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.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Saturday, April 19, 2014
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/
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/
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
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.
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.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
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.
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...
6 p.m. Central---14 April---Monday---
Alan L. Maki, www.thepodunkblog.blogspot.com, political analyst and social activist is back.
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
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
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
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
Monday, April 7, 2014
A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage
A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage
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.
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