ON The Shoulders of Giants
Posted on January 11th, 2010We stand on the shoulders of giants — the thousands and millions of working people who through the years and centuries have toiled and battled to win for us the many fruits of labor that we now see as simply standard. Our history — the progression of working people from slavery and indentured servitude to modest economic comfort with workplace rights, at least on paper – has not been a straight line. No, it has been a great mountain range of peaks and valleys with tremendous victories, like the abolition of chattel slavery and the Flint Sit-down Strike in 1937 that won union representation at General Motors and made the eight-hour-work-day the standard, and devastating defeats like the hanging of Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel in 1887 for having the audacity to fight for the eight-hour-work-day back then. But even in this defeat the seeds of victory were sown.
As the hangman pulled down the hood over August Spies face he managed to squeeze off a single sentence, perhaps more devastating than any bullet that could have been fired to save him. “There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.â€
Spies was right of course. Although he and many others paid the ultimate price, the fight for the eight-hour-day won by the sit-down strikers was arguably the watershed moment in the
No one person or “great leader†has been the striving force for change. 
 No, it’s been the great masses of names untold, the commitment and the struggle of rank-and-file workers that has broken the bosses’ stranglehold on our share of the value that we create with our labor, and it will be us — the rank-and-file-workers – who once again lead the labor movement and our union to a position of power.Â
There is much to learn and more to do, but if the ideas that you’ve read here intrigue you we invite you to join the Union Education Committee. We want to use study groups and online sessions to educate our members about the untold story of labor history and to learn the tools we can use to empower the rank-and-file to be more effective and united union members. We are all leaders, but we need to learn how and why we must lead.
Contact the Union Education Committee at unionedcom@gmail.com or 973-985-8089
Health Care Reform, It’s a No brainier
Posted on June 28th, 2009Health care reform, it’s a no brainier, and it’s called single payer. Why is single payer better than pay-the-insurance-company health care? Simple, insurance company’s “administration expenses†and profits add exorbitant overhead to every bill. Time consuming paper work means additional labor for health care providers and staff. A single payer system will streamline paperwork and dismantle the mountain of administrative costs. The savings – nearly $400 billion annually – would be enough to cover all the uninsured and give first dollar coverage to everyone in the 
Single payer gets better results! A recent World Health Organization study ranked the US 37th in the world in health care delivery – last among the so-called industrialized nations. Government administered health care works better all over the world. In Canada – where they have a single payer system – people live longer — 80 years compared to 77 years in the
In the
Single payer health care could have help save the auto industry in the
Sixty percent of personal bankruptcies filed every year in the United States are directly related to medical expenses, and a recent study shows that 3 out of 4 of those are filed by people with health insurance.
Insurance, drug and medical company lobbyists are spending millions –reportedly $1.4 million a day — to bribe our stalwart legislators and keep we the people shoveling our money into their coffers. Democrat Senator Max Baucus – who has received more campaign money from health and insurance donors than any other member of congress — refused to even discuss single payer in the Senate Finance Committee hearings on health care last month. His cohort Senator Chuck Grassley of
Grassley’s top four donor groups were Health ($411,956), Insurance ($307,348), Pharmaceuticals ($233,850), and Hospitals ($197,137). Â Eighth on Grassley’s donor list were HMOs at $130,684.
There’s a bill in the Congress with 83 co-sponsors – HR676. This bill would expand and improve Medicare and cover everyone in the country. It would take our health care dollars and put them into care rather than into the mansions of noble insurance executives. You remember them. Some of them are the same Masters of the Universe who bankrupted our economy.
Single payer is a no brainer for our health, our pocketbooks and our “democracy.â€Â Any other solution that comes out of
 
***** Thanks to John Jonik for the cartoon ********
Union Democracy Now
Posted on June 20th, 2009That’s no thermometer, friend. Look over your shoulder and you will see a familiar smirking face. Yes, that’s right, it’s your union boss holding the tub of lubrication and watching exuberantly as the company boss gives it to you good.
Here in IBEW Local 827, the foreplay between the company bosses and our union boss has transformed from friction into sultry disco inferno, and before it’s over we’re all going to get screwed — screwed by a nasty bastard called business unionism.
The big internal battle in the labor movement has always been between business unionism and a more radical rank-and-file or grassroots unionism. Surely many workers reading this are thinking, “I’m no radical.â€Â That’s true and that’s the problem. We need to become radicals.   We can never be partners with the company, because they will always make sure that the partnership is extraordinarily unequal.
The letter that our esteemed union boss has just sent us all is another problem. He basically says we have to surrender to the company’s agenda, “that we live in the same house.† We don’t live in the same house. We don’t share the same interests. For instance, it’s in the company’s interest to make us work as hard and fast and cheaply as possible.  None of those things are good for us.  Our quality of life is not important to them. The quality of the work is not that important. These days the big bosses who run the company get paid because of numbers and stock prices. Quality of work plays a small role in the computation of these numbers. These greedy bastards only care about their pay and compensation.  Look what happened on Wall Street.  We can’t emulate them. Sure we all need to earn our livings, but we also need to have some principle. We need to set the standard for working conditions, not just at our company but for all workers.
Now is not the time to hide under the covers. We need to fight, but like a prize fighter we need to get in shape before we step into the ring. We need to do some work. Let’s not move into the big boss man’s house. Let’s get our own house in order, so we can win. Right now the union operates more like dictatorship, like a business. Our current union boss seems to think he can tell us what to do. But we’re the union, not him. The rank and file needs to run the union, and the union leaders need to carry out our decisions. That’s part of what “radical union†means, but for us to build that kind of democracy in our union, we need a plan. We also need a grassroots movement to spread and implement the plan.
Now is the time to do it. Business unionism has led the labor movement away from its radical roots. Our greatest victories were won back in the in the 1930’s and 40’s during the last great economic crisis. The right to organize, the eight hour day, social security, unemployment insurance, respectful working conditions, all these victories and more came from a time when radical workers ran many unions. The bosses were scared and they bent, but didn’t break. In the 1950’s they threw the radicals out of the unions using the Red Scare as an excuse. Slowly but surely the bosses started to take back the gains we had won. The business union leaders began to make more and more deals and now they have bargained away most of the union movement.  That’s the main reason unions’ numbers have been dwindling and their influence waning over the last 50 years. That’s why real wages have decreased steadily over most of those years and private sector union membership has declined from 36 percent in 1956 to 8 percent now. We work more, produce more but get paid less money. Meanwhile the bosses have gotten richer and richer.
We don’t live in the same house with the company. We’re out in the tool shed next to leaky septic tank. We need to take our house – the union — back. Today’s the day. Tomorrow’s too late.
The Denial Economy
Posted on April 15th, 2009I’m tired of people giving me the “wink,wink†about the economy and the government/banks plan to “fix†it. I was talking to some dude recently and at first he was like, “We have to spend this money to get things going again.â€Â
“Like hell we do,†says me.  “Let these banks fail. We need a new economy.† As the conversation continued, I began to see this dude really didn’t think this increase in the transfer of wealth to the rich bastards that caused the problem to begin with was a good idea, but he was afraid to lose his stake in the economy. Wink, wink, “I know it’s screwed up,†he says. “But I’m afraid to lose what I got.â€Â Â
Reality is we’ve all been sold a bill of goods, and many folks know it. We’re already losing. These toxic assets are and have always been worthless.    It’s only our tax money that gives the “assets†any value now and that’s the rub. It’s a value “added product.â€Â  The value was added after we bought into the product and found out it was junk. These barons of Wall Street collected the money when we bought into it, and now they’re collecting again as we add the value that was never there to begin with.  We’re rewarding the swindlers and covering all their risk. We can’t win. It’s like piling up shit in our living rooms and painting flowers on the pile so we can call the stench a garden. Even though our nose is telling us the truth, our brain rejects the sensory input. It’s the denial economy, pure and stinky denial.
So it all comes clear now. All my years in a 12 step program have not been wasted. The majority of people in this country are addicted to an unsustainable lifestyle, and they don’t want to change. They’d rather conspire to recreate a fictional economy then do the work and make the sacrifice to build something that has real value – a sustainable economy. 
Most of us prefer to continue sucking energy and resources out of the planet like alcoholic frat boys with their mouths on the beer tap. We are headed for a rude awakening. I guess we haven’t hit the bottom yet. We can dig it deeper or we can overcome our denial and grow some insight. Not all addicts end up in the gutter. We need to get honest about the situation so we can begin to change. It’s not too late, but the clock is ticking.
The Emperor’s Skivvies
Posted on March 10th, 2009It may seem like the world is falling apart and maybe it is. But is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. I’ve been decrying the unsustainable nature of the economic system we have been forced live in for many years. I have sounded like lil’ ol’ Chicken Little to a lot of folks for a long time, but now it seems the sky may be falling after all. At least many of you now would agree that maybe the emperor is sashaying around in his skivvies after all, and it ain’t a pretty sight. Knobby knees, pimpled hairy legs and corns on his toes, that ol’ emperor has lost his elegance even though our markets still are free.
I try not to Hate People
Posted on August 6th, 2008I try not to hate people. It really is a lot of wasted energy in most cases, but there is one small sector of society that I just can’t seem to find much love for. 
 I have a hard time seeing that great universal energy flow that unites all of creation when I think about these folks. They are the infamous upper one-tenth of the top one percent of earners.Â
Some people think that they are reptilian space aliens like on The Simpsons. I don’t know, but I do wonder if they can be human. Maybe they are some subspecies or as radio host Tom Hartman suggests a variant of sociopath.  Clearly though, they represent the worst kind of human behavior.
Think about it. A big CEO in one year makes enough money to retire and live a wonderful life, but instead he or she keeps their job so they can export other people’s jobs, bust unions, take away health care and pensions, deny fair wage increases and make products that are filled with toxins that can kill people or at least that are made with “built in obsolescence.â€
Average pay for big time CEO’s was $11.7 million last year. Often the performance of their company has little effect on their pay. If the company does well they take the credit, and if it doesn’t they blame someone else. Check out Sarah Anderson’s post on Extreme Inequality.
Lawrence Mishel from the Economic Policy Institute points out that the wage income of the top one percent of earners in 2006 was nearly 20 times that of the average wage of the bottom 90 percent – 19.9-to-1. This is just wages not stocks or other investment income.
If that’s not enough to piss you off, how about this. The top tenth of the top one percent earned 70 times (in wages) the average working stiff in the bottom 90 percent. That means it takes them 3.7 days to earn what the vast majority of working people earn in one year.Â
Even though I’m mostly an atheist, I try to be “spiritual.â€Â I read Zen Buddhist philosopher Thich Nhat Hahn, meditate and do yoga almost every morning. I even read stuff about nonviolent communication. It would be a helluva lot easier to walk the spiritual path if we could just change our economy so it was focused on providing for people’s needs instead of bosses’ profits. I try not to hate people, but it sure ain’t easy.
We’re All on the Same Side
Posted on August 5th, 2008So it looks like we have avoided a strike at Verizon. Both The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have extended the current contract while they continue to discuss the issues.
The scuttlebutt is that we’re looking at a four-year contract and maybe a 3 or 3.5 percent raise per year, but we might loose our cost of living adjustment. Health benefits and everything else are still up in the air. It’s hard to get information. The union leaders are all tight lipped.
It’s really pointless to discuss the details until we can actually get some.
I have to say that I don’t get these people who say things like “Unions are greedy and I have to pay for my benefits so you should too.†They say, “Be glad you have a job.†Then they defend exorbitant CEO salaries. They blame unions for the bad economy.
One of the big problems in this country is that we don’t have enough union jobs. Union jobs pay better are safer and provide workers with better benefits. Unions don’t hurt production. That’s just a lie. It’s the CEO’s and Wall Streeters who have been robbing us blind (See Bear Stearns: The Weapons of Mass Destruction.)
Anti-union propaganda would have you believe that unions mean lower rates of production. In the US Union membership has declined significantly since 1979, down to about 14 percent, but when we compare productivity rates with countries in Europe with much more union density we can see that more unions do not mean less production. Between 1979 and 2005 workers in Belgium, France and Sweden, where they have 90 percent unionization, produced more per hour than in the US.
Unions don’t make companies less productive. But unions do probably force them to share the wealth a tiny bit more, and that’s why MOTUTs hate unions so much. Unions cut into their million and billion dollar life styles. So all you other workers who blame unions for so many evils or who buy into the propaganda that unions are bad for the economy need to stop pointing the finger at union workers. We’re your allies. We think you should be able to join a union and even if you don’t want to join a union we think you should at the very least get good wages, benefits, a secure retirement and safe workplace. We’re all on the same side. Let’s learn to work together.
The Line Must be Drawn Here
Posted on August 1st, 2008As the clock ticks down toward a strike Verizon negotiators continue to claim that the IBEW and CWA unions’ demands are unreasonable, even though Verizon is raking in more money than this time last year. Revenue rose 3.7 percent this quarter totaling $24.12 billion. The communication giant’s top five executives grabbed $82 million in salary and “compensation†in 2007. But still they are griping about a five percent wage increase and parity in health care coverage for workers and retirees.
Workingfertheman.com sat down with some of the rank and file union members to talk about conditions at the company and the potential of a strike.
“I’m all for a strike if it’s to get better wages,†one longtime union member said.
“Yeah I’m ready to go on strike,†another fed-up worker said. “One of the issues is the company wants to give new hires lower quality benefits and no pensions. I’m for going on strike for that issue alone. All that’s going to do is divide the union. We all should be the same.â€
All the workers in the round table discussion agreed that having two tiers of employees/union members would lead to the decline of the union. They were ready hit the picket line.
The company’s ultimate aim is to break the union. “All these greedy corporate executives want to keep the money for themselves,†the fed-up worker said. “They want to take advantage of working people.â€
“Look at the state of the car industry and the unions,†the longtime worker pointed out. “Some try to say that the union brought down the companies. But I know it was poor management and the products sucked. The union doesn’t develop products.â€
Working conditions have continued to deteriorate over the last several years at Verizon. The company would rather spend money on private detectives that follow people around then sit down and talk to the folks who do the work and ask them “What’s the way to get the most and best quality work completed?â€
“I think the higher-ups have no respect for us,†a wily union veteran said.
More and more of the upper and middle management are people who haven’t worked in the industry, and they aren’t concerned about the people who actually do productive work. We’re just knuckle draggers. They make up abstract numbers and equations. (see Big Ideas {BI} x 0 = 0.) That’s what they teach them in Masters of the Universe school. They act like they’re the brains, and we’re the hands.
“All they know about our job is we don’t do it fast enough,†the wily veteran quipped.
The company doesn’t care if the work in done correctly. All they care about is meeting “production quotas.â€
“They want us to put in it in fast. We want to do it correctly,†the longtime worker said.
The bottom line is it’s us union folks who really care about the customers. We care about the job we do. It’s our work. We care about our working conditions and benefits, and we care about the working conditions and benefits of other working people, many of whom are our customers. We go to the picket line to fight for our jobs and the future for our families. But we also go to the picket line to defend all workers rights to good jobs and quality health care and a secure retirement. 
As Captain Jean-Luc Picard says in the Star Trek the Next Generation movie First Contact after they were confronted by the Borg’s attempt to conquest humanity. “The line must be drawn here! This far and no further. And I will make them pay for what they have done!â€
Like the Borg, these global corporations like Verizon seek to gobble us up and brainwash us into to thinking that our sacrifices are for the good of the company, the economy and therefore good for all. Meanwhile the Master of the Universe Types – sociopath CEO’s and Wall Street scum – rake in billions. They are the ones who screwed up the economy not us. No, no, we go to the picket line for all working people and we say, “The line must be drawn here!†Which side are you on?
Unreasonable Demands
Posted on July 30th, 2008Verizon representatives and union leaders from the CWA (Communications Workers of America) and IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) have been negotiating a new contract for several months. It’s coming down to crunch time now. The agreement expires August 2, but all the talking has produced very little progress.
Head honcho Ivan Seidenberg earned a paltry $22 million in salary and compensation including a $4.2 million cash bonus. He’s really feeling the pinch of the crumbling economy.
