Workers
are beleaguered. Wages have been stagnant for decades, social
services and state benefits are eroding, the middle class is
dwindling. The compensation of the average Fortune 500 CEO has
ballooned to 347 times that of the average US worker. Workers' hopes
to secure the "American dream" are diminishing. Labour
unions have shrunk to only 10.7 percent of workers, half the rate of
33 years ago. That
decline is a result of unrelenting attacks by politicians. Wisconsin
is a sad example. First Gov. Scott Walker kneecapped public sector
unions. Republicans took over the state, they passed a law requiring
public sector unions to re-certify every year by winning a majority
of those eligible to cast ballots, not just those who actually voted.
The 2011 law also limits what public sector unions can bargain about,
including wages. Then he went after private sector labor
organizations. Then,
in 2015, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a law
forbidding labor agreements under which all workers must help pay the
cost of collective bargaining and other services that unions provide.
These laws, pushed by right-wing politicians and corporations
nationally, bankrupt unions. In
the five years since the first anti-union law took effect in
Wisconsin, the number of union members there declined by 132,000.
A
the right-wing is expected to compel all public sector unions to
provide services to all workers, including those who refuse to pay
for them. The anti-worker groups are pushing Congress to pass a
federal union-bankrupting law that would cover both private and
public sector labor organizations.
Workers
must see that the adversary is not each other. It's not immigrants.
It's not people of different skin colors or religions. The real
adversary is capitalism that drive down wages and undermine worker
solidarity by threatening to close or offshore.
In fighting
against robber barons unions require to empower not just workers, but
the undocumented, the poor, single moms, millions of people without
health care and all the targets of bigotry. Workers still have
power, but we must band together to end capitalism and create
rule of, by and for the people. Problems won't be solved with co-ops or solar panels. We live in a system that keeps people divided. We need courage and a willingness to engage others. Consciousness is born out of our experiences.
Abridged and
adapted from here.
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