A concrete action readers can take to support the power of working people is to give to either WorkMoney (8 million members) or Working America (4 million). These are affinity groups for working Americans that once upon a time might have belonged to a union. (WorkMoney is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.) They help members with things like navigating veteran benefits, obtaining retail discounts, understanding healthcare options. Importantly, they also help members understand in concrete ways what government does for them, and they promote civic engagement and voting. Because of the core work these groups do for members, they are a trusted messenger. Both are strictly non-partisan, but they advocate for specific policy ends like workplace safety, fair pay, and a tax system that does not benefit elites at the expense of the vulnerable. Very smart groups.
I've bee reading about WorkMoney and it sounds like an excellent support organization for the working people. In one article I read in said that refers to WorkMoney as a "dark money group." In other articles I have read "dark money" has been described as an undisclosed source of money that supports much of Trump's election and agenda.
Is Dark Money both good and bad? This same article I am reading says some of WorkMoney's funding has come in 2020 from a "dark money" group called Sixteen Thirty Fund. I don't know what that is.
Can the Centurion provide some clarity on the issue of Dark Money?
Dark money just means "undisclosed donors." Courtesy of Citizens United, there are plenty of politics-adjacent things that can take money with no public transparency. So "dark money" is normatively bad--we would benefit from transparency--but saying pro-democracy groups should disclose all their donors would practically mean less money raised (or more harassment of its donors).
By the way, much of WM's work is completely unrelated to politics. It too is, I suppose, "dark money" funded because donors are not obliged to have their names published, just as the same would be true of a theater company or children's aid group.
I'm probably one of the few people that has been both a member of the AFL-CIO (Musicians Union) and a senior manager in a Fortune 100 corporation. That was before right-to-work laws where you couldn't play in a unionized symphony orchestra if you weren't a union member. The corporation I worked for was unusual for such a large company in that it had ethics because its CEO and founder was so ethical. So, it never unionized because the employees knew the right thing was being done for them. Like the blizzard of 1978 where all companies had to close down for a week. My company paid the hourly employees when unionized General Electric did not pay them. So I am pro union and pro ethical corporations. I'd also like to suggest a third option which is employees having majority ownership of their companies -- somewhat like a democracy!
The far right despise unions. The are working all the time to get rid of them. They know that unions are a key to a fully functioning democracy. Where ALL voices are heard. They want to be the ONLY voice that matters and take total control. That is why they have gone out of their way to weaken unions. And convince other Americans to turn on unions. (Divide and Conquer) And while that is taking place truly RIG the system in THEIR favor with LOW WAGES for everyone else and LOW or NO TAXES for them!! That is why they will do everything in their power (that word again) to see that the Trump Tax Cuts are extended. Do NOT for one minute believe their LIES about how the Trump Tax Cuts are good for America. They are "good" for ONLY one group the BILLIONAIRES (like Trump and Musk) and NO ONE ELSE!!
I was in the carpenters union back in the 70s. We were activists who fought to have minorities and women included in our industry.
We also went on strike to gain better contracts with the bosses. We made it our job to educate our union brothers and sisters about the evils of racism and sexism as it divided our ranks and made us weaker in our fight with the bosses.
We could use some plain talk about our need for working class
solidarity for fighting for a better life for all working people.
To your point on collective power, there are a number of groups that are organizing worker & consumer strike dates for February 28 & March 15. Do you think unions would join with this action?
Something I've also realized. You can have racism or you can have democracy. You can't have both (for long). People got their racism activated and voted for Trump and now here we are.
Yes, it is a game of distractions by Trump setting up $ trillions for theft by Musk. It is rather simple. I did say $ trillions and I identity what I can see. In just one instance,
if they kill the Education Department, states will clamor for privatization. Education is $853 billion per year. Yes $BILLION. Ohhh. The 10-year contract(s), think $9 trillion. One graft pie. There are many $ 1 trillion pies in play. They don’t think small theft.
This is the kind of history lesson they don’t teach in school. The fact that every authoritarian playbook starts with crushing unions should tell us something. Unions aren’t perfect, but they’re one of the last real tools regular people have to push back against billionaires running the show. We’re not supposed to be customers in our own country, we’re supposed to be the owners.
The Real tide-that Floats all Boats. Union representation has fallen precipitously, But for the first time in Human History, working class Joe walked the picket line with rank&file auto workers. And we got the post mortem after the stolen election of loosing the working class? A blue collar MAGA is like a Mafia Don @christening.
Unions in the United States have never worked together to support each other.
Now is that time.
Teacher's unions, dock workers, auto workers and every single union member must support the effort to protect worker's rights.
Union members need to know who not to buy from.
Union members need to know who they need to not cross a picket line or not support if that company won't let it's members unionize.
When Reagan fired the air traffic controllers what did the other unions do?
Nothing.
Pilots should have stopped flying. Airplane mechanics should have called in sick. Garbage workers should have refused to pick up any garbage for federal locations. .
If union members and union leaders can't get organized and advocate for the best interests of other union members then they won't have that support later.
Look at Sweden and Norway. Both countries union workers are actively campaigning against Tesla. Why are US union workers also not doing the same here?
Why are so called white collar workers not in unions? Workers and even the unions themselves fell for a narrative that it isn't for "white collar" or "college educated" types of jobs.
Of course unions are necessary for many workers. Accountants, Tech workers, and so many more are fired without any protections.
Unions don't get support from many Americans because those Americans don't have the same benefits. The issue is we need more unions. Not less.
Unions take the blame for job losses due to scapegoating by corporations. It's not the fault of US unions that jobs move to China where there are no unions. I would say that if the dock workers unions, transportation unions and others would have stood up to the corporations as a group things would be much different today.
Much is the result of the human trait of immediate self interest. Combined with the inability to foresee the future ramifications of their short term decisions causing serious long term consequences.
There are some business owners that are ethical and care about their employees.
History and human nature informs us that most humans that have power and money are not inclined to pay a penny more than they have to. Slavery is Capitalism. The slaves were capital. When machines could do the work faster and cheaper is when slavery went away in the US. Not because we became moral.
Capitalists with power and money know there is an oversupply of workers and they use that to divide workers.
Capitalists will threaten to leave a state for another because they can. States that are not union or worker friendly will offer workers less and desperate people take those jobs. This hurts all workers and becomes a "race to the bottom". They can just keep pitting workers against other workers to see who will work for less.
Remember "Right to Work" is propaganda. It really is "Right to Fire".
Corporations are authoritarian in nature. Many CEO's are psychopaths. 20%. They do not want to negotiate. They do not see their workers as humans. They are just "capital" and expendable.
So union leaders need to get together. All of them. Form a large voting block and expand on it.
Now is that time.
Communicate this to the workers. Not on blogs most workers don't read.
The right wing have always hated unions! Thatcher tried to break the backs of unions in the 1980s UK. She decimated them as much as possible & when they wouldn’t budge she went after the industries they worked in, privatising as much as possible! Capitalism on steroids!
The right wing will call unions socialist & communist, that’s a lot of what McCarthyism was all about, unions were at their peak in the late 1940s through the 1950s. The Greedy Capitalist system fears Unionism because it ensures workers are paid well, hours are limited & health & safety are adhered to. They also can collectively strike against employers. Sadly since the 1980s membership in unions has more than halved from around 20 million to less than 10 million in 2022.
Mutualism & cooperatives are really the way forward to have a healthier economy & healthier people!
Yes, let's support Unions in their fight! But will somebody please tell the Teamsters to join in. They voted 58% for Trump in the last election. Are they still in the camp of self-destruction?
I’m glad I found this article because I’ve been thinking about what role unions might play in demonstrations or working with other grass roots orgs to take to the streets. I gather litigation from unions is good but won’t be enough
A concrete action readers can take to support the power of working people is to give to either WorkMoney (8 million members) or Working America (4 million). These are affinity groups for working Americans that once upon a time might have belonged to a union. (WorkMoney is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.) They help members with things like navigating veteran benefits, obtaining retail discounts, understanding healthcare options. Importantly, they also help members understand in concrete ways what government does for them, and they promote civic engagement and voting. Because of the core work these groups do for members, they are a trusted messenger. Both are strictly non-partisan, but they advocate for specific policy ends like workplace safety, fair pay, and a tax system that does not benefit elites at the expense of the vulnerable. Very smart groups.
I've bee reading about WorkMoney and it sounds like an excellent support organization for the working people. In one article I read in said that refers to WorkMoney as a "dark money group." In other articles I have read "dark money" has been described as an undisclosed source of money that supports much of Trump's election and agenda.
Is Dark Money both good and bad? This same article I am reading says some of WorkMoney's funding has come in 2020 from a "dark money" group called Sixteen Thirty Fund. I don't know what that is.
Can the Centurion provide some clarity on the issue of Dark Money?
Dark money just means "undisclosed donors." Courtesy of Citizens United, there are plenty of politics-adjacent things that can take money with no public transparency. So "dark money" is normatively bad--we would benefit from transparency--but saying pro-democracy groups should disclose all their donors would practically mean less money raised (or more harassment of its donors).
By the way, much of WM's work is completely unrelated to politics. It too is, I suppose, "dark money" funded because donors are not obliged to have their names published, just as the same would be true of a theater company or children's aid group.
Thank you Trey.
I'm probably one of the few people that has been both a member of the AFL-CIO (Musicians Union) and a senior manager in a Fortune 100 corporation. That was before right-to-work laws where you couldn't play in a unionized symphony orchestra if you weren't a union member. The corporation I worked for was unusual for such a large company in that it had ethics because its CEO and founder was so ethical. So, it never unionized because the employees knew the right thing was being done for them. Like the blizzard of 1978 where all companies had to close down for a week. My company paid the hourly employees when unionized General Electric did not pay them. So I am pro union and pro ethical corporations. I'd also like to suggest a third option which is employees having majority ownership of their companies -- somewhat like a democracy!
The far right despise unions. The are working all the time to get rid of them. They know that unions are a key to a fully functioning democracy. Where ALL voices are heard. They want to be the ONLY voice that matters and take total control. That is why they have gone out of their way to weaken unions. And convince other Americans to turn on unions. (Divide and Conquer) And while that is taking place truly RIG the system in THEIR favor with LOW WAGES for everyone else and LOW or NO TAXES for them!! That is why they will do everything in their power (that word again) to see that the Trump Tax Cuts are extended. Do NOT for one minute believe their LIES about how the Trump Tax Cuts are good for America. They are "good" for ONLY one group the BILLIONAIRES (like Trump and Musk) and NO ONE ELSE!!
Are there volunteer opportunities with unions for non-union members, or is financial support the only means of support?
You can volunteer here! https://workerorganizing.org/volunteer/
I was in the carpenters union back in the 70s. We were activists who fought to have minorities and women included in our industry.
We also went on strike to gain better contracts with the bosses. We made it our job to educate our union brothers and sisters about the evils of racism and sexism as it divided our ranks and made us weaker in our fight with the bosses.
We could use some plain talk about our need for working class
solidarity for fighting for a better life for all working people.
Thanks for this article.
Thank you!
Great information & thanks for the graphics!
To your point on collective power, there are a number of groups that are organizing worker & consumer strike dates for February 28 & March 15. Do you think unions would join with this action?
Something I've also realized. You can have racism or you can have democracy. You can't have both (for long). People got their racism activated and voted for Trump and now here we are.
Yes, it is a game of distractions by Trump setting up $ trillions for theft by Musk. It is rather simple. I did say $ trillions and I identity what I can see. In just one instance,
if they kill the Education Department, states will clamor for privatization. Education is $853 billion per year. Yes $BILLION. Ohhh. The 10-year contract(s), think $9 trillion. One graft pie. There are many $ 1 trillion pies in play. They don’t think small theft.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/watch-the-treasury?r=3m1bs
This is the kind of history lesson they don’t teach in school. The fact that every authoritarian playbook starts with crushing unions should tell us something. Unions aren’t perfect, but they’re one of the last real tools regular people have to push back against billionaires running the show. We’re not supposed to be customers in our own country, we’re supposed to be the owners.
The Real tide-that Floats all Boats. Union representation has fallen precipitously, But for the first time in Human History, working class Joe walked the picket line with rank&file auto workers. And we got the post mortem after the stolen election of loosing the working class? A blue collar MAGA is like a Mafia Don @christening.
Unions in the United States have never worked together to support each other.
Now is that time.
Teacher's unions, dock workers, auto workers and every single union member must support the effort to protect worker's rights.
Union members need to know who not to buy from.
Union members need to know who they need to not cross a picket line or not support if that company won't let it's members unionize.
When Reagan fired the air traffic controllers what did the other unions do?
Nothing.
Pilots should have stopped flying. Airplane mechanics should have called in sick. Garbage workers should have refused to pick up any garbage for federal locations. .
If union members and union leaders can't get organized and advocate for the best interests of other union members then they won't have that support later.
Look at Sweden and Norway. Both countries union workers are actively campaigning against Tesla. Why are US union workers also not doing the same here?
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-tesla-dispute-a-new-frontier#:~:text=Before%20long%2C%20other%20Nordic%20unions,Sweden%20but%20also%20the%20EU.
Why are so called white collar workers not in unions? Workers and even the unions themselves fell for a narrative that it isn't for "white collar" or "college educated" types of jobs.
Of course unions are necessary for many workers. Accountants, Tech workers, and so many more are fired without any protections.
Unions don't get support from many Americans because those Americans don't have the same benefits. The issue is we need more unions. Not less.
Unions take the blame for job losses due to scapegoating by corporations. It's not the fault of US unions that jobs move to China where there are no unions. I would say that if the dock workers unions, transportation unions and others would have stood up to the corporations as a group things would be much different today.
Much is the result of the human trait of immediate self interest. Combined with the inability to foresee the future ramifications of their short term decisions causing serious long term consequences.
There are some business owners that are ethical and care about their employees.
History and human nature informs us that most humans that have power and money are not inclined to pay a penny more than they have to. Slavery is Capitalism. The slaves were capital. When machines could do the work faster and cheaper is when slavery went away in the US. Not because we became moral.
Capitalists with power and money know there is an oversupply of workers and they use that to divide workers.
Capitalists will threaten to leave a state for another because they can. States that are not union or worker friendly will offer workers less and desperate people take those jobs. This hurts all workers and becomes a "race to the bottom". They can just keep pitting workers against other workers to see who will work for less.
Remember "Right to Work" is propaganda. It really is "Right to Fire".
Corporations are authoritarian in nature. Many CEO's are psychopaths. 20%. They do not want to negotiate. They do not see their workers as humans. They are just "capital" and expendable.
So union leaders need to get together. All of them. Form a large voting block and expand on it.
Now is that time.
Communicate this to the workers. Not on blogs most workers don't read.
The right wing have always hated unions! Thatcher tried to break the backs of unions in the 1980s UK. She decimated them as much as possible & when they wouldn’t budge she went after the industries they worked in, privatising as much as possible! Capitalism on steroids!
The right wing will call unions socialist & communist, that’s a lot of what McCarthyism was all about, unions were at their peak in the late 1940s through the 1950s. The Greedy Capitalist system fears Unionism because it ensures workers are paid well, hours are limited & health & safety are adhered to. They also can collectively strike against employers. Sadly since the 1980s membership in unions has more than halved from around 20 million to less than 10 million in 2022.
Mutualism & cooperatives are really the way forward to have a healthier economy & healthier people!
Yes, let's support Unions in their fight! But will somebody please tell the Teamsters to join in. They voted 58% for Trump in the last election. Are they still in the camp of self-destruction?
This posting is very enlightening! Thank you! I am supporting the ACLU and will see how I can support the AFL-CIO.
Who needs plutocrats and hoarded wealth? Let me invite you to check out Zeitgeist: A Prophylactic Tale. https://aworldeofwordes.substack.com/p/zeitgeist?r=5d7dmx
I’m glad I found this article because I’ve been thinking about what role unions might play in demonstrations or working with other grass roots orgs to take to the streets. I gather litigation from unions is good but won’t be enough