My next project: Abe Lincoln (or the Donald were he well intentioned and able) could not make America good again — oops; “great” again — without heavy labor union density — German level good mark to hit.
Abe (or the Donald) could not cut Congress loose from corporate/billionaire chock chain as long as there remains no counter acting weight of organization and money — namely labor unions. Just apply to any issue.
* * * * * *
Follow up insight: given 40 years of successful union busting in the face of farcical labor law enforcement, the culture of firing organizers and joiners without even covering with an excuse has grown so ingrained that even if we make union busting a felony — and even if we hired (tens of) thousands (!) of investigators to enforce just that — management would simply laugh at our belated attempt. What are we going to do: lock up millions of owners and managers — all the entrepreneurial talent in the country.
Only refuge is in skipping over organizing and going for regularly scheduled certification elections.
[cut-and-paste]
Observe Repub: H.R.2723 (115th Congress) — Employee Rights Act
“(2) require union recertification after a turnover in the workforce exceeding 50% of the bargaining unit” https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2723
Think blue wave Dem modification: H.R.2723 (1/2) — 116th Congress — All Employees Rights Act
“(1) Require union cert/recert/decert elections at all private workplaces — option for one, three or five year cycles, local plurality rules.”
Why Not Hold Union Representation Elections on a Regular Schedule?
Andrew Strom — November 1st, 2017
“Republicans in Congress have already proposed a bill that would require a new election in each [private employer] unionized bargaining unit whenever, through turnover, expansion, or merger, a unit experiences at least 50 percent turnover. While no union would be happy about expending limited resources on regular retention elections, I think it would be hard to turn down a trade that would allow the 93% of workers who are unrepresented to have a chance to opt for unionization on a regular schedule.” https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
[snip]
* * * * * *
Been reading pile of pol books of late: Chasing Hillary, The Stranger, What It Takes, The Red and the Blue, The Forgotten — and now, The Fall of Wisconsin.
What strikes me is the accidental nature or every outcome — depending on last minute “distractions” like Gary Hart caught philandering or Bush 41 (was it him?) had a DUI once, etc. Never any sense of proportion deciding these results. Some issues like slavery or the Great Depression keep right on the front burners.
Standardized union elections would be just such a locked-in, front burner issue. Every person would be powerfully affected in their own personal life while it would rewrite the social contract of the nation overnight.
Andy Strom (SEIU 32bj) powerfully presented this singularly revolutionary idea in one blog spot and then went away and seemingly forgot all about it — instead of organizing a movement around it. ??? Maybe somebody should tap him on the shoulder and tip him off to what a world changer he actually let loose.
You know how I was saying there’s some issues that cannot be knocked aside by the distraction of the moment. Just occurred to me: that is exactly why the Donald could go out and shot somebody on Fifth Avenue (or kidnap kids from immigrants, etc.) and it doesn’t hurt his approval with his fans. The national dissatisfaction with middle class stagnation won’t go away — it just sits unconsciously (more or less) in the background allowing him to endlessly exploit it subliminally (more or less).
Standardized union certification elections would move wage stagnation to the foreground for Democrats — not to mention provide the actual silver bullet to practicably (and actually) take on most of our problems from over priced prescriptions to Chicago gang shootings.
No surprise Republicans collapsed in Michigan. The 2nd term of the Snyder era was a disaster and legit recession took place after a recovery in 2011-15. 2017-18 was the worst. I always laughed that Trump “won” the state, not due to economic anxiety, but economic “success” from the first 5 years of the Snyder regime. Republicans took credit and it created a Indiana 2008 in the electoral college. Even by 2016 it was starting to slide, but it wasn’t until 2018 the full blown reality of the situation.
Now comes the corporate debt bubble burst……….4 trillion dollars of debt meeting higher interest rates in 2019…….
I am not arguing against unions, I am simply stating that none of what you propose can become law. Not until this Court is replaced with a different majority.
Money is speech. There is no racist voting suppression in the US. Unions have no rights to charge fees to members even if the use of those fees are limited to non-political activities.
“There is no sugarcoating today’s opinion. The majority overthrows a decision entrenched in this Nation’s law—and in its economic life—for over 40 years. As a result, it prevents the American people, acting through their state and local officials, from making important choices about workplace governance. And it does so by weaponizing the First Amendment, in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”
“Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.”
Karl Marx
“Voters who say they attend religious services at least once a week backed Republican candidates over Democrats in their congressional districts by an 18-point margin. Those who attend services less often tilted in favor of the Democratic Party, including two-thirds (68%) of those who say they never attend worship services.”
“Instead of a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, we have Rupert Murdoch as the founder of Fox News, which for years — starting long before Donald Trump’s presidency — injected racist, anti-Semitic and anti-liberal tropes into the American mainstream (remember the war on Christmas?). Fox isn’t watched by everyone, but for those who do watch, Fox is everything.”
My next project: Abe Lincoln (or the Donald were he well intentioned and able) could not make America good again — oops; “great” again — without heavy labor union density — German level good mark to hit.
Abe (or the Donald) could not cut Congress loose from corporate/billionaire chock chain as long as there remains no counter acting weight of organization and money — namely labor unions. Just apply to any issue.
* * * * * *
Follow up insight: given 40 years of successful union busting in the face of farcical labor law enforcement, the culture of firing organizers and joiners without even covering with an excuse has grown so ingrained that even if we make union busting a felony — and even if we hired (tens of) thousands (!) of investigators to enforce just that — management would simply laugh at our belated attempt. What are we going to do: lock up millions of owners and managers — all the entrepreneurial talent in the country.
Only refuge is in skipping over organizing and going for regularly scheduled certification elections.
[cut-and-paste]
Observe Repub: H.R.2723 (115th Congress) — Employee Rights Act
“(2) require union recertification after a turnover in the workforce exceeding 50% of the bargaining unit”
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2723
Think blue wave Dem modification: H.R.2723 (1/2) — 116th Congress — All Employees Rights Act
“(1) Require union cert/recert/decert elections at all private workplaces — option for one, three or five year cycles, local plurality rules.”
Why Not Hold Union Representation Elections on a Regular Schedule?
Andrew Strom — November 1st, 2017
“Republicans in Congress have already proposed a bill that would require a new election in each [private employer] unionized bargaining unit whenever, through turnover, expansion, or merger, a unit experiences at least 50 percent turnover. While no union would be happy about expending limited resources on regular retention elections, I think it would be hard to turn down a trade that would allow the 93% of workers who are unrepresented to have a chance to opt for unionization on a regular schedule.”
https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
[snip]
* * * * * *
Been reading pile of pol books of late: Chasing Hillary, The Stranger, What It Takes, The Red and the Blue, The Forgotten — and now, The Fall of Wisconsin.
What strikes me is the accidental nature or every outcome — depending on last minute “distractions” like Gary Hart caught philandering or Bush 41 (was it him?) had a DUI once, etc. Never any sense of proportion deciding these results. Some issues like slavery or the Great Depression keep right on the front burners.
Standardized union elections would be just such a locked-in, front burner issue. Every person would be powerfully affected in their own personal life while it would rewrite the social contract of the nation overnight.
Andy Strom (SEIU 32bj) powerfully presented this singularly revolutionary idea in one blog spot and then went away and seemingly forgot all about it — instead of organizing a movement around it. ??? Maybe somebody should tap him on the shoulder and tip him off to what a world changer he actually let loose.
DD,
Love ya’ brother, but the Supreme Court we now have will stop any and all of this.
EMichael,
You know how I was saying there’s some issues that cannot be knocked aside by the distraction of the moment. Just occurred to me: that is exactly why the Donald could go out and shot somebody on Fifth Avenue (or kidnap kids from immigrants, etc.) and it doesn’t hurt his approval with his fans. The national dissatisfaction with middle class stagnation won’t go away — it just sits unconsciously (more or less) in the background allowing him to endlessly exploit it subliminally (more or less).
Standardized union certification elections would move wage stagnation to the foreground for Democrats — not to mention provide the actual silver bullet to practicably (and actually) take on most of our problems from over priced prescriptions to Chicago gang shootings.
No surprise Republicans collapsed in Michigan. The 2nd term of the Snyder era was a disaster and legit recession took place after a recovery in 2011-15. 2017-18 was the worst. I always laughed that Trump “won” the state, not due to economic anxiety, but economic “success” from the first 5 years of the Snyder regime. Republicans took credit and it created a Indiana 2008 in the electoral college. Even by 2016 it was starting to slide, but it wasn’t until 2018 the full blown reality of the situation.
Now comes the corporate debt bubble burst……….4 trillion dollars of debt meeting higher interest rates in 2019…….
Dennis,
I am not arguing against unions, I am simply stating that none of what you propose can become law. Not until this Court is replaced with a different majority.
Money is speech. There is no racist voting suppression in the US. Unions have no rights to charge fees to members even if the use of those fees are limited to non-political activities.
“There is no sugarcoating today’s opinion. The majority overthrows a decision entrenched in this Nation’s law—and in its economic life—for over 40 years. As a result, it prevents the American people, acting through their state and local officials, from making important choices about workplace governance. And it does so by weaponizing the First Amendment, in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/as-kennedy-retires-the-supreme-courts-attack-on-labor-unions-is-a-sign-of-things-to-come
“Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.”
Karl Marx
“Voters who say they attend religious services at least once a week backed Republican candidates over Democrats in their congressional districts by an 18-point margin. Those who attend services less often tilted in favor of the Democratic Party, including two-thirds (68%) of those who say they never attend worship services.”
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/07/how-religious-groups-voted-in-the-midterm-elections/
“Instead of a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, we have Rupert Murdoch as the founder of Fox News, which for years — starting long before Donald Trump’s presidency — injected racist, anti-Semitic and anti-liberal tropes into the American mainstream (remember the war on Christmas?). Fox isn’t watched by everyone, but for those who do watch, Fox is everything.”
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/04/fox-news-is-poisoning-america-shun-rupert-murdoch/
Marx’s “illusions” are best demonstrated by religion(as he states), but now we have Fox News to take us beyond small illusions.