On a serious note, I heard recently that the Treasury was looking to sell a trillion dollars worth of bonds to plug the shortfall due to the Millionaire Tax Break (TM). I even heard they were looking at floating instruments of the 50-100 year maturity type. I think that makes us look terrible. Secondly, will the market be able to handle a trillion in new debt?
The Big Squeeze (2008), Steven Greenhouse
Loc 504 “Ultimately, officials with the steelworkers say, 60 percent of Landis’s [plastic] production workers signed union support cards.”
Loc 694 “A far higher percentage of workers were immigrants, from Latin America, Vietnam, Bosnia, and Sudan. Kathy calculated that of the more than one hundred workers who had signed pro-union cards two years earlier, only fifteen remained.”
Lot of good card check going to do there.
Greenhouse, later in the book (I’m about a third through), presents Fed-X Ground drivers as making only $25,000-35,000 a year, compared to $60,000 for UPS (Teamster Union) drivers. Amazon drivers may now be absorbing those jobs. Supermarket jobs were middle class jobs pre Walmart, pre two-tier labor contracts.
Even having a union not much help there.
* * * * * *
Two X nothing = nothing. Bernie will double 6.5% private (non-gov) union density? 13% union? 40 percent of workforce under $15/hr – what min wage should be. Min marks only what highest labor use places can pay (e.g., 25% labor costs fast food) – most businesses could pay substantially more. 13% unions going to help them a lot.
I used to think centralized bargaining was the magic bullet. On second thought not sure how much influence 13% can have over 87%, especially if union density remains as concentrated locally — not in an anti-labor culture like ours.
Centralized be a great clean up hitter if we got 25% certified unions. Sector wide agreements would be the icing on the cake if we got 50-75% certified.
* * * * * *
“The new Data for Progress poll … Trump’s favorability among the 215 Obama-Trump swing district voters who were surveyed is 71 percent—35 points ahead of Biden’s. And of all respondents, 45 percent view Trump very favorably, compared with only 4 percent who say the same for Biden. (my bold)
“ https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/obama-trump-voters-like-trump-not-biden.html
They may not be coming back. Return to Obama days they implicitly rejected with Trump? Come up with something new — like regular cret/recert/decert elections.
JackD,
Now, of course if you were to ask me, I would say that Dems capturing the Senate in 2020 would be a lot easier if we were pushing something everybody wanted (maybe wanted a lot) like regular union elections at every private (non gov) worksite. My personal poll so far shows 100% approval. I asked one Amazon “gig” driver today — she was a woman in her 20s — and she said yes. My poll so far.
Come to think, we don’t have to win 60 Senate seats for the Democrats. Be enough to get 60 Senators who favor regularly scheduled union elections. With no Trump in the White House to tyrannize Republicans there could easily be bipartisan support.
Temporarily on any vote. Majority leader can close debate with a majority vote. Presiding officer of the Senate can deny point of order and another majority vote can over ride.
“You’ve got to avoid looking at what’s happening in isolation from everything else. We can’t hold what Trump is doing in isolation. We’ve got to address the things that put him there in the first place.”
Goldberg: Mattis speaks often about affection: the affection that commanders feel for their soldiers, and that soldiers ought to feel for one another—and the affection that Americans should feel for one another and for their country but often, these days, don’t.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all. Lincoln said that in the middle of a war. In the middle of a war! He could see beyond the hatred of the moment.”
Goldberg: I thought back to what he’d told me earlier in the summer, when I had asked him to describe something Trump could say or do that would trigger him to launch a frontal attack on the president. He’d demurred, as I had expected. But then he’d issued a caveat:
“There is a period in which I owe my silence. It’s not eternal. It’s not going to be forever.”
Astros going all the way this year folks
On a serious note, I heard recently that the Treasury was looking to sell a trillion dollars worth of bonds to plug the shortfall due to the Millionaire Tax Break (TM). I even heard they were looking at floating instruments of the 50-100 year maturity type. I think that makes us look terrible. Secondly, will the market be able to handle a trillion in new debt?
Bernie Sanders Sets a Goal: Double Union Membership in 4 Years
“…would allow a majority of workers to form a union simply by signing authorization cards, rather than winning a secret ballot election … ”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/us/politics/2020-democrats-iowa-labor-unions.html
The Big Squeeze (2008), Steven Greenhouse
Loc 504 “Ultimately, officials with the steelworkers say, 60 percent of Landis’s [plastic] production workers signed union support cards.”
Loc 694 “A far higher percentage of workers were immigrants, from Latin America, Vietnam, Bosnia, and Sudan. Kathy calculated that of the more than one hundred workers who had signed pro-union cards two years earlier, only fifteen remained.”
Lot of good card check going to do there.
Greenhouse, later in the book (I’m about a third through), presents Fed-X Ground drivers as making only $25,000-35,000 a year, compared to $60,000 for UPS (Teamster Union) drivers. Amazon drivers may now be absorbing those jobs. Supermarket jobs were middle class jobs pre Walmart, pre two-tier labor contracts.
Even having a union not much help there.
* * * * * *
Two X nothing = nothing. Bernie will double 6.5% private (non-gov) union density? 13% union? 40 percent of workforce under $15/hr – what min wage should be. Min marks only what highest labor use places can pay (e.g., 25% labor costs fast food) – most businesses could pay substantially more. 13% unions going to help them a lot.
I used to think centralized bargaining was the magic bullet. On second thought not sure how much influence 13% can have over 87%, especially if union density remains as concentrated locally — not in an anti-labor culture like ours.
Centralized be a great clean up hitter if we got 25% certified unions. Sector wide agreements would be the icing on the cake if we got 50-75% certified.
* * * * * *
I used to think centralized bargaining was the magic bullet until I came across Andy Strom’s:
https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
“The new Data for Progress poll … Trump’s favorability among the 215 Obama-Trump swing district voters who were surveyed is 71 percent—35 points ahead of Biden’s. And of all respondents, 45 percent view Trump very favorably, compared with only 4 percent who say the same for Biden. (my bold)
“ https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/obama-trump-voters-like-trump-not-biden.html
They may not be coming back. Return to Obama days they implicitly rejected with Trump? Come up with something new — like regular cret/recert/decert elections.
Bernie’s union policy is going nowhere without the Senate.
JackD,
Now, of course if you were to ask me, I would say that Dems capturing the Senate in 2020 would be a lot easier if we were pushing something everybody wanted (maybe wanted a lot) like regular union elections at every private (non gov) worksite. My personal poll so far shows 100% approval. I asked one Amazon “gig” driver today — she was a woman in her 20s — and she said yes. My poll so far.
Come to think, we don’t have to win 60 Senate seats for the Democrats. Be enough to get 60 Senators who favor regularly scheduled union elections. With no Trump in the White House to tyrannize Republicans there could easily be bipartisan support.
Just need 51 and get rid of the filibuster.
Temporarily on any vote. Majority leader can close debate with a majority vote. Presiding officer of the Senate can deny point of order and another majority vote can over ride.
Good Article in The Atlantic
“The Man Who Couldn’t Take It Anymore”
In brief and at the end of the article on Mattis:
“You’ve got to avoid looking at what’s happening in isolation from everything else. We can’t hold what Trump is doing in isolation. We’ve got to address the things that put him there in the first place.”
Goldberg: Mattis speaks often about affection: the affection that commanders feel for their soldiers, and that soldiers ought to feel for one another—and the affection that Americans should feel for one another and for their country but often, these days, don’t.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all. Lincoln said that in the middle of a war. In the middle of a war! He could see beyond the hatred of the moment.”
Goldberg: I thought back to what he’d told me earlier in the summer, when I had asked him to describe something Trump could say or do that would trigger him to launch a frontal attack on the president. He’d demurred, as I had expected. But then he’d issued a caveat:
“There is a period in which I owe my silence. It’s not eternal. It’s not going to be forever.”