Let's get this straight: Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis tells us that unionized workers amount to only 12.3% of American "wage and salary" workers, which is one-tenth of a percentage point lower than when President Obama took office. "Wage and salary" workers who are not government workers dropped from 7.6% to 7.2 percent.
Solis goes on to spin these remarkably low numbers to say that union-free workers make less with fewer benefits, which is why she and the Administration are pushing so hard for the Employee Free Choice Act.
A couple of points to be made for those still free of mind and body in the Obama Age of Oppression.
First, union membership in America has dwindled to become primarily the domain of government. Private sector workers increasingly want to be union free.
Yet, the Obama Administration pushes EFCA, which would allow unions to organize workers by coercion, instead of a fair secret ballot. They want this because when workers get a chance to hear the facts and vote in secret instead of being ganged up on by union "organizers", they vote to stay union free.
The Obama crew supports EFCA because it is a payback to union bosses who supported his presidency.
Think about it. Only 7.2 percent of Americans in the private sector are unionized. The rest -- 92.8 percent -- are union free and they are union free by choice.
Workers all over the nation struggle for union representation and the corporations keep going to their Republican politicians for newer rules to keep union organizers away, unions out, and ways to bust the unions that exist. I know, I organized for the Teamsters at one time. Legal and illegal threats and intimidation continue to be used by corporations.
Wal*Mart ("Always Low Wages") for example. You'll be fired if you even say the word union. One Wal-Mart group of employees succeeded in gaining representation for their butchers and Wal-Mart closed the whole store.
This is the company, by the way, that gives its employees classes on how to get food stamps and apply for 'free' country services (because their wages are so low). The same store that brags that it offers health insurance to its employees. ("You pay $500 a year and if you get sick, we'll pay up to $1,000.")
You noted union membership is down; notice what condition our country is in. Notice the jobs shipped overseas. Notice Wal-Mart purchases its goods from Chinese slave labor. Note the CEO's writing themselves bonus checks.
Unions built this country. Workers are NOT against the better wages and benefits offered by unions.
RSS
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