Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Happy Labor Day!

Let's not forget that too many of our fellow citizens have lost their jobs this year due to the cavalier psychopathy or sociopathy of those in Washington who work for wages paid out of my taxes and yours, even if we no longer have a job. As I write this at the beginning of the Labor Day Weekend, such lowlifes as those in the White House are touting a just received August jobs report that says the citizens of America gained over 1 million jobs last month. However, decent, moral people would not try to pass off American citizens going back to their jobs after months of being shut out of their workplace, as having gotten a "new job," especially when we are still 20,000,000 jobs in the hole if one bothers to look at the 40,000,000 jobs lost this year. Really, not even a "similar" job or one at reduced pay shouldn't count as a new job either. It's cynical and disingenuous to the max to not provide an honest context, but, republicans in Washington are known to say, "I really don't care, do you?" Yeah, Mr., Miss, or Mrs. Repug, I do care. Go ahead and call me a Marxist, a trouble maker, or whatever your favorite word of the week is but you, Mr., Miss, or Mrs. Repug can just go fuck off!

I obviously chose tonight's meme because it reminds me that, as the school year begins, our teachers are facing a new danger this year; not one brought about due to the increase in violent weather due to ignored climate change dangers or the failure to act on gun safety issues, but because the mass murderer in the White House and his accomplices willfully chose to ignore the dangers indicated in early coronavirus reports that they had in their possession as early as December of 2019. Now our teachers are being asked to face yet another threat to their lives and the lives of their students and their families. Not only that, but our teachers are not even being given so much as an extra dime of hazard pay.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Happy Labor Day!

Everything on this list is a thorn in the side of today's Republican Party. Americans died for the things on this list during labor demonstrations and Americans died defending these rights and this way of life. Add in the innate republican hate for equal pay for equal work for women (a labor battle that women have now been fighting for over 100 years), plus the Republican mania for voter suppression driven by their racism and class warfare, plus their violent defense of statues that memorialize slavery and lynching and you have what amounts to a major part of the Republican Party platform. No wonder their leader loves authoritarian dictators and dreams of their reciprocal love.

Labor Day is not just about grilling hamberders and hot dogs. Labor Day is a day to celebrate the opposite of what our Republican neighbors and any other conservatives stand for.

The Trump Economy On Labor Day, 2018

It was a VERY different GOP in 1956

Yesterday, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka was on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, a show Señor Trumpanzee watches. Trumka pointed out that Trump has "used his office to actively hurt working people [and] to date, the things that the Trump and his anti-worker regime have "done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers... He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work. He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job... We keep trying to find areas where we can work with him." Trumka noted that "wages have been down since the first of the year. Gas prices have been up since the first year. So overall, workers aren’t doing as well." A few hours later, Trump was barking at Trumka on Twitter:

But Trumka-- not Trump-- had all the facts on his side. Trump is just a balloon filled with hot air and bombast. His economy has been fine for multimillionaires and billionaires, but awful for normal Americans. As Dan Martin noted last month for Shareblue, the tax scam has been a total failure in terms of keeping the promises the GOP made when they rammed it through Congress. It's certainly nothing to run for reelection and House Republicans rarely mention it on the stump and have been reduced to running against rock bands, skateboarding and tattoos.

As Martin wrote, "Wages are falling, Wall Street tycoons are swimming in profits from stock buybacks, and the federal deficit is exploding. Every way you slice it, the Republican tax scam is failing spectacularly, falling far short of the blustering promises of Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. When Republicans jammed through the tax scam on a party-line vote, Trump promised it would be 'rocket fuel' for the economy, helping families across the nation. Ryan promised tax cuts for everyone. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin vowed the bill would pay for itself. All lies.

Wages are falling, after adjusting for inflation, since the tax scam became law. “The idea that the tax cuts were going to line workers’ pockets was always a mirage,” says the New York Times.

The uber-wealthy? They are making out like bandits. Rich corporations are plowing tax breaks into record-setting levels of stock buybacks, expected to top $1 trillion this year, according to the Times. Buybacks increase the price of stocks, and many corporate executives who are compensated with those very same stocks are enjoying a Trump Bump in their bottom line.

Trump promised the tax scam would focus on “folks who work in the mailrooms and the machine shops of America-- the plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers, the pipe fitters.” But in reality, corporate CEOs and Wall Street investors are coming out on top, while workers are being left behind.

While the wealthy are enjoying even more excesses, the tax scam caused America’s deficit to explode. Mnuchin and Ryan promised the tax scam wouldn’t add to the deficit, but that’s just flat wrong. Both the deficit and national debt are growing “at a stunning pace,” according to the Times. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the tax scam is on pace to add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit.

The tax scam is such a disaster that Republicans don’t even want to campaign on it. In the recent special election in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, Republicans abandoned speaking about the tax bill, instead focusing on ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric to rile up their far-right base.

It’s the same story across the country, with Republicans talking less and less about their failed economic policies, turning to racist ads about immigration instead.

After being busted for so many lies, no wonder Republicans are ignoring their one legislative “accomplishment” and would rather talk about anything else on the campaign trail.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

Paul Ryan's "To Do Away With" List Discovered!
by Noah

DWT hackers today announced that they have discovered a bucket list of items that House Speaker Paul Ryan wishes to do away with by the time he gathers up all of his ill-gotten gains and fleas to K-Street where he can grab even more. There were no surprises found on the Ryan bucket list but we thought it was nice to put them all in one handy meme for Labor Day, as a reminder of so many (but not all) of the things that typical republican sociopaths and psychopaths find abhorrent and have dedicated their lives to eliminating. Ryan in particular has devoted his career to inflicting as much human misery upon the American populace as possible, even though he personally benefited greatly from his father's Social Security death benefits.

Please note the Frederick Douglas quote. We've heard from no less than Donald Jackass Trump himself that old Frederick "is doing great work."

Happy Labor Day everybody!

Who Better To Write Our Labor Day Post Than Randy Bryce?

-by Randy Bryce

Happy Labor Day!

What does that mean to you?

Living in Wisconsin it’s almost become kind of an annual celebration that “we’re still here.” It’s a gathering of survivors so to speak.

In 2011 Scott Walker took over the office of governor and proceeded to “divide and conquer” the workers of Wisconsin. He admitted that he had planned to “drop the bomb.”

One thing that he wasn’t expecting was that we had just enough notice and made it into our union-built bomb shelters. After the smoke settled, we dusted ourselves off and hit the streets.

When I was a lot younger I looked forward to my birthday. These days it’s Labor Day. I guess it’s because for too long I feel that we took what we had for granted. Celebrating Labor was something that we did once a year.

I think that’s where we went wrong. That’s where we became lazy. We took what we had for granted.

I blame myself for being part of taking it for granted, but, I’m doing what I can to make up for it.

To be honest every day is Labor Day. We don’t have a safe job site, overtime, benefits, and child labor protections in place due to the kindness of corporate America-- we have them because we demanded them. Some people ask what unions can do for us. Thats the wrong question. Correct question is what HAVE they done for us? The answers are many, and, easy to find. Problem is, everything that those before us fought and died for are under attack. We’re headed back to some very ugly times if we don’t read the writing on the wall.

The income inequality gap is out of control. Paul Ryan recently made some ridiculous remarks claiming that people had some means of upward mobility available to them! That’s all but gone. Currently if one isn’t lucky to be born with a silver family spoon in their mouth, the only chance they have at getting one is to win another type of lottery.

We now have a person in the White House who makes me shudder. I used to be able to tell my son that working hard and being smart could get him anywhere he wanted to go. Not any more. Donald Trump is all the proof you need to see that he possesses none of that, but, quite the opposite.

Not all is despair. I’ve noticed that even though union density may be shrinking, the crowds on Labor Day-- OUR day-- are getting bigger. People are understanding that one does’t need to pay union dues in order to stand up and unite for a common cause that will make life livable.

Let not just Labor Day, but every day be one that you use to be thankful for what we have, and, to use it as as stepping stone instead of a stumbling block to move ahead. Let these attacks forge you into something stronger. This is part of a cycle that takes place. It’s happened before.

I personally see what’s taking place as another opportunity to get things done correctly that we didn’t do recently during the Labor/Civil Rights fight that included Dr. Martin Luther King jr. Labor moved ahead, but, the Civil Rights part got left behind.

Let’s make sure that as our numbers swell we make sure that we move EVERYONE ahead with us and none are left behind. If we want these attacks to finally stop, we need to have everyone able to stand together in order to fight back - anyone left behind has already been divided.

Know this-- we only have ourselves to depend on.

We didn’t get to where we are by asking.

We got here by demanding.

Happy Labor Day today and every day.

Solidarity forever.

A Labor Day Call for Action-- Guest Post By Jenny Marshall

Jenny Marshall and Randy Bryce

-by Jenny Marshall,
candidate for Congress (NC-05)

Labor Day: the one Monday of the year in which most American workers can count on a day off. On Labor Day, so many of us stay home from work only to find ourselves muddling through whatever at-home tasks we’ve been avoiding for a while. But Labor Day has its roots in something more powerful than that. The holiday was first created by machinist, union organizer, and secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York, Matthew Maguire, in 1882.

On that day, workers took to the streets to celebrate with their friends and families, prideful of their contribution to the American workforce. While celebrations still exist, most often at workplaces with unionized labor forces, many Americans are left feeling that they don’t have a reason to celebrate their place in the workforce anymore.

According to Pew Research Center, 15% of people in the workforce are dissatisfied with their jobs. What’s really telling is that the level of satisfaction that people have with their jobs is heavily dependent on the amount of money they make and what type of job they have. So, people who make more money and have jobs in management are generally happier with their jobs than folks who work in manual or physical labor and make less money. This is unsurprising as right-wing politicians and corporate elites continue to deplete protections that once helped workers to thrive.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Congresswoman for North Carolina’s 5th district and my opponent for Congress in 2018, is one of corporate America’s most promising allies in government. Time and time again, she has voted on policies to bolster the profits of elites while depleting rights and protections for working class people. As Co-Chair to the 2016 RNC Platforms Committee, Foxx advocated for union-busting, right-to-work laws.

As a member, and now the leader, of the Education and Workforce Committee, Virginia Foxx has repeatedly put profits over people. She voted against raising the minimum wage in 2007, but has voted to give herself a pay increase since then. She also voted no on the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007, which would have prevented employers from intimidating, harassing, or firing employees due to union membership. And just last year, she voted yes to the Workforce Flexibility Act of 2016, which would have allowed employers to give employees time off—notably, at the time of an employer’s choosing-- instead of overtime pay, rolling back regulations from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that created the 40 hour work week in America.

Foxx has worked to stifle collective bargaining, prevent fair wages, and allow employers to tread on worker’s rights. Most recently, she approved of Donald Trump’s order to roll back Obama-era protections for women and minority workers. Well, I’ve had enough of Virginia Foxx’s attack on American workers, and I think we ought to do something about it. The first order of business is unseating Virginia Foxx and her GOP allies who work in lockstep to disadvantage American workers at every turn.

But to fix this problem, we must go further. We must increase wages, put a stop to union-busting legislation, and bring good-paying-jobs back to the United States. We must demand that workers be paid fair compensation, allowed time off, and given substantial family leave options. We must donate, volunteer, and rally for campaigns that support the People’s Platform and demand that our leaders in Congress, regardless of political affiliation, are held accountable for their actions. Only then can we bring back the pride once associated with being a part of the American workforce. Only then can we remember what Labor Day is really about-- celebrating the collaborative efforts of our community.

This Labor Day, let’s come together as workers and stand up for our rights and livelihoods. Now is the time to demand the end of corporate greed and to recognize the strength in our community. Together, we can take on corporate America. Will you join me?

Midnight Meme Of The Day

-by Noah

Happy Labor Day Weekend to all DWT readers. The American Labor Movement has given us, among other things, a 40 hour work week, a minimum wage, lunch breaks, pay for working overtime, paid vacations, the weekend, safety regulations... all things that Americans died for on picket lines and battlefields, and all things that Republicans hate and continue to fight against. The labor movement has built America, built the middle class, and helped win wars. There is still much to be done. Medievalist enemies of the American labor movement such as Trump, McConnell, Ryan, their followers and those who support and vote for them are psychotically and tirelessly working to destroy the gains made in the last 100 years. Screw them and their "historical heritage" of worker repression! Screw them all!

The Far Right Has Plans To Kill The Progressive Movement By Neutering The Union Movement

Just as we prepare for the Labor Day weekend, Guardian reporter Ed Pilkington exposes a plot by a right-wing alliance to "defund and defang" the American union movement. That's hardly new but after years of whittling down the union movement, the conservatives see an opportunity for a knock out blow. The methods have been successfully tested in several states, including former labor bastions like Wisconsin. "Rightwing activists across the US have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine progressive politicians by depriving them of a major source of support and funding-- public sector unions," wrote Pilkington. "A network of conservative thinktanks with outposts in all 50 states has embarked on a 'breakthrough' campaign designed to strike a 'mortal blow' against the American left. The aim is to 'defund and defang' unions representing government employees as the first step towards ensuring the permanent collapse of progressive politics. The campaign carries a powerful echo of the populist creed espoused by Donald Trump. The president was propelled into the White House last November after unexpected victories in several previously Democratic rust belt states including Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which have endured withering attacks on trade unions in recent years."

The new assault is being spearheaded by the State Policy Network (SPN), an alliance of 66 state-based thinktanks, or “ideas factories” as it calls them, with a combined annual budget of $80m. As suggested by its slogan-- “State solutions. National impact”-- the group outlines an aim to construct a rightwing hegemony throughout the US, working from the bottom up.

To do that, it first has to sweep aside the public sector unions and their historic ties to Democratic and progressive politicians. In a 10-page fundraising letter, part of a set of documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and published by the Guardian today for the first time, SPN sets out its mission in frank language that does not disguise its partisan ambitions.

The author of the letter, SPN’s president and CEO Tracie Sharp,describes the $8m “breakthrough” campaign as a “once-in-a-lifetime chance to reverse the failed policies of the American left … We are primed, right now, to deliver the mortal blow to permanently break its stranglehold on our society.”

Sharp pitches the battle against unions as the start of a war on progressive politics, with the ultimate goal of winning elections for rightwing candidates. “Big government unions are the biggest sources of funding and political muscle for the left-- and a major obstacle to the ability of voters to reclaim control of American government. To win the battle for freedom, we must take the fight to the unions, state by state.”

The target of such union-bashing, she openly admits, is to “defund and defang one of our freedom movement’s most powerful opponents, the government unions.” The long-term objective is to “deal a major blow to the left’s ability to control government at the state and national levels. I’m talking about permanently depriving the left from access to millions of dollars in dues extracted from unwilling union members every election cycle” (emphasis in original).

SPN will be discussing its anti-union and anti-left agenda on Wednesday at its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Its morning session will look at how “labor reform” can be pursued with renewed vigor under the Trump administration.

The discussion will feature some of the key architects of SPN’s political strategy, including Vincent Vernuccio who pioneered anti-union legislation in Michigan, and Tom McCabe of the Freedom Foundation, who has sent his foot soldiers on an aggressive offensive against collective bargaining in the US north-west.

Mary Bottari, deputy director of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) which tracks the rise of rightwing groups in America, said the fundraising letter and other SPN documents published by the Guardian cast light on the conservative game plan. “It’s very rare to catch conservative thinktanks talking so openly and blatantly about their long-term political aims. These documents reveal to us that SPN’s goals are entirely political-- they have no concern for workers or union members, their only goal is winning elections to advance rightwing causes.”

Bottari added: “An $80m campaign to ‘defund and defang’ public sector unions is remarkable, both in its size and in its ambition.”

Public sector unions have come under growing fire from conservatives in recent years. While unions operating in private companies have been diminished since the 1980s-- their membership plummeting from about 17% of the workforce in 1983 to just 6% today-- their equivalents in the public sector such as teacher, local government, police and fire officer unions have remained relatively stable, at around 35%.

But in 2010, Scott Walker, the newly elected governor of Wisconsin, opened a new front in America’s partisan war when he passed Act 10, stripping public sector unions of the power to bargain collectively and forcing them to re-certify themselves every year with electoral backing from more than 50% of all workers, not just those voting. The move has spawned a rash of imitations across Republican-controlled states, with Iowa and Indiana passing similar laws, and a further 15 states introducing legislation-- encouraged by SPN, which has framed a model bill to make it easier for Republican legislators to adopt the changes.

A total of 28 states have also passed “right to work” laws that allow workers in private companies to refuse to join unions despite enjoying the fruits of collective bargaining.

Though the long-term consequences of such union restrictions have yet to be fully understood, there are early indications that the impact could be profound even at presidential level. Since Act 10 came into effect in Wisconsin, public sector union membership has slumped by 40%, or about 136,000 people.

Trump won Wisconsin last November by just 23,000 votes.

A similar pattern can be seen in Michigan where unions have shrunk steadily since a right-to-work law came into effect in 2013, with a loss of at least 30,000 members. Trump took Michigan, to the shock of Hillary Clinton and her supporters, by just 11,000 votes.

When asked whether anti-union laws in Michigan and Wisconsin had affected the outcome of the presidential race, Matt Patterson of the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform said: “No question in my mind. Hard to fight when your bazooka’s been replaced by a squirt gun.”

Carrie Conko, SPN’s vice president of communications, said that the network does not involve itself in political campaigns. “Labor reform is an issue where SPN has been clearly on the side of workers who are against forced unionization and the use of their hard-earned wages to support causes they don’t believe in. If workers choose to support their unions agenda that is fine-- but, right now, in many states they don’t have a choice or a voice.”

Conko’s statement echoed the language used in an SPN “toolkit”, also published here for the first time, that advises Republican policymakers on how to campaign for anti-union legislation. “Be pro-worker, not anti-union,” the pamphlet says. “Frame union reform from the point of view of the members and how the reform helps them have a greater voice in their union. Don’t rant against unions. We’ve all been frustrated by the actions of public sector unions to block pro-freedom reforms, but publicly venting these feelings is counterproductive.”

SPN’s disclosure of its political and partisan objectives in the new documents could arouse the interest of investigators from the Internal Revenue Service. The group is constituted as a 501(c)(3) organisation, which renders it exempt as a charity from taxation.

Marc Owens, a partner with Loeb & Loeb who worked as an IRS lawyer specializing in charitable tax exemptions, said that the provision was designed for charitable purposes, not for lobbying against public sector unions or for activities to influence the outcome of elections. “A charity that does those things is not engaging in charitable activities and that puts its tax exempt status in jeopardy,” he said.

Conko told the Guardian that SPN takes “great care to be fully in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

The union movement across the Midwest has been particularly targeted by the right-wingers and the billionaires who fund their institutions. We asked some of the Blue America candidates in the region, starting with iron worker and union activist Randy Bryce in Wisconsin. "It’s crystal clear," he told us, "that Ronald Reagan’s 'trickle down' experiment was a failure. It was a total flop. Since the 80’s under Reagan’s reign the income inequality gap has blown apart the haves from the 'maybe I’ll win the lottery one day' hopefuls. That’s about what’s left of the 'American Dream.' One needs to look no further than the White (supremacist) House in order to see that the highest elected position in the land does not need intelligence coupled with hard work to be successful. The only thing standing in the way of returning to a feudal kingdom would be labor unions. Today unions have been attacked so viciously with such malicious propaganda that it’s taking everything we have-- along with facts-- to hang on. It’s a cycle. After the first Great Depression it took the highest union density in our nation’s history to bring about a strong Middle Class. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Robert Reich who made a fantastic movie entitled Inequality For All that everyone really should see to help explain this very topic. Upward mobility is almost a thing of the past. We really need to stand together while we have something left to stand for. The Dream is turning into a nightmare for too many. Hard work gets rewarded less and less in favor of corporate profits. They move up but we don’t. These days it’s all about luck as to who your parents are. Or to win the lottery."

Paul Clements is running for the southwest Michigan seat currently held by rubber stamp Republican and plutocrat Fred Upton. He told me today that "With my union in contract negotiations I have marched several times this summer. The union movement in Michigan has been hit, but we're alive and kicking! Many factory workers in my district have seen their wages fall drastically in the last decade and a half, and, as in so many places, the median wage has fallen here while productivity-- the value workers contribute-- continues to rise. We have some catch up to do. Raising the minimum wage is one step, a right to health care with single payer is another, but we absolutely have to defend and strengthen collective bargaining. Not to coin a phrase, but the people united will never be defeated. If we don't organize to defend our rights we can be sure they will be taken away from us."

Illinois is still a state with a healthy union movement. We also spoke with congressional candidate David Gill, an emergency room doctor, about the battle he sees raging between the forces of unfettered capitalism and working families trying to keep their heads above water. He recalled an historic quote not enough young Americans are aware of today. "I'm proud to be marching with organized labor in Pana, IL this Labor Day," he told us, "because the fight never ends. As Mother Jones said: 'I know that there are no limits to which the powers of privilege will not go to keep the workers in slavery.' Fighting against those powers requires us to be bold in our demands; that's why I stand for a $15/hour minimum wage and tuition-free public universities, colleges, and trade schools. Solidarity forever!"

Labor Day... Without Unions?

-by Dorothy Reik

I was on a tear on Labor Day-- no mention of workers or unions anywhere, except of course in the Labor Day Sale ads-- not in the NYTimes or the LATimes! Not on TV! And then I was told that today is about "workers not unions"! That is the problem I think! I was a union member once-- UTLA-- and I am proud to say my very first venture into "klng making" there resulted in Wayne Johnson's presidency. Any older teachers reading this will thank me!

The one news source that headlined workers and unions was The Intercept:

… [N]o country on earth has ever created a strong middle class without strong unions. If you genuinely want the U.S. to have a strong middle class again, that means you want lots of people in lots of unions.

The bad news, of course, is that the U.S. is going in exactly the opposite direction. Union membership has collapsed in the past 40 years, falling from 24 percent to 11 percent. And even those numbers conceal the uglier reality that union membership is now 35 percent in the public sector but just 6.7 percent in the private sector. That private sector percentage is now lower than it’s been in over 100 years.

But as Robert Eskew pointed out, there has been a cultural shift, as embodied in the candidacy of Donald Trump whose excesses and cheating are admired by the working poor who dream of emulating his ability to live large with no rules and no morals and to screw people like themselves. In the recent past unions were "a cultural force arguing for a 'fairer share' for working men and women."

That "cultural force" is important. In the mid-20th century, people believed in "a fair deal for working people." Labor Day was created to honor workers.

Then something changed. Popular culture in the 1980s glamorized greedy Wall Streeters and celebrated the Gilded Age excesses of a tiny but highly visible ultrawealthy class. (Remember Gordon Gekko, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?)

Here’s our other candidate Hillary Clinton’s idea of a Labor Day parade:

The AFL-CIO reminds us what unions got for us. Sadly many of these gains are being eroded-- for white collar workers too, the ones who thought they didn’t need a union. Title Company workers, the ones who make sure that, if you can afford a house, you will really own it, commonly work 12 hour days now. I remember when the phones all went to voicemail at 5PM sharp. I remember when the operations manager at my bank resisted when I asked for her cell phone. Now all the managers have their cell phones listed on their e-mail signatures. Daniella, who works for me, checks her office e-mail on her phone after hours although I tell her not to. I don't check mine! Wage theft is ubiquitous from construction sites to fast food joints. Unions are about workers. Workers need unions. Non-union workers gripe that public employees have unions and they don't. The answer-- take away public sector unions! NO!! Give private workers their unions back! No more "right to work" states!

So when people bad mouth unions and we can hear them , it's up t us to speak up!  We need to defend unions every chance we get. Enjoyed your PAID day off?-- thank the unions! Do you have a five day work week?  And eight hour day (at least on paper)?  Thank the unions!  Here are more reasons to thank unions AND DEFEND THEM.

1- Weekends without work
2- All breaks at work, including your lunch breaks
3- Paid vacation
4- Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
5- Sick leave
6- Social Security
7- Minimum wage
8- Civil Rights Act/Title VII-- prohibits employer discrimination
9- 8-hour work day
10- Overtime pay
11- Child labor laws
12- Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
13- 40-hour work week
14- Workers' compensation (workers' comp)
15- Unemployment insurance
16- Pensions
17- Workplace safety standards and regulations
18- Employer health care insurance
19- Collective bargaining rights for employees
20- Wrongful termination laws
21- Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
22- Whistleblower protection laws
23- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)-- prohibits employers from using a lie detector test on an employee
24- Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)
25- Compensation increases and evaluations (i.e. raises)
26- Sexual harassment laws
27- Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
28- Holiday pay
29- Employer dental, life, and vision insurance
30- Privacy rights
31- Pregnancy and parental leave
32- Military leave
33- The right to strike
34- Public education for children
35- Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011-- requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work
36- Laws ending sweatshops in the United States

Ramona Gregg says every Labor Day she feels “more and more like I'm at a labor union wake and all I can do is pay tribute to what once was a living, breathing, cherished part of so many of our lives.”

If you think union members are spoiled and soft, watch Harlan County USA, a true story of what one group of men went through to make life better for all of us. You can dirty yourself long enough to sign up for a trial of Amazon Prime so you can stream it. Roger Ebert's 2006 review captured what the filmmakers were trying to capture.

The film retains all of its power, in the story of a miners' strike in Kentucky where the company employed armed goons to escort scabs into the mines, and the most effective picketers were the miners' wives-- articulate, indominable, courageous. It contains a famous scene where guns are fired at the strikers in the darkness before dawn, and Kopple and her cameraman are knocked down and beaten.

"I found out later that they planned to kill us that day," Kopple said later, in a discussion I chaired at the Filmmakers' Lodge. "They wanted to knock us out because they didn't want a record of what was happening." But her cinematographer, Hart Perry, got an unforgettable shot of an armed company employee driving past in his pickup, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Kopple brought some friends along to the festival. Foremost among them was Hazel Dickens, a miner's wife and sister, now 69, who wrote songs for the movie and led the room in singing Which Side Are You On? Kopple also shared the stage with Utah miners who are currently on strike; although the national average pay for coal miners is $15 to $16 an hour, these workers-- who are striking for a union contract-- are paid $7 for the backbreaking and dangerous work.



Using a translator, the Spanish-speaking miners told their story. One detail struck me with curious strength. A miner complained that his foreman demanded he give him a bottle of Gatorade every day as sort of a job tax. It is the small scale of the bribe that hit me, demonstrating how desperately poor these workers are. Work it out, and the Gatorade represents 10 percent of a daily wage.

Kopple and Perry spent 18 months in Harlan County, filming what happened as it happened. Her editor, Nancy Baker, who was also onstage, took hundreds of hours of footage and brought it together with power and clarity. I asked Kopple what she thought about other styles of documentaries, like Michael Moore's first-person adventures, or the Oscar-nominated "Story of the Weeping Camel," which is scripted and has people who portray themselves, but is not a direct record of their daily lives.

"I accept any and all kinds of documentaries," she said. "Harlan County came out of the tradition of Albert Maysles and Leacock and Pennebaker, documentarians who went somewhere and stayed there and watched and listened and made a record of what happened. That is one approach. There are others, just as valid. All that matters is making a good film."

Hope you had a lovely Labor Day!

One Big Union-- Bernie, Shakespeare, Tim Buckley, Elizabeth Fraser, Ted Lieu...

Chances are you've gotten Labor Day messages from politicians all day today. Even Democrats who devote their entire careers to super-serving the interests of Wall Street, like Florida New Dem Patrick Murphy (a member of the House Financial Services Committee, where no Republican ever outdoes him in his commitment to fellating the banksters), felt obligated to make some noises about the dignity of labor. "Today," Murphy tweeted, "we recognize the hard work and sacrifice of American workers who are the heart & soul of our economy." Problem with that, of course, is that the other 364 days a year he is devoted to the Wall Street predators who have financed his miserable anti-working-family career.

Democrats more legitimately interested in American working families weren't just blowing smoke. Cincinnati City Councilman, and Senate candidate, P.G. Sittenfeld told his supporters:

Labor Day is a time to reflect on what this campaign is about-- not the partisan politics we see too much of in Washington, but building true economic opportunity by investing in the people who make our country strong: American workers. The 40 hour work week, child labor laws, and the minimum wage are guarantees too often taken for granted. These are laws that were passed by fighting and winning difficult Labor battles. Now, new fights are on the horizon: a livable minimum wage, paid sick leave, equal pay for women, and protecting workers’ rights. In order to build and protect a strong middle class, we must win these upcoming battles and I vow to do all I can.

L.A. area Congressman Ted Lieu sent a similarly inspiring message out to his constituents:

This Labor Day, we celebrate and honor the American labor movement and the millions of hard-working men and women across our great country. At a time when unions and working families are still recovering from the Great Recession, and too many are struggling to put food on the table, this holiday is more important than ever. The strength of our economy depends on the strength of our working families. Unsurprisingly, the increase in income inequality in America is sharply correlated with the declining rate of union membership.

Historically, labor unions have been the driving force for vital reforms to our country’s working conditions, including the forty hour work week, abolition of child labor, and implementation of a minimum wage. Before passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, working men and women often met violent resistance for demanding basic human protections. We owe a great debt to these first champions of workers’ rights.  In the tradition of great American labor leaders like Eugene Debs, Larry Itliong, Cesar Chavez, Samuel Gompers, and Mother Jones, we should continue the struggle by ensuring all workers are paid a livable wage and preventing unfair trade deals that push more American jobs overseas. When unions are strong-- America is strong.

Sean Illing, writing for Salon, asserted that Bernie Sanders is the most authentic pro-worker warrior in American politics. He's the polar opposite of worthless young Mr. Murphy, an "ex"-Republican spoiled rich brat who has already endorsed Hillary Clinton (even after voting with the GOP to destroy her credibility.) Like Murphy, the Republicans have supported a Wall Street agenda that undermines the economic interests of working families.

[T]here are two candidates who matter in the Democratic race right now: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. If you’re concerned with the rights and welfare of workers, it’s not even close: Bernie Sanders is the most credible candidate. Clinton is conscious of Sanders, so she’s moved slightly to the left in recent months, but if you look closely at their positions on middle class issues, the contrast is clear.

In the last week or so, an image has gone viral which highlights the opposing views of Clinton and Sanders. From Wall Street chicanery to worker-owned cooperatives to the Trans-Pacific trade deal to financial corruption to military adventurism, Sanders is on the side of the working class-- and Hillary is not. And even on an issue like raising the minimum wage, something of direct and immediate benefit to the poor, Clinton is tepid in her support, and opposes a national $15 minimum wage-- the goal of the "Fight for 15" movement. Sanders, on the other hand, is unequivocal in backing the Fight for 15, as he is on most subjects.

Not to belabor the point, but the differences between Sanders and Clinton go beyond their policy positions. Sanders’s campaign is voter-financed, consisting almost exclusively of small individual donations. Clinton’s campaign is financed in the same way every other establishment candidate’s campaign is financed-- through large donors, well-heeled donors. I don’t necessarily begrudge Clinton for going this route; she’s operating in a political ecosystem that incentives corruption. But the contrast between Sanders and Clinton on this front is striking to say the least.

Union leaders, the people closest to the labor movement, know Sanders is the more authentic candidate, but they have a difficult decision to make: Do they vote with their heads or their hearts? Do they endorse the candidate who most personifies their ideals (Sanders) or do they endorse the candidate most likely to win a general election (Clinton)? Individual voters face this choice, too. And it’s not an easy one.

I’m sympathetic to (if not quite convinced by) the pragmatic arguments in defense of Clinton. While she may not be as strong a candidate as Democrats once believed, she remains the frontrunner by any measure. And given her campaign infrastructure and organizational resources, she’s more equipped to defeat a Republican in a general election than Sanders. But make no mistake: Clinton is a flawed candidate, and Sanders has far more appeal than the skeptics imagined.

Pro-labor voters will likely remain split on Sanders and Clinton, and for understandable reasons. But they should be honest about what they’re choosing between. The choice here is between ideals and electability, between values and pragmatism. Of course reality isn’t so neat-- Sanders may well be electable, but until that happens we won’t know for sure; it’s a gamble either way.

Impressive as she is, Clinton still sounds like a politician’s politician: She’s on-message, rarely veering from poll-tested talking points. And that’s precisely why she lacks the authenticity of Sanders, particularly on populist issues. Sanders’s strength is his straightforwardness. He is exactly who and what he says he is and no one, on either side, doubts that. Unlike most politicians, Sanders hasn’t shape-shifted over the years. He doesn’t flop with the political winds the way Clinton and almost every other candidate has-- that’s why he’s more believable.

It’s entirely possible that Clinton would serve the interests of the working class as president, but there’s good reason to doubt that. Not so with Sanders. His record and anti-establishment bona fides are unmatched in Washington. Thus when Sanders says he’ll fight for labor, for blue-collar Americans, you know he’s sincere.

As you no doubt would expect, Bernie's message today was all about standing together and fighting back, a union message not unlike the one in the Matthew Grimm song at the top of the page. Bernie:

Labor Day is a time for honoring the working people of this country. It is also a time to celebrate the accomplishments of the activists and organizers who fought for the 40-hour work week, occupational safety, minimum wage law, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and affordable housing. These working people, and their unions, resisted the oligarchs of their day, fought for a more responsive democracy, and built the middle class.

Today we can-- and we must-- follow their example. It’s time to rebuild the crumbling middle class of our country and make certain that every working person in the United States of America has a chance at a decent life.

Against overwhelming odds, the men and women of the labor movement changed society for the better. If you’ve ever enjoyed a paid vacation, a sick day, or a pension, they are the people to thank. And if you don’t have those benefits on your job today, they are the people who can help you get them.

The economic reality is that while our economy today is much stronger than when President George W. Bush left office 7 years ago, the middle class is continuing its 40-year decline.

Almost all new income and wealth is going to the people on top, while millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages. In fact, wages actually fell for 90 percent of Americans between 2009 and 2012, even as they rose for the top 10 percent. While we have seen in recent years a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires, 51 percent of African American youth are now unemployed or underemployed, and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth.

As a result of an explosion of technology, productivity has risen in this country, but working people are not sharing in the wealth. For three decades after the end of World War II, productivity and wages grew together. Business profits rose, and the workers who made those profits possible did well along with their bosses. That’s not happening today. Productivity has continued to soar, but workers have been cut out of the profits.

The time is long overdue for us to create an economy which works for the middle class and working families of this country, and not just the one percent. It is time for us to have a government which represents all Americans, not just wealthy campaign contributors.

At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, we need a tax system which demands that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes.

With real unemployment at over 10 percent and youth unemployment off the charts, we need a massive federal jobs program to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of decent paying jobs.

With many of our people working at starvation wages, we need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years, and implement pay equity for women workers.

When hundreds of thousands of bright and qualified young people are unable to afford a higher education, we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt. And we can do that by a tax on Wall Street speculation.

At a time when 35 million Americans lack any health insurance and many more are under-insures, we need to move toward a single-payer health insurance program which guarantees health care to all as a right.

We also need to join other wealthy counties by guaranteeing that all families have paid medical and family leave and paid sick time and vacation time.

Instead of cutting Social Security or disability programs, as most Republicans want, we need to expand Social Security benefits so that every senior citizen in this country can enjoy their retirement years in dignity.

When many businesses are making it harder and harder for workers to enjoy their constitutional right to form a trade union, we need legislation which makes it possible for those workers who want to join a union to be able to do so. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

In the wealthiest country in the history of the world we CAN accomplish all these goals, but we can’t do it without a political revolution. We can’t do it unless millions of Americans stand up and fight back to reclaim our country from the hands of a billionaire class whose greed is destroying our nation.

Here’s the good news: we faced challenges like these before in our history, and we won. We won when working people across this country came together-- in the workplace, in peaceful demonstrations, and at the ballot box-- and said “No more.” That victory is part of what we celebrate on Labor Day.

By all means, enjoy the holiday weekend. But this Labor Day let’s also honor the men and women who have fought for the rights of working people in this country ever since it was founded-- by pledging to carry on with the work they’ve started.

There has never been a serious presidential candidate like Bernie in our lifetimes. It's our chance. For many of us, there's little chance we'll get another one like it before we shuffle off this mortal coil. Even if you've never contributed to a political campaign in your life, this is the one to do it for. Bernie is the one to do it for.

El Presidente signed a new executive order. (Great Scott Walker quote too!) Imagine if we had a Congress that wasn't so filled with hatred towards working men and women and so dedicated to the interests of Big Business and Wall Street tycoons!



And, by the way, speaking of shuffling off this mortal coil, I can't help myself... I hope you don't mind:

How Happy Is YOUR Labor Day?

Last week, prostrating himself before the Koch brothers and other right-wing billionaire campaign financiers, Mitch McConnell swore that if they helped the GOP take over the Senate-- and reelect him in Kentucky-- he would guarantee that there would never be a vote taken on raising the mimimim wage. Happy Labor Day… as the rest of the civilized world enjoys nice long vacation, regular pay raises, healthcare, pensions, maternity leave and benefits most American workers no longer even dream of.

Yesterday, the Lexington Herald-Leader released a poll showing that most Kentuckians disagree with McConnell on the minimum wage. Kentucky voters have been victimized by a systematic anti-union propaganda onslaught through right-wing radio and it has had a tremendous impact-- except on the minimum wage. Thanks to the success of Hate Talk Radio, the state is pretty much anti-union these days but increasing the minimum wage is still something even Kentucky workers see as beneficial.

Fifty-five percent of Kentuckians think the federal government should raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, while 37 percent want to leave it alone. Eight percent were not sure.

Support for raising the minimum wage has dipped slightly since February, when a Bluegrass Poll showed 61 percent favored raising the minimum wage and 32 percent opposed it.

The issue appears to be especially popular among young people and blacks. Sixty-five percent of respondents ages 18 to 34 say the minimum should be higher, and 75 percent of blacks embrace it.

Seventy-one percent of Democrats back it, while only 35 percent of Republicans favor it. Fifty-six percent of independents said the minimum should be higher.

Slightly more women than men-- 57 percent to 53 percent-- endorse it, and 52 percent of Kentuckians with four-year college educations like the wage hike.

Support for raising the minimum wage decreased as income increased.

Sixty-five percent of respondents making less than $40,000 a year support a higher minimum wage, while only 41 percent making more than $80,000 a year favor it.

The increase garnered most support in Eastern Kentucky, where 62 percent back it. That dropped to 51 percent in Western Kentucky and the Louisville area.

Jane Eberwein, a retired businesswoman and teacher in Lexington, said the minimum wage should be increased.

"There are so many low-income people who can't get their head above water. I don't think it would be catastrophic to businesses to raise the minimum wage," she said. "It's been done before in the past and didn't kill business."

…Glenda Dryden, a poll respondent who agreed to a follow-up interview with the Herald-Leader, said Kentucky needed a right-to-work law.

"Unions were good things when workers were treated terribly, like having to work 15-hour days, but unions now, from what I read, are about raising a lot of money," said Dryden, a clerk in the Madison County sheriff's office. "People should be able to work without having to join unions."

Uninformed views like Glenda's warm the hearts of the plutocrats who met with McConnell. The party that wants to do away with the minimum wage entirely-- and that includes both Kentucky senators-- considers "Right to work" laws good labor policy-- a work force free of labor unions. Over the weekend, Tim Fernholz's look at the state of labor in America, has been driving conservatives crazy. Start with the chart up top. "[T]he share of US national income going to salaries and wages," he writes, "has been falling pretty steadily in the past four decades, and despite some recent gains, hasn’t yet returned to pre-recession heights."

Every time America produced $10 of income this year, $4.26 went into a worker’s pocket-- and the rest went to investors (minus taxes, of course.) Bummer.

This state of affairs is likely why, despite a growing economy and a falling unemployment rate, there’s still not much of a sense that a US recovery has truly taken hold-- unless you’re a corporation. Corporate profits as a share of national income are at their highest level since the US government began measuring them in 1947, which is even more amazing when you consider the growth of executive salaries and the rising number of self-employed professionals whose business income isn’t counted in this measure:

Trends like these are driving the debate about inequality in the United States today, and make Thomas Piketty’s theories about the growing advantage of capital over labor so compelling to many, even as economists debate the precise sources and durability of this disparity.

If these charts are giving you more heartburn than your Labor Day feast, consider raising a glass to US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen: Her revolutionary strategy at the Fed is predicated on generating higher wages for workers, a move that, at least in theory, puts some of the Fed’s awesome monetary power on the worker’s side of the scale.

Although the building trades unions tend to back Republicans and conservative Democrats, the GOP jihad against working families is not aimed only at progressive unions. All working families suffer under Republican policies-- which doesn't stop sold-out, right-wing labor bosses.

According to a February report from the Congressional Budget Office, the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 would reduce total employment by 500,000 workers over the next three years. At the same time, it would lift more than 900,000 families out of poverty and increase the incomes of 16.5 million low-wage workers. What’s more, it’s reasonable to think we would gain jobs as a result of new economic activity generated by higher wages and new consumer spending.

But none of this mattered to Republicans who read the report. For them, it was vindication. “Raising the minimum wage could destroy as many as one million jobs, a devastating blow to the very people that need help most in this economy,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, all but speaking for most of the Republican Party, and echoing decades of rhetoric against increasing the minimum wage.

All of this doomsaying raises a question: If raising the minimum wage destroys jobs and prevents employment, then lowering it would do the opposite. And if you gain from lowering the minimum wage, then why have one at all?

…Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, for example, has no tolerance for the minimum wage. “When you set the minimum wage, it may cause unemployment,” he told ABC News during his 2010 Senate campaign. “The least skilled people in our society have more trouble getting work the higher you make the minimum wage.”

UPDATE: Rick Weiland

Let me tie the early morning post in with this one by quoting the Democratic candidate for the South Dakota Senate seat, Rick Weiland:

The next time you hear another Big Money attack on organized labor, consider the source. These are the same people who legally change their business address to a foreign country to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. These are the same people who oppose allowing young Americans to refinance their old, high interest student loans. These are the same people who park their profits in overseas banks instead of investing in America.

The only way we can win in November is to hold them accountable.

For my part, I will continue to work as hard as I know how to take our country back from Big Money.

Why Would You Vote For Anyone Opposed To Increasing The Minimum Wage?

No doubt Labor Day is about barbecuing for many people… or an extra day off from work that can be spent with friends and family or in blissful solitude. But this morning, in his weekly address, Presdient Obama chose to discuss the minimum wage, particularly since Mitch McConnell had just prostrated himself before the Koch brothers and some equally heinous billionaires and viewed he would never allow an increase in the minimum wage to even come up for a vote if he wins reelection. It probably angered Peter King again, but the president decided to talk about economic issues that face American families, rather than a beheading in Iraq. "We set aside Labor Day to honor the working men and women of America," he said. And this Labor Day, we’ve got more to celebrate. Over the past 53 months, our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs. Last month, for the first time since 1997, we created more than 200,000 jobs for six straight months. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders worldwide have declared, two years running, that the number one place to invest isn’t China-- it’s America." Republicans don't want to hear this. Any good news for America makes their blood boil and their collective head explode. "[T]here are reasons to be optimistic about where we’re headed," the president continued, happy to infuriate them. "And the decisions we make now will determine whether or not we accelerate this progress-- whether economic gains flow to a few at the top, or whether a growing economy fuels rising incomes and a thriving middle class."

Think about it this Labor Day. The things we often take for granted-- Social Security and Medicare, workplace safety laws and the right to organize for better pay and benefits, even weekends-- we didn’t always have these things. Workers and the unions who get their back had to fight for them. And those fights built a stronger middle class.

To build a stronger middle class in today’s changing economy, we’ve got to keep fighting. We’ve got to fight for the right to affordable health insurance for everybody. The right to fair pay, family leave, and workplace flexibility. The right to a fair living wage.

Let me focus on that last one for a minute. In America, no one who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. A hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. And raising the minimum wage would be one of the best ways to give a boost to working families. It would help around 28 million Americans from all walks of life pay the bills, provide for their kids, and spend that money at local businesses. And that grows the economy for everyone.

The bottom line is, America deserves a raise. But until we’ve got a Congress that cares about raising working folks’ wages, it’s up to the rest of us to make it happen. And in the year and a half since I first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, Americans of all walks of life are doing just that.

Thirteen states and D.C. have done their part by raising their minimum wages. Four more states have minimum wage initiatives on the ballot this November. And the states where the minimum wage has gone up this year have experienced higher job growth than the states that haven’t.

Conservatives are now desperately trying to "compromise" on the minimum wage. The two conservative EMILY's List candidates in Hawaii, Colleen Hanabusa, a New Dem, and Donna Mercado Kim, a right-wing religious fanatic, were both defeated in Democratic primaries in part because of their refusal to get behind the already-too-low $10.10 minimum wage proposal. Hanabusa plotted with Maine Republican Susan Collins to cut back the $10.10 to as low as they could get away with. And Kim voted against legislation that passed the Hawaii Senate that did raise the minimum wage. Actual progressives understand why $10.10 is too low and that it's really just a baseline from which to go up-- not down. Monday Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to announce his plan to raise the Los Angeles minimum wage to $13.25 in increments over three years. His proposal includes increases pegged to inflation so that workers don't lose buying power as prices of necessities rise.