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Ugh. Can I gain entry into a civilized country by claiming need for political asylum from this one (the US)?

Posted by Whoever on 2013-05-18 09:01:04

The NLRA mortally wounded the American Labor Movement. Stopped it dead in its tracks in 1935, which was its true purpose. No European style General Strikes Boycotts or Wildcat strikes here in the 'land of the free"..None of that "bolshy" radicalism for the mericcan labor movement. Our workers do what they are told...and anyway,tactics that work would just be unfair to sensitive capitalists.They are vastly outnumbered after all, and the commoners are mean enough already. Just LISTEN to all those hurtful things they are saying about the poor bankers.Boo Hoo Hoo. Maybe abolishing that law would be helpful, but you can damn well be sure they will replace the existing handcuffs with tighter ones. The problem is not the law per se, the problem is turning over our authority to some star chamber that is not there to serve our interests. The problem is that labor needs to start fighting for its interests again - the law is there to restrain labor,not capital.

Posted by marcus nestor on 2012-07-09 00:37:50

As long as LABOR as Union continues to morph into an intermediary business in itself, often separated by safety barriers from the actual labor it represents it will find it easy to blame the past and the NLRB for its own failures to actually represent and take on the serpent. The divide and conquer rules of engagement by the consortium of representatives for corporate interests are united by money interests. precedent setting courtroom failure has been more accurately placed at the failure of resources from fragmented, factionalized and sometimes "fictional" representation from Labor. Of course this is largely because localized and segregated from each other as they are, Union representative rarely agree to support each other financially or reach into their OWN pockets.

Unions have to stop living in the past and creating fictional meanings by "fixing" the past. The past labor groups were activists to the death...forget about today's standards of work week warriors ...and hold the contract negotiations...I have my vacation this week...mentality. Unions need to be revamped on a confederation basis where egos and cults of personality are dropped into the past and the reality of fighting corporations and their friendly courts are made the priority, along with EXPOSING THE POLITICAL NAMES of crony politicians, exposing Union Busters
and educating the public about this billion dollar industry of festering fraud that is allowed ...permiotted by labor...to operate with virtual impunity...as "part of the game" ...; and finally by hiring the legal specialists that are now running unemployed from the Universities to represent a new level of true political labor organization in this great nation...
WE could show the world ...if we would get out of the past and get off the ego ranks of personality cults that are rum running labor representation in this country.

Posted by BruceEWoych on 2012-06-20 18:32:19 If labor's economists believe in what they are talking about, they should put their money where their mouths are and go into business. Let's show the neoliberals how successful businesses can be when they partner with workers and make civic morality a decision criterion.
Posted by Andrew Douglas Large on 2012-06-08 14:15:46 It's very, very challenging. The law is very, very bad for labor. We don't have the law because we dont have the politicians. We don't have the polititicians because we don't have the public support. We don't have the public support because we don't have the public affairs apparatus. Does the AFL-CIO start spending real money on real PR pros (like the kind of pros hired to fix BP's PR crisis)? Does labor start putting up the multi-front PR war that the Chamber does through its tentacles? Is that how labor wants to spend it's money? Is that the only path to survival? Or can organized labor cede that ground and use its resources to rethink and invest in new American workplaces - buying businesses and turning them into ESOPs/Coops?
Posted by Andrew Douglas Large on 2012-06-08 14:11:59 In recent years, it has become popular for some so-called liberals to attack Cesar Chavez, in a sneaky way, by asking: Why did Cesar Chavez fail? This is a clever revisionist trick, since the question assumes the only critical answer, which is an assumption that he failed. But Cesar Chavez did not fail. He was remarkably successful in building an organization and gaining important benefits for farm workers. Those who claim he failed are often union insiders who need to justify their own failures by diverting attention to somebody else. Cesar Chavez understood that in order to build a true organization for the benefit of working people and the community, you need to have leadership which lives the same as the workers and is not corrupt, does not try to get rich off the dues of working people. And you also need a strong social justice component. The UFW had both. Chavez insisted all insiders be paid essentially poverty wages -- the same as all union members were paid. He did not use his position to try to get rich. The social justice component -- the idea that our nation owes all our people a decent wage and reasonable working conditions -- inspired much of the nation to support his organization. Contrast Chavez with most union leaders today, who pay themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, put aside enormous retirements benefits for themselves, while the members of their union see their own jobs disappear without a word of protest from the union, and see their wages frozen or crushed. Top leadership spends much of their life in D.C., rubbing elbows with national politicians and going to cocktail parties. Accomplishing nothing for the working people. No wonder people have no confidence in unions when the leadership has more in common with Wall Street and the politicians than they do with working people. When the unions play on the field of management, and agree to their rules, the unions lose. What we need is One Big Union (thanks Bill Haywood) and we need a radical re-thinking of social justice and community commitments. The primary organization to advance the rights of workers should be community based, not divided by industry. The community-based groups, since they are not unions, are not subject to the labor laws. If they decide to organize Target, for example, they can boycott and sit-in at Targets all across the country demanding a living wage, 40-hours of work, and healthcare. They also can demand free and open elections. What should unions do? If they want the support of citizens, they need to become transparent by disclosing the assets they have hoarded through their lack of organizing, salaries, pensions and other benefits set aside and paid to insiders. They need to slash insiders' salaries to some multiple of the lowest-paid union member. Only if they meet those terms, should the community groups work with them. Without that, people would be better of setting up their own national union or representative group to negotiate on their behalf. We also need a national campaign to return to the 40-hour week. I know of few jobs in this country which are salaries and which don't require a minimum 50, often 60 hours of work. For ever 2 people working a 60-hour work week, we could cap them at 40 hours and put another person back to work full-time. The unions are corrupt, useless, and have obviously failed. They could turn it around, but not by living in D.C. and sucking up to politicians while lining their own pockets. They would need to work hard and be creative. I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by NABNYC on 2012-05-27 16:32:53 There is a total lack of working class consciousness across-the-board. Americans can't even admit they belong to the working class, they think it is a communist phrase. (I once heard Chris Mathews on MSNBC chide a commentator for using the words.) In the formative phase of unionism in this country, (40-50 years before the NLRB), we had an active left; with socialists, anarchists and trade unionists competing in the open marketplace of ideas. The IWW also played an important part in securing free speech rights. It was this groundwork that made the New Deal possible. Over the years even active union members forgot the struggles that got them to where they were, until they thought they all had it coming. The bottom fell out in the last forty years and the blue collar workers are now left holding an empty bag. How do we regain that early militancy? If there is no fire in the belly, nothing will ever happen. Of course getting the jobs back to organize is a key component in this equation. You can't unionize an empty factory or a vacant lot.
Posted by Staten Island Bob on 2012-05-25 19:32:03

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