Unions and Workers on the Move!

[dykeumentary]

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

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

[wolfbittenpoet]

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

[Kobi]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[AtLast]

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

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

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

[dykeumentary]

Originally Posted by Kobi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Kobi]

Dyke,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by dykeumentary

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

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

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

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

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

[Corkey]

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