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BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Showing posts with label right to work states. Show all posts
Showing posts with label right to work states. Show all posts
12 August 2018
POLITICAL MOJO FROM MOTHER JONES: The Most Vulnerable Trump Clone in Congress AND MUCH MORE 10AUG18
05 September 2013
A LABOR DAY MESSAGE FROM THE PCCC 2SEP13
A HAPPY LABOR DAY MESSAGE FROM THE BOLD PROGRESSIVES OF THE PROGRESSIVE CHANGE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
Happy Labor Day!
It can be depressing to see workers under attack -- by Republican governors, by corporations, by opponents of Social Security.
But if you want to see a truly uplifting video that reminds us what today is all about, check out this viral video:
This was made by John Wood, a British guy who calls himself a "Labor geek," and it's gone viral on YouTube.
Check it out. If you like it, share it with others. Thanks for being a bold progressive.
-- The Progressive Change Campaign Committee team
Want to support our work? PCCC's Draft Warren campaign was named The Nation's "Most Valuable Campaign of 2011" and Politico called us "The Energizer Bunny of the Left"! And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in $3 here.
Paid for by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC (www.BoldProgressives.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions to the PCCC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
08 September 2012
James Hoffa, Teamsters President, Says Romney 'Wants To Annihilate Organized Labor' 8SEP12
THE decline of the American worker began with the take back of pension and health care benefits by companies not taking these actions to survive but to increase obscene executive pay and benefits and the immoral profit margins of investors. Unions, who brought us paid sick time, paid vacation, FMLA and company pensions were decimated by companies first moving to right to work states, where employees can be exploited and paid less. Then the real blow came with the explosion of outsourcing to the prc, India and other places in the Third World. Now American workers, still the most productive in the world, are faced with stagnant and declining wages, unemployment, and anemic 401-K pensions along with attacks on the social safety net programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that many of us will be dependent on upon retirement. The repiglican / tea-bagger economic plan of mitt robme and lyin paul ryan will continue the assault on organized labor in this country, and with every victory they achieve American workers fall further behind. The goal of robme and ryan is nothing less than a Third World American workforce that remains docile and is controlled by fear of their employers and their own government. From HuffPost.....
Teamsters President James Hoffa says Mitt Romney opposes organized labor.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The way Teamsters President James P.
Hoffa sees it, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be happy if an
already weakened American labor movement ceased to exist altogether.
"He wants to annihilate organized labor as we know it," Hoffa told HuffPost outside the Democratic National Convention this week. "It's on his website. I'm not making this up. He's for a national right-to-work law. The Republican Party has veered dangerously to the right. It's rather incredible, in 2012, if you think about it."
Indeed, Romney's official stance on labor isn't kind to unions. His campaign website suggests that unions have outlasted their significance, "driv[ing] up costs and introduc[ing] rigidities that harm competitiveness and frustrate innovation." He supports states pursuing right-to-work laws, which weaken the clout of unions, and his party last week approved a platform pushing for national right-to-work legislation. He'd also like to prohibit automatic union dues-deduction from employee paychecks.
Hoffa isn’t the only labor leader who visited Charlotte this week and sees a hostility toward unions in Romney's positions. Mary Kay Henry, head of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, told HuffPost earlier this week that Romney "wants to take us out."
The Romney campaign didn't respond to Hoffa or Henry's comments.
Rank-and-file union members said they often feel taken for granted by Democrats in office. Among many labor activists, the enthusiasm for the Obama-Biden ticket appears to stem in large part from a loathing and distrust of the alternative. But Hoffa, like other labor figures who headed to Charlotte, insisted the current White House has been good to unions over the past four years.
Rather than dwell on disappointments -- like Obama's failure to push the Employee Free Choice Act through Congress when Democrats held both chambers, or to pass a raise in the minimum wage -- Hoffa touted the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the stimulus bill, the rescue of the auto industry and the actions of the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law.
The NLRB has issued decisions and rules during Obama's tenure that conservatives have decried as too friendly to unions,
such as a rule that would require businesses to hang placards in the
workplace informing workers of their right to unionize. By contrast,
during the George W. Bush presidency, union members believed the NLRB
catered to businesses.
"The NLRB has gotten civilized again," said Hoffa, the Teamsters president since 1998 whose famous father, Jimmy Hoffa, was president throughout the 1960s. "People aren’t afraid to go there anymore. They're getting good results from the NLRB. And when I say good, I mean fair. Fairness is all we want.
"These are things that are meaningful to us, that make it easier for us to organize," Hoffa added.
One place where it's extremely difficult for unions to organize is North Carolina, a fact that created some awkwardness between the Democratic Party and organized labor, given the selection of Charlotte as the DNC's host city. (North Carolina has the lowest unionization rate in the nation.) Hoffa was one of the few union heads who appeared willing to knock the party for the choiceit, albeit lightly.
"I think that the Democratic Party, the DNC, could have consulted us," Hoffa said. "I would have thought there were much better venues, like St. Louis, like Detroit, but they have their own thinking and obviously they didn’t talk to us."
The Teamsters are currently locked in a high-profile battle with the wholesale baker Hostess Brands, maker of iconic American foodstuffs Wonder Bread and Twinkies. Hostess, going through bankruptcy proceedings for the second time in a decade, has said that if the Teamsters make good on their strike threat it could bury the company.
Hostess' latest offer to Teamster workers is believed to include significant concessions. A recent letter from the company's CEO estimated wage cuts of 8 percent, health care givebacks and the loss of large pension contributions.
Hostess management loathes the pension plans currently enjoyed by its union workers, arguing that they're overly generous and antiquated. Hoffa, however, said it was the duty of his union to maintain those pensions as best they could, especially in an age when pensions are being attacked and phased out.
"Our job is to keep pensions," Hoffa said. "That’s the job of all of labor, because that’s what makes us different. The problem is the right wing hates unions, hates pensions -- they don’t want to be obligated to anybody ... and we stand for the opposite."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/08/james-hoffa-teamsters-romney_n_1866359.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
"He wants to annihilate organized labor as we know it," Hoffa told HuffPost outside the Democratic National Convention this week. "It's on his website. I'm not making this up. He's for a national right-to-work law. The Republican Party has veered dangerously to the right. It's rather incredible, in 2012, if you think about it."
Indeed, Romney's official stance on labor isn't kind to unions. His campaign website suggests that unions have outlasted their significance, "driv[ing] up costs and introduc[ing] rigidities that harm competitiveness and frustrate innovation." He supports states pursuing right-to-work laws, which weaken the clout of unions, and his party last week approved a platform pushing for national right-to-work legislation. He'd also like to prohibit automatic union dues-deduction from employee paychecks.
Hoffa isn’t the only labor leader who visited Charlotte this week and sees a hostility toward unions in Romney's positions. Mary Kay Henry, head of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, told HuffPost earlier this week that Romney "wants to take us out."
The Romney campaign didn't respond to Hoffa or Henry's comments.
Rank-and-file union members said they often feel taken for granted by Democrats in office. Among many labor activists, the enthusiasm for the Obama-Biden ticket appears to stem in large part from a loathing and distrust of the alternative. But Hoffa, like other labor figures who headed to Charlotte, insisted the current White House has been good to unions over the past four years.
Rather than dwell on disappointments -- like Obama's failure to push the Employee Free Choice Act through Congress when Democrats held both chambers, or to pass a raise in the minimum wage -- Hoffa touted the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the stimulus bill, the rescue of the auto industry and the actions of the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law.
"The NLRB has gotten civilized again," said Hoffa, the Teamsters president since 1998 whose famous father, Jimmy Hoffa, was president throughout the 1960s. "People aren’t afraid to go there anymore. They're getting good results from the NLRB. And when I say good, I mean fair. Fairness is all we want.
"These are things that are meaningful to us, that make it easier for us to organize," Hoffa added.
One place where it's extremely difficult for unions to organize is North Carolina, a fact that created some awkwardness between the Democratic Party and organized labor, given the selection of Charlotte as the DNC's host city. (North Carolina has the lowest unionization rate in the nation.) Hoffa was one of the few union heads who appeared willing to knock the party for the choiceit, albeit lightly.
"I think that the Democratic Party, the DNC, could have consulted us," Hoffa said. "I would have thought there were much better venues, like St. Louis, like Detroit, but they have their own thinking and obviously they didn’t talk to us."
The Teamsters are currently locked in a high-profile battle with the wholesale baker Hostess Brands, maker of iconic American foodstuffs Wonder Bread and Twinkies. Hostess, going through bankruptcy proceedings for the second time in a decade, has said that if the Teamsters make good on their strike threat it could bury the company.
Hostess' latest offer to Teamster workers is believed to include significant concessions. A recent letter from the company's CEO estimated wage cuts of 8 percent, health care givebacks and the loss of large pension contributions.
Hostess management loathes the pension plans currently enjoyed by its union workers, arguing that they're overly generous and antiquated. Hoffa, however, said it was the duty of his union to maintain those pensions as best they could, especially in an age when pensions are being attacked and phased out.
"Our job is to keep pensions," Hoffa said. "That’s the job of all of labor, because that’s what makes us different. The problem is the right wing hates unions, hates pensions -- they don’t want to be obligated to anybody ... and we stand for the opposite."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/08/james-hoffa-teamsters-romney_n_1866359.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
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