companies get when they move business from the U.S. to low-wage countries. Business would no longer have the motive to move jobs out of the country and foreign companies could no longer out compete U.S. businesses because of their low-wages and low-standard of living.
These jobs have not become obsolete... just another lie to rationalize the socially irresponsible movement of U.S. jobs to foreign countries to take advantage of low wages and low standards of living for the purpose of increasing corporate profit margins and officer bonuses to obscene levels ...
These jobs are not obsolete. They are being handled by foreign workers. Almost everything in the store you pick up is made or assembled in a foreign country with a U.S. company distributing it. Even if exports could match the imports in volume, this doesn't help workers. The U.S. has millions of people of different education levels, different backgrounds, different physical abilities etc. We need our vast array of decent paying jobs that Republicans call "low-level" jobs. There is value and honor in all labor. The physical and mental efforts and time of every individual should be valued and not taken lightly. Time, physical labor, mental capabilities, skill use are all part of a person's life ... and if Republicans value life as they say they do, then let them start valuing the life energy and labor of the average worker in the U.S. Otherwise, they are showing great disrespect for the life energy of willing workers to get jobs done. If you don't think these jobs are of value, try to run a business without them. Businesses may fix product value based on supply and demand, yet it doesn't really reflect the value of the product or service to the customer. If we had ten qualified executives for every one position, do you really think they would pay the executive CEO, COO, CFO less than the line worker who needs technical knowledge hard to come by? When it comes to valuing people and their skill or trading their labor, their lifes energy, strength, endurance, etc., supply and demand should not lower anyone's opinion of the worker. If we want a fair workplace and a business that can compete with foreign improting companies, fix trade policies to reflect an even playing field in "wages and cost of goods manufactured" for fair competition (Fair Trade not Free Trade) and bring back our jobs.
... more to come!
Occupy Wall Street Movement
Our efforts in occupying state government for the purpose of repealing SB5 and similar efforts in Wisconsin that were on the news seemed to have triggered the occupy Wall Street movement. AFL-CIO supports the occupy Wall Street movement and encourages our members to be involved.
Occupiers may not be able to express a single focused reason why everyone is there to protest but that's because there are many reasons for the protest, many reasons for wanting to change the status quo. Protesters may not know exactly why the U.S. has changed, but they feel and know that legislation is no longer being passed for the good of U.S. citizens, the majority, the working class people ... many who no longer have a job or a job that can support a family.
How is it that with "one person, one vote" in the U.S. that 99% of the population is losing ground while the top 1% are profiting. Whoever is making the playing rules is fixing the game. Business and Workers play the game while governments make the playing rules or at least set the boundaries of fair play. What is happening here is that the minority is being represented by our legislators, mostly Republican legislators, while those representing the majority in the legislature, mostly Democrats, are being overpowered. The practice and law of "one person, one vote" is supposed to be the only determinant on who influences legislators votes and how much. So why are the 99% upset? Because it is those in the minority who have wealth and use that wealth to influence our legislators to vote on the behalf of the 1%. While laws or lack of laws currrently allow such thiings to happen, in the spirit of the entire principle "one person, one vote," this is just dead wrong. So why are so many average people angry and willing to get past their inhibitions to show it? You have your answer here.
Why does the supply of money outweigh citizen votes?
Politicians need to raise massive amounts of money and leave them owing those who donated large amounts to their election campaigns.
When laws change to limit businesses and unions from directly funding a candidates election, they go to the next level of influence. They use their money and the skill of high paid influence experts to create grass roots groups and use psychological persuasion principles and propaganda skills to make average working citizens think that voting for the Republican candidate will work for them in improving their life. For those of us who have studied social psychology and other effective practices of influencing people against their own good, the techniques they use are obvious and it is frustrating that they are working too often. The opinions expressed by large groups of people (the grass roots groups falsely created) seemingly of the same background as the average voter, will influence many other average citizen voters. It's called the "Bandwagon Effect."
Who's Really Running the Grassroots Show?
Someone behind the group with money, have the PR machine already in place and spinning out press releases to the media. They also direct the leader of the grass roots group on how to get the crown stirred, where to show up in numbers, who and how to heckle, etc. These are skills and strategies the average grass roots people don't have. Who do you think is pulling all the strings?
Having a grassroots group well spoken leader in your pocket to influence the group, creates the illusion wanted. It creates the Bandwagon Effect. This alleviates many citizens from having to think through and evaluate who to vote for. These voters tend to have little time or will to understand completely the poltical promises and what they really mean, so rely on a group of other voters who they believe have examined and evaluated all the promises and claims. Republican spin experts call them low information voters because they are easier to unethically influence with lies and half-truths (the half that sounds good, while omitting the other half that reveals the part that shows the politician will actually be working against them.)
Efforts to stop legislators from passing legislation that hurts workers and increases Corporate profits hasn't seemed to work at all on the Republican leadership and even some of the Democratic leadership. The money is just too powerful an influence. Money goes to infuence groups of voters that will have an impact on many other voters. Money goes to media campaigns to influence voters for a candidate or against a candidate. Since most of the media is no longer independent of big money, but owned by big money, it is no surprise that most networks have shut down expensive investigative reporting when it comes to politics. News anchors and talk show hosts just run the script they are given by the people who pay their large salaries. Press releases spun out by the truck load on behalf of big money candidates hit the desks of those who put together what will be reported on the news. They no longer need to investigate or think, other than to think what will make an interesting story to attract readership or viewership.
Democrats don't have the big money behind them.
What they do hope to have, are voters who are knowledgeable enough and conscientious enough to think through the political promises made by their opponents. They have legitimate grassroots groups who most, unfortunately, do not have the resources, knowledge or skills to match the amount of PR being put out to the media. The wording is not as persuasive and not as newsworthy because they don't have the funds to pay highly skilled spin experts to help them with their messages. That's why the reporters at the "occupy wall street" movement kept saying, "they don't really know what they are rallying about ... no one is on the same page ... they don't have one cohesive and persuasive message." Of course not. These were true blue grass roots citizens who know something is wrong but don't know enough about politics, business, economics, and wall street to know exactly what it was that did go wrong. That's why when asked, they all expressed didfferent opinions and reasons for why they were involved in the "occupy" movement.
I'm not saying some large businesses don't give big money to the democratic Governor's or Presidential campaigns. They do this to cover their bets. In case the citizenry actually has their way and has been immune to the Republican and Big Business spin machine, they want some favor to call in if possible ... or at least an ear to lobby.
Get the Money Out of Politics
Starting on MSNBC's Dylan Radigan show, Dylan and a former lobbyist came up with a plan called "Get the Money Out" with efforts to create a constitutional ammendment that would eliminate political fundraising causing an "I owe you" attitude towards big contributors. For more information, type in Google search bar "Dylan Radigan, Get the Money Out."
Until we eliminate the big contributions to legislators, the working class majority will not truly have the voice they should have when it comes to passing legislation that supports the majority of voters and citizens. 94% of elections are won by those raising the most money. I don't know who said it but it rang very true when I heard them say "that's an auction, not an election!"
Check this website out ... unbelieveable boldness on major corporate involvement in writing "OUR" legislation:
Over 300 Multi-National Corporations have come together to plan, fund and lobby Republican leaders to enact legislation they wrote that sets the rules in their favor, often against the American workers best interests. They have been in existance since 1973, but have recently become more bold. it is believed that they are the force behind all of the anti-worker legislation being enacted in every state with a Republican Governor.
(excerpt from ALECWatch.org)
"The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) boasts �During the 1999-2000 legislative cycle, ALEC legislators introduced more than 3100 pieces of legislation based on our models, and more than 450 of these were enacted. . . . In the legislative Sessions of 2000, there were more than 2150 introductions promoting ALEC Policy.�
So why haven�t we ever heard of this group?
Because corporate America doesn�t want us to know. Close scrutiny reveals that ALEC is little more than a screen for hundreds of big corporations and trade associations to advance their legislative agendas in state capitals from coast to coast. "
AFL-CIO need all of us to join their "We Are One" Campaign ... and we need them. Click here to go to "We are One." Union members get their political leverage only because of our large number of members who will stand together for a common purpose. We need to rally our current members, our retirees, and even the supporting public, our friends and family.
- If it's not good for U.S. Workers,
it's not good for America! -
"First they came ..." is a famous statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892 - 1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The text of the quotation is usually presented roughly as follows:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
(excerpted from Wikipedia)
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History of Labor Unions
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The videos include info on the real purpose and mission of big corporations, capitalism according to Michael Moore, History of Labor Unions in the U.S., use of Child Labor that will bring tears to your eyes, and a very useful set of five videos that are excepts from Confessions of a Union Buster.
Click on the History of Labor navigation or below to go to this webpage ....
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Hot Current Issues:
-Call Center Bill ... keep call
center jobs in the U.S. We have lost over 500,000 U.S.call center jobs over the last four years due to call center moves overseas. Support the new Call Center bill.
-Hands Off Our Medicare and other essential public service programs
-Voter Suppression Bill ... we
got enough petition votes to put
it on the next ballot to repeal
this bill that keeps honest U.S.
citizens from voting because
they are poor or in college ...
votes likely to go Democratic. Voter Suppression has actually passed in some southern states. Citizens spent years to get the right to vote. First it was only white male property owners who could vote. Republican politicians liked this because they believe the general voting public is stupid and incapable of making good decisions (meaning decisions that would help big business make profits at the expense of workers). Slowly, after much blood, sweat and tears on the part of dedicated individuals and groups, women, minorities, non-property owners ... all adult citizens got the right to vote. The majority are not wealthy businessmen. The majority are hard working poor and middle class individuals. The 95% of citizens who make up this majority, are willing to give their life energy, time away from family and other pursuits, in order to help a business accomplish the business owners goals in return for fair pay, fair benefits, fair treatment as working people.
-Postal Workers Jobs at Risk
Keep our Postal Workers and Post Offices working ... Hands Off. This is the biggest group of union workers in existence. Repubicans want to eliminate at least 100,000 postal employees. Their goal, as usual, is to shift the work to private companies who can make a profit for investors, instead of an efficiently run government operation that works on behalf of we the people. The Repubican strategists believe that if they can shrink Union numbers enough, there will be no unified group big enough in support for Democratic legislators and President that could stop them from a complete take over of our Government. Government would no longer be for "we the people" but for "we the wealthy investors and big business." To them, workers are nothing but pawns to be used to further the company goals. Workers used to be considered assets, now they are costs. Most small and mid-size businesses are still run like family businesses. Everyone knows each other and treats workers like people with lives and families. When a business goes public, goes to the stock market, it becomes owned by thousands of investors looking for a return on their money. They put their money wherever they think will get them the best return. So public companies, for some reason called private industry, compete for investors so their stock prices go up. It used to be that CEO's and other officers found ways to offer new innovative and better products and competed for market share. Now it seems easier for them to have a company look like it was profitable by reducing wages or eliminating employees. If you aren't smart enough or skilled enough to bring in more revenue, then cut costs to make it look like you made money.
-Right to Work legislation ... "NO WAY"
Right to Work legislation is wrong. It is an attempt to leave workers without any leverage or say in their jobs or in their workplace ... it breaks down any unified leverage a union could have if formed thereby making it irrelevant or useless to members. It is a "workers will do what they are told to do or else" legislation. Some businesses would rather just bark orders and threaten consequences than motivate and lead. Very Sad!
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