All workers need to organize if they ever expect to stand on a level playing field with corporations and the oligarchs. Yes, unions have defects, but so does every human institution, and these can be improved upon. At least unions are democracies, and improvement starts with who the members elect to lead them.
Organized labor is civic infrastructure, and the point about unions mobilizing nonmembers is the strongest argument in the piece.
A worker who votes because her shop steward asked her to is democracy doing its actual job. But the behavioral test for a one-day strike isn’t turnout, it’s leverage, and leverage is density.
Density has been falling for forty years while the rallies have gotten bigger and the rhetoric sharper, which should tell us something.
Build the slow thing that makes a strike costly to ignore, or the visible thing keeps being the only thing we have.
It's not just teachers. If an employer can silence an employee by scanning their online postings or letters to the editor, etc., then there are no first amendment rights except for the unemployed.
Unfortunately, the First Amendment only protects speech from actions by the government, not individuals or employers. Many people do not understand this fact and that is a direct result of the lack of civics classes in our educational system.
Agreed! However, when private companies become controlled by politicians, they should lose their exemption which currently ONLY applies to Congress and its lawmaking. Broadening the scope of that amendment is high on my miracle wish list as is strengthening the other civil rights amendments, especially the 14th and reversing Citizens United and this week's ruling. I don't really understand why the court didn't just toss out the entire voting rights act instead of reducing it to an empty shell.
Thanks for reminding us that the 1st Amendment has its limits. According to the Freedom Forum : « The First Amendment only protect your speech from government censorship. … Private people, businesses and organizations are not bound by the First Amendment. » and « There are several categories of speech that are less protected or not protected by the First Amendment at all. » For example, blackmail and defamation. This should be covered in Civics 101.
First: Jen, enjoy your time off and your son's wedding.
I love unions! Have been a member of several over my work life. And once or twice tried to start a union in my workplace. But the fact is that in larger unions, the executive level staff, after a while seems to mimic corporate executives in the kind of perks they demand and are given by membership. High salaries, fancy office space, cars, paid travel: more than members get for participating in union activities. Union leaders often enough become a part of the hobnobbing crowd. And let's not forget corruption. In my hometown, Philadelphia, unions have lost a lot of credibility and membership over the years.
Finally, historically some of our most important unions were built on racism, religious bigotry and misogyny. This has changed but there are still miles to go before we sleep.
Yes, Donna, the 1984 paradox hit unions hard and besmirched their reputations as watchdogs, but they still retard Epstein class’ wealth accumulation at workers’ and poor people’s expense. Look at the anti-union rhetoric of Musk, Bezos, and Trump.
It is clear that any exception can and will be abused and expanded into a superhighway to run over citizens' rights. Even though ICE has to have reasonable suspicion that someone is in the US illegally, they can arrest first and require the arrestee to retain a lawyer to challenge the arrest. That means that ICE can show up at polling places and make arrests of everyone who happens to be a registered Democrat. By the time they get out of lockup, the election will be over. Reactive response is incapable of preventing the abuse of the exception. Even if 100% of the arrests are overthrown, none of them will have voted. There needs to be a permanent extension of the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree or a constraint such as can't retain a registered voter without a warrant requiring proof that the registration was false.
Thank you for this, as always. But polite protest may not meet the moment. Let's remember the actual use and meaning of the term "Mayday" - acknowledging an emergency, calling out for help to save us from peril, to pull us out of danger before we sink. Some of those protest signs today must shout out that the biggest danger to the Republic is its demented Commander-in-Chief. No Kings, but also No Lunatics. Name it!
Thanks Jen for pointing this out. It takes a body such as organized labor to be a watchdog in what the government does. The disastrous ruling from the Supreme Court on the Calais case shows just how much we need oversight in just about everything. Voting in particular. This is about democracy. In many if not most cases labor unions can insure that the best trained or skilled employees can apply for or obtain additional training for higher level jobs. In many cases these workers apply and are successful in their pursuit of a better position rather than others who are less skilled or qualified jockeying management for a position they don’t deserve. Still even less skilled workers can be paid a decent livable wage while they are being trained for higher level positions that pay even better. That’s what we need.
While I agree with the objectives laid out in the post, this event was not at all well-publicized. The fragmented nature of the leadership and mass communication of the anti-MAGA coalition continues to undermine its effectiveness.
Given Pigsbreath's refusal to answer realistic hypothetical questions, we can expect that the US military will be ordered to interfere with civil society in multiple ways. Can a Presidential assertion of national emergency be challenged in court?
I respectfully disagree with “tax the rich”, or “tax the billionaires”. We should ALL pay our fair share. But the Wealthy shouldn’t be discriminated against by being taxed more heavily. We ALL want to be rich. Why be penalized for achieving the American Dream? We CAN eliminate the loopholes, though, that enable the wealthy to escape paying their fair share. THAT would be more equitable.
When by some strange confluence of economic opportunity and law certain people manage to amass more money, assets and property than they and their direct descendants would ever need or even be able to use, there is something very wrong. Excess wealth, beyond what the owners can use, usually gets redirected to buying influence, i.e. power. A political system based on an economics of power doesn't serve the interests of democracy. So let people enjoy what they've made. And require some form of civic responsibility from all. But tax wealth! And tax the wealthy more heavily.
And.....THAT's why: 1) Citizens United should NEVER have been approved, and, 2) Why we need to overturn Citizens United ASAP! It approves the very destructive thing you write of. It is wrong, wrong, WRONG! ANOTHER, in a loooooong line of terrible, and unpatriotic things the Supreme Court has done to us!
I completely agree. Still believe that the uber-wealthy should be heavily taxed. Otherwise the wealth class donate to members of Congress who pass laws benefitting these wealthy donors. A very vicious cycle, for sure.
how about: 1) tax ALL donations to Candidates above, say.....$5,000......at 50%? Or, 2) tax the CANDIDATES 50% on all donations above a certain amount......or, CAP the amount of a donation a candidate can get from one single donor(no matter what form they may take), at a certain amount? Just some ideas........ALL an improvement on Citizens United, though!
Yes, I think all donations from individuals must be capped and I'd love to see PACs outlawed, which might not be possible unless Citizens United were somehow nullified. Still a tax on income and assets and above a certain level I'd tax wealth at 100%. Maybe $i billion. Maybe lower.
The problem is that the very wealthy and many corporations are NOT paying their fair share. Through loopholes, accountants, and vehicles that the average American cannot access or afford, this class is not being taxed appropriately. Capital gains should be taxed at the same level as income tax. It is income. That's just one example.
"The problem is that the very wealthy and many corporations are NOT paying their fair share."
How do you determine what is a "fair share"? I asked my Economics class this at the beginning of the semester: If you earned a million dollars, what percent of that should the federal government get? The answers ranged from zero to ninety-nine. When asked what made them come up with their particular answer, almost all said they felt it was "fair".
“Fair”——imho: “fair” would mean everybody pays the same share of their income…..and everyone gets to use the same loophole. If some loopholes….e.g. capital losses….are not available/accessible to all, then, there should be a cap on accessibility, e.g. above income of $200,000(an arbitrary number—-just used for example)
There have been attempts in the past to go to a "flat tax" or a "Fair Tax", but neither has gained any traction, probably because of lobbying firms and a myriad of special interest groups. I honestly think that the tax code needs to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch.
I do not determine what is a 'fair share'. This is the purview of congress, or is supposed to be - to set taxes and tariffs. Were they to be less influenced by those who fill their pockets, they might treat the average voter with more decency. We need campaign finance reform, an redress from the Citizens United decision.
If I can't get 25 students to come up with some common idea of what "fair share" is, then Congress can't either. "Fair share" is just a meaningless buzz phrase to generate class envy. No one will actually quantify then justify it. And let's not forget that both parties write the tax code, with the help of the lobbyists on K Street and any other special interest group you care to name.
Without unions we’d all be sole brothers, serving as the underside of the shoes of the Tech Broligarchs and the Epstein Class. Are Trump’s favorite Florsheim shoes union made? Oh, they are made overseas and mostly in China.
Like so many of our products, management escaped the U.S. labor market for increased profit and fewer regulations by emigrating to other countries. Apparently only the U.S. Postal Service approved Florsheim shoes are still made here, and that's even questionable now.
The Biden economy was according to The Economist: "the envy of the world". In TrumpWorld Biden "destroyed the economy" & had "worst inflation in history" & thanks to Trump we're now in a "Golden Age". Trump & Co project corruption & fraud.
The November election is existential for social justice & Democracy. To resist MAGA gangster grifter authoritarianism, we need a Blue Tsunami.
Almost any Democrat nominee, no matter their shortcomings, is an order of magnitude better than any GOP candidate. United we can help restore the social justice & Democracy that Trump & his uber wealthy authoritarian gangsters have taken away.
"The Biden economy was according to The Economist: "the envy of the world". In TrumpWorld Biden "destroyed the economy" & had "worst inflation in history" & thanks to Trump we're now in a "Golden Age". Trump & Co project corruption & fraud."
The Trump administration is doing exactly what the Biden administration did: talking up the markets and 401Ks while the average American is feeling the daily economic pain. The economy will be the main reason Dems probably take control of the House. And this is at a time when the Dems poll worse than either the Repubs or Trump.
All workers need to organize if they ever expect to stand on a level playing field with corporations and the oligarchs. Yes, unions have defects, but so does every human institution, and these can be improved upon. At least unions are democracies, and improvement starts with who the members elect to lead them.
I absolutely agree.
Organized labor is civic infrastructure, and the point about unions mobilizing nonmembers is the strongest argument in the piece.
A worker who votes because her shop steward asked her to is democracy doing its actual job. But the behavioral test for a one-day strike isn’t turnout, it’s leverage, and leverage is density.
Density has been falling for forty years while the rallies have gotten bigger and the rhetoric sharper, which should tell us something.
Build the slow thing that makes a strike costly to ignore, or the visible thing keeps being the only thing we have.
Johan 🐌
Headed to a demostration today. We need to flex our economic muscle. Get out there today. No Work, No School, No Shopping
It's not just teachers. If an employer can silence an employee by scanning their online postings or letters to the editor, etc., then there are no first amendment rights except for the unemployed.
Unfortunately, the First Amendment only protects speech from actions by the government, not individuals or employers. Many people do not understand this fact and that is a direct result of the lack of civics classes in our educational system.
Agreed! However, when private companies become controlled by politicians, they should lose their exemption which currently ONLY applies to Congress and its lawmaking. Broadening the scope of that amendment is high on my miracle wish list as is strengthening the other civil rights amendments, especially the 14th and reversing Citizens United and this week's ruling. I don't really understand why the court didn't just toss out the entire voting rights act instead of reducing it to an empty shell.
Thanks for reminding us that the 1st Amendment has its limits. According to the Freedom Forum : « The First Amendment only protect your speech from government censorship. … Private people, businesses and organizations are not bound by the First Amendment. » and « There are several categories of speech that are less protected or not protected by the First Amendment at all. » For example, blackmail and defamation. This should be covered in Civics 101.
I agree with Jen! And, if you are in GA, this would be a particularly meaningful day to go out and vote in the Primary Election.
I just cast my ballot in the GA Democratic Primary.
First: Jen, enjoy your time off and your son's wedding.
I love unions! Have been a member of several over my work life. And once or twice tried to start a union in my workplace. But the fact is that in larger unions, the executive level staff, after a while seems to mimic corporate executives in the kind of perks they demand and are given by membership. High salaries, fancy office space, cars, paid travel: more than members get for participating in union activities. Union leaders often enough become a part of the hobnobbing crowd. And let's not forget corruption. In my hometown, Philadelphia, unions have lost a lot of credibility and membership over the years.
Finally, historically some of our most important unions were built on racism, religious bigotry and misogyny. This has changed but there are still miles to go before we sleep.
Yes, Donna, the 1984 paradox hit unions hard and besmirched their reputations as watchdogs, but they still retard Epstein class’ wealth accumulation at workers’ and poor people’s expense. Look at the anti-union rhetoric of Musk, Bezos, and Trump.
Yes, unions still do good things and "good trouble," Susan. We need to keep at them so they don't forget their roots.
It is clear that any exception can and will be abused and expanded into a superhighway to run over citizens' rights. Even though ICE has to have reasonable suspicion that someone is in the US illegally, they can arrest first and require the arrestee to retain a lawyer to challenge the arrest. That means that ICE can show up at polling places and make arrests of everyone who happens to be a registered Democrat. By the time they get out of lockup, the election will be over. Reactive response is incapable of preventing the abuse of the exception. Even if 100% of the arrests are overthrown, none of them will have voted. There needs to be a permanent extension of the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree or a constraint such as can't retain a registered voter without a warrant requiring proof that the registration was false.
Well said. Jen. Organized labor has been and is an essential pillar of our democracy here and around the world.
but many big unions supported Trump in 2024...
Thank you for this, as always. But polite protest may not meet the moment. Let's remember the actual use and meaning of the term "Mayday" - acknowledging an emergency, calling out for help to save us from peril, to pull us out of danger before we sink. Some of those protest signs today must shout out that the biggest danger to the Republic is its demented Commander-in-Chief. No Kings, but also No Lunatics. Name it!
The term may also come from the French contraction of 'save me' (aidez moi, or m'aidez).
Nice one. I wonder where the SOS Mayday call originated.
Thanks Jen for pointing this out. It takes a body such as organized labor to be a watchdog in what the government does. The disastrous ruling from the Supreme Court on the Calais case shows just how much we need oversight in just about everything. Voting in particular. This is about democracy. In many if not most cases labor unions can insure that the best trained or skilled employees can apply for or obtain additional training for higher level jobs. In many cases these workers apply and are successful in their pursuit of a better position rather than others who are less skilled or qualified jockeying management for a position they don’t deserve. Still even less skilled workers can be paid a decent livable wage while they are being trained for higher level positions that pay even better. That’s what we need.
While I agree with the objectives laid out in the post, this event was not at all well-publicized. The fragmented nature of the leadership and mass communication of the anti-MAGA coalition continues to undermine its effectiveness.
Given Pigsbreath's refusal to answer realistic hypothetical questions, we can expect that the US military will be ordered to interfere with civil society in multiple ways. Can a Presidential assertion of national emergency be challenged in court?
I respectfully disagree with “tax the rich”, or “tax the billionaires”. We should ALL pay our fair share. But the Wealthy shouldn’t be discriminated against by being taxed more heavily. We ALL want to be rich. Why be penalized for achieving the American Dream? We CAN eliminate the loopholes, though, that enable the wealthy to escape paying their fair share. THAT would be more equitable.
When by some strange confluence of economic opportunity and law certain people manage to amass more money, assets and property than they and their direct descendants would ever need or even be able to use, there is something very wrong. Excess wealth, beyond what the owners can use, usually gets redirected to buying influence, i.e. power. A political system based on an economics of power doesn't serve the interests of democracy. So let people enjoy what they've made. And require some form of civic responsibility from all. But tax wealth! And tax the wealthy more heavily.
And.....THAT's why: 1) Citizens United should NEVER have been approved, and, 2) Why we need to overturn Citizens United ASAP! It approves the very destructive thing you write of. It is wrong, wrong, WRONG! ANOTHER, in a loooooong line of terrible, and unpatriotic things the Supreme Court has done to us!
I completely agree. Still believe that the uber-wealthy should be heavily taxed. Otherwise the wealth class donate to members of Congress who pass laws benefitting these wealthy donors. A very vicious cycle, for sure.
how about: 1) tax ALL donations to Candidates above, say.....$5,000......at 50%? Or, 2) tax the CANDIDATES 50% on all donations above a certain amount......or, CAP the amount of a donation a candidate can get from one single donor(no matter what form they may take), at a certain amount? Just some ideas........ALL an improvement on Citizens United, though!
Yes, I think all donations from individuals must be capped and I'd love to see PACs outlawed, which might not be possible unless Citizens United were somehow nullified. Still a tax on income and assets and above a certain level I'd tax wealth at 100%. Maybe $i billion. Maybe lower.
The problem is that the very wealthy and many corporations are NOT paying their fair share. Through loopholes, accountants, and vehicles that the average American cannot access or afford, this class is not being taxed appropriately. Capital gains should be taxed at the same level as income tax. It is income. That's just one example.
"The problem is that the very wealthy and many corporations are NOT paying their fair share."
How do you determine what is a "fair share"? I asked my Economics class this at the beginning of the semester: If you earned a million dollars, what percent of that should the federal government get? The answers ranged from zero to ninety-nine. When asked what made them come up with their particular answer, almost all said they felt it was "fair".
“Fair”——imho: “fair” would mean everybody pays the same share of their income…..and everyone gets to use the same loophole. If some loopholes….e.g. capital losses….are not available/accessible to all, then, there should be a cap on accessibility, e.g. above income of $200,000(an arbitrary number—-just used for example)
There have been attempts in the past to go to a "flat tax" or a "Fair Tax", but neither has gained any traction, probably because of lobbying firms and a myriad of special interest groups. I honestly think that the tax code needs to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch.
I do not determine what is a 'fair share'. This is the purview of congress, or is supposed to be - to set taxes and tariffs. Were they to be less influenced by those who fill their pockets, they might treat the average voter with more decency. We need campaign finance reform, an redress from the Citizens United decision.
"I do not determine what is a 'fair share'."
If I can't get 25 students to come up with some common idea of what "fair share" is, then Congress can't either. "Fair share" is just a meaningless buzz phrase to generate class envy. No one will actually quantify then justify it. And let's not forget that both parties write the tax code, with the help of the lobbyists on K Street and any other special interest group you care to name.
Those to whom much is given, much is expected. Luke 12:48
Without unions we’d all be sole brothers, serving as the underside of the shoes of the Tech Broligarchs and the Epstein Class. Are Trump’s favorite Florsheim shoes union made? Oh, they are made overseas and mostly in China.
Like so many of our products, management escaped the U.S. labor market for increased profit and fewer regulations by emigrating to other countries. Apparently only the U.S. Postal Service approved Florsheim shoes are still made here, and that's even questionable now.
Thank you! Wonderfully informative. And thanks for the May Day locations.
The Biden economy was according to The Economist: "the envy of the world". In TrumpWorld Biden "destroyed the economy" & had "worst inflation in history" & thanks to Trump we're now in a "Golden Age". Trump & Co project corruption & fraud.
The November election is existential for social justice & Democracy. To resist MAGA gangster grifter authoritarianism, we need a Blue Tsunami.
Almost any Democrat nominee, no matter their shortcomings, is an order of magnitude better than any GOP candidate. United we can help restore the social justice & Democracy that Trump & his uber wealthy authoritarian gangsters have taken away.
Resist MAGA gangster authoritarianism! #VoteBlue!
"The Biden economy was according to The Economist: "the envy of the world". In TrumpWorld Biden "destroyed the economy" & had "worst inflation in history" & thanks to Trump we're now in a "Golden Age". Trump & Co project corruption & fraud."
The Trump administration is doing exactly what the Biden administration did: talking up the markets and 401Ks while the average American is feeling the daily economic pain. The economy will be the main reason Dems probably take control of the House. And this is at a time when the Dems poll worse than either the Repubs or Trump.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/favorability/us_political_parties
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/approval-rating