Face it: America as we knew it is broken. The foxes guard the henhouse and our ill-informed and factually challanged citizens keep returning these crooks to office. A strike to support unions--think bigger: http://www.globalstrikeforworldpeace.org

And here I thought that conservatives were fighting for less government interference with businesses. Trump was right when he said that I would get tired of winning all the time... Well, I'm there. Please stop fighting for me.

YES YES YES. In fact I wrote to my congress people today prior to reading this that we need a general strike. Money is the only thing corporate whores understand.

Low-information or politically indoctrinated employees who are against unions, and corporate politicians reeking of greedy corporate-stink who support dishonestly misnamed "right to work" policies, obviously have never worked a good union job and have no idea what they are talking about.

The following is a dissenting perspective from someone who has been a dues-paying member in good standing of an international union and has worked for a large company for thirty-four years:

A unionized workforce enjoys superior training, higher pay, much better benefit packages, honest and fair representation, the certainty of a defined benefit pension, and the peace of mind of job security. As long as performance standards are meant and rules are followed, an employee can't be disciplined or fired on trumped up charges or on a whim from a biased official; before any disciplinary action is taken, a thorough investigation must be held and conducted fairly and justly, where both sides are adequately represented.

Unions also cooperate with companies to remain viable in the market place for shared self-interest, to relieve them from having to deal with everyday personnel issues, to ensure a steady supply of highly skilled and committed employees, to negotiate mutually beneficial contracts that are financially predicable, which can be relied upon for years without any serious disruption -- as long as both sides respect the agreement -- and that ensures a smoothly run operation. Plus, contracts are always designed with enough wiggle room to provide flexibility in adjusting to unforeseen events and changing times.

The few oddball employees on the property who selfishly withhold their dues and yet still enjoy all the benefits of union representation are considered pariahs and not thought of very highly by their fellow employees, and rightfully so.

Replace the word "union" with "family." Most union members are hard-working breadwinners who selflessly trudge off to work everyday, often times to very dangerous jobs, to support their families with a higher standard of living that doesn't have to rely on government assistance, which is a good thing for the economy and the country. Beyond the hollow rhetoric of identity politics, isn't that what Republicans also want?

Unions are a good thing! The negative portrayal by the right is nothing but disingenuous, corporate-sponsored false propaganda that does not reflect the reality on the ground.

For most people, a general strike would be a BFD on steroids. Even setting aside the relative rarity of leave time for any purpose, does a chunk of it EVER fall into a category amenable to strikes? "Mental health" maybe, if your boss could have won prizes as a comedian.

I submit that a scary-huge percentage of those who aren't already gig workers would damn soon after a strike be driving for Uber (and I adore you, Thom, but WHAT possessed you to voice a chirpy ad for those city-stomping mafiosi of automotive plunder from ripoff toll splits to subprime finance?).

We're SO not France. Not only will we never sigh, "Another day, another road waist-high in haricots," we'll never have a general strike that lives up the name until the day before the shooting starts.

@ Legend #5:

Technically, the strict definition of scab means a nonunion worker hired by a company to replace a union worker knowingly and willingly during a strike. They are considered the lowest form of scum crawling on the Earth!

The definition can and should be expanded to include anyone else who supports policies that are primarily designed to hurt workers in general and to further enrich our fascist overlords, even though they may be paying dues and honoring strikes.

I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment. Unfortunately, too many union members match the dictionary definition of hypocrite, infesting the rank and file, voting against the best interests of their fellow employees.

A scab is a scab in their heart. I also regard Democratic politicians who climb on board with Republican anti-worker legislation as the lowest form of scum. At least we know Republicans are the enemy of working people. Democratic traitors, on the other hand, are far worse -- I'd rather be punched in the gut by a known enemy than stabbed in the back by a double-crossing "friend."

#1 - Only a week???

Towards what sort of outcome?

Sufficient time to get a satisfactory result would make more sense

Legend: You can name call all you want, but it just shows your simplistic views on unions, there members, and politics are reflexive and don't reflect reality.

The Dems with the House and Senate under Obama for the first part of his term had the opportunity to help unions greatly, as was promised. But they put union workers rights on the back burner while fixating on other interests.

Rather than get the Unions the "Card Check" plan to even the playing field Obama and Co instead instead pushed through an unsustainable "Affordabl Care Act which proscribed a "Cadillac Tax" that would, in a few years, hurt many union members badly in their health care packages and perhaps wages and working conditions.

Further schemes would have hurt muddle class union workers greatly. The Dems idea of raising the minimum wage tp $ 15 dollars an hour would harm all middle/upper middle class workers due to the inflation and cost of basic goods it would produce.

Allowing illegals to work here legally, even without giving them citizenship, would make permanent the destruction illegals and unscrupulous employers have caused American workers, especially in the construction, manufacturing, and food production industries.

The Dems did nothing to restructure NAFTA, which has hurt union members, and even pushed for similar Pacific Trade deals.

Making Cuba a trade partner would be like having a Bangladesh-like workforce just 90 shipping miles away from our shores.

Yes< I hate th idea of "right to work" and "paycheck protection" laws. But they seem to be on a state-by-state business. Pennsylvania Republicans, who heavily dominate the State Houise and Senate, will not push for right to work because Pennsylvania is a union-friendly state that would not tolerate it.

Same is true in Washington. Trying to push a "paycheck protection" on unions would hurt too many Republicans in many states politically. Just because Paul Ryan wants something doesn't mean he will get it.

Besides, skilled unions can wean out the non dues-paying "freeloaders" by ostracising them, having dues paying members shun them on the property, and simply "going through the motions " defending employees who need union help in discipline and other reasons.

Skilled construction craft unions can simply ignore them in the hiring hall, and basically blackball ( not "overtly", of course) freeloaders who try to get selected for jobs.

Skilled unions have many arrows in their quivers to stop this freeloading. I know from experience I had a few union members who decided they didn't want to pay union dues. What happened to them was not pretty, but I will just say none of them are working now, and no "freeloaders"' have subsequeltly appeared.

Maybe low skilled unions with very little bargaining power and much less unified and sophisticated members might not do well.

I think Trump and his advisors are smart enough to know that the skilled unions in this country felt betrayed by the Dems, who focused more on catering to the needs of many of the weird fringe groups in society.

If Trump and the Republicans (with the help of "pro union") Democrats can create more decent jobs in this country by tearing up unfair trade deals, eliminating the onerous parts of Obamacare that hurt unions, preserving the jobs in the gas and coal industries, incentivising businesses to hire, and removing the illegal immigration presence on decent paying jobs, skilled unions can come out in better shape than they are now.

This would be a great help to Republicans, as cleaving away the skilled unions from the innefective Dem-Left fold would ensure strong results in subsequent elections.

I know the Police and Fire unions, as well as a few other unions supported Trump, and I believe many skilled union members turned their backs on a party that didn't prioritize them.

If the Proposed 3 Trillion infrastructure bill becomes a reality, along with building the wall, many more high paying union jobs will be reality. Building the pipelines will also develop skilled jobs.

So please don't lecture me on how horrible this administration will be for unions.

The last eight years have shown unions to be the victims of benign neglect, and a change in leadership and priorities was a gamble I and other union workers were, and are, willing to take.

Kentucky jumped the fence to Republican because Clinton was going to shut down the only money making industry they have. how can you say the Democrats are the working people's party when they are closing down all the best paying jobs in America. There is over 5000 coal mines in China and no one cares. But it was one of Clinton's priorities to shut down all 20 coal mines in Kentucky. It is easy to save the planet from your NY apartments or your smog filled streets of LA. I would much rather breath the air in Kentucky then Southern California. So why isn't the end user the one to blame. So why don't they Shut the furnace, air conditioner and auto makers down it would have a better impact on saving the planet. I guess because their isn't enough votes in Kentucky for the Democrats to care. Party for the working people, ya right.

Absolutely it's time to strike. Strike at the root causes of less democracy. It is time to call out the Democratic Party to stand up for democracy or change it's name. Here is my letter I send to all the Dems.

Dear Democratic Party, I have voted Dem most of my life, but I am getting quite frustrated with your lack of desire to move forward with best democratic processes. The founders did not have the guts to trust democracy and concocted the EC to protect the slave states via a rigged republic. No other nation in the world uses this rigged system to choose democratic leaders. Not one state elects their Governors by such a rigged county system. I say to you stop asking for money until you accept your namesake and fight for democracy. The young generations will get this. They are fully digital. Wake up to the future and go for it. We need young leaders that will finally Finish the Revolution to a Democratic Republic. Abolish the Electoral College, draw the 2020 districts by multi-computers, automatic registration at 18 in all states, and encrypted electronic voting. Now that is Progressive. It's time the Democratic Party stood up for democracy and Finish the Revolution, or change it's name.

I have been calling for a general strike on my other posts and I think it is time to bring the Republican scum and their corporate masters to their knees.

East is west; up is down; Trump and the Republican Party will pass legislation that helps workers and unions. It's right-wing Bizarro World!

TomDorr (#16) just dumped so many right-wing Big Lies in this thread that nobody can adequately respond to them all without writing several books. (I'll try to scale it down to pamphlet-size.) Karl Rove perfected the tactic and called it "dump trucking."

At least Kend (#18) kept to just one lie: No, Kend, Clinton was not going to shut down 20 coal mines in Kentucky. Big Coal is simply struggling to compete in the marketplace with cheaper and cheaper clean energy that more and more utility companies are adding to their supply grids. Hillary merely pointed out that many more and much better jobs could be created as the nation transitions to energy sources that will reduce greenhouse gases, which, left unchecked, will eventually destroy most life on the planet.

China -- because they can't breathe! -- is on the verge of leading the world in green technologies and potentially adding at least 14 million jobs, which could be ours for the taking if Republicans weren't stuck on last century's technologies. Your words are those of a climate denier. Go to the I.P.C.C. website, do your homework, and quit watching Fox Faux "News."

Diane's loopy lies (#23): Whatever.

TomDorr's (corrected) lies:

Obama couldn't sign worker-friendly bills because Senate Republicans filibustered virtually all progressive legislation that House Democrats passed to them, including "card check." Republicans contested Al Franken's election and Scott Brown took Massachusetts after Ted Kennedy died; ergo, Democrats didn't have the votes to override filibusters. Nice try at changing history, though.

The Affordable Care Act saves tens of thousands of working people's and their family members' lives every year, saves a bundle of taxes (CBO), and generates more quality healthcare jobs, which benefit everyone. (Read Wendell Potter's books or go to his website.)

The "cadillac tax" was a poison-pill compromise -- pushed by Republicans, always thinking of money instead of lives -- to help reduce the cost of subsidizing less generous plans for less fortunate workers.

Raising the minimum wage adds little to the cost of products, which are priced at whatever the "market will bear" (economics 101), as KCRuger (#21) pointed out. In fact, putting extra money in workers' pockets fuels the economy and leads to more jobs down the line. Every minimum wage increase in history clearly demonstrates that.

Normal human beings with any empathy at all want to allow undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship so that America can avoid breaking up families and shipping off 11 million people like Nazi Germany. Having documentation also allows workers not to be abused by Republican-owned businesses, who are forever trying to prevent union movements on their properties.

Your disgusting comments about normalizing relations with Cuba, because their workers are coming to steal our jobs (based on nothing but scare-tactic hyperbole), as well as calling fellow human beings who deserve dignity "illegal," is nothing but pure bigotry and racism.

NAFTA, like every other bad trade deal, is a Republican/Wall Street policy from beginning to end, continuously opposed by the vast majority of Democrats in Congress. Obama and Bill Clinton were damn fools for bucking their own party and playing along with Republicans, thinking they could somehow tweak billionaire-friendly schemes to make them more labor friendly.

"Right to work" and "paycheck protection" are Republican ant-union initiatives written by ALEC and rubber-stamped by Republican state politicians. Democrats have been fighting back tooth and nail against this kind of crap in every state for decades. Quit giving undue credit to Republican politicians for Democratic successes!

As far as infrastructure bills go, Republicans repeatedly nixed every single plan the Democrats came up with in the last eight years to create thousands, if not millions, of jobs --because they wanted Obama to fail! (Read "When the Tea Party Came to Town" by Robert Draper.)

Trump's proposed infrastructure scam, like all his grandstanding self-dealing, is designed to make his billionaire buddies richer by borrowing the money from them and forcing taxpayers to pay it back with exorbitant interest. Instead of We the People owning our own infrastructure, Billionaires will also charge us tolls to use "their" private property. Nice!

Despite all the Republicans' unpatriotic treachery, and much to their chagrin, Obama's presidency will go down in history as a prosperous period called a "virtuous cycle." He was handed a completely ruined Republican economy with double-digit unemployment called a "vicious cycle." He will hand off to Republicans, like Clinton before him, a vibrant (albeit not perfect) Democratic economy with only 4.6 unemployment. And even that would have been much lower had Republicans not obstructed every single Democratic effort to help working people and, by extension, labor unions.

Bottom line: Despite every historical, on-the-record fact to the contrary, TomDorr, Kend, and every other brainwashed Trump troll full of swamp gas, will always blame Democrats whenever Republicans screw over America's workforce. That's what they are programmed to do.

If I was TomDorr's conductor, I would dump the air before he could pull out of the yard, then call for another engineer (preferably UTUE). There's no way anyone could last a whole trip cooped up in the same cab without stabbing one's temple with an ice pick! The trainmaster would understand.

:--))

Why is it that buisness owners are always whining about labor costs and how they're just barely getting by...boo hoo hoo! Maybe they should just relax and pay more attention to how their employees are doing financially....but noooo, instead they pay lobbyists to get big government all shook up and concerned about how unfair it is to employers to have to pay employees a fair wage.

Hey Diane Reynolds...did you notice how I used your rightie talking point words, whining, and relax...all of my rightie family members and rightie conservative friends use those exact same words all the time and sound exactly like you...geeez...wonder how that could have happened??? LMAO

Well here's the answer to all this: If big government is going to strip workers of their labor rights, then big government also needs to require business owners to fully disclose publically all income derived from the sweat of others backs. Then we'll see whether or not all that crying and whining has any merit.

I'll add one more item....Based on a fair econonmic formula, big government also needs to require that all product, service, and energy price hikes are also tied to wage hikes,....or price hikes do not get approved. I'm so sick and tired of the giant lie that free market monoply capitalism is....time to overthrow the fascists once and for all.

​Unrelated....there's a big push from underground Russian patriots to expose Putin and his regime...he can't arrest and kill all of the them....evidence of Trump's collusion/treason will leak out sooner than later...not that it will do us any good to have a theocratic maniac like Mikey Pence in power!!!!

"Now was it in the meaning of the Declaration of Independence when it said that there were certain rights that were inalienable....the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.... Is that a right of life, when the young children of this country are being reared into a sphere which is more owned by 12 men than is by 120 million people?"

Every Man a King radio speech to the Nation, 1934 Huey Long!

Here we are in 2017.... The United States of Amnesia, and Paul Ryan's attack on the what's left of the social safety net is still flying under the radar. The Dems are not seizing the moment...not even close. Hell yes, the ban is bad...but also hell yes, many many more will be ignited and rise up when they find out what Ryan and McConnell want to do to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

Sure, social injustice is always immoral, but this proposed safety net economic injustice is a bipartisan outrage....we all need to seize the moment and capitalize on Ryan's catastrophic overreach.

Trump was especially strong in getting the low educated male vote. Probably because they would vote for anything other than a woman. It makes a lot of sense for Union Members to vote for the party that has done all of the damage to Unions. I am sure that Ronald Reagan is your hero.

Legend is not misinformed, he is just super pissed off, so in his clamoring for "facts", he cherry picks until he finds an article or source that supports his claims. If one wants to spend the day probing Al Gore's internet and left wing websites, so be it. He is relatively mild compared to some idiots here that expect to see Republican heads roll on the White House lawn.

For me it is not worth my time so I will respond like Thom Hartmann does, with opinions.

If you leftie/socialists don't like them, go out and set a storefront on fire, smash a cop car, or refuse to let a conservative speak at a college while doing a hundred thousand dollars worth of damage quickly followed by bitching because you think your free speech rights are violated and your tuition is going up to repair property destroyed by your childish actions.

It appears democrat party has become the party of malcontents and property destruction. How's that for the next blog headline?

Mr. Ed : Continuing on my response to you. (Had to go to dinner I have a life), normalizing relations with Cuba would be a huge mistake. First of all, the timing is premature. Cuba has lost its Communist (USSR) and socialist (Venezuela) benefactors that propped up its economy. With the embargo and no subsidisers, Cuba's system of government is totally unsustainable. Why should we negotiate normalization now? Wait a year or two until the Cubans are begging for food like the Venezuelans and need our crumbs for survival.

If we wait long enough, Cuba will be desparate enough to settle for anything that ends the embargo.

When I said I was concerned about the 90 mile distand between the US and Cuba I was not talking about Cuban illegals coming to the US. I was talking about extremely low wage Cuban factory and production workers producing cheap goods that could be cheaply shipped for only 90 miles. Like Having a Bangladesh 90 miles from us. A disaster for American workers. Let Cuba stew in its own juices for awhile and have them come to us for normalization when they are truly desparate. That puts us in the strongest position to have Cubans oust their murderous regime and reconcile with the U.S.

I agree that NAFTA and the other trade deals are bad for American workers. But Trump is th only president truly committed to end or renegotiate them. Mexico needs a trade agreement far more than we do. Lets negotiate from a position of strength rather than treating Mexico as an equal and get what we want while giving Mexico the crumbs they need. Very simple. Very good for US workers.

Infrastructure bills, being part of Trumps promises, have a much better chance than Democratic infrastructure initiatives because now a bi-partisan bill with Republicans and Dems getting the credit is viable.

I am retired now, from being locomotive engineer for 38 years. I have also been a union rep for the only union that represents locomotive engineers and conductors exclusively. No conductor, assistant conductor, or conductor trainee has not liked working with me. In fact, during my career, many of them have come for my advice and assistance when the UTU failed them or was, in many cases, clueless.Also, a great many railroaders lean conservative, due to the fact they are responsible, work long hours, have married family responsibilities, and want to keep as much of their earned income as possible.

To show your ignorance, no one in the passenger service I worked in for the last 33 years needs to be in the cab with me. Their job was to punch tickets and attend to passenger needs. ( Like flight attendants as compared to pilots).

Besides, the UTUE is a tiny part of an inferior union that had to work with sheet metal workers to survive. (No one else wanted them!).

So please attempt to deal with reality, not your far left fantasies and resentments.

Also, please take the time to educate yourself on the facts before you try to counter my opinions and facts.

Trump, with the help of a great many skilled workers' votes, won this election. Get over it and try to cope with the fact that Left wing policies are very unpopular, and would hurt skilled union members.

Also, it appears that the photo on your blogs and responses would be more accurate if you posted the opposite end of the horse you want to be.

And please don't attempt to tell me what would be good for most skilled union members. You would be out of your league. Especially oif you believe you would be better off working for locomotive engineers represented by a bus drivers union that had to merge with sheet metal workers to survive.

Please try to understand the realities of the real world, rather than the "deep space" you evidently prefer and live in.

And I thought Gibbon was the wackiest doodle on this island of misfit toys. Mr. Ed, you make him/her sound like a normal person.

Two nights in a row you sent me to bed with a huge smile on my face. Good luck with your blood pressure meds.

Thank you again,

your friend

Diane

@ old granny Di: Choose your friends and enemies very carefully. What probably puts the biggest smile on your face is the wishful thought of a dirty old man grabbing your ... fancy?

If the word "moral" is replaced with "money" then it becomes acceptable. The greedy and the selfish will save money by not subsidizing a clean environment and healthcare that preserves life, and they will make money by investing with oil tycoons and military contractors who manufacture sickness and death. Either way, death and destruction equals profit.

Morality costs money, and that is unacceptable. It's okay to let Sunday morning preachers preach when the banks are closed, though.

See, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/business/economy/jobs-economy-voters.html. The entire election came close to being predicted on rational economic grounds. Democrats will have to serve the population of the entire countries before they hope to win an presidential here under our electoral system. In addition they are under the handicap of voter hacking and suppression in Republican Controlled districts, see https://www.mintpressnews.com/donald-trump-warned-of-a-rigged-election-was-he-right/224326/. Its precisely because the U.S. is not majority rule for the Presidency that it has to take account of things like this and the above