LABOR UNIONS: Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries in the United States. Their activity today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for their membership, and on representing their members in disputes with management over violations of contract provisions. Larger unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level. Most unions in America are aligned with one of two larger umbrella organizations: the AFL-CIO created in 1955, and the Change to Win Federation which split from the AFL-CIO in 2005. Both advocate policies and legislation on behalf of workers in the United States and Canada, and take an active role in politics. The AFL-CIO is especially concerned with global trade issues. In 2010, the percentage of workers belonging to a union in the United States (or total labor union density) was 11.4%, compared to 18.6% in Germany, 27.5% in Canada, and 70% in Finland. Union membership in the private sector has fallen under 7% levels not seen since 1932. Unions allege that employer-incited opposition has contributed to this decline in membership. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and police. Members of unions are disproportionately older, male and residents of the Northeast, the Midwest, and California. Union workers average 10-30% higher pay than non-union in America after controlling for individual, job, and labor market characteristics. Although much smaller compared to their peak membership in the 1950s, American unions remain a prominent political factor, both through mobilization of their own memberships and through coalitions with like-minded activist organizations around issues such as immigrant rights, trade policy, health care, and living wage campaigns. It is no mystery to me how, and why so many working men, and women have been brainwashed by anti union propaganda concerning unions, and their members. What is a mystery to me is why these working men, and women do not understand that the same people financing this propaganda are the same people who sold us the bogus wars America including Vier Nam. The same people who caused the financial melt down in 2007. The same people who finance campaigns that put politicians like Scott, and Snyder in our State houses. Contaminate our water systems with impunity. Destroy our environment with chemicals, oil, and every form of pollution known to man, and a great deal of pollutants still unknown to man. The same companies with Walmart in the lead have all but destroyed small business in every small town in America. Substandard wages, and no benefits are two of the the driving forces behind these propagandists. They realize that if they can Eradicate unions in the country they can return to slave labor. This is the real purpose of their propaganda. This strategy worked well with Bill Clinton, who was forced to go hat in hand to Wall street money to run his campaign, and paid Wall street back by signing away the last remnants of the Glass Steagall act in 1993. It only took 14 years for the the complety unregulated banks to destroy the world economy. Glass Steagall had protected the American citizens from Wall Street banks for 60 years, once G.S was eliminated it took 14 years for our economy to crash. Due to unions being stripped of millions in membership by the Reagan Administration in the 1980s Democrats have been forced to go hat in hand to Wall street and beg for money to finance their campaigns. hence no meaningful banking legislation is being passed. The same problems with Wall Streets banks that caused the collapse in 2007 are still in place today, and will stay that way until campaign funds from other sources than Wall Street can be obtained by progressive politicians. Strong unions with strong membership has historically supplied that funding. If union membership does not grow, neither will the middle class. Wall Street money has elected right wing political hatchet men/women as State Republican Governors, and legislators who do everything they can to demonize public employee unions including teachers. The very people who financed their campaigns are working behind the scenes to privatize public jobs, the Post office, and education so they can then steal the pension funds, as they have done with so many manufacturing companies. Then eliminate their unions, hire public employees, and teachers back a drastically reduced salaries, with no benefits. They have privatized prisons, homeland security, and many jobs in the military. As I have said in many other of my posts, the obvious seems to always be the last thing citizens understand. When it is too late to do anything but complain, and mourn what they have lost. The main reason our citizens are unaware of the obvious because it is avoided by the media like the plague. Our modern media has two goals, sell products, and dumb down the population with 24 hour per day coverage of sports, and celebrity gossip. Have unions failed to live up to many of their responsibilities, certainly. Are they the reason our country in is such a mess, certainly not. The U.S.has the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis -- and its gotten even worse. The Economic Elite have escalated their attack on U.S. workers, and union over the past few years; however, this attack began to build intensity in the 1970s. In 1970, CEOs made $25 for every $1 the average worker made. Due to technological advancements, production and profit levels exploded from 1970 - 2000. With the lions share of increased profits going to the CEOs, this pay ratio dramatically rose to $90 for CEOs to $1 for the average worker. As ridiculous as that seems, an in-depth study in 2004 on the explosion of CEO pay revealed that, including stock options and other benefits, CEO pay is more accurately $500 to $1. The after-tax percentage of our nations total income, while the bottom 90% have seen their share drop over 20%. Between 2002 and 2006, it was even worse: an astounding three-quarters of all the economys growth was captured by the top 1%. Due to this, the United States already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the average worker much harder than CEOs, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high. The economic top one percent of the population now owns over 70% of all financial assets, an all time record. So the next time your hear someone say unions are the reason our economy is in shambles, you might point out they are being misinformed by the very people who caused our problems. If it were not for unions we would be waking up every morning to more Scott Walkers in state houses, Ted like Cruz in the Senate, and John Boehner in the House. These counterfeit statesmen are elected by the very people who blame unions for all our problems. I would propose that unions are needed more now than they ever were. bp
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:07:44 +0000
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