Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life fighting for the collective bargaining rights of municipal workers in the city of Memphis. The garbage collectors who were striking were responding to unsafe conditions (a worker was crushed by a truck), a sub-minimum wage, non-existent benefits, zero bargaining rights. Mayor Henry Loeb beat the workers down just as Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and Chris Christie in New Jersey are trying to do right now to state workers. "I AM A MAN" read the signs the African-American garbage collectors held as they marched in non-violent protest against their obscenely exploitative working conditions. Their identities and self-worth, like all of us, were intimately tied to what they did in their working lives to earn their daily bread. Right-wing elected officials were seeking to keep those municipal workers in a state of second-class citizenship and Dr. King went to Memphis to stand up to them.
I cannot believe that in the 21st Century we are having this kind of a debate on the role of labor unions in this country. But I suppose it isn't surprising since we have a new Gilded Age going on, with a new cast of Robber Barons like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and the Koch brothers, who once again have little puppet governors in their hip pockets. What's next? Pinkertons shooting into crowds? Goons? Spies?
Today, a loud minority of private sector workers, swimming in a sea of classist propaganda, apparently want public sector workers (who are in the main paid less) to be pulled down to the kind of shoddy benefits packages and lack of bargaining rights they are forced to endure instead of asking the deeper question: Why is it that their private sector benefits are so lacking? The simple answer is that over the past thirty years private sector unions have been decimated, leaving millions of workers with no voice and no choice but to accept any abuse capital wishes to dish out.
The working-class people who are now siding with their bosses against their public sector neighbors might never see the light. The manufacturing of consent on this issue that inundates us with the rich man's view of the world -- be it from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck (for the high school diploma crowd) or from David Brooks, Morton Zuckerman, or Rick Santelli (for the college diploma crowd) -- has enabled the elites to achieve what the old Gilded Age Robber Baron, Jay Gould, accomplished more heavy-handedly when he boasted: "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."
The Gilded Age union busting that is now happening in Wisconsin and spreading to other states must be fought to the bitter end. What we're seeing in Wisconsin is a make-or-break sit-down strike by courageous public sector workers and their allies in the Democratic Party. We need more of these around the country. For if this country continues regressing at this pace we'll soon be debating the merits of women voting or whether African Americans are 3/5ths of a human being.
Martin Luther King, Jr. knew what side he was on. In what turned out to be his last speech, he pointed out that the press "very seldom get[s] around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them." He went on:
All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in... any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right!
King also recognized that in the epic battle for workers' rights we must be steadfast:
[W]e've got give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point . . . We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.
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Bernard Weisberger: Onward Wisconsin
Dr. King would be so sad at what is occurring in Wisconsin right now. It seems almost surreal that it is happening when you consider the number of people who fought to improve the plight of American laborers. It seems as though we take one step forward and then, fifty years later, three steps back.
First we endured eight years of Bush, who finished off the assault on the middle class that Reagan started. Now the GOP, backed by corporate money, are gutting unions. This, in addition to the multiple battles now being waged against women's right in this country.
One of the biggest problems we have is that ideology has blinded so many middle and working class Americans. The truth may never be heard by a certain sector of society because they have been duped into believing that only the GOP knows truth. The FOX propaganda machine functions better than ever and continues to twist every issue into a left and right issue. This is not about political party at all, it is about the future of America! The far right has coopted patriotism and Christianity as if they invented them. They have brainwashed their sheep into believing that the left could not possibly be either Godly or patriotic. What hogwash!
What we conservatives are stead against are “public service employee unions”. We just see a better way of doing education and heaven knows we do need help here.
It is not the same playing field if a group has collective bargaining rights without the overall profit motive involved. No company owner is going to agree with union compensation if it significantly effects the bottom line. However, political leaders can kick the can down the road, which they have, without them personally suffering. They lack little incentive to confront public sector unions.
FDR was correct (one of his few times) that governments should not allow public sector unions just because of what I stated above.
Dr. King would be so sad at what is occurring in Wisconsin right now. It seems almost surreal that it is happening when you consider the number of people who fought to improve the plight of American laborers. It seems as though we take one step forward and then, fifty years later, three steps back.
First we endured eight years of Bush, who finished off the assault on the middle class that Reagan started. Now the GOP, backed by corporate money, are gutting unions. This, in addition to the multiple battles now being waged against women's right in this country.
One of the biggest problems we have is that ideology has blinded so many middle and working class Americans. The truth may never be heard by a certain sector of society because they have been duped into believing that only the GOP knows truth. The FOX propaganda machine functions better than ever and continues to twist every issue into a left and right issue. This is not about political party at all, it is about the future of America! The far right has coopted patriotism and Christianity as if they invented them. They have brainwashed their sheep into believing that the left could not possibly be either Godly or patriotic. What hogwash!
1. Sorry, but this union-democrat party marriage is unseemly, inappropriate and downright scandalous. We all know the scam, and we need to put a stop to unions giving money to campaigns. Unions are buying votes and they are buying politicians - it's plain and simple and it VERY obvious. In the past 20 years, unions have given more than $500 million to political parties (with 92% going to Democrats). There's also a lot of other union money that is funneled through other organizations (money laundering) that ends up in political coffers. This is especially heinous when union members don't have ANY CHOICE in where the money goes - THAT'S JUST WRONG.
Idle thought: what would happen if the unions gave all that money to charity instead of political parties? The world would be a better place, right?
2. The second thing is the right to CHOOSE whether you want to belong to a union or not. Dems are all about CHOICE, yet in many states, you are coerced into belonging to a union to get a job. What's fair about that? NO worker should be forced to belong to a union. If I am an excellent worker, why do I not have the right to negotiate a better deal than the guy who's a lazy worker? By being coerced into joining a union, individual rights are relinquished and workers are at the whim of union bosses. CHOICE is a right, right?
2. The choice claim is utterly disingenuous. Workers are "gently warned" of the cost of unionization on a daily basis in some workplaces and take a real risk if caught trying to organize union activity. In this economy, a huge risk. Unionization is a choice of consensus, same as we choose a mayor or a president by a vote. The "choice" argument is doubly bogus because if you want to choose to be non-union, you'll only have a choice of what, 95% (and probably I'm understating it) of the jobs out there?
We need unions more than ever. We need them for grocery stockers and truck drivers and white collar "professionals" who are nothing these days, often, but disposable temps whose wages go down while the mortgage and student loan bills stay high.
When you join a union, you give up your freedom in exchange for collectivism. If I don't want collectivism and choose freedom, I should have that right. Period. End of story.
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.
- Pastor Martin Niemöller
"the wording remains controversial, both in terms of its provenance, and the substance and order of the groups that are mentioned in its many versions. While Niemöller's published 1946 speeches mention Communists, the incurably ill, Jews or Jehovah's Witnesses (depending on which speech), and people in occupied countries, the 1955 text, a paraphrase by a German professor in an interview, lists Communists, Socialists, "the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on," and ends with "the Church". This likely refers to the thousands of Catholic priests and other ministers imprisoned at Dachau and other camps"
In any event, trade-unionists are central to the repression of the many in favor of the rich and powerful.
George Santayana
I can't believe how many debates we're having all over again in the 21st century....rights of labor unions, women's reproductive health issues, poverty, war. It's just so sad! Who will be Martin and Bobby today?
I can't believe many of the debates we're having in the 21st century...the role of labor unions, women's reproductive rights, war, poverty. Who will be the Martin or Bobby of today? It's just so sad.
And here's a quote for all of you union bashers:
"One of the most elemental human rights [is] the right to belong to a free trade union." -- Ronald Reagan Check it out! http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12392
Agreed. Unfortunately for the thug union bosses, Reagan didn't say anything about being forced to pay union dues or being threatened if you don't join.
My wife and I are doing just fine without unions. So is everyone I know.
I'm tired of my tax dollars going to them.
'Nuff said.
Just look at the local DMV. Look at the road construction workers. 3 men to do the job of 1. Everybody can see that. Shame on you.
Unions are almost as bad as CEOs. They are not going find public support unless they change. People are trying to get the country moving in the right direction. Unions are only interested in pay, not work. Look at prison guard union in CA. The 3 strikes law is designed for repeat offender so the unions can increase their membership by having more "customers". Shame on unions.
unions are "interested" in so much more than pay....go read a history book. your take on 3 strikes is obscene. as is the law that put pot smokers in prison for life. just shameful.