Time for a Labor Movement NOW!

[Taverner]

We all labor - I doubt anyone here is part of the "Investor Class"

Even if you think you are a "day trader" you are not part of that class

Unless you could go 1, maybe 2 years investing, and take a loss, and not feel it, you are not part of that class

Time to start a real worker's movement

Some will laugh, they can go fuck themselves

[TBF]

1. Solidarity! nt

[Taverner]

2. Solidarity Forever

When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong.

CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.

Chorus

It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.

Chorus

All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the union makes us strong.

Chorus

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.

Chorus

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.

[sethgrogen]

3. what would the movement do exactly?

[TBF]

5. Organize with the help of the remaining unions -

Trumka need not do all the heavy lifting himself.

General strikes, shut commerce down.

[Taverner]

13. Why not expand unionization?

[TBF]

15. Yes, that too - seeing that we are down to about 12% of the populace

belonging to unions at best, that looks to be an area for improvement. Service workers, office workers, call centers, fast food - all areas that should be unionized and I'm sure I'm forgetting some big sectors.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The same thing it has always done

ORGANIZE...

ORGANIZE, and organize some more.

It is that organizing that got you things like that pesky weekend or the eight hour day, or health rights. It is time to do that again.

[Taverner]

7. Get more professions unionized

IT, Sales, Sales Engineering, pretty much any kind of Engineering...

Hell even Management

ALL jobs should be UNIONIZED

[BeFree]

4. Who protects us? Union workers

Police, firemen, etc - nearly all union workers.

Pilots too.

It could even be said that military are union. Certainly their jobs are extremely socialist.
They can't strike but they sure are unioned to keep their bennies.

Nearly all important social service worker jobs are union jobs.
Why is that true? Because they have to unify against being made into slaves.

[brewens]

8. Absolutely! My dad got the union in at International Harvester

where I live. It's unlikely I would lose my job or need to strike in the foreseeable future but I would never cross a picket line. I didn't always feel that way though. I had a big problem with the union guys I worked with at a beer distributor. I swore I WOULD cross if they went on strike.

I considered those guys to be union scabs because they refused to stick up for themselves for so long, before the situation got unbearable. When they had originally went union, they also sold out. They went along with a contract that exempted wine department and warehouse employees to a large extent. They also foolishly included management. You ended up with warehouse guys that were screwed, and a weasel ass office manager that was union, but on the other side looking out for himself.

In a resurgent labor movement I would love to see right-to-work scabs excluded somehow. We have quite a few at our local tissue mill. We also have a lot of union Republicans. I suppose it unrealistic to plan to leave out idiot assholes like that. A new movement will need all them members it can get, regardless of how they sold out in the past.

[Claudia Jones]

9. All for one and one for all

Workers of the world, awaken!
Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken
By exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission
From your cradles to your graves?
Is the height of your ambition
To be good and willing slaves?

Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
Fight for your own emancipation;
Arise, ye slaves of every nation.
In One Union grand.
Our little ones for bread are crying
And millions are from hunger dying;
The end the means is justifying,
'Tis the final stand.

If the workers take a notion
They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains.
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill
Fleets and armies of the nation,
Will at their command stand still.

Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
Fight for your own emancipation;
Arise, ye slaves of every nation.
In One Union grand.
Our little ones for bread are crying
And millions are from hunger dying;
The end the means is justifying,
'Tis the final stand.

Join the union, fellow workers
Men and women, side by side;
We will crush the greedy shirkers
Like a sweeping; surging tide;
For united we are standing,
But divided we will fall;
Let this be our understanding
All for one and one for all.

Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
Fight for your own emancipation;
Arise, ye slaves of every nation.
In One Union grand.
Our little ones for bread are crying
And millions are from hunger dying;
The end the means is justifying,
'Tis the final stand.

Workers of the world, awaken!
Rise in all your splendid might;
Take the wealth that you are making,
It belongs to you by right.
No one will for bread be crying,
We'll have freedom, love and health.
When the grand red flag is flying
In the Workers' Commonwealth.

Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
Fight for your own emancipation;
Arise, ye slaves of every nation.
In One Union grand.
Our little ones for bread are crying
And millions are from hunger dying;
The end the means is justifying,
'Tis the final stand.

[FrenchieCat]

10. We Agree!

:toast:


Labor Board Eases Path To Unions For Health Care Workers
08/30/11
WASHINGTON -- With the departure of the chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board this past weekend, the board has been issuing a slew of last-minute rulings destined to please labor groups while irritating business interests and anti-union Republicans. Among the latest: a ruling made public on Tuesday that overturns a Bush-era decision and will likely make it easier for health care workers to unionize.

In the case, known as Specialty Healthcare, the board ruled that a group of nursing assistants at a facility in Mobile, Ala., could form their own bargaining unit without other types of nursing home staff, from maintenance workers to dietary aides. It's a decision that could greatly simplify the unionization process and, as HuffPost has previously reported, could have a huge impact on the growing and largely non-unionized nursing home industry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/30/labor-board-unions-health-care-workers_n_942485.html


NLRB Proposes Removing ‘Unnecessary Barriers’ to Union Votes
06/22/11
Companies would have less time and opportunity to block unions under a proposed U.S. rule that would speed voting in labor elections.

The proposed rule issued today by the National Labor Relations Board, an agency that investigates unfair labor practices, would bring changes sought by unions, such as faster hearing deadlines and streamlined procedures.

The push for quicker elections is a victory for unions after defeats at the hands of Republican governors seeking to curb public-employee unions. It’s also a sign of the NLRB’s pro- labor bent since President Barack Obama’s appointees have become a majority, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.treasuryandrisk.com/2011/06/22/nlrb-proposes-removing-unnecessary-barriers-to-uni


How the Obama administration is Using Executive Power to Support Union Goals:What The NLRB’s Recent Complaint Reveals
04/25/11
http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2011/04/25/how-the-obama-administration-is-using-executive-power-to-support-union-goalswhat-the-nlrbs-recent-complaint-reveals/?singlepage=true



Screeners Under Obama May Give Federal Unions Biggest Vote Win in Years
03/09/11
A collective-bargaining vote by airport security workers that starts today may give federal employee groups their biggest victory in years, even as public workers in some states struggle to keep their union status.

The country’s two largest federal-employee unions are competing to represent the 44,000 screeners who can cast their ballots through April 19. The effort, which Senate Republicans failed to stop last month, may raise Transportation Security Administration costs if workers push through changes such as increased staffing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-09/screeners-under-obama-may-give-federal-unions-main-win-in-years.html

Obama Gives Unions A Big Victory In Unionizing Air Travel Workers
05/11/10
WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor unions will have an easier time organizing workers at airline and railroad companies after the Obama administration on Monday changed a 76-year-old rule on union elections.

The change is a victory for unions that have struggled to reverse years of decline in membership. And it’s the most significant initiative so far in a string of White House moves intended to help organized labor.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/obama-gives-unions-a-big-victory-in-unionizing-air-travel-workers



WHILE THE OPPOSITION DOES ITS THING!

Bill Introduced to Reverse President Obama's Executive Order on Project Labor Agreements
http://www.laborrelationstoday.com/2011/02/articles/executive-orders/bill-introduced-to-reverse-president-obamas-executive-order-on-project-labor-agreements

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Thom Hartman was discussing creation of cooperatives instead of corporations.

Let the employees both make the decisions that affect their investments in the business and the growth of the business itself. Investors and employees are the same.

[OHdem10]

12. Great idea.

[TeamsterDem]

14. On board 100%!!!!! nt

[KharmaTrain]

16. You Can Be Pro Labor And An Investor...

The two aren't inclusive...in fact its those investors who valued labor and invested in it that this country needs right now. I agree that there's a big need for an energized union movement in this country but its not to "punish" investors as much as its to stand up for the hard-earned rights gained by workers. Just cause someone has money doesn't make them evil...