The highest Minimum Wage in the United States is $10.25 an hour yet no one wants to acknowledge this; why not?

The highest legislated Minimum Wage right now here in the United States is $10.25 an hour. This is the present Minimum Wage on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Because of pressure on the part of the people it has been steadily increasing.

Why is everyone talking about a $15.00 Minimum Wage in Seattle when most workers won't receive it for seven years... and other workers will have to wait at least three years.

In Michigan they talk about a Minimum Wage raise to $9.25 an hour... this will take place in four years.

In Minnesota they talk about the Minimum Wage having been raised to $9.50 an hour even though that won't kick in for another three years.

Workers, including hundreds of casino workers, employed on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation are receiving $10.25 an hour right now and no one wants to acknowledge this since the politicians can't reap political benefit from talking about this. In fact, Leech Lakes Minimum Wage makes all these politicians look like a bunch of self-serving opportunists just out to use the victims of poverty in order to get votes.

Why aren't any unions or their foundation-funded think-tanks like the Economic Policy Institute demanding the Minimum Wage be raised nationally to match Leech Lake's Minimum Wage?

Leech Lake's Minimum Wage is still a paltry, miserly pathetic poverty Minimum Wage--- but, it is still the highest Minimum Wage in the country... and, at least it could be emulated rather than ignored... especially by all those who so enthusiastically support these Minimum Wage "increases" that won't even take effect until after inflation and soaring prices eat up these "increases" which will make these "increases" substantially less than the accumulated wages workers employed on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation have accumulated in the meantime boosting their real spending power, today, far in excess of what these phony Minimum Wage "increases" will produce in the future once they take effect.

Of course, those who don't understand the relationship between wages and cost-of-living nor have any concern, other than opportunist political expediency or so well-heeled they can purchase any goods or services without thinking, will never understand this just like they don't understand every single working class family is experiencing a "Cost-of-Living Crisis" making every single day a crisis-of-everyday living as people scrape, scrounge and curtail their lives in order to get by.

Few people involved in this struggle over the question of the Minimum Wage can say they haven't heard of Leech Lake's $10.25 Minimum Wage--- which, in addition to being the highest Minimum Wage in the United States is also the largest pay increase any workers in the United States have received; and, it is one of the higher starting wages in the United States.

In addition, this $10.25 Minimum Wage is higher than many workers get out of union contracts for which they are paying exorbitant union dues to pay the salaries of millionaire labor "leaders" who are no better than the bosses.

This unfounded infatuation with 15 Now, the Democrats, the AFL-CIO and these foundation-funded outfits like the "liberal" Economic Policy Institute and the "progressive" Campaign for America's Future "leading" these "movements" for Minimum Wage "increases" claiming "something is better than nothing" after previously declaring they intended to struggle for real living wages because, as they stated, "No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty," are dishonest in continuing not to note the Leech Lake Minimum Wage of $10.25 an hour which increases the purchasing power of workers right here and now as millions of workers are losing purchasing power and sinking further into the abyss of poverty as businesses--- large and small--- continue reaping massive super-profits from these poverty wages.

Someone should try to calculate just how many hundreds of millions of hours are being worked by workers receiving between $5.25 and $10.25 an hour. The figure is sheer super-profit.

How can a very poor poverty stricken Indian Reservation like the Leech Lake Indian Nation pay its employees, including hundreds of casino workers a Minimum Wage of $10.25 an hour but other cities, states, the federal government and corporations wallowing in record profits claim they can't pay the workers they employ a miserly, measly Minimum Wage of $10.25 an hour lest they go broke? Someone answer this question.

The Michigan Republican super-majority approved a Minimum Wage, signed into law by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, far higher than most states with Democratic super-majorities and was only 25 cents less than what the Dumb Donkeys here in Minnesota provided for workers. So, where is this great big difference between the two parties?

http://time.com/121917/michigans-governor-snyder-signs-bill-raising-minimum-wage/

So, we have Minnesota at $9.50 way into the future with prices rising; Michigan at $9.25 and Leech Lake Indian Reservation at $10.25 with Democrats in Seattle trying to give workers a big shaft claiming they support $15.00 (a decade into the future).

Except for a few people and organizations, no one is talking about a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage tied and adjusted to actual cost-of-living factors.

In the meantime, even fewer people are willing to talk about the "Cost-of-Living Crisis" the entire working class finds itself entangled and ensnared in.

Poverty wages create poverty

Does anyone else but me think that it is strange that these AFL-CIO unions claim they are supporting workers in the fast food industry, Wal-mart and Target workers in their struggles to get better wages when these same unions come along and support these poverty Minimum Wages like $9.50, $10.10 or like in Wisconsin where the Democrats were pushing for $7.60?

If the Minimum Wage was a real living wage directly tied to all cost-of-living factors the wages of these workers would rise to providing a decent standard of living... all of which begs the question, why haven't all of these workers been brought into the struggle to increase the Minimum Wage to a real living wage?

Then the working class would be struggling united, together.

How does it make sense to split the working class as the AFL-CIO has done?

Let's have one great big push to raise the national Minimum Wage so it is legislatively tied to all cost of living factors tracked by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, then index this to inflation with periodic increases to improve the standard of living of working class families.

The Democrats and their AFL-CIO partners are making these ridiculous claims that $9.50 and $10.10 are lifting millions of workers out of poverty. How can this possibly be when $9.50 and $10.10 are poverty wages? Workers are going to remain in poverty if paid a poverty wage.

Here we are with corporations boasting higher profits than ever and the Democrats and the unions refuse to fight and struggle for making the Minimum Wage a real living wage. This is disgraceful.

The movement for a real living Minimum Wage continues to run into snags---

Politicians, employers and unions have banded together in Seattle just like the Democrats, unions, foundation-funded outfits and church groups here in Minnesota joined with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's "Business Caucus" or Summit Hill Club) to rob workers of a real living Minimum Wage that was promised in return for workers voting for these Democrats... workers have been the victims of an elaborately concocted "bait-and-switch" scheme.

Since this Democratic Party coalition is now insisting that any employer paid compensation packages like health care, dental care, eyes and hearing, child care and higher education subsidies be considered part of the Minimum Wage we need to talk about the need for all of this to become legislation for government universal social programs rather continuing to be ripped off by the for-profit sectors providing these services to workers while gouging workers thus turning this struggle for a living Minimum Wage into a farce and a sham where employers continue to reap super-profits from poverty wages as these other service providers also reap super-profits from this trough of poverty wages--- what a scam these employers are scheming to plan.

It would seem to me that this would be a good time to bring forward the need for universal social programs as the way to counter what the employers (and apparently unions?) are demanding in the way of health, etc. care being considered part of the Minimum Wage.

For example, there is no way a Public Health Care System--- socialized health care should cost any more a month than Social Security. A Public Child Care System, too. Both working just like our public schools--- publicly financed, publicly administered and publicly delivered. Way cheaper than the present for profit health care system.

So, you tell them to institute public universal social programs (everyone in) for each type of "compensation package" they want deducted from the $15.00.

But, this is where the "$15.00" movement has been very short sighted. This movement is working with a false figure derived from the U.S. Census Bureau (which only use four cost-of-living categories) instead of the Consumer Price Index of the United States Department of Labors' Bureau of Labor Statistics (which monitors EIGHT categories and 200 sub-categories).

It won't surprise me if all the union "leaders" don't agree with the employers on this because they have worked hand-in-hand with these same employers to force concession contracts down their own member's throats and SEIU has engaged in the practice of offering employers sweetheart contracts in return for union dues.

Here in Minnesota, ALL of the AFL-CIO and Change To Win affiliated unions supported the switch pulled by the Democrats for $9.50 an hour and they were even going to bring in Richard Trumka to support this but Trumka backed out when he knew there was going to be resistance at the rally they had planned for the Humphrey Center at the university of Minnesota where he was going to be greeted by demonstrators exposing the "bait and switch" pulled by the Democrats, the foundation-funded outfits, labor leaders and the churches... most likely the "$15.00" movement will face the exact same coalition in Seattle and elsewhere.

To win a real living Minimum Wage is going to take a campaign that is willing to educate workers about what the real "cost-of-living" actually is based on the fact working class families are experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis" and that the Minimum Wage needs to be tied to both increases in the "cost-of-living" and to inflation which are not the same... monopoly price-fixing is the main reason prices rise and the spending on militarism and wars is the main reason for inflation.

The prices of the basic necessities of life are now under the pretty much complete control of the monopolies.

Obviously the Democrats and their partners, the coalition mentioned above, with their wars on the one hand and "economic populism" full of "bait-and-switch" (single-payer deliver Obamacare; living wage deliver poverty wages, etc.) on the other hand don't want to talk about "cost-of-living," "cost-of-living crisis" or militarism and wars which are making us all poor as austerity measures are being shoved down our throats to pay for all this militarism and wars instead of Public Health Care and Child Care Programs, CCC, WPA and CETA as well as a Conyers type job creation program.

Not coincidentally, this same Democratic Party coalition which stood opposed to single-payer and smashed the single-payer movement is now using the same strategy to smash the $15.00 movement.

Notice that the people's movements were sucked into supporting half-measure reforms in both situations when the demands should have been very clear--- a National Public Health Care System and a Minimum Wage legislatively tied to the "cost-of-living" automatically increased for rising prices and inflation with periodic increases providing for an improved standard-of-living.

We have also failed to define small business as distinct from big-business and family owned businesses like the mom-and-pop convenience store--- there is no way an employer of 15 or more people can't afford a real living wage of between $22.00 and $26.00 an hour which the Minimum Wage would be if using the BLS' CPI. The solution should be obvious for the legitimate small business which employs mostly family members--- just eliminate Minimum Wage enforcement; if someone wants to pay their spouse, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa and grandma $1.00 an hour let them. But all this crap with wealthy people buying franchises and then claiming they can't pay a living wage is a bunch of bullshit. Here in Minnesota, the main opponent to raising the Minimum Wage was State Senator Tom Bakk, a building trades union official in his past life, who cried big crocodile tears for the group homes, hotels, motels bars and restaurants.

What is a small business? Does anyone really know except the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (LOL!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business

A little sarcasm to make a point:

If any industry or business legitimately can't pay the Minimum Wage, certainly no union has any business trying to organize them--- using the logic being pushed by the AFL-CIO. If Target and Wal-mart along with McDonald's and Taco Bell can't afford to pay employees real living Minimum Wages this means unionization would kill them, too--- and this of course is the argument used by big business all the time. So, hey; just phase out unions and implement a government social contract covering all workers except those employed in legitimate family operated small businesses of under 15 employees.

Should a union even be allowed to organize any company defined as a "small business" that can't afford to pay a real living Minimum Wage because using this logic of exempting small business from the full Minimum Wage would lead anyone pushing this notion that unionization of that business would for sure kill the business just like management would surely claim--- and always does; but somehow miracles always happen and the business survives unionization.

I can show you hundreds of businesses with fewer than 25 employees that are unionized--- each of the managements claimed unionization would kill their business; and here they are celebrating 25th and 50 years and longer of being in business.

Unionization of a small business is going to cost that business well over $35.00 an hour and if this doesn't kill a small business how would paying employees a Minimum Wage of $22.00 to $26.00 an hour kill these small businesses?

What we are facing is a union leadership that is demanding dues for raising the living standards of the entire working class--- these union "leaders" in pushing these poverty Minimum Wages of $9.50 and $10.10 are essentially saying, "If we don't get a cut of rising wages, we don't give a fuck if you people stay poor."

Look at who we had pushing the poverty Minimum Wage of $9.50 through the Minnesota legislature and signed into law by the governor:

All Democrats with a Democratic super-majority where Republicans had no say and could only cry:

A corporate/business lawyer in the State House, Representative Paul Thiessen.

A big-shot from the building trades union in the State Senate, Tom Bakk.

And a billionaire Governor, Mark Dayton, whose wealth is derived from the poverty wages of the Dayton-Hudson Company, now Target Stores.

Of course, the millionaire labor leaders of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council and their state counterparts, millionaires like Eliot Seide of AFSCME, wouldn't be able to shove all these concession contracts down their members throats if there was a focus on "cost-of-living" and the true state of affairs where every single working class family is experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis."

Did you ever hear Richard Trumka so much as mention this "cost-of-living crisis" that is a reality for every single working class family?

Are we just supposed to keep our mouths shut in the name of some kind of desired "unity" as to what is really going on as these Democrats and their hacks jerk us around? 



We need to get this all figured out... join the National Conference Call...
http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-national-approach-for-making-minimum.html

Don't forget to check out and join the FaceBook pages, also:
https://www.facebook.com/events/763527720348169/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

https://www.facebook.com/USlivablewage?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite

Check out my "Letter to the Editor" on the "Bait-and-Switch" politics of the Democrats:
http://www.ifallsjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/beware-of-the-bait-and-switch/article_cfd312be-7955-57eb-8120-fa4b44cb4e3d.html


Did anyone really believe that Seattle's employers would not come back fighting this proposed increase in the Minimum Wage to $15.00 an hour? Is this not the same community where the police were turned loose to savage working people who came out to peacefully protest against these trade agreements and the same city where the police beat the hell out of the Communist-led unemployed demonstrations of the 1930's and sent the police out to viciously attack the IWW soap-box speakers who tried to explain the need for the working class to fight for their rights and livelihoods and the same politicians who tried to have the police beat into submission the longshore workers led by Harry Bridges and the city that turned the HUAC hearings into a vicious attack on the CPUSA, organized labor and students? And isn't Seattle the same city that sent police thugs out to try to bust the organizing efforts of Boeing workers initially led by Wyndham Mortimer who had led the organizing drive that forced General Motors to sign a contract with the UAW?

What was expected from Seattle's ruling class when it was suggested the Minimum Wage should be $15.00?

Isn't it obvious to anyone that this struggle to raise the Minimum Wage to a real living wage is going to have to be a well thought out, coordinated national struggle in which the leadership arises from the grassroots working class communities and rank-and-file activists?

That the struggle for a living Minimum Wage is connected first and foremost to "cost-of-living" and the "cost-of-living crisis" for working class families is the most important aspect of this struggle... what the Minimum Wage dollar figure will be established at follows from this and not the other way around.

In fact, for many cities across this country, cities are not even allowed to enact Minimum Wage legislation.

Already, most of the states with Democratic super-majorities have enacted Minimum Wage "increases" which once again makes government the enforcer of poverty for millions of working class families. This also needs to be exposed that these Democrats, no different from the Republicans are using the levers of government (legislation) to enforce poverty--- thus assuring not only the poverty of millions; but a huge pool of impoverished workers intended to pressure all wages. down.

Going at this rate it won't be long before all workers are in the same boat as workers employed in the loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry at exclusively poverty wages without any rights or any voice at work.

Of course, all workers in this country are employed under terms of "At-Will Employment except for the 13% employed under union contract although even these workers are finding that these same millionaire union "leaders" who shove concession after concession contract down their throats are finding their contract rights failing to be enforced through grievance procedures. here in Minnesota, where AFSCME shamefully kicked off the drive for a $9.50 Minimum Wage and is now telling members who are victims of discrimination and harassment on the job to "go hire your own attorney we don't go beyond the two step grievance process." And even during the grievance process next to nothing is done by the union grievers who often even go into the grievance process never having talked with the worker they are supposed to be representing--- they simply get the "details" from management.

Is it logical to expect that union "leaders" who refuse to even adequately represent their own members can be expected to lead the struggle for a real living Minimum Wage?

--
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

The Republicans couldn't have a better friend then Obama. Obama carries out the Republican agenda and they pretend to complain--- laughing all the way to the bank.

My thought for the day...

Does anyone see the pattern developing here?

All of a sudden Robert Reich comes out saying he is for a $15.00 an hour Minimum Wage while not so much as suggesting working class families are experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis."

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Why-the-Minimum-Wage-Should-Really-Be-Raised-to-15-an-Hour

I never heard such a hypocritical crock of shit.

What we have here is these Democratic Party hacks and the millionaire labor leaders along with the foundation-funded outfits comprising the "partnership" between them kept in line by the hacks on the one hand before legislation is passed using their name recognition "influence" to undermine the struggle advocating real and specific solutions to problems to buy the Democrats time to get their Wall Street approved legislation through and that after its a "done deal" this shit-asses come talking about "it really wasn't enough as if these Dumb Donkeys are going to go back and rescind the bad legislation and do what is right by the people.

We got the same shit with single-payer; now we get the same shit with the Minimum Wage.

Well, any raise is always better than no raise at all, any workers understands this--- especially in the era of millionaire labor "leaders" negotiating nothing but concessions for the members paying the dues--- but this isn't the point.

The point is, these Democrats promised a living--- non-poverty--- wage and they should have kept their promise.

A living wage is not the same as "a raise."

Typical "bait and switch" bullshit.

As for this idea of Robert Reich's that there are "lousy jobs" this is just outright bullshit, too.

Any job that needs to be done is a good job provided it pays a real living wage, the health and safety of workers doing the job is protected, workers have rights and a voice at work and when there are decent benefits like adequate vacations, etc.

I don't include health care benefits because these same worthless millionaire labor leaders are the ones who hoodwinked workers into believing that health care should be part of collectively bargained agreements instead of fighting for what we really need: a National Public Health Care System.

We see what this bargaining for health care with individual employers has resulted in--- the health care mess we have now.

What these worthless millionaire labor leaders who now are nothing but negotiators of concessions did was to divide the working class over the health care issues when the struggle for real health care reform should have remained a point of unity as the left-led CIO was pushing for.

Not having decent pay and benefits with rights on the job and a voice at work is what makes a job "lousy."

Workers being forced to work under the "Doctrine of At-will Employment" is what makes a job "lousy."

Of course, Robert Reich did his part in the Clinton Administration to make sure millions of workers in other countries got "lousy jobs"--- low pay without any rights--- while making sure the jobs that remained here in the United States became "lousy jobs"--- poverty wages without many or any rights.

Come on, really; what kind of rights can a worker forced to be employed under terms of "At-will Employment" have? None.

What excuse is there here in Minnesota that the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party doesn't use its super-majority status to make every job a good job with real living wages as they promised to get the votes of workers? I would really like an answer, not excuses, to this question.

Robert Reich has now come forward supporting a $15.00 an hour Minimum Wage.

Good for him.

The only problem is, this guy, if anyone, should know what a real living wage is--- after all he was Secretary of Labor and completely understands the idea of what it means for wages to be living wages those wages must correspond to, and be in line with, all cost-of-living factors.

Robert Reich and the rest of these well-heeled, over-paid, muddle-headed upper-middle class intellectuals have not one iota of the fact of life that finds every single working class family in this country caught up in a "cost-of-living crisis" struggling just to make ends meet--- many struggling from day-to-day, others struggling from pay-check to pay-check with some 90 million workers being one or two pay-checks from poverty with some forty-million working class people living in poverty during a period when their labor has created the very wealth resulting in record high corporate profits for Wall Street money-bags--- greedy shit-bags.

It was Robert Reich's job as Secretary of Labor to make sure the Bureau of Labor Statistics was compiling the facts accurately for the Consumer Price Index which is the one and only valid set of statistics on which to base a real living wage in line with cost-of-living.

So, this begs the questions:

Why would Robert Reich keep proposing Minimum Wages that are substantially less than what it cost working class families to survive?

Why would Robert Reich, or anyone else for that matter, expect any worker to work for less than what it costs to live?

Only a few short months ago, Reich was pushing a $9.50 Minimum Wage. Then he supported Obama's $10.10. Now he is backing $15.00.

Here we have a former Secretary of Labor, playing games with the lives of working class families when all he has to do is stand up and say, "Here is the empirical data on cost-of-living so here is what the Minimum Wage should be."

It is very simple; no guessing; no pulling figures randomly from a hat for self-serving political expediency.

Let Robert Reich have the courage to bring these figures forward--- when he does this I will be satisfied; until then, he is nothing but one more worthless Democratic Party hack.

Simple honesty requires Robert Reich to stop playing around with this important issue.

Let Robert Reich produce a video with his scribblings, doodlings, drawings and graphs based on the actual figures from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.

Also, notice that Reich sidesteps the fact that these Minimum Wage "increases" won't take effect until future years which means all the purchasing power of these increases will have already been eaten up by rising costs of goods and services together with inflation.

And what is with Reich's refusal to call a poverty wage just what it is: A POVERTY WAGE?

A worker paid a poverty wage will be living in poverty along with their family.

And, Reich--- while mentioning Minnesota--- doesn't mention that here in Minnesota, and he did mention Minnesota increasing the Minimum Wage, that the maximum inflation increase is only 2.5%--- get out your calculator and figure out what this comes to at $9.50 an hour.

Plus, this inflation indexing, as pathetic as the $9.50 is miserly, doesn't even kick in until 2018!

Of course, Reich never mentions that he sat in cowardly silence as Bill Clinton knocked millions of impoverished working class families off welfare to make sure there was a huge pool of poverty workers that would be "eager" (read: forced) to work in lousy poverty waged jobs from which Wall Street has reaped trillions upon trillions in super-profits; nor does Reich mention that this Clinton "welfare reform" set back people of color and women many decades as Clinton also gutted Affirmative Action--- another "little" fact Robert Reich with his "populist economic message" which omits how militarization and these dirty imperialist wars are making us all poor.

Robert Reich peddles this Wall Street Keynesian bullshit as "economic populism."

Instead of buying tickets to his movie, working people would be better off taking the time to study a little Karl Marx. And Hugo Gellert made this very easy to do--- maybe someone should turn these lithographs into an animated movie with background music from Nina Simone, Woody Guthrie and Leonard Cohen's "Democracy Is Coming to the U.S.A.

Here are the Hugo Gellert lithographs making Karl Marx very easy to understand:

http://www.graphicwitness.org/contemp/marxtitle.htm

We don't need Robert Reich to confuse things more than they already are when we have Karl Marx to explain in very simple everyday common language why what is happening is happening.

Something you might want to think about:

Any job paying a wage that isn't a real living wage in line with all cost-of-living factors is going to be a "lousy" job.

And, by the way; I do think "flipping burgers" should pay a real living wage.

Any employers who don't want to pay workers a real living wage should just do the lousy job themselves instead of living like a parasite off the labor of others.

Dare to struggle, Dare to win.

Isn't it time we, as leftists, place some kind of anti-monopoly/anti-imperialist agenda on the table for the American people to consider with the stated intent of challenging Wall Street for political and economic power? At this point we have no mass organization nor political party; both of which are required. The time has come to convene some kind of non-sectarian national meeting to take up the task of creating both.

We can't wait for the millionaire leaders of the AFL-CIO or any of these foundation-funded outfits to put up the money to do this--- they are rich and well-funded because they are being paid NOT to do this.

Grassroots and rank-and-file activists are going to have to do this ourselves or it will never happen.

We can't win if we don't dare to struggle.

Hillary's only "opposition" comes from her supporters; obviously no one is taking Bernie Sanders seriously.

What a hoot. Hillary Clinton's only opposition in this poll comes from two people who have already declared their support for her: Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden... Bernie Sanders' name didn't even pop up in this poll yet the claim is that he is setting up shop in Iowa:

http://www.suffolk.edu/news/31466.php#.U0XV6Fdh3JZ

Once again, the American people are going to be taking a beating no matter who wins in 2016.

Take your choice of warmonger.

The guy running this poll told me they are coming to Minnesota next.

He is certain Hillary Clinton has the Democratic Party nomination all sowed up; I think so, too.

These Democrats and Republicans talk about third party "spoilers" yet they are spoiling our lives and the lives of generations to come.

We should be seeking out Democratic campaigns to spoil with alternative candidates as punishment for what these Democrats are putting us through. This would be a good way to begin building a new working class based progressive people's party that is for peace and anti-monopoly which states its intent to challenge Wall Street for political and economic power.

Tune in, call in...

www.blogtalkradio.com/airamarteifio/2014/04/14/the-socialist-insight-w-stewart-alexander 

6 p.m. Central---14 April---Monday---

Alan L. Maki, www.thepodunkblog.blogspot.com, political analyst and social activist is back. 

Our discussion: Interpreting the Minimum Wage Debate; What does it all mean? 

Stewart and Alan will show how the working class in the United States has been reduced to a labor force working for poverty wages. 

They will also explain how that minimum wage guarantees poverty. 

A living wage should be the standard for all working people. If you are earning less than $23.00 an hour for a 40 hour work week, don’t miss this program. Every week, same time---More things we all need to know and be talking about!!

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

 

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

How far do we allow this Democratic Party betrayal to continue?

And they actually have the nerve and unmitigated hypocritical gall to boast and brag about this working class betrayal:

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/04/07/state-lawmakers-announce-agreement-raising-minimum-wage

With this "deal" on the Minimum Wage, Minnesotans are the victims of the biggest "bait and switch" scam in our history aside from the way the land and resources were stolen from First Nations Peoples.

Democrats promised a real living Minimum Wage to get our votes, not another poverty wage; then they pulled this switch to accompany the employers and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce which these "progressive" Democrats refer to as the "DFL Business Caucus."

Too bad "bait and switch" isn't as illegal in politics as it is in the world of the poverty wage-paying retail sector of the economy which made Dayton rich.

What a farce; an outright scandalous fiasco.

Not one of these directors of these foundation-funded Democratic Party front groups would work for $9.50 an hour. Nor would the AFL-CIO's Shar Knutson or millionaire labor "leaders" like Eliot Seide--- how has this kind of pathetic cost-of-living increase worked out for Eliot Seide's AFSCME members?

Anyone got a calculator? What is 2.5% times $9.50? These Dumb Donkeys think we are all stupid.

Not once has the mainstream corporate controlled media indicated this letter was being circulated:

January 2014

An Open Letter . . .

TO: Governor Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Legislative Caucus.

FROM: Your Constituents

Enough! We are not waiting any longer!

As DFL candidates, you campaigned on a promise to enact legislation that provides low-wage workers a real, living wage — not just a “minimum” wage.

Your campaign language explicitly called for “workers being entitled to living wages!” It promised a Living Wage Act, but no progress was made in your first super-majority session.

All it would take, you said, was for Minnesotans to give the DFL a super-majority. Well, we voters delivered it to you! You have it! But now, instead of advancing Living Wage legislation, the DFL is floating another “minimum wage” bill that will just perpetuate poverty wages for many Minnesota workers!

For years, the DFL leadership has claimed Republicans were the lone obstacle to establishing a Living Wage in our state. That obstacle has been removed. You are now in the driver’s seat!

We, the workers of Minnesota, gave you the legislative votes to enact the Living Wage legislation you promised us.

We expect you now to do so. You could call it “The Minnesota Living Wage Act of 2014.”

Most importantly, we need to begin with a realistic dollar amount. Living Wages need to be calculated based on realistic levels of cost-of-living. U.S. Census data suggests at least $15 per hour; while, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), hourly wages of $22 and $26 at 40 hrs/week are needed to cover basic necessities. When making decisions on determining basic needs for a dignified life, the testimony from low-income Minnesotans should also be taken into consideration.

A Living Wage must also be subject to regular cost-of-living adjustments. The Consumer Price Index is our best indicator, and it should be used to adjust a new Minnesota Living Wage level quarterly or at least semi-annually.

If you should fail to enact such legislation, we will assume that you were just baiting us with nice-sounding campaign rhetoric, and that you are pulling a switch on us by simply advancing more employer-friendly “minimum wage” legislation, that does nothing to alleviate the hardships of Minnesota’s working poor.

Perhaps you think any increase is better than nothing. We don’t!

Minnesota has long been considered a progressive bellwether. Do something significant now for her working men and women. It is what everybody morally deserves — the prospect of a dignified life.

Be courageous. Lead our state — and our nation — in securing the right of every worker to earn a decent living.

It can begin with the Minnesota Living Wage Act of 2014.

You can make it happen!

Sincerely,

Your fellow Minnesotans

Check out our National Conference Call on April 27 seeking to find a national approach to making the Minimum Wage a real living wage:

http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-national-approach-for-making-minimum.html

A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage

A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage

Join Us for a 2-Hour Conference Call Discussion

Sunday, April 27, 2014

8-10pm ET / 7-9pm CT / 6-8pm MT / 5-7pm PT

Telephone Call-in: 857-232-0157 • Access Code: 353711

Panel

Cindy Sheehan, California Peace & Freedom Party
Gubernatorial Candidate

Lena Buggs, Minnesota Green Party, State House District 65-A Legislative Candidate

Alan Maki, Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Theresa Sanchez, Union Steward, Local #1, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union

Frank “Pancho” Valdez, retired trade unionist, Green Party activist

Curtis Buckanaga, Asst. to District III Rep. for Leech Lake, Ojibwe Reservation

Bill Leumer, former President IAM Local 565, Labor Fightback Network Steering Committee member

Mel Rothenberg, founding member of Chicago Political Economy Group, co-author of "A Permanent Jobs Program for the U.S.: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs."

Moderator:
Devon Nola, Justice Party of New York


Each panelist will give a 5-minute presentation during the first hour. The second hour will be open to discussion with Q&A between callers and panelists.

Sponsored by:

Uniting People for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Healthcare and Environmental Protection


Contact info:

Tel: (203) 402-8745

E-mail: unitingpeople1@gmail.com

Blog: www.unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/USlivablewage


A bold livable wage policy must be viewed as a “keystone” fiscal mechanism that will trigger subsequent structural changes in the U.S. economic system to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth and income for all members of our society.

A fascist "culture of graft and corruption" now threatens to throw the Ukrainian economy into chaos.

Now the EU and the United States are backing away from bailing out the Ukraine because, they say, they can't trust these two-bit, half-assed fascist bastards they brought to power because they have a "culture of graft and corruption."

On top of this, these Ukrainian fascists have begun harassing the Crimeans by sporadically shutting down their electricity and water and threatening to raise the prices of electricity and water sky high.

Just like when the fascists came to power in Spain going into world War II; these fascists are going to push things to the limit in order to start World War III.

It won't be long before these fascist bastards start implementing austerity measures against their own people and all hell is going to break loose.

The Wall Street banker crooks don't trust the Ukrainian fascists with their money; the crooks don't trust the crooks... what a world!

The Dumb Donkeys are at it again.

You know, these Hillary Clinton supporters add me to their facebook pages without asking me, and over the past couple weeks I have been blocked from posting on over twenty of their sites because I asked this very simple question:

Can someone tell me where I can find the complete transcripts of Hillary Clinton's speeches?

And then what really gets me is when you use her quotes from these 60 second sound bites from the speeches or quotes from newspapers, radio or television these Dumb Donkeys say, "You are taking what she said out of context."

I then ask them to provide the complete transcript of the text of the speech and then they get mad over that.

In fact, they don't even know what she is saying in these speeches but they are so intellectually dishonest they say I am "taking her words out of context." How would they know if they have never heard or read the entire speech?

Obama pulled this same shit.

It is totally dishonest.

I don't know if this is true or not but someone told me that when Hillary Clinton speaks to these groups in closed meetings they have to agree not to release the transcript of her talks.

What is going on? Is she going from group to group telling each group what they want to hear and changing her message to each group?

There is nothing more dishonest than doing this. She talks to the wealthy seeking money and the rest of us are not supposed to know what she is saying.

This has nothing in common with democracy.

World Water Day

This Saturday, March 22 is World Water Day... here we are in Minnesota living in the "land of ten thousand lakes" with every ditch, creek, stream, river and lake polluted and a bunch of Democrats destroying the largest freshwater aquifer in the "Lower Forty-Eight," the Big Bog, with peat mining--- and getting ready to contaminate more of our northern waters for centuries to come with sulfide mining.

So much for the way Minnesota politicians respect water.

How about we all get together to celebrate World Water Day on the shores of United States Steel's "Clearwater Reservoir" at their huge MinnTac operation in Mt. Iron?

Anyone up for a dip?

Anyone want to purchase "lake front property" on "Clearwater Reservoir?"

A message to politicians...

Carri Jones, the thoroughly corrupt Chair of the Leech Lake Indian Nation, claims the Republicans are paying me to attack her.

I always find it so interesting the way these crooked and corrupt politicians without any ethics or morals work...

Governor Mark Dayton after coming begging to me for my support and endorsement is now running around accusing me of "winding the springs too tight" when I insist the Minimum Wage.

Then there is Carri Jones, the thoroughly corrupt Chair of the Leech Lake Indian Nation. She doesn't want to talk about a union contract for casino workers, the hideous "At-will employment practices" or the unjust firings of dozens of casino workers; so, what does she do? She goes around telling everyone the Republicans are paying me to attack her.

What is most interesting is that these politicians go all over the place attacking me but they refuse to sit down and debate or discuss any of these issues in a public venue with me.

All they have to do is set a time, date and place for a discussion or debate on these issues and I will be there.

And if Carri Jones has any proof what-so-ever that the Republicans are paying me to attack her--- she can bring this proof forward for the public to see.

There will be a debate this Saturday in Bemidji, Minnesota with all the people running for tribal office invited to participate... I hope Carri Jones shows up to present any proof she has that I am being paid by the Republicans to attack her.

The mainstream media turns lies into facts.

I have been doing some research on a few issues--- the Minimum Wage, the Full Employment Act of 1945 and the level of labor struggles going back to the period between 1945 and 1968 or so.

The mainstream newspapers were just filled with lies and misinformation; barely a day went by when there wasn't the most vicious red-baiting and anti-Communist hysteria being whipped up with big doses of the most reactionary and putrid forms of jingoism and national chauvinism prepping the American people for wars.

But, the mainstream media today is far worse--- often the lies don't even come shrouded in kernels of truth.

At least previously there were enough facts and bits of truth so one could learn to "read between the lines" and there was some coverage of alternative views so one could sort fact from fiction.

In contrast, today we are being fed a steady and unending stream of nothing but lie after lie making it difficult to even "read between the lines."

And then on top of these lies we get all these phony "liberals," "progressives" and "leftists" picking up these lies and repackaging them passing them off as the truth.

It doesn't seem to make any difference if the issue is Obama, Venezuela, the Ukraine or the Minimum Wage--- you go to the newspaper or magazine rack in a library or a news stand and you can't even purchase the truth.

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Elizabeth Warren is fronting for Hillary.

Have you noticed how the Democrats are trotting out Elizabeth Warren to front for Hillary Clinton at many of their functions.

Minnesota Democrats, who are gearing up to support Hillary (which is pretty much the entire Democratic Party apparatus) are bringing in Elizabeth Warren to speak at their big fund-raising bash/prep the troops for 2014/2016 "Humphrey-Mondale Dinner."

Now, really; is there anyone who believes Elizabeth Warren offers any kind of progressive alternative?

In fact, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's hacks are even giving out the orders for the faithful to begin distancing themselves from Obama to make way for the re-imaging of Hillary since it would be impossible for Democrats to get elected to any office running on Obama's record of subservience to Wall Street... hence the need to bring in Elizabeth Warren with her phony populist rhetoric pretending to be anti-Wall Street.

It really is quite difficult to argue with "lesser evil logic."

A Minimum Wage of $7.75 is better that a Minimum Wage of $7.25.

Obamacare is better than no care.

Obama makes a better president than Romney.

It's better to use drones because "boots on the ground gets Americans killed."

Hillary will be a better president than Scott Walker, Rick Snyder or Pat McCrory.

It's better to eat shit than starve.

It's better to be alive than dead... except when its better to be dead than "red."

Just read what head Democratic Party hack, linguist George Lakoff, writes about why Democrats are better than Republicans and you will understand all of this.

I figured since I couldn't get anyone to provide me the full text of her recent writings and speeches, I would go directly to Hillary's own website: HillaryClintonOffice.com.

I made this very simple request:

"I would like to know where I can locate copies of Hillary Clinton's writings and speeches in their entirety. Can you provide me links to these speeches?"

Instead of being provided the information I requested, I was asked to make a financial contribution.

I am going to place in writing what many people are thinking.

I responded to an "interview" of a Socialist alternative member in Philadelphia concerning this "15 or Fight" movement:


http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2014/03/07/qa-socialist-alternative-member-on-fight-for-15-minimum-wage/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=qa-socialist-alternative-member-on-fight-for-15-minimum-wage


I'm not all that concerned with what members of this Trotskyite Socialist Alternative sect has to say since they didn't show up to support the struggle to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant nor have they ever taken a position in support of casino workers struggling for their rights.


After years of badmouthing anyone working with grassroots activists inside the Democratic Party all of a sudden this outfit joins with the Democrats and their foundation-funded front groups and hacks to bring forward the same old classless crap as the Democrats only upping their poverty wage.


I expected Minnesota Greens to support this "15 or Fight" initiative since they too refuse to enter the struggle for casino workers' rights and they joined with the Ford Motor Company to kill 2,000 jobs, demolish the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and give the Ford Hydro Dam to a multi-national conglomerate to profit from.


Quite frankly, I support any improvement in the Minimum Wage. For working people, any Minimum Wage higher than $7.25 is a "better" wage.


Are we building a movement for a "Better Minimum Wage" or are we building a movement for the Minimum Wage to become a real "Living Wage?"


If we are for a "better" Minimum Wage I would suggest we just accept what the Democrats are willing to give us as part of their scam to get votes. $7.75 would be a good place to settle since it is most likely what we are going to get. Perhaps the Democrats will agree to legislation creeping up gradually $9.50 after a few years. That will get people off their backs through 2016.


I have noticed neither Socialist Alternative nor the Democrats have taken note of the $10.25 Minimum Wage that the Leech Lake Tribal Council has legislated for all tribal employees--- including casino workers. As far as I know, this is the highest Minimum Wage in the country that universally enforced. $10.25 is better than what the Democrats offer and it is more than what this tiny sectarian Trotskyite sect or the Greens will ever win.


If "better" is what we are after, I would suggest joining with most of the Democrats and their partners among the millionaire labor leaders, their front groups like Take Action Minnesota and Working America, and all these muddle-headed, upper-middle class pundits and hacks for whom politics is a form of sport because touch football is to tough and grueling in advancing a $9.50 Minimum Wage--- after all, $9.50 is better than $6.15 or $7.25 or $7.75 and we don't have to fight.


This was my response in PhillyNow:



Leave it to a small Trotskyite sect to join the Democrats to advocate a Minimum Wage that is less than a real living wage in relation to the actual “cost-of-living.”


For sure $15.00 an hour is better than $7.25; but, $15.00 an hour is still a poverty wage.



Are we seeking a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage or are we seeking a Minimum Wage that is a “better wage?”


$7.75 better than $7.25.


$9.50 is better than $7.75.


$10.10 is better than $9.50.


$15.00 IS BETTER THAN $10.10.


But, being a “better” Minimum Wage does not make the Minimum Wage a “living wage.”


Are we seeking to boost the Minimum Wage incrementally or are we seeking to establish a just Minimum Wage based on actual “cost-of-living” factors?


The one and only way to judge wages are in comparison to “cost-of-living;” right?


Everything else supports some kind of improved Minimum Wage or amounts to very superficial comparisons.
The person being interviewed for this article just casually tosses in mention of “cost-of-living” as if it is just one more factor to consider in relation to establishing the Minimum Wage.


“Cost-of-living” is not just another factor; it is the primary factor in determining what is a living and just wage.
For a working class family, the one and only relationship is that between wages and what it costs to live— cost-of-living; what can be purchased with wages paid.


$15.00 an hour and a few credit cards maxed out gets a working class family a decent “standard-of-living”… until bankruptcy hits.


This is the old Walter Reuther ploy— get workers by on wages and credit cards and workers will think they are doing good. It wasn't coincidental Walter Reuther surrounded himself with Trotskyites; his self-serving leadership "qualities" and working class betrayals required this kind of left-sectarian support.


If people are satisfied with replacing one poverty wage with another poverty wage that is up to them.
People willing to get by on $15.00 an hour and a few maxed out credit cards does not amount to a real living wage.


The only way to arrive at a real living wage is to legislatively tie the Minimum Wage directly to the actual “cost-of-living” based on the factors tracked by United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics findings compiled for the Consumer Price Index consisting of 8 categories each with 200 sub-categories.


This would then have to be tied to the real inflation rate for the basic necessities of life working class families purchase:


Food.


Clothing.


Rents/Mortgages.


Health care costs.


Transportation costs.


Child care costs.


Home/Auto Insurance.


Electricity.


Home heating costs.


Cost of higher education.


The government has failed to control any of these costs choosing, instead, to leave working class families at the mercy of the Wall Street monopolies fixing prices from which they derive super-profits in the same way these monopolies derive super-profits from any wages that are poverty wages.


On top of this base living Minimum Wage indexed to inflation there would be periodic increases allocated for an improved “standard of living.”


This all needs to be included as part of a reform package intended to upgrade the “New Deal” to meet today’s problems.


Included in such a reform package would be the need for a Basic Income Guarantee because any Minimum Wage that does not include a job with 40 hours of work still won’t provide a real living wage.


Also required would be a Full Employment Act mandating the president and Congress to attain and maintain full employment since workers without jobs are going to be poor.



We need a 21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity which would include these three basic reforms as an upgrade to the New Deal reforms.


Peace would have to be part of the package since it will be impossible to implement full employment without a huge “Peace Dividend.”


The government will have to create socially useful and necessary jobs to put everyone to work through programs like the WPA, CCC and C.E.T.A.because private enterprise and the free market have failed to overcome massive unemployment.


There are two things the American people desperately need:


Real health care reform and child care. Both provide massive job-creating opportunities. Both put people to work providing people what they need for improved lives and livelihoods.


A National Public Health Care System would create over 12-million new jobs putting people to work providing the American people with free health care through a network of community and neighborhood based health care centers.


A National Public Child Care System would put another three to five million people to work providing the American people with free child care.


Both of these programs would cost less than what we pump into the Military-Industrial Complex, squander on these never-ending dirty imperialist wars and what it is costing us to maintain over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe on foreign soil protecting Wall Street’s interests, assets and profits these greedy Wall Street “investors” seek to maximize their profits exploiting cheaper labor in the process of raping Mother Nature.



Both health care and child care should be based on the model provided by public education:


Public funding.


Public Administration.


Public delivery.


When all is said and done we need an anti-monopoly coalition and a broad-based working class based progressive people’s party capable of winning reforms AND challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.


We shouldn’t waste our time with these tiny, sectarian Trotskyite sects which opportunistically latch on to an issue in a less than honest manner because we have credible examples of actual anti-monopoly coalitions and parties that have worked— including the old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and its Farmer-Labor Association… both of which were smashed, after tremendous success, by government repression ordered by Wall Street.

More than Communists got purged from the labor movement.

"Cost-of-living" has been purged from our working-class vocabulary right along with the purging of Communists from the labor movement; coincidental?

To make way for concession bargaining and to prevent any meaningful discussion of wages.

We see this in the discussion taking place around the Minimum Wage and contract negotiations.

There is only one thing that wages can legitimately be compared to: "cost-of-living."

What can you purchase with your wages?

Your "standard-of-living" is determined by what you can purchase with your wages combined with access to universal social programs.

Something to think about:

When Communists were purged from the labor unions the millionaire labor leaders stopped talking about the relationship between wages and cost-of-living and concession bargaining began.

In addition, very simple yet truthful ideas are being left out of the national conversation spreading to the public square concerning poverty, income inequality and the Minimum Wage:

Workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor.

Workers without jobs are going to be poor.

We had better come up with real, specific solutions to both of these problems:

Paying workers real living wages in relation to cost-of-living.

Providing workers with real living wage jobs.

Question:

What is preventing every job from being a decent, living wage job?

Isn't this a legitimate question?

What about Polymet?

I generally agree with Tom Rukavina... 99.999% of the time. On this issue of sulfide-mining I, too, am in complete disagreement.

These so-called "hearings" are a fiasco--- window dressing for allowing the mining companies to do as they please in the name of "jobs, jobs, jobs" when the real issue is "profits, profits, profits."

I don't understand why anyone with labor's interest in mind would support permitting any other mining projects--- especially when nothing has been done to halt the decades of these mining companies swindling Iron Rangers out of their pensions while leaving behind polluted pits and massive poverty after they abscond with the profits.

United States Steel's huge MinnTac operation, the largest of its kind in the world has provided us with the "jewel" they call the "Clearwater Reservoir"--- what they call their gigantic tailing pond stretching for three miles and two miles wide--- leeching billions of gallons of the most dangerous contaminants and pollution into the Dark River and St. Louis River watersheds reaching into the depths of Lake Superior and even as far north as Hudson's Bay!

"Jobs, jobs, jobs"--- from 80,000 jobs in mining on the Iron Range to 12,000 jobs today.

Machines and technology have been allowed to replace workers.

While workers in the mining industry have been laid off; many of the remaining workers are forced to work ten and twelve hour days--- five, six and even seven days a week.

Want job creation in the mining industry?

Try a shorter work week with forty hours pay. Longer vacations. Earlier retirements with pension funds protected. Polymet will maybe create a few hundred jobs--- in the existing taconite industry, these kinds of reforms combined would create thousands of new union jobs.

Will Polymet be a union operation? Since the USW maintains a sweatheart agreement with Cleveland Cliffs to enable a gigantic non-union taconite operation at Silver Bay, judging from its current relationship of the way they are supporting this hideous Polymet project, it is doubtful the USW will ever try to organize Polymet. Jobs where workers unprotected without union contract have no rights; just what we need more of in Minnesota; like 44,000 casino workers employed in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any protections under state or federal labor laws isn't bad enough. 

I was glad to see and hear where rank-and-file union members of the United Steelworkers Union have organized a rank-and-file caucus, the Hard Rock Miners--- demanding that their pension funds be honored.

I would expect the entire Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's Iron Range contingent to stand up in opposing any further mining permits--- at least until all of the pension funds of present and former miners have been honored. This is the very least these DFL politicians and party hacks can do.

These "public hearings" are meant to foment anger and sow confusion and discord  among the very people who should be united in making sure more mining companies are not allowed to shit on working people, the communities workers have to live in and the healthy ecosystems required for survival.

If not for the out of control Military-Industrial Complex requiring these non-ferrous minerals and metals, this mining would not even be under consideration. Why else would Congressman Rick Nolan have co-sponsored this legislation with Republicans protecting this mining Polymet as a "national security" project?

There are hundreds of projects that the government could undertake to provide Iron Rangers with jobs--- good jobs paying decent wages. Anyone can come up with a list of what needs to be done to improve the lives and livelihoods of people living in Appalachia North.

There are tens of thousands of existing jobs on the Iron Range that could be turned into good, decent, living wage jobs if only the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party with its super-majority would wield its power and pass Minimum Wage legislation making the Minimum Wage a real living wage based on cost-of-living, indexed to real inflation with regularly scheduled raises to improve the standard-of-living of working people--- of course, one has to ask why the unions affiliated with Change To Win and the Minnesota AFL-CIO have made nothing but half-hearted attempts to organize all of these workers? Isn't a good union contract better than any government anti-poverty program?

We should be telling the Minnesota DNR to take these hearings and shove them straight up their ass; what we need is a series of roundtable discussions bringing workers together to talk about all of this in a civil way; do we have a democracy that will tolerate this?

Many years ago, both socialist Farmer-Labor governors, Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson proposed that if mining was going to continue with our communities and jobs protected and the profits from mining going to make life better for people, mining was going to have to be brought under public ownership.

Were their concerns legitimate?

Apparently so given what the situation is today on the Iron Range--- yet, why isn't this idea of public ownership of the mining industry being brought forward and discussed here and now?

Wouldn't it make more sense to put all proposed mining projects on hold until public ownership has been discussed rather than allowing these mining companies to come in--- exploit workers, swindle them out of their pensions as they rape the land leaving nothing behind but massive poverty and a dirty mess for tax-payers to clean up?

The Minimum Wage... more thoughts.

Many articles are being written about the Minimum Wage. Most of these articles are nothing but nonsense as far as working people are concerned--- or should be concerned.

Most of the articles in the mainstream media only have one purpose: to confuse and disorient working people.

But even articles in the alternative media often fail to get it right.

I think some of the articles makes a lot of good points but have some very faulty conclusions in my opinion.

The number one problem is these articles mainly compare the Minimum Wage to everything except the actual "cost-of-living" and this is the one and only thing that really counts.

Also, I don't agree that 60% of the industrial wages is what we should be aiming for.

First of all because industrial wages are falling mainly because of concession contracts--- even in Canada, but worse here in the U.S. where labor is much weaker.

Second; because everyone has the right to real living wage jobs no matter what those jobs are.

Third; most industrial workers can't get by without using at least several credit cards usually always nearly maxed out.

Working class debt is not even part of the discussion at this point--- because you can purchase what you need to live on credit does this mean you are receiving a real living wage? Of course not.

Studies show most working class families are only a paycheck or two or three away from poverty and often bankruptcy and losing their homes and cars.

At least Canadians don't experience medical bankruptcies but even excluding this, most working class families in the United States and Canada are living at, or very near, poverty--- when actual cost-of-living factors are considered.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics is the most thorough and credible government agency in the world when it comes to tracking actual "cost-of-living" factors which the U.S. Congress has required them to call the "Consumer Price Index" which includes eight categories with each of those eight categories having 200 or so sub-categories.

You won't find most U.S. or Canadian politicians, nor even labor leaders, talking about "cost-of-living;" and, in my opinion, this is why we haven't been able to win a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage.

I think this concept is very important:

We shouldn't be talking about a living wage as if it is not connected to the Minimum Wage.

We need to be very clear: We want the Minimum Wage to be a real living wage. If anyone disagrees with this let them have the moral, political and intellectual courage to argue otherwise.

The whole idea is to win, through struggle, a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage and the ONLY way to accomplish this is to legislatively tie the Minimum Wage to all "cost-of-living" factors, then determine the LEGITIMATE inflation rate and recalculate for inflation quarterly with periodic increases in the Minimum Wage just for the sole purpose of improving the Standard of Living of working people.

The fact of the matter is, the working class has one inflation rate and the wealthy quite another. Inflation doesn't matter to anyone if you have the money to purchase whatever you want. Have you ever heard a wealthy person complain about the price of hamburger or a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread or the price of gas or electricity or the cost of heating their home?

I challenge anyone to tell me there is any other way to arrive at a just Minimum Wage other than tying it to "cost-of-living."

In fact, the greatest advances in union organizing have been achieved when the unions focused on wages in relation to "cost-of-living."

Employers cringe when they hear wages compared to "cost-of-living." And they should because when workers fight for wages in line with "cost-of-living" business profits are going to be diminished--- should we care about their profits? Hell no! Because workers create the wealth.

Don't like what I write? Don't read it. Simple as that.

People have written me suggesting I stop using words like "imperialism," "Dumb Donkey," "Democratic Party hack," "foundation funded outfit," "company mole," "greedy bastards," "warmonger," "millionaire labor leader," "racist white mobsters," "goddamn," "the Israeli killing machine," and so on and so forth.

I never really know how to respond to these "concerns."

My position, quite frankly, and what I tell those complaining, is that they aren't being forced to read anything I write and if they disagree with what I write to simply respond instead of taking these cheap shots.

Usually, I think, although I can't explain the motives of others, is that this is being used as a way to try to try silence and censor me because there is disagreement with my ideas--- and instead of expressing their disagreement with me, it is just simpler for them to try to pressure me not to state my views.

I bring this up because Ken Martin, the Chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, recently told a group of people they should "monitor" my FaceBook posts and my blog posts and file complaints with my Internet Service Provider, Blogger.com and FaceBook anytime they found anything that might be considered "offensive" and in violation of their established standards.

What a morally, ethically and intellectually bankrupt way to participate in the political process.

Why doesn't this piece of donkey dung just come out and post his own responses to me? Goddamn chicken shit... Bakkk, Bak, Bak, Bak, Bak, Baaakkkk.

Wouldn't you know it; these Dumb Donkeys conducted an experiment using the wrong wage.

This Democratic Party front group set up by the AFL-CIO, Working America, sent out this letter (see below).

Please read it very closely.

In my opinion there is something very demented and perverse about this letter.

These Dumb Donkeys are living for a week on the current Federal Minimum wage of $7.25 instead of trying to live on the $9.50 an hour they are proposing.

This is very typical of the way these Democrats operate.

Why wouldn't they try living on their pathetic miserly proposed poverty wage of $9.50 an hour? Wouldn't this be the real test since EVERYONE already knows no one can live on $7.25?

Quite frankly, no one can even live on $15.00 an hour without maxing out a few credit cards until they have to declare bankruptcy.

We have gone from hearing these politicians and their front groups talking about "Elect us if you want the Minimum Wage to be a living wage" to "American needs a raise" to "$9.50 will help" to what the Democrats in the Minnesota State Senate propose instead of $9.50--- "$7.75 is better than $7.25."

These dishonest morons know full well their Democratic counterparts in the Minnesota State Senate are proposing to reach a "compromise" at $7.75--- and furthermore, they are well aware that Mark Dayton has met with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (more commonly referred to as the "Minnesota DFL Business Caucus because Democrats don't like people to know they work behind closed doors with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce to give working people the shaft). Dayton and this "DFL Business Caucus" have agreed the Minimum Wage should not be raised over $8.00 an hour.

Of course this "liberal" billionaire Governor Dayton whose inherited wealth was, and is, being derived almost exclusively from the super-exploitation of Minimum Wage workers who are more often then not subjected to the double-whammy of not just poverty wages but wage theft.

Come on, really; did these Minnesota State legislators have "to spread the word about how hard it really is to live on $7.25 an hour?"

Don't they really have to "prove" that a human being can live on their proposed $9.50 an hour?

Slick as shit the way they pulled off this bait (a living wage) and switch (another poverty wage). Saying one thing to get votes; doing another thing to keep the corporate bribes coming.

Bait and switch is illegal in the retail world; not in the world of politics.

Anyways, read this letter for yourself...



Alan,

We've learned a lot this past week.

Because of our participants across the state, we've helped to spread the word about how hard it really is to live on $7.25 an hour.

We walked through some of the biggest hurdles minimum wage earners have to face, and had real conversations with workers across Minnesota about why a raise is important to them.

We've gotten close, and we need you to act now. Will you contact your state lawmakers now?

Alan, no one should have to skip a meal just to afford bus fare to work. Raising the wage to $9.50 is a start that will help thousands of Minnesota workers.

Can you do one final thing and make sure HR 92 passes the Senate?

It's been a great week, so thank you for participating. For taking action, following along online and engaging with the Challenge in all the ways that you did.

We can do this.

Thanks for all that you do,

Bree Halverson
State Director, Working Minnesota

P.S. Check out all of the photos and blog posts from the week.

AFSCME members in Minnesota are not happy campers.

Rank-and-file AFSCME workers in Minnesota say: We don't want Eliot Seide and his toothless, management-loving paper union

Minnesota's billionaire "liberal" "pro-labor" governor, Mark Dayton, has ordered working hours for thousands of state employees reduced by up to 20% while bringing in lower-paid new hires to do the jobs of the members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees with no objections from the District Director, Eliot Seide, or his side-kick, Eric Lehto. Why no opposition from Shar Knutson, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO or her side-kick Mark Froemke.

What is going on here? State employees are losing 20% of their pay--- their standard of living slashed--- and these union "leaders" sit in silence doing nothing?

No wonder this leaflet is being distributed by a rank-and-file organization made up of AFSCME members who are pissed off:

We don't want Eliot Seide and his toothless, management-loving paper union

Our Dues - Our Union.

OUR AFSCME

Our rights.

Our Livelihoods.

Building a rank and file caucus for a democratic, fighting, militant, united union.

Brothers and Sisters,

With every new contract we have had our rights and our livelihoods decimated. Only a paper union with leaders taking our dues while doing nothing to represent us would have allowed this to happen.

This isn't Eliot Seide's union. This is our union. Let Eliot Seide go into the business world to build his fortune instead of building his fortune on our backs, off our unresolved grievances and problems.

Eliot Seide negotiated a concession contract with a Democratic governor.

The wage increases are far off-set with the rising prices we pay for groceries, home mortgages and rents, home and car insurance, gas, electricity, home heating fuels, child care and college tuition for our children. Our co-pays for healthcare have increased. This is going backwards, not forwards.

Our pensions are at risk.

We get no support or help from union leaders as unfair and unpaid disciplinary suspensions mount. Grievances have become a hassle. Arbitration has become too costly. What do our dues pay for?

One by one we are being picked off and fired as we gain seniority with increased pay levels.

Our union has shamefully endorsed a Minimum Wage for other workers based on what the Chamber of Commerce wants instead of the living wage morality, human decency, justice and solidarity requires.

We have a union leadership covering its betrayals with glowing hypocritical statements of admiration to real leaders like Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela as a cover for refusing to stand and fight the injustices of the present.

We ask you to build a caucus of OUR AFSCME in your AFSCME local and in your workplace. Together we can get our AFSCME back on course. This is OUR union. OUR dues.

We need an active and involved membership. We need to understand self-serving power in our union and the power of management concede nothing without struggle. Our union was built in struggle. Our union will survive in struggle fighting for our rights, for safe workplaces and for our livelihoods.

Forward together. Together In Struggle. Together in Solidarity. OUR AFSCME the voice of the rank-and-file