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What Have Unions Ever Done for Us? |
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Australia may be a land of koalas and crocs, not to mention vegemite, but we in the United States still share a lot in common with our fellow workers down under: Employers.
Your Rights At Work, the Australian counterpart of the AFL-CIO community affiliate, Working America, recently produced a video that clarifies the value of unions for anyone who needs to ask.
And in the off chance someone wonders where that eight-hour workday, five-day workweek comes from, send them this link.
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UNIONs have done much to improve the Quality of Life for it’s members and all Workers both Union & Non-Union.
Since the Reagan Era, the Union strength in the USA has weakened , whereas the strength of UNION in Europe and other world reagions continues to be strong. Throughout the world, the threat and use of the Strike has been one of the most effective tool of the Unions.
In the United States there has been a dramatic reduction in the use and length of Strikes by the Unions.
The UAW has Struck General Motors for only 2 days in the last 38 years.
IMO, it is no mystery why our strength has weakened here in the USA. It is high time both the Union Leadership and the Rank-in-File re-committ to using all the tools in our tool box , when necessary to continue our struggle for Economic, Political and Social Justice.
So many worker’s benefited from rights won by unions we forgot
These were rights hard fought for. We have lost rights and benefits bit by bit for the last 30 years. I still believe that the majority of business’s would like to treat their workers fairly,and that worker’s would like to do the same. I firmly believe in collective bargining.
I do not want to compete with SLAVE LABOR in third world countries.
If we will benefit from a Global economy the whole country should benefit from this.
When workers would ask me that question during a campaign, I would respond with; What have the bosses ever done for YOU?
Unions are us. We do for ourselves when we are organized. Unorganized the bosses do what they want with us!
In the mid 20th century, most of my family members and friends worked in the steel mills, the railroads, or GM. It was what everybody did. They had strong unions and had a good quality of life. Safety was very important. It had to be. The workers had a very good income and excellent benefits, with a guaranteed good retirement package. Anyone who was working for one of these companies could afford to buy a house, have plenty to eat and take an annual vacation, and they did not have to worry when they got sick, because medical care was covered 100%. And yes, only one person in a family needed to work.
Now, I ask you, why the h— don’t we have that today, and how is it that this country has let it all slip away from right under our noses. I do remember when the first mill closed, in my home town, and that was a very sad day, because 25% of the workforce lost their jobs; what I do know is that bit by bit the unions became less effective, people were hired at lower pay with less and less benefits, and the weakened economy was blamed for the problems. But that was not the case. In fact, when the 1st mill shut down, everyone was working overtime shifts because there was such a demand for steel. The corporate heads did not want to pay any money to upgrade the mills and make the necessary improvements, so they laid everyone off, shut down the mill, then completely destroyed it, and sent the JOBS OVERSEAS. YES THEY DID, and this was 50 years ago. So, you see, this started even back then. This sort of thing happened in city after city throughout this country. Now do you understand why the cities have all deteriorated, and everyone who had any money at all moved to the burbs. The only people after that who actually had money were those who had really good incomes in their respective fields. Everyone else was, well, you know.