Workers' Rights Are Civil Rights

This week the minimum wage rose by 70 cents to $7.25 an hour, a beggar's lot really, but still corporations across America decried it. Good times or bad, somehow Wall Streeters walk away with $700,000 bonuses, you know, on top of their salaries, but a 70-cent minimum wage hike is never affordable.

That's why America's workers must seize control of their own fates. President Obama said: "Our destiny is not written for us. It is written by us." Well, on a sweltering July 11, 1,500 civil rights, human rights and workers rights activists in Little Rock began writing a new destiny for American workers.

That destiny includes the freedom to form and join a union and to collectively bargain for a piece of the wealth they helped create. That destiny includes passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The 1,500 met in Little Rock because Arkansas is the home state of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who turned her back on the Employee Free Choice Act this year, succumbing to pressure from the likes of Wal-Mart, a notoriously anti-union corporation headquartered in the Razorback State. Many Wal-Mart workers will be getting a 70 cent raise this week -- thanks to that minimum wage hike.

Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and I met with Sen. Lincoln a couple of days before the rally, and she kept telling us how she had passed legislation to help children and how she really wanted to help families. The best way to help families is to let them help themselves through collective bargaining.

I'll tell you what I told the 1,500 in Little Rock that day. Write her. Call her. E-mail her. "Tell her the best way to help the children, the best way to help families, the best way to help the seniors, the best way to get to the middle class is for workers to have the right to join a union and bargain collectively for a piece of the pie that they helped to make and for a piece of the wealth they helped to create."

That is what the Employee Free Choice Act does.

The rally in Little Rock started at Central High School where nine Black youngsters braved violence to desegregate in 1958. Fifty-one years later, we are engaged in another civil rights struggle. And Rev. Wendell Griffin, a Baptist pastor and judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, expressed that best.

Rev. Griffin asked the 1,500, "Are we free?"

No one yelled yes.

He repeated, "Are we free?"

Again, no affirmative response.

He explained, when one person is not free, all people are not free. "We are brothers and sisters, and when one worker is not paid fairly, all workers are not paid fairly." And, he said, the way for all workers to be paid fairly, is for workers to have the right to organize.

He told the story of his father working, without a union, in a saw mill; how he later got union representation, a raise, a pension and better working conditions. And, importantly, how that changed his family's life.

Finally, he told the crowd: "What my father had is what every worker ought to have in Arkansas."

Every worker should have the right to join a union, receive a pension and labor in safety.

He noted that the people of Arkansas have given that to Blanche Lincoln -- voted to provide her with a government job, good benefits and a pension.

"Now is our time," he said.

"Employee Free Choice Act Now."

Watch the video.

Comments

[JayDubs]

Low skill workers are not scarce. Common skills won't earn good pay or good benefits, unless you're willing to work harder than everyone else or do something that no one else wants to do. The fact is, if someone else is willing and able to do your job for less, it is unrealistic to expect a raise. Deal with it, or get better training. No one is going to hand you the good life, you have to earn it.

And before you complain about me "not getting it" my parents started out delivering pizzas and waiting tables. All my jobs up to now have been minimum wage, or darn close. You better believe my parents aren't still doing menial jobs, and I am in the process of getting an education for a professional job. Time to step up.

[bannorhill]

Good point. My first job I worked piece mill and was paid by what I produced. I started at minimum wage. 3 months later I was still working piece mill. I busted my tail doubled my output and was making twice minimum wage. Sure I was tired at the end of the day, but I also EARNED good money.

I did not wait for the government or some union to increase my pay. I worked hard and increased it myself.

[stack]

If Sen. Lincoln is really so interested in helping Arkansas children and families, she should watch that video. Employee Free Choice NOW!

[EFCANOW]

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Has
Sold US OUT
on The Employee Free Choice Act

The 1,500 met in Little Rock because Arkansas is the home state of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who turned her back on the Employee Free Choice Act this year, succumbing to pressure from the likes of Wal-Mart, a notoriously anti-union corporation headquartered in the Razorback State.

I Just Changed MY Twitter Profile To Let Everyone Know
http://twitter.com/EFCANOW

I Will Also Be Posting on Over 100 Blogs & Websites To Let The World Know about Sen. Blanche Lincoln, SELLOUT of Workers Rights ...Let The Campaign Begin. Lincoln Must GO!

[spinns17]

she also gets big bucks from one of the biggest healthcare companies,­.look it up.