Three Recent Wins Prove Old-Fashioned Union Power Isn’t Dead Yet

Written on July 13th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on Labor Notes.org, by Jane Slaughter, July 07, 2016.

Three big wins for workers in the last nine months arrived where you might least expect them: in the old, blue-collar economy. That’s the economy where unions are down to 6.7 percent, where wins are rare and workers are supposed to be on their way out.

Yet at Chrysler, Verizon, and a huge Teamster pension fund, thousands of union members mobilized to put a stick in management’s eye. Hundreds of thousands will see the benefit.

  • Victory #1: Last September 40,000 Chrysler workers turned down a two-tier contract by a vote of nearly 2 to 1. Despite earlier promises to bring a big chunk of Tier 2 workers up to Tier 1 wages, United Auto Workers bargainers had agreed to let the hated two-tier system continue indefinitely.
    By that time Tier 2 represented 45 percent of the workforce, and UAW President Dennis Williams told local union officials, “Ending two-tier is bullshit.” But the vote forced union bargainers to return to the table and negotiate a path to standard wages for all Tier 2 members.
  • Victory #2: In May, retired Teamsters in 25 states saw the fruits of two years of organizing when the federal government rejected the Central States Pension Fund’s plan to slash benefits for current retirees by 50 to 60 percent. More than 400,000 Teamsters, retirees, and their families were granted a reprieve.
  • And Victory #3: On June 1, 39,000 Verizon workers ended a 45-day strike that forced the predatory company to back down from outsourcing call center jobs, forcing transfers to other states, and harassing and micromanaging technicians. The company raised wages and pensions and its execs were left scratching their heads, wondering what went wrong with their overreach.

What did go wrong with corporate plans to extract even more concessions? What enabled our side to kick some ass this year? … //

… (full text).

Links:

US: Grantcoin Foundation distributes first digital currency basic income grants, on BIEN, by Kate McFarland, July 10, 2016; Website: Grantcoin, currency with a conscience;

COPENHAGEN: Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots, for Sep 22-23, on BIEN, by Kate McFarland, July 9, 2016;

NATO Über Alles: Obama was in Warsaw, When He was Needed in Dallas, on Counterpunch, by Mel Goodman, July 11, 2016;

Over 70mn Brexiteers fret over Theresa May conducting Britain’s EU withdrawal, on RT, July 11, 2016;

Shares of Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) Sees Large Outflow of Money, on Founders Daily, by Joel Marcott, July 8, 2016;

An Agenda for a Politics of Time, on Counterpunch, by Barnard Marszalek, July 8, 22016;

Les mouvements citoyens actuels témoignent du refus d’être passif, dans La Tribune.fr, par Marc Augé, le 8 juillet 2016;

Keiser Report: Oh my God, Brexit (E936), 25.47 min, uploaded by RT, July 5, 2016;
Negative Interest Rate Policy NIRP:
on INVESTOPEDIA;on en.wikipedia/: Interest Rate/13.Negative nominal interest rates/central bank reserves;(see also main article: Negative interest on excess reserves is an instrument of unconventional monetary policy applied by monetary authorities in order to encourage lending by making it costly for commercial banks to hold their excess reserves at central banks.[1] Such policy can be associated with very slow economic growth, deflation, and deleverage[2][3] …;

George Soros:

AUDIO – Untold History of the U.S., Interview with Peter Kuznick, 112.59 min, uploaded by Sott Radio Network, Aug 18, 2014 … Sott Talk Radio hosts Joe Quinn (see Joe Quinn.net) and Niall Bradley talk with Peter Kuznick, Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington, DC;

2013 Left Forum: Oliver Stone on the Untold History of the United States, 103.57 min, uploaded by Deep Dish, June 22, 2013 … with Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Donna Murch and Greg Wilpert;

… and this:

dieu existe il habite bruxelles: Le Tout nouveau testament:

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