Your thoughts please - 12/14/05 08:10 PM
I have been giving this a good bit of thought. Many of us work in jobs that make our employeers hundreds of thousands if not millions a year. I work in a job where my company makes 2.5 million off of me every year. Now I get a decent wage but many do not. I get less 56,000 a year. With 56,000 a year and home morgages in my areas starting in the 300,000 range for a small 2 bedroom 2 bath... Well you do the math. It still takes both mine and my wifes income. Unions helped bring workers up in the 50's through to the 80's but somewhere around 10% of employees are now union. This means thier time has pretty much come and gone.
Conservative democrats and Republicans have enacted many laws wich make the ability for employees to gather can enact unions difficult at best. Add to the the threat of out sourcing, even if you do form a union your shop can close up and be moved to india where they work for a bowl of rice. The working class has expanded to include Professors, Computer techs, engineers, "skilled workers". This is evident in looking at the tax cuts passed over the last 2 decades. The lion share 80% of which go to the top 20% money earners of the nation.
My thought is gathering in small groups at compaines is not going to work as you can be fired, harassed, and factory closed if you suceed. But we could unite in our buying power. It is too late this year. But what would happen if the targets and walmarts were empty come next years Christmass and people only shoped at mom and pop shops? Or if they only bought from places that took good care of employees? What if no one in america bought from companies that out sourced? The good might be made in China, india, hong kong... But we buy most of them. We still have the most money.
If we were to act now while we still command a great deal of buying power we could force the hand of the powers that be. My only problem is how to get the word out? How do we get ALL of the lower and middle class behind this idea? How doe we convince people spending a little more in the near future(five years) means more money in thier pocket.
Here is the issue. If you buy from Wal-mart who uses Child labor in third world countries... Yes you will get a great deal. But thier employees can't afford to live like the people in thier new commercials. Now if they could this would drive your wages up. Do you have any idea how many walmart employees there are in the US? Any idea how many different jobs/industries this company spans? Unions were found to move workers wages up. They were also found to move NON UNION wages up as the wages union workers made were figured in to the average salery for that industry.
Due to laws and outsourcing it is not safe to organise and demand more wages. So maybe if people work the other end. Maybe if people just quit buying from that company and see if they can market to the top 20% of the nation. Boycott any company doing a layoff or shedding a pension plan. If you here of a labor unfriendly company boycott them. Call them up and tell them you are boycotting them and telling all your co-workers and friends you are. This will be a joke at first as no one has sucessfully done this wide scale in our generation. But if we can pull it off. Only support companies after they raise wages and benifits.
I want to see
Health care paid for
35k and above wages
pension plans protected(for those frozen I want them un frozen and promises renewed)
Stock options
Many companies say they have to do these things to compete with new compaines without these protections in place for thier employees. Show them it makes a difference in our choice at the counter. If major compaies fall. SO [censored] BE IT.
Also there needs to be a focus on polotics. Maybe even a working class party formed. Nothing like green party, Something broad that everyone can agree on. A party that ensures our children are educated, that wars are not for profit, that government contracts are bided out to cheap companies in the US who pay thier employees decent enough to live.
I do not want to be a leader or rich. I just want to live without the bill collector on my back and worrying if I can take care of my daughter. I am sick of seeing fat cats suck up millions every year and cut back on thier workers. DEMAND THEY TREAT US WITH RESPECT. DEMAND THEY TREAT US AS THE FORCE WE CAN BE. We have a power of numbers and money. I need your ideas on how to get the idea out and how to organise. I will do it. Of course a website will start but people are calous to them now. Mass email is only deleted. What is a cheap effective way to get a boycott out?
Conservative democrats and Republicans have enacted many laws wich make the ability for employees to gather can enact unions difficult at best. Add to the the threat of out sourcing, even if you do form a union your shop can close up and be moved to india where they work for a bowl of rice. The working class has expanded to include Professors, Computer techs, engineers, "skilled workers". This is evident in looking at the tax cuts passed over the last 2 decades. The lion share 80% of which go to the top 20% money earners of the nation.
My thought is gathering in small groups at compaines is not going to work as you can be fired, harassed, and factory closed if you suceed. But we could unite in our buying power. It is too late this year. But what would happen if the targets and walmarts were empty come next years Christmass and people only shoped at mom and pop shops? Or if they only bought from places that took good care of employees? What if no one in america bought from companies that out sourced? The good might be made in China, india, hong kong... But we buy most of them. We still have the most money.
If we were to act now while we still command a great deal of buying power we could force the hand of the powers that be. My only problem is how to get the word out? How do we get ALL of the lower and middle class behind this idea? How doe we convince people spending a little more in the near future(five years) means more money in thier pocket.
Here is the issue. If you buy from Wal-mart who uses Child labor in third world countries... Yes you will get a great deal. But thier employees can't afford to live like the people in thier new commercials. Now if they could this would drive your wages up. Do you have any idea how many walmart employees there are in the US? Any idea how many different jobs/industries this company spans? Unions were found to move workers wages up. They were also found to move NON UNION wages up as the wages union workers made were figured in to the average salery for that industry.
Due to laws and outsourcing it is not safe to organise and demand more wages. So maybe if people work the other end. Maybe if people just quit buying from that company and see if they can market to the top 20% of the nation. Boycott any company doing a layoff or shedding a pension plan. If you here of a labor unfriendly company boycott them. Call them up and tell them you are boycotting them and telling all your co-workers and friends you are. This will be a joke at first as no one has sucessfully done this wide scale in our generation. But if we can pull it off. Only support companies after they raise wages and benifits.
I want to see
Health care paid for
35k and above wages
pension plans protected(for those frozen I want them un frozen and promises renewed)
Stock options
Many companies say they have to do these things to compete with new compaines without these protections in place for thier employees. Show them it makes a difference in our choice at the counter. If major compaies fall. SO [censored] BE IT.
Also there needs to be a focus on polotics. Maybe even a working class party formed. Nothing like green party, Something broad that everyone can agree on. A party that ensures our children are educated, that wars are not for profit, that government contracts are bided out to cheap companies in the US who pay thier employees decent enough to live.
I do not want to be a leader or rich. I just want to live without the bill collector on my back and worrying if I can take care of my daughter. I am sick of seeing fat cats suck up millions every year and cut back on thier workers. DEMAND THEY TREAT US WITH RESPECT. DEMAND THEY TREAT US AS THE FORCE WE CAN BE. We have a power of numbers and money. I need your ideas on how to get the idea out and how to organise. I will do it. Of course a website will start but people are calous to them now. Mass email is only deleted. What is a cheap effective way to get a boycott out?