[Peace-discuss] (no subject)

[David Johnson]

The thing to remember about the national Union bureaucratic leadership ( with the exception of the U.E. Union ...Republic Window and Door occupation and victory in Chicago in 2008, a Union so democratic that it was expelled by the AFL-CIO in the 1950's and whose national Preseident who is directly elected by the rank and file is payed no more than the highest rank and file member of the Union, approx. $70,000 per year, compared to the president of the national building trades whose annual salary is $ 340,000 per year and is NOT elected by rank and file members ) is that for decades now they have served their corporate masters well.

Like with the revolving door of the Pentagon and the war industry, there is a revolving door of Union " leaders " going from their positions in the Union officialdom with their 6 figure pensions to the democratic party and many large non-profit organizations.

For decades they have practiced the " team concept " with corporate management and in the process selling out their member's ; wages, benefits, retirement, health and safety issues, and working conditions.
Whenever they have been challenged from the rank and file with members stepping forward to criticize or run against them in elections ( that is, those few Unions that still have elections ) they are crushed and destroyed by the union officialdom in colusion with corporate management which often means a loss of their job or other sanction.

Why does the Union officialdom do this ?
Because they would rather switch than fight, they don't want to piss off the national democratic party leaders and they just want to go along to get along so that they can continue collecting their 6-figure salaries and lavish benefits and have the possibility of another lucrative job after retirement.
Equally bad, most U.S. union leaders, think corporate, act corporate, and want to be corporate.

The irony to all of this is that they have done such a good job of protecting corporate america from their angry members, the capitalists realize that with U.S. Labor as weak as it has become in the last 30-years, that they no longer need these junior partners of the 1%.
So now, the Union offficaldom wants to save it's ass and have it's cake and eat it too by supporting the Occupy movement as their shock troops to put pressure on the capitalists, and at the same time deliver the vote for their other masters, the national democratic party.

I advocate that the Occupy movement should take the Union officialdom's support and money, but realize who you are dealing with and not let them control or co-opt you. One recent tactic the officialdom has been using in Oakland Ca. is identifying key Occupy leaders and promising them the possibility of a future $ 40,000 + staff position with the union.

The question I would love to see Occupy people ask the union officialdom is this ; 
" Where are your members " ?  
" Why don't you mobilize them " ?
"Do you have rank and file member elected committees to coordinate with us " ?
" Why don't you criticize Obama and most of the national democrats when after all they have broken every promise they made to you starting with the failed enactment of the employee free choice act, the push by Obama and the dems to privatize public education and destroy the Teacher's Unions, the failure to repeal NAFTA and instead enacted a new free trade agreement with COLUMBIA that has the highest murder rate of Union activists in the world, not just per capita but in actual numbers as well.
And the list of lies and betrayls go on and on and on and on.

The Occupy Movement should make every attempt to make contact with and encourage the participation of rank and file Union members. Their fight is your fight and your fight is theirs against this rotten corporate system in ALL of it's clever manifistations.

David Johnson

   
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