Support Our Public Servants

Under international law, all workers have a human right to organize and to bargain collectively. These rights are delineated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights among many other documents and conventions.

It's not just about having to pay more for benefits and pensions or receiving less in salary. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to dismantle the leverage that workers have to balance out political interests.

Dear conservative friends, this is not fair, and it's not about balancing his state's budget, it's cynically taking advantage of hard times to bludgeon who he see's as political enemies. Please, please, can't you see this?

Teachers, Firemen, and Policemen are not selfish anti-American conspirators. They're willing to negotiate and make sacrifices for the budget, but they're standing up for what used to be something that helped build the middle-class.

Why is it that we're trying to take away workers' voices, yet the Roberts Court granted corporations Constitutional rights as individuals under the 'Citizens United' decision? Why is it we're so afraid of labor unions, but political action committees and multinational corporations get protected?

Help Unions

Hey, I just got a personal email from Democratic Party Chairman, Gov. Dr. Howard Dean!
Okay, just another spam forward, but this much of it was interesting and important:

The House of Representatives is set to debate and pass a bill that will restore American workers' right to freely choose whether or not to form a union. Join the Democratic majority in the House and show your support for the Employee Free Choice Act:

http://www.democrats.org/StrengthenUnions

Research shows union members earn 30% more than nonunion workers. What's more, union workers are 63% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are four times more likely to have a guaranteed pension.

The benefits of union membership are clear. That's why nearly half of American workers who are not currently represented by unions -- 60 million people -- say that they'd join one if they had the chance. But every year since 1981, union membership has declined. And a major reason for that fall-off is the many obstacles workers face when they try to form a union or negotiate a union contract.

The Employee Free Choice Act is a simple, effective solution to restore the right of workers to form unions and bargain for better wages and benefits for themselves and their families. It has three key provisions:

• Require employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers sign authorization cards saying they want union representation.
• Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
• Strengthen penalties for companies that illegally intimidate employees to prevent them from forming a union.

No management coercion, no waiting period, no stacked deck -- just the freedom for workers to stand up for their rights.

The Tin man is rusty

There it goes. Summer. Last Monday was the unofficial end. Oh sure, it’s dang hot this week, and autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 23, but you and I both know that the jig is up. The kids are back to school, the tomato, zucchini, and cucumber crops are tapering off and there really isn’t any more good fresh sweet corn. The last big BBQ, the last family reunions, the last trip to the lake, that was last weekend.

Here’s how my goofy brain works; it’s Labor Day so I think about Memorial Day, the other book-end on summer. Whenever I think about Memorial Day I think about three things, veterans, the Indianapolis 500, and the Wizard of Oz. That’s not so weird. For decades the Wizard of Oz and the Indy 500 always came on TV that weekend, so stay with me.

Okay, so I’m thinking about Frank Baum’s "The Wizard of Oz," that makes me think of Labor Day again. "What? Where is he going with this?" You’re saying to yourself, trust me, I’ll get there.

The Wizard of Oz is actually an allegory. An Allegory is a story where everything symbolizes something else, right? Come to find out that Dorothy represents all of us, at least we average Midwesterners. The Wizard represented politicians, the Emerald City is Washington D.C., all our hopes and dreams for a better life are pinned on the Wiz.

The Cowardly Lion is the Church, it’s supposed to reign in our lives, but too often Christians are too complacent or too frightened to take a stand for what’s right. The Scarecrow is Farming, Agriculture, the American Farmer. Scarecrow was probably the smarted person in the story of the Wizard of Oz, but too often we in rural America sell ourselves short. I hear students everyday put themselves down because they’re from Iowa or from a small town, when in reality we’re no less intelligent or sophisticated then anyone else in America.

The Tin Man is more rusty than ever these days. He represented the American worker. I don’t know if it’s the 50’s fear of Communism, the 60’s and 70’s corruption and unrest, or the rampant greed and materialism of the 80’s and 90’s, but it seems like people just don’t respect labor anymore. In the 90’s, less than 15 percent of workers belonged to unions, in the 1950's of nearly half did.

It could be that all we ever hear about is the "new economy," information and service have replaced manufacturing. It could be that we encourage our kids to get white-collar jobs to make more money. It could be that more and more blue-collar jobs are held by immigrants. Sometimes we whites wish life and America would just stay white. Whatever the reason we forget about the working man. Even if politically you’re opposed to labor unions, you should still recognize and respect the contribution of workers.

We think of farmers on thanksgiving and veterans on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but on Labor Day, we think about Boats, Brauts, and Bud Light.

Let me give you a refresher course. In the 1890’s Pullman Illinois was a "Company Town." That meant workers lived in homes rented to them by the Railroad they worked for. Pay was low and rent was high.

It reminds you of the line from Tennessee Ernie Ford’s old tune "Sixteen Tons"-

"Saint Peter don’t ya call me ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store."

At any rate, Eugene V. Debs came in and organized the American Railway Union. They went on strike for better by, lower rent and a day off once a year. President Grover Cleveland broke the strike and Debs went to prison, his ARU was disbanded, and Pullman employees were forced to sign a pledge not to unionize again. Unions were pretty much eliminated until the Great Depression.

In September 1892, union workers in New York City took an unpaid day off and marched around Union Square in support of a national holiday for workers.

1894 was an election year. President Cleveland seized the chance at conciliation, and Labor Day was born. He was not reelected.

Think about your folks. Whether they’re farmers, teachers, mechanics, hair-dressers, sell insurance, drive truck, or work at the plant, they were working to keep a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food on the table. Labor day is summer’s last hurrah, but it should also be a day when you say thanks to people who work hard to make life better. Without the Tin Man, you’d never get out of the woods.