Friday, March 4, 2011

About time to get pissed again. But first the good news: unemployment is below 9%, due mostly to the efforts of the DEMOCRATIC administration over the last 2 years; Sara Palin probably can’t get elected President. Bad news abounds: Libyan civilians getting killed by the 100’s; women in Ivory Coast mowed down by tank machine gun fire; union busting going on all over the country.
Unions: Organized groups of laborers that have won all kinds of benefits for EVERYBODY that works, union or not, by collective bargaining for wages, benefits, workplace safety and other things. This country was built on the backs, arms and legs of workers, and without unions we would still be in the dark ages of industrial production. I have only belonged to one union unless you count the AAUP, of which I was an organizer and card-carrying member. The other one is now called the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union for long). Then it was just the “Union”. I joined because I had to in order to keep my job, and yes, my dues were deducted from my pay every week. I loved it.
The efforts now to break the union’s so-called power are a thinly veiled move against the middle and lower-middle class workers, even those not in unions or in “right to work” states. The reason is clear: Republicans want to break the fundraising capabilities of the unions that mostly benefit Democrats. Duh. Since the law passed that allows anybody to spend anything secretly supporting somebody, the Republicans have tried to make it their private turf. Why would anybody in a union vote for a Republican? The Wisconsin debacle is just the tip of the problem for unions. Republican Governors all over the country are lining up to kill public and private sector unions. We are all screwed if that happens. Including the Republicans. Just watch.

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