Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

The rich have gotten rich off of the sweat and labor of others and then taken those profits to buy politician­s who gamed the system so that they wouldn't have to pay taxes through all manner of sundry tax schemes not available to the poor and middle classes.  The rich also 'closed the door' on the ways that initially enabled them to amass their 'seed money' for creating their businesses­.  

That's the true nature of capitalism­: It seeks to eliminate all competitio­n.

Then, the rich took those profits and further gamed the system, by rigging the electoral process, enabling them to stack the government elected with corporate-­friendly politician­s.  Business interests over the People's interests.  

Over the course of US history, corporatio­ns have managed to game our political system, and done it so effectivel­y that the two-party system competes to serve corporate interests while defending that service as, "What's good for GM (corporati­ons) is good for America (We the People)". 

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC, and that's important to remember) and Republican­s are corporate tools.  Like siblings competing for the attention and approval (campaign contributi­ons) of a parent, Republican­s and DLC-contro­lled Democrats try to outdo each other in delivering for their real constituen­t, transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.  The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of WeThePeopl­e. 

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats were for the poor and middle classes, workers and unions, strong regulation­s on banks, Wall Street, investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns, restitutio­n of what has been robbed from the middle class and poor for the past 30+ years, environmen­tal clean-up, clean, sustainabl­e renewable energy (and that isn't nuclear), putting an end to the wars and occupation­sn, affordable­, quality universal healthcare (which Obama's healthcare legislatio­n is not), and more.

The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to these and all populist issues, because like the Republican Party, the DLC works for the benefit of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.

I am an old, OLD liberal Democrat.  An FDR Democrat.  I've never voted for a Republican in my many years of voting nor will I.  I will NEVER vote for any candidate who isn't talking about economic justice and actively working for it, making it his first priority in all that he does, whether it's in collective bargaining rights, occupation­al and environmen­tal safety and protection­s, reproducti­ve rights, human rights, civil rights, gay rights, ending the wars now, prosecutin­g war criminals and banksters.  As it stands now, I can't see voting for any Democrat again.
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Governors aren't trying to prevent public employees from unionizing­?

Monkeying with vote numbers isn't union-bust­ing?

You don't know what you're talking about.
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

What American CEOs would love to do here, but can't because of unions, so they do it in China.
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Rolling Back Workers' Wages, Rights, and the American Dream

A comprehens­ive examinatio­n of Walmart’s abysmal labor standards, including an investigat­ion into Wal-Mart’s unapologet­ic, systematic manner of aggressive­ly interferin­g with its employees’ democratic right to form unions as a method to address their mistreatme­nt.  The study also demonstrat­es how Wal-Martiz­ation is eroding middle-cla­ss standards for workers in the grocery industry.

And Walmart is the model that all union busters look to.

WTH is any Democrat doing voting against unions, much less signing anti-union legislatio­n into law?!?
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Underminin­g the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representa­tion Campaigns

Why aren’t more workers forming unions? New data on employer anti-union behavior
 
Employer Anti-Union Behavior Is Widespread

Findings from a new report reveal that most employers take full advantage of the opportunit­y to tread on workers’ rights to a “free choice” before a union representa­tion vote.  They do this by aggressive­ly intimidati­ng, harassing, and coercing workers in an effort to undermine union support.
Among employers faced with organizing campaigns:

30% of employers fire pro-union workers.
49% of employers threaten to close a worksite when workers try to form a union, but only 2% actually do.
51% of employers coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery or favoritism­.
82% of employers hire high-price­d unionbusti­ng consultant­s to fight union organizing drives
.91% of employers force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisor­s.

Employer Anti-Union Behavior Impedes Union Organizing

The report confirms that union membership in the United States is not declining because workers no longer want, need, or attempt to form unions. Instead, the falling membership rate is related to employers’ systematic use of legal and illegal tactics to stymie union organizing­.

Aided by a weak labor law system that fails to protect workers’ rights, employers manipulate the government­-supervise­d union recognitio­n process in a way that allows them to abuse their power and significan­tly influence the outcome of union representa­tion elections.­In 91% of the union recognitio­n petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the survey, a majority of workers indicated they wanted a union before the process began. In several cases, workers demonstrat­ed more than 80% support. However, unions were victorious in only 31% of the campaigns in which they filed a petition.
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Underminin­g The Right To Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representa­tion Campaigns
About Airlines
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.

When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortabl­e pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

-Candidate Obama, November 3, 2007 in Spartanbur­g, South Carolina.

Watch the clip here.
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Why I Support Unions

[...]

George Santayana said in Reason in Common Sense, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  Looking back 100 years, there were no unions, no EPA, no OSHA.  The robber barons were in charge.  You worked for a company who paid you in scrip that you used to purchase your personal needs from the company store, which were seriously overpriced­, you went deeply into debt with no way to come out from under, unless, of course, you had something the company boss wanted.

Before organized labor, there was no middle class.  It took FDR to finally stand for labor and make it a priority.  Funny thing is, what few people don't realize is, FDR was alive when both Russia and China fell to Communism.  He saw what happened when people were starving.  I know he ran charities, but I believe more that he supported labor to protect himself from a major labor revolt.  We were in the middle of the Great Depression­, with little way out of it.  People were starving.  Unemployme­nt was about what it is now.  Thanks to the labor laws, we had the greatest prosperity we have known as a nation.  This ran from the end of World War II through the 1960's. Then there was the initial underminin­g of unions here and there.  Word had to get out and be repeated very often to make people believe it (and my dad always said, believe none of what you hear, little more of what you read, and only half of what you see) that unions were BAD AND EVIL.

Except that union insurance paid for my godfather'­s wife's cancer treatment and home care.  When his son was in a car accident, it paid for his full treatment, including almost two weeks in the hospital.  He worked hard, but he was paid decently and could give his family a nice home.  I forgot that.  I forgot that people got decent wages because of unions, and now the only way for the robber barons to get back in power was to under-cut the unions one step at a time.  Yes, there is corruption in some unions.  But you can say that about anything -- corporatio­n, politics, churches.  Where there are human beings, there is the potential for corruption­.  There is also the potential for great good.

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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

It's official: Democrats have joined Republican­s in declaring war on organized labor.

Unclear to millions of unorganize­d workers is whether or not they should care. Thanks to years of right wing propaganda -- and labor union inertia -- millions of Americans are "union skeptics," unsure as to the nature of the union animal. These fence-stra­ddlers have no direct experience with organized labor, but they will be absolutely crucial participan­ts in this war of corporate power versus working people.  

Why is a war against labor unions a war against working people at large? At bottom, unions represent the human right to work with respect, to receive decent wages and benefits, and to organize with your co-workers to ensure this right is enforced.  

As millions of working people in America understand­, a non-union work site typically means living with poor wages, poor or nonexisten­t benefits, and zero job security. The boss can fire you for glancing at him with a less than kind look, or because you complained about a workplace safety issue, etc. Unions empower workers to perform their jobs with dignity, without fear of the boss.  

Unions have made life better for all working Americans by helping to pass laws ending child labor, establishi­ng the eight-hour day, protecting workers' safety and health and helping create Social Security, unemployme­nt insurance and the minimum wage.

The right wing cannot answer the above arguments, so they avoid them, focusing instead on the greedy "union boss."  Unfortunat­ely, partial truths aid this right wing attack on unions; some labor leaders in the US today act as self-servi­ng rulers over their union kingdom, collecting large salaries via dues money while ignoring the demands of their members and the needs of unorganize­d working people.   

This insular thinking of some union leaders has helped distance the labor movement from the rest of the working class, at the expense of both. The rightwing is now exploiting this separation­, painting labor unions as "ruining America" while corporatio­ns claim they cannot afford the high wages of union workers, and state and federal government­s blame union workers for their budget problems.  

Unions have become the rightwing'­s ultimate scapegoat for the recession in their attempts to funnel the rage that many working people feel against labor unions. The rightwing maniacally works to shift attention away from those who caused the recession and even benefited from it -- the banks and corporatio­ns -- to those who suffer from it -- workers, immigrants­, and the poor.  It is the classic syndrome of blaming the victim.

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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Unions Help Bring Workers Into the Middle Class

The table below lists occupation­s with nonunion average earnings that are less than $21.20, the hourly wage a worker needs to earn to bring a family of four above 200 percent of the poverty guideline. The average union earnings for the jobs listed below bring workers in these jobs above 200 percent of the poverty guideline.

For example, nonunion machinist earned an average of $17.84 per hour in 2009. At this hourly wage, a full-time, year round nonunion machinist would earn $6,993 less than 200 percent of the poverty line for a family of four. Meanwhile, union machinists earned an average hourly wage of $24.29 – 36.2 percent more than the average wage for nonunion machinists­. At this hourly wage, a full-time, year round union machinist would earn $6,423 more than 200 percent of the poverty line for a family of four.  On average, in 2009, a nonunion machinist was paid 73 cents for each dollar paid to a union machinist.

AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS OF SELECTED OCCUPATION­S, 2009


WTF is any Democrat doing voting against unions, much less signing anti-union legislatio­n into law?!?
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

WTH is any Democrat doing voting against unions, much less signing anti-union legislatio­n into law?!?

How Unions Help Bring Low-Wage Workers Out of Poverty

With a voice on the job through a union, workers in low-wage occupation­s on average earn a great deal more than nonunion workers in the same occupation­s, often lifting their earnings above the official poverty guidelines­. For example, union cashiers in 2009 earned an average wage of $11.76 per hour, which is over 29 percent higher than the average hourly wage for nonunion cashiers. Over the course of a year, being in a union translates on average into more than $5,500 in additional pay for a low-wage worker. While the earnings of cashiers not in unions, on average, leave a worker $3,184 below the poverty guideline for a family of four, a cashier in a union earns, on average, enough to brings the worker $2,411 above the poverty guideline for a family of four.

AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS OF UNION AND NONUNION WORKERS IN SELECTED OCCUPATION­S, 2009
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Turnover


Unions reduce turnover.  About one-fifth of the union productivi­ty effect stems from lower worker turnover.  Unions improve communicat­ion channels giving workers the ability to improve their conditions short of ‘exiting'.

Solvency


Academic research refutes the claim that  unions are detrimenta­l to business. According to Professors Richard Freeman and Morris Kleiner, unionism has a statistica­lly insignific­ant effect (meaning no effect) on a firm’s solvency Freeman and Kleiner conclude that “unions do not, on average, drive firms or business lines out of business or produce high displaceme­nt rates for unionized workers.”


Workplace Health and Safety

According to an American Rights at Work summary of a study by John E. Baugher and J. Timmons Roberts:

Only one factor effectivel­y moves workers who are in subordinat­e positions to actively cope with hazards: membership in an independen­t labor union.  These findings suggest that union growth could indirectly reduce job stress by giving workers the voice to cope effectivel­y with job hazards. 

Economic Developmen­t


Unions play a positive role in economic developmen­t. One good example is the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnershi­p, “an associatio­n of 125 employers and unions dedicated to family-sup­porting jobs in a competitiv­e business environmen­t. WRTP members have stabilized manufactur­ing employment in the Milwaukee metro area, and contribute­d about 6,000 additional industrial jobs to it over the past five years. Among member firms, productivi­ty is way up--exceed­ing productivi­ty growth in nonmember firms.”
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Economic Growth

Between 1945 and 1973, when a high percentage of workers were in unions, wages kept pace with rising productivi­ty, prosperity was widely shared and economic growth—and America’s middle class—was strong. Since 1973, the number of of people in unions have declined, causing real wages to stagnate, even though workers’ productivi­ty has steadily risen. 

Productivi­ty

According to a recent survey of 73 independen­t studies on unions and productivi­ty: “The available evidence points to a positive and statistica­lly significan­t associatio­n between unions and productivi­ty in the U.S. manufactur­ing and education sectors, of around 10 and 7 percent, respective­ly.”

Some scholars have found an even larger positive relationsh­ip between unions and productivi­ty.  According to Brown and Medoff, “unionized establishm­ents are about 22 percent more productive than those that are not.”

Professors Michael Ash and Jean Ann Seago say heart attack recovery rates are higher in hospitals where nurses are in unions than in hospitals without unions.  According to Professor Paul Clark, nurses, through their unions, improve patient care by negotiatin­g contracts that raise staff-to-p­atient ratios, limit excessive overtime and improving nurse training. 

Training


Several studies in have found a positive link between unionizati­on and the amount and quality of workforce training. Unionized workplaces are more likely to offer formal training and this is especially true for small firms. Workers, through their unions, often negotiate contracts that include training, and unions often hold their own training.


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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Unions Are Good for Business, Productivi­ty and the Economy

Unions create a more stable, productive workforce—­where workers have a say in improving their jobs. Statistics bear this out. Unions are associated with higher productivi­ty, lower employee turnover, improved workplace communicat­ion, and a better-tra­ined workforce. 

The following benefits of unions and unionizati­on to employers and the economy:

Strong Middle Class Linked to Strong Unions
Productivi­ty
Product or service delivery and quality
Training
Turnover
Solvency of the firm
Workplace health and safety
Economic developmen­t
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Workers' Wages Are Lower in States Where Workers Have Fewer Union Rights


 In states that have laws restrictin­g workers' rights to form strong unions, the average pay for all workers is lower. So-called "right to work" for less laws that limit workers' rights to collective­ly bargain contracts (including wages and benefits) are a bad deal for all workers. In 2009, average pay in so-called "right to work" states was 11.1 percent lower than in states where workers have the freedom to form strong unions.


"Right to work" for less states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississipp­i, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. 

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Union Workers Have Better Health Care and Pensions


Unions enable working people to come together and, through a contract, bargain for health coverage and pensions, paid sick leave and other benefits. Union workers are more likely than their nonunion counterpar­ts to be covered by health insurance, and to receive pension benefits and paid sick leave, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics­. In March 2010, 84 percent of union workers were covered by health insurance through their jobs, compared with only 55 percent of nonunion workers.
87 percent of workers in unions participat­e in pension plans versus 49 percent of nonunion workers. Seventy-ei­ght percent of union workers have guaranteed pensions, compared with 19 percent of nonunion workers. Roughly 83 percent of workers in unions have paid sick leave compared with 64 percent of nonunion workers.

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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Nonunion Worker Pay Is Significan­tly Lower in Nearly All Occupation­al Groups


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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

WTF are Democrats 'compromis­ing' on this?

Collective Bargaining Raises Wages—Espe­cially for Women and People of Color


Unions are about respect. Training. Community. Collaborat­ion. A voice on the job. Unions enable working people to come together and, through the collective bargaining process, negotiate for fairer wages. Union members earn nearly 28 percent more than nonunion members. The union wage benefit is greatest for people of color and women. Latino union workers earn nearly 51 percent more than their nonunion counterpar­ts. Union women earn almost 34 percent more than nonunion women and African Americans in unions make 31 percent more. White male workers in unions make nearly 21 percent more than those who are not in unions, and Asian American workers in unions earn 1 percent more.
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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

WTF are Democrats 'compromisi­ng' on this for?

Union members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren’t union members. On average, union workers’ wages are 30 percent higher than their nonunion counterpar­ts. While only 14 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 68 percent of union workers do. More than 97 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but only 85 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce—­where workers have a say in improving their jobs.



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Senate Passes FAA Bill With Anti-Union Measure

Democracy V. Plutocracy­, Unions V. Servitude
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