How do we get the unions back?

At my hubby's work (a factory where the workers are safe and make a damn good wage thanks to dems) most of the idiots there (who are union members) were voting for Cheerleader Chimp. What the hell? I grew up thinking, Middle class-- democrats
Unions -- Middle Class etc. And all these country singers who supposedly grew up poor, drive Ford trucks etc are republican now? How do we get back our people??

I did a lot of canvassing for Kerry last year, and union members were out in force. I think union leadership has been fairly effective in communicating just how anti-labor this administration has been.

I think it depends on the union, and what part of the country you're in.

We have to get those people back, or else we'll never win again. They don't understand that if it weren't for Dems in the first place, they be working 80 hours a week for slave wages and no protections. It drives me insane.

But I don't see how we can educate them. It's not like the media tells the truth about stuff like that anymore. And the Right has so much money from Corporation. Plus, they have all the evangelical pastors in the country telling their constituents to vote Republican or else it's a sin.

people will benefit from democrats hard work and then get older and vote republican.

my husband and I are doing great now (well until all the manufacturing jobs leave america and then we are screwed) but we never forgot where we came from and that for the first four years of our marriage we lived in low income housing, i went to school on student loans... growing up when my dad was laid off or on strike we could get food stamps for a couple of months. If it wasn't for the dems who have fought hard to take care of people when they are down we wouldn't be where we are at now. It burns me up to see people use these services freely and then turn their backs on the people who fought for that.

I wish more people would understand things the way you do. I see people who wouldn't be able to feed their kids without the earned income tax credit who vote Republican because, well, "That what Christians are supposed to do, vote Republican." It's depressing.

ago when more concern was placed on wage earning versus workers rights and well being. Slowly the power of the worker class has slid into the abyss and will likely never be re-claimed. I lived in a right to work state and was fired for being hospitalized, conferred with a lawyer and was told i could be fired for less things than that. The true unions were willing to put life and limb on the line for their struggle, now they can be appeased with a few filthy dollars.

What the fuck is wrong with this country? Grrrrr! :grr:

I have heard many a Ford Motor Company union man bad-mouthing unions and democrats with equal venom, while at the same time carrying a pocket full of greenbacks.

To point out their hypocrisy meant instant 'death by shouting'.

180

Why should they be excited about fighting for us when the DLC was in charge?

blip, (i.e. Hoffas misguided alliance w/ Bush II)...have been with the Dems...they just have not been able to deliver their rank and file...you can blame the Dems, you can blame the Union leadership for not delivering them, and yes you can blame the union members themselves...that they apparently feel the social positions of the Repugs are more important in their lives than the ideals of the Dem party...so they lay down w/ dogs. I really am not going to be sorry when they wake up with fleas.

for union members voting Republican?

I don't think so.

In 2000 I was talking with 2 supermarket employees. Both belonged to a union. One employee was African American and was sympathetic to Gore. The other was white and was a Bush supporter.

The white guy assumed Bush would put the blue collar white male's interests over that of any other ethnic group. The African American assumed the same thing.

Both were wrong. Bush is supporting WalMart's efforts to force union supermarkets out of business. In effect, Bush is helping push supermarket employees from the middle class to the lower class.

But I doubt that the white supermarket employee understands this. He probably listens to Rush and watches Sean Hannity, Scarborough and O'Reilly, who are each paid multiple millions a year to convince the blue collar white guys that Bush will keep them safe from homos, terrorists, and those who compete for their jobs.

Does everything have to be part of the Vast Al From Conspiracy? Give it a rest!

Let's look at the lifetime AFL-CIO scores for a few prominent DLCers:

Evan Bayh (DLC Chairman): 90%
Joe Lieberman (former DLC Chairman): 84%
Ellen Tauscher (DLC Vice Chair): 76%
Adam Smith (co-chair, New Dem Coalition): 79%

In other words, they are mainstream, pro-labor Democrats who represent the diverse economic interests of their respective constituencies.

be more aggressive supporting each individual member.

and return to union idealism.

you have to have a program to ''preach'' to people and ''ideals'' to live by.

i'm very pro-union, worker rights.
it's a great foundation politically.

is after things get sooo bad for each individual worker, reality smacks them upside the head to wake them up!

Unions started out many years ago, with the right ideas and got the power of the people behind them. Unfortunately, during the 70' & 80's they got a little crazy. My husband worked for two different Unions. Some of the reasons for wildcat strikes were just dumb. I happen to think the demands for the 13 weeks vacation was over the top too! Companies started to shut down those old mfg. plants and move operations to smaller facilities in the South where there were no Unions, and the workers who went to work there still received good pay, good benefits, and a pretty secure job. The strong Union supporters started to lose ground, with the general public, and even other Union folks.

US corporate greed is rearing it's ugly head again! Some companies who outsourced their jobs are reconsidering now because it's not turned out to be a great as they thought it would. They're starting to bring some of those jobs back to the US. Right now, there are so many people who would be happy to just have a "decent" job, I doubt you'll much support for Union arbitration, but as the corporate greed continues and workers are supressed, I think the Unions will come back. Unfortunately, I think it's going to take quite a while to finally happen.

Put issue related items on the ballots to bring out the working peoples votes such as should the minimum wage (say what it is) be raised above the level of poverty?

If repugs attack it, perfect! Then how can a family have any real value in its life when you (repug candidate) are condemning them to a miserable existence here in the land of plenty?

(Check and mate on the family values vote!)

... unions as the Republican Party. Let's first of all realize that the labor movement was not and never was initiated or nurtured by the Democratic Party. At best, it was an accommodation, not an alliance. When the labor movement became a political force, it exerted influence over partisan Party politics. I don't believe that either party wants to see a Labor Party ... and the Socialist Workers Party is probably the closest there is. Both parties have used racism to divide and castrate organized labor. When organized labor was seduced into "sharing ownership" of corporations (crumbs from massah's table), the end of organized labor was written on the wall. When owner-operated enterprises view themselves as 'entrepreneurs' (and not labor) with the Holy Grail of selling out to a corporation for a slice of the Wealth Pie, it's clear that the political and economic education of America is merely a rotting corpse. When 'knowledge workers' buy into the Every-Man-For-Himself dog-eat-dog of Social Darwinism, the corpse rots even more.

get union's message to nonunion types via AAR... PBS gets grants, why not grants fm unions to AAR?

closet racism is the greatest votegetter the GOP has. Integration inflammed the racists.

fight it with ending job compettition against ethnics... Jobs for All

and end blockbusting fear with guaranteed house value.

see sig on Jobs For All.

There are a lot of your union brothers and sisters who do understand it, get it, and did vote for their jobs, unlike you voting against your own livelihood. You union members who voted for Bush should be the first and last ones on the unemployment line, and your fellow unions members who did vote for their wallets should have your comfortable employed position that allows you to believe that you are a Rethuglican.

Put your own job where your vote is, if you voted for Bush, immediately request that you be replaced by a union member who didn't have their head buried up their ass and did actually vote for their fellow union members' employment, well being, and security.

Union Bush voters who voted for their own God damned selfish perverted wannabe robber baron values, are no different than any other Anti-Union Bush Minion.

that when labor sticks together, wages and benifits go up.

When the working men and women of this country understand they can belong to an organization that has some influence and clout they will return (or join) a union.
However, the unions have done a terrible job of preserving the image and mind set of WHY they exist. If you did a sidewalk poll where you live, I'm willing to bet most people think unions are filled with lazy, do-nothings. I'm further willing to bet most people believe union leadership to be corrupt and elitist (like some CEO's and politicans aren't either?).
I'm growing more and more convinced a national strike is the only way to get some attention. Of course there are still a great many white collar workers who aspire to the boardroom and believe unions to be bad. They would probably not participate.
Face it, in our world we are either owners or workers. Who is going to look out for the worker? The owner? Never in a million years..........

for capital to be as global as it is today, then it's as close to impossible as is possible for labor to stick together. Male workers have to stick together with female workers, black workers have to stick together with white workers, American workers have to stick together with Chinese workers, Chinese workers have to stick together with African workers, male workers have to stick together with male workers, Indian workers have to stick together with Chinese workers, American workers have to stick together with South American AND Asian workers, European workers have to stick together with SE Asian workers, etc, etc, etc.

Capital only has one color, green. It doesn't see borders that were drawn on maps a long time ago. Capital doesn't have to eat, sleep, or breathe.

Labor, on the other hand, is human. We humans, on a mass scale, sometimes have problems seeing beyond tint and geography. We humans also have families. Take the chance of having your kid starve, or take what you can get so that your kid can have at least something to eat?

That's the problem with we humans...we're human.

set the example for the non-union workers in their communities. They have to work faster with higher accuracy and better quality and be a better all around employee than the rest. (I'm not talking about sucking up either.)

to be a political force. I for one am against open shops. They need the full force of the workers to bring to the bargaining table. This is how you get things done. The employer will always be hostile to the concept so they will always spend lots of money on the lobbyists and politicians who back their cheap labor agenda.

not without drastically changing the Democratic party platform.

Unions (union members), present a bit of a dilemma.

In my experience they tend to be Democrats on money matters (reigning in big business/corporations, ending government waste and spending, job security/benifits, health care, etc), but they lean Republican on most social issues.

Reasons: Most union members are white, blue-collar, have a high school diploma (maybe some college credits), and have a family. Many have some belief in God and attend church either regularly or on certain occasions.

I'm a 20+ year union member (firefighter/civil service), in one of the most liberal communities in one of the most liberal states (MA).

I know many other union members in other occupations (Police, Public Works, etc). I know for a fact that many of them are against or lukewarm on certain issues like gay marriage and abortion. The prevailing attitude seems to be that abortion should be legal, but with certain restrictions such as a ban on "partial birth" abortions and "parental notification" if minors are involved.

On gays/gay marriage; most have an unfavorable opinion on gay/lesbian lifestyles, but for the most part the attitude is as long as they're consenting adults, leave them alone to go about their business. However, gay marriage seems to be where the line is drawn.

The issues that really steam just about every union person I know are things like affirmative action, welfare, illegal immigration and the death penalty.

It's an odd mix of opinions; one minute a person could be cursing out Ted Kennedy for handing out money to welfare recipients, then the next minute they'll be slamming Bush for the war in Iraq, then complain about the way they're being jerked around and short-changed on their union contract.

It's seldom that I hear many curse or bad mouth Democrats (many of them are Democrats). What I do oftentimes hear is things like "god damn liberals" or "the fucking liberals are destroying this country".

Getting the unions back is not going to be an easy task.

Those that attend church are hammered weekly with the message that the Dems are immoral. Some are members of the NRA or are subjected to the message that the Dems want to take their guns. Others are just plain stupid and believe they would have more money in their pocket if they did not pay dues. Maybe it should be four Gees, we should add greed.

Union membership nationwhide is lower than it's been since the gilded age. The manufacturing sector is practically nonexistent. Even if 100% of union members voted democrat, it wouldn't make a huge difference.

(But it is sad that some union members would vote for a mob that hates them so much.)