MWRO Opposition to Right To Work

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization stands against the awful, regressive “RIGHT TO WORK” laws being forced on workers in this State. We are not fooled by these slick t.v. commercials. All attempts to “trick” residents into believing that this law has anything to do with freedom of choice is a blatant lie and must be exposed.

The truth is that the corporate community has decided that the best way for them to continue to make maximum profits while not hiring us for work is to lower our wages, take away our benefits, develop robots and technology that replace us permanently; and to convince us that this is the American future for us all. This is NOT our future!

“RIGHT TO WORK” is an attack against organized labor and more. What is the UNION?? Unions are those workers that set livable wages for all. Unions are those workers that set safety regulations that suggest all ten finger and both lungs are sacred. Unions are those workers who set policies that protect women when management supervisors want a quick touch. Unions are those workers who won’t allow companies to force children to work in mines.

We have failed over the years to define what a UNION is and why they are important, a mistake that has now come to hurt us. The UNION movement was born at night, but not LAST NIGHT, so we are now forced into this fight for our lives and for the future of the next generation of workers. The percentage of organized labor unions is today at its lowest but we are not fooled into believing that those worker protections we owe to UNIONS are no longer critical.

Children, grandchildren, all the children will one day ask, “What did we do to stop this attack on our collective standard of living when the corporate beast came after our futures?” All workers, from those who are low income to those who are middle income to those who are upper income, should be alarmed at this attempt to turn the clock back. Tuesday, many of us will travel to Lansing to make our voices clear about this “RIGHT TO WORK” lie. It is but one step toward the long march to re-capture the future of the next generation.

Another World Is Possible, Another America Is Necessary. The “needs of the many must always outweigh the needs of the few.” You get what you organize to take.

Maureen D. Taylor
State Chair, MWRO

What Have Poor People Done to Deserve Such Hatred?

The foundation on which society rests has been permanently altered. The question is this: What Have Poor People Done To Deserve Such Hatred?

The State House of Michigan has passed House Bill #4409 to separate welfare families from cash assistance if they have reached their lifetime cap of 48 months, retroactively. In the worst job market, the worst housing market, the worst spike in violence in decades, and the worst spike up in suicides as well, is this the time to kick poor people off? They will no longer be able to pay for rent, mortgages, lights, gas and water.

Yesterday, yet another dagger was pushed into the frail bodies of these low income families, also supported by a gang of demonic public officials. As these families are identified as no longer eligible for cash, their Social Security numbers will be sent to the State Police so they can cross-checked with existing open warrants.

If a family member has an outstanding warrant for jay walking, child support, a moving traffic violation that has not been addressed, they can expect to found and arrested and held until that court matter is settled. That person's component of the family Food Stamps will be removed and will not be retroactively restored when and if the court case is settled.

As the foundation of society is crumbling, workers must work harder to understand these new dynamics that will forever more control our lives. There is no middle class -- the middle of what? There is one working class, some earn this much while others earn that much and some earn no money at all, but we are all still one class.

Technology that used to enhance labor now replaces it. Think about the U.S. Post Office, self-check out counters at grocery stores, ATM cards that replaced our visits with tellers inside banks, etc. Think of the new "zip rental car" that has streamlined the process of renting cars without agents to manage that task. Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, Dollar employees and the rest will soon feel the sting of
mass layoffs as soon as these mega-agencies perfect this procedure and install this newest technology in place of human beings.

People-workers have to envision what kind of new world we want to see, who it should care for, how it should care for us, and make certain that we put steps in place to "make it so." The needs of the many must always outweigh the needs of the few!

The June 30th, 2012, March To Washington will underscore that theme: One Class,
One Cause! We are organizing across the country for this mega-event that will be the beginning of eliminating poverty. You only have 298 days left to get involved. Do something today!! http://www.end-poverty.org/ Email: endpoverty2012@gmail.com, or call: (313) 964-0618.

Image screen shot from Media Voices for Children

Maureen Taylor on Mark Steiner Show

"Do the volatile financial markets, weak economy, rising inequality, and global protests mean that capitalism is failing us?  Do we need a new system, or just reform of our current economic structures?"

Listen to The Mark Steiner Show on the nature and the future of capitalism. This August 15, 2011, podcast includes discussion and analysis by Maureen Taylor, State Chair, MWRO; and Sam Pizzigati,  author of Greed and Good, a book on the looting of the U.S. from the top.

Taylor and Pizzigati discuss whether capitalism in the U.S. is fundamentally flawed or simply in need of reform, plus the role of technology and the state of workers. The Mark Steiner Show is broadcast on WEAA 88.9FM, Baltimore, Maryland.

Listen to the podcast or download the mp3.

Image from The Mark Steiner Show.

Why We March June 2012: Politicians Live High on the Hog at our Expense

The foundation on which society rests has changed forever.  Let’s take a look at these elected officials that live high on the hog at our expense.

How can Federal elected officials, even those who call themselves “our friends,” make recommendations on the future of our lives as they keep collecting checks written in six-figures? Sure, they all claim heritages of immigrant forefathers, grandpa and grandma couldn’t even speak English, blue-collar histories of remarkable fortitude that produced this or that politician. But how has this now given them the “right” to live well at our expense? They all have health care, clinics where they work, free gas, free trips for themselves and their families, and other perks that would make the average working family blush with shame.

A fireman in Lansing, MI, who was distraught about attacks on his pension stood alone and away from the others in front of the Capitol Bldg. with a sign that read, “It takes elected officials 5 years to earn a pension. It takes me 25 years to get mine.” Could that be true? 

Pensions under attack, stabilized salaries under attack, haven’t heard one politician step up and demand that their salary be cut in half, have you?  Many believe that poverty and wont are all right for much of the country as long as they are not included in this statistics. 

Technology again has an answer for us based on common sense: we don’t need high-paid politicians to rule and lord over us because we can construct gadgets to do a better job, and we don’t have to pay gadgets at all.  Some workers, somewhere are already thinking about ways to collect government statistics, how to glean information and make appropriate adjustments based on those facts.  How hard is it to construct a computer generated devise that can manage the needs of the many, and not the needs of the few?

Food would cost this much based on the average salary in a particular neighborhood.  Gas would cost this much, based on the same criteria.  Utilities would be capped at a percentage of the earned income per household, maybe around 5-6% of the total household income.  Housing, the same standard rule, new cars and used cars, and everything else we need to purchase, etc.  What would happen if we passed a national referendum capping what House & Senate members, Governors, Mayors, County Commissioners, City Council Persons and the rest of the lot were able to earn on our dime?

THE ASSEMBLY TO END POVERTY is calling for a NATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON, June 30^th, 2012.  Get involved – call: (313) 964-0618 or email endpoverty2010@gmail.com. You have 326 days left to get busy!  

Image from WillBlogForFood