Labor Day 2013 Message from MWRO

Across Michigan, Churches, Synagogues, Temples, Meeting Rooms, assorted places of worship, and in residences everywhere, the message of labor was spoken on the Sunday before Labor Day, and that message is clear... "we will not go back!!"

No matter that at present the Koch brothers and their partners have the upper hand -- destroying the lives of millions, putting profits before people and making our today's and our tomorrows miserable. Our numbers are greater so in the end, we will win out and we will craft a world where we can live with dignity and without fear of hunger or homelessness.

Poverty is on the rise but we will meet it at every juncture and turn it back block by block until that word is just a memory. Workers...Stand Strong and Garner Hope! The enemy is powerful, but righteousness is more powerful. These pirates from the corporate world had best celebrate these recent victories because our army grows day by day, angered by the series of assaults against us and soon - very soon - we will rise up and take control of the earth. Arab summers, Baptist summers, Urban summers, Youth summers, Rural summers, Senior summers, Worker summers -- it will be hot everywhere once we all agree that the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few.

Victory is near, colleagues...Courage to us all and stay focused!

MD Taylor, State Chairperson
MI Welfare Rights Org.

Frederick Douglas quote fist image from Tai's Tees

BROKE-BACK DEMOCRATS!

'Cipients Speak!
by Maureen D. Taylor
State Chair, MWRO

Workers entered a new world yesterday, one that will have ramifications for their futures forever. The legislation called “RIGHT TO WORK” means that workers will forever have the right to work for lower wages, for missing benefits, for non- existent safety regulations, and for no job protections against workplace offenses.

Michigan joins the rest of America and the 23 other states who have already passed similar legislation. The Governor of Michigan, Republican Rick Snyder, was quite candid as he analyzed what the “true” meaning was of this significant vote that has shaken the entire world. Gleefully, he explained that this was not an attack on organized labor but was, in fact, a measure that supports a worker’s right to choose! He went on to say that this legislation allows unions to demonstrate why they are important. If they are unable to convince workers that they are still relevant, workers should be able to stop paying dues. Contracts negotiated by those who decide to stay will still cover non-union employees.

Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac – these are all cities that are synonymous with the birth of organized labor. The powerful unions from that era marked forever the strength and the influence of blue-collar workers for years. There was a time when the General Motors worker was the highest paid worker in the world. All contractual agreements negotiated by municipalities, schools, and organizations from city to state were modeled after those written by organized labor. Why? Because these words took into consideration both the health and safety of those covered by those contracts. Wages that separated workers from poverty were negotiated. Health benefits that addressed the medical needs of workers and their families were settled. Time off, continuous training, all kinds of community services programs, blood drives, holiday fund-raisers, events for children and seniors alike – this is the legacy that organized labor has given millions of middle income families.

Yesterday, that world was changed forever. The race to the bottom has been fueled, the back of the Democratic Party - which depends on unions at election time - has been broken. Republicans, who depend on corporate dollars, have secured electoral victories for decades to come. Is this the battle we want to fight? Time to analyze what just happened, and why.

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

UAW Exposes GOP Efforts to Punish Organized Labor

By Maureen D. Taylor,
MWRO State Chairperson

Last Friday, Dec. 12th, 2008, two days after the 60th anniversary that the Declaration of Human Rights was signed, the American worker was stabbed by corporate capitalism and their elected official friends. In a stunning betrayal of truth, a small Nazi-fringe of the GOP engineered the collapse of the auto-loan request designed to stop blue-collar workers from being put out on the streets.

This country is alone in its refusal to help shore up manufacturing entities making lack-luster politicians who heretofore stood mute, into outstanding champions for justice. Better late than never! No minor children should read beyond this point, because the language is about to take a low ride.

Today, AIG -- the American Insurance Group -- that was given billions over the last several weeks was caught again giving bonuses to their executive staff. According to our sources, some 78 administrative staff received these dollars ranging from $92K to $4M each! This would be the third such “gift” from our tax dollars provided to executives, while blue-collar workers are being asked to “grovel.”

UAW President Gettelfinger was impressive as he exposed the “secret GOP memo” that suggested methods and rationales for how to punish the UAW for their support of Democratic candidates over the years. Today, we learned the fees taxpayers paid to “right to work” states to bring off-shore auto manufacturers to Tennessee and to Alabama. He revealed the shocking $500M Tennesseans paid to Volkswagen to build a factory there along with years of tax abatements! He revealed the $252M paid to Hundai, the $29M paid to Toyota, the $158M paid to Honda, and the $253M paid to Mercedez by Alabamans so that these competitors could locate manufacturing hubs in America. He revealed the deal penned by our own Peter Karmanos, who purchased 2,500 Benz’s for his executive staff.

American workers should craft new plans for a better future. Suggestions: buy factories and start making our own cars – we know how! File tyranny charges against AIG, Alabama and Tennessee state senators and take them to court for crimes against American workers. Take over the production of all industries and operate them toward the benefit of working people everywhere. Research what elected officials in Indonesia, and China make so that these high and mighty senators can lead by example and start accepting similar salaries as they are demanding American workers to do. Juan Williams from Fox News suggested that blue-collar workers do earn too much, so we need to research what news broadcasters in Indonesia and Mexico make so he too can lead by example and accepts similar wages.

We have reached the end of an era. What will the next set of pages contain about how the world is to be run? You get what you organize to take. These corporations hate you. They hate your children. They would see you die from starvation, from neighborhood violence, from no health care, and we are walking into the crematoriums without so much as a whimper. Fool us once, shame on you…fool us over and over and over again, shame on us! Wake Up!

(Image from China Daily, includes Republican Senators Richard Shelby (AL), center; John Ensign (NV), and Jim DeMint (SC).

Blue Collar UAW Singled Out in Auto Bailout

We've been watching the Congressional hearings and the bailout developments with the Big 3--General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler--and have been following the new plan to insert a Car Czar into the mix. Having been hoodwinked by bank leaders who took the money and ran to spas and their shareholders before answering questions on how they got into this mess, current planners want answers before they cut checks.

While MWRO doesn't approve of any corporate welfare, it strikes us as unfair that automakers, whose majority of employees are blue collar workers, are being held to more scrutiny and higher standards than white collar Wall Street bankers. Before this latest fiasco, factory employees and workers in related industries already made major concessions in pay and benefits to keep these companies alive. Any trips to the spa were stopped a long time ago as it became harder to hold onto your job and your home. As reported on the UAW website:

The Economic Policy Institute reports that 3.3 million jobs would be lost if U.S. automakers collapse, with Michigan, California, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Indiana and New York the biggest job losers.

Skilled United Automotive Workers (UAW) have made massive contributions to the labor standards that millions of U.S. (and international) workers have achieved: sit-down strikes forcing companies to bargain with employees, increased paid vacation, paid holidays, calls for postwar equal pay and full employment for women, cost-of-living pay increases, workers pensions, Supplemental Unemployment Benefits, paid hospitalization and sick day benefits, medical benefits for retirees, and more.

Sure, the Big 3 have plenty to answer for when it comes to poor quality vehicles and designs in recent times; and for dragging their feet to build environmentally friendly cars and trucks. But Michigan and the Midwest were built on the hard factory work and hard fought union organizing of people employed in these plants.

Detroit and southeast Michigan have suffered massively in jobs losses and housing foreclosures. Some say it's time for Detroit and Michigan to move beyond a manufacturing economy and embrace new technology and new employment sectors (like life sciences). The technology is already here, as evidenced by the increased roboticization of factory work where workers are replaced by robots that don't need benefits or bathroom breaks. But before Michigan workers can look toward tomorrow, they need some governmental help to maintain life today.