What the Labor Movement Begat

How To Strengthen America

Celebrating May Day, all right

Yes, you can bet a lot of us are celebrating "May Day", May 1 today. But it's not just all about the flowers and Springtime.

This is the May Day we're celebrating:

L

36 Reasons Why You Should Thank a Union (even if you don't belong to one):

-Weekends

-All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks

-Paid Vacation 

-FMLA

-Sick Leave

-Social Security

-Minimum Wage

-Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination)

-8-Hour Work Day

-Overtime Pay

-Child Labor Laws

-Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)

-40 Hour Work Week

-Worker’s Compensation (Worker’s Comp)

-Unemployment Insurance

-Pensions

-Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations

-Employer Health Care Insurance

-Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees

-Wrongful Termination Laws

-Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

-Whistleblower Protection Laws

-Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee)

-Veteran’s Employment and Training Services (VETS)

-Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)

-Sexual Harassment Laws

-Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

-Holiday Pay

-Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance

-Privacy Rights

-Pregnancy and Parental Leave

-Military Leave

-The Right to Strike

-Public Education for Children

-Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work)

-Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States

Via AFL-CIO --> http://bit.ly/R6QxXd

On where we are now and why we need labor unions

From today's New York Times:

The Great Divide

The 1 Percent Are Only Half the Problem

One reason the left plays down the growing skills-based gap is that it accepts at face value the conservative claim that educational failure is its root cause. But the decline of labor unions is just as important. At one time union membership was highly effective at reducing or eliminating the wage gap between college and high school graduates. That’s much less true today. Only about 7 percent of the private-sector labor force is covered by union contracts, about the same proportion as before the New Deal. Six decades ago it was nearly 40 percent.

The decline of labor unions is what connects the skills-based gap to the 1 percent-based gap. Although conservatives often insist that the 1 percent’s richesse doesn’t come out of the pockets of the 99 percent, that assertion ignores the fact that labor’s share of gross domestic product is shrinking while capital’s share is growing. Since 1979, except for a brief period during the tech boom of the late 1990s, labor’s share of corporate income has fallen. Pension funds have blurred somewhat the venerable distinction between capital and labor. But that’s easy to exaggerate, since only about one-sixth of all households own stocks whose value exceeds $7,000. According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, the G.D.P. shift from labor to capital explains fully one-third of the 1 percent’s run-up in its share of national income. It couldn’t have happened if private-sector unionism had remained strong.

Reviving labor unions is, sadly, anathema to the right; even many mainstream liberals resist the idea. But if economic growth depends on rewarding effort, we should all worry that the middle classes aren’t getting pay increases commensurate with the wealth they create for their bosses. Bosses aren’t going to fix this problem. That’s the job of unions, and finding ways to rebuild them is liberalism’s most challenging task. A bipartisan effort to revive the labor movement is hardly likely, but halting inequality’s growth will depend, at the very least, on liberals and conservatives better understanding each other’s definition of where the problem lies.

--Timothy Noah, author of "The Great Divergence: America's Growing Inequality and What We Can Do About It"

The Great Divide is a series on inequality — the haves, the have-nots and everyone in between — in the United States and around the world, and its implications for economics, politics, society and culture. The series moderator is Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, a Columbia professor and a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist for the World Bank.

Nearly unbelievable legislation coming out of Jeff City right now

It shouldn't surprise me but it does. According to Missouri Legislator Jake Hummell, "bills have already been filed to strip prevailing wage from the Joplin reconstruction work and for Right to Work." As I said, nearly unbelievable. The people of Joplin need this work done, clearly, and the people doing the work need the employment, of course. More than that, all of us need a decent, living wage, a "prevailing wage." Is that so much to ask? Apparently, of the Republican leadership down in Jeff City---and, of course, in Washington, too--it is. It's so disappointing. So disgusting.

Quote of the day

"The best customer of American industry is the well-paid worker." --President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Things we can boycott of the Koch Brothers empire

Given that these two billionaires--Bill and Richard Koch--are doing their best to destroy labor unions and collective bargaining every way they can, starting with Wisconsin's labor laws and now fanning out across the country--it seems only fair to arm ourselves with whatever information we can, in an effort to fight back.

Given that and knowing that the Koch corporate empire is huge, it could be good to know what products they distribute so we can hopefully avoid them--boycott the items--so we don't "feed the beast", so to speak.

Herewith, then are items the Koch empire supplies and benefits from:

Angel Soft toilet paper

Brawny paper towels

Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups

Mardi Gras napkins and towels

Quilted Northern toilet paper

Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper

Sparkle napkins

Vanity fair napkins

Zee napkins

Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes

All Georgia-Pacific lumber and building products, including:

Dense Armor Drywall and Decking

ToughArmor Gypsum board

Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood

Flexrock

Densglass sheathing

G/P Industrial plasters (some products used by a lot of crafters)

FibreStrong Rim board

G/P Lam board

Blue Ribbon OSB Rated Sheathing

Blue Ribbon Sub-floor

DryGuard Enhanced OSB

Nautilus Wall Sheathing

Thermostat OSB Radiant Barrier Sheathing

Broadspan Engineered Wood Products

XJ 85 I-Joists

FireDefender Banded Cores

FireDefender FS

FireDefender Mineral Core

Hardboard and Thin MDF including Auto Hardboard

Perforated Hardboard and Thin MDF

Wood Fiberboard

Commercial Roof Fiberboard

Hushboard Sound Deadening Board

Regular Fiberboard Sheathing

Structural Fiberboard Sheathing

(INVISTA Products):

COMFOREL® fiberfill

COOLMAX® fabric

CORDURA® fabric

DACRON® fiber

POLYSHIELD® resin

SOLARMAX® fabric

SOMERELLE® bedding products

STAINMASTER® carpet

SUPPLEX® fabric

TACTEL® fiber

TACTESSE® carpet fiber

TERATE® polyols

TERATHANE® polyether glycol

THERMOLITE® fabric

PHENREZ® resin

POLARGUARD® fiber and

LYCRA® fiber

Link to original post:  http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150078/how_you_can_boycott_the_kochs/

For more and better information on the Koch Brothers and what they do and have done here in America, to Americans, to the middle- and lower-classes, link here:
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150071/the_kochs_vs._mainstreet:_the_right-wing_billionaires'_open_war_on_everyday_americans/

The Funk fails to lead again/some more

Yesterday, as I wrote here earlier, our not-so-illustrious Mayor Mark "the Funk" Funkhouser was on KCUR's "Central Standard" radio program.  He told of what he did during his first tenure ("got our economic/financial house in order", paraphrased) and said what he would want to do in a second term if--God forbid--he were re-elected.

The Star points out today--very well--in an op/ed piece on the "E tax" mess we and St. Louis are in, that as soon as the vote on the Prop A/E-tax was done, St. Louis' mayor jumped all over it and said they were going to form a business/government alliance to defeat it.

Our own mayor?

To date, no word of coordination with anyone.

Instead, again, as the Star points out:  "...Mayor Mark Funkhouser hasn't provided any real leadership to rally different groups behind the cause.  Instead, he's feuded for months with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, creating a deep schism with business leaders."

So typical of this mayor.  Instead of working WITH people--nearly anyone--he virtually always fights them.  I've said, time and again, I can't imagine who this mayor works WITH.  It's him and Gloria against the world. And they seem to like it that way.

So since the mayor isn't leading on this, people from the chamber, the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 42 and the Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City have all decided to come together, wisely, and fight this E-tax vote coming up.

Thank goodness someone's leading in town.

We sure aren't going to get it from Mayor Mark Funkhouser.

Link:  http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/06/2502435/the-stars-editorial-riding-to.html

Quote of the day II -- on the need for government regulations

Mines don't fall apart by accident. Neither do economies. They crumble from choices and policies that put profits ahead of people -- and leave working people in the rubble.

But we can -- and I believe we will -- rise from America's economic disaster just like those Chilean miners. They're strong. So are we.    --Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO, from The Huffington Post

Link to original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-trumka/lets-cheer-the-chilean-mi_b_762509.html