Huff Post: Warning: If They Take Wisconsin, They Might Go After Our Weekends

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hector-e-sanchez/warning-if-they-take-wisc_b_837757.html

Hector E. Sanchez

Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
Posted: March 18, 2011 03:46 PM

Workers all over the country are rising up by the thousands to defend the basic American right of collective bargaining. We can fight the anti-union ambush in the states with worker solidarity among Latinos and all workers, but first we need to understand why we are fighting and what is at stake.

What is happening in Wisconsin and other states will shape the future of the middle class in the nation and the basic structure of workplace protections for working people, particularly for Latinos and all minorities.

We can no longer take these protections for granted. The minimum wage, paid sick leave, Social Security, Medicare and child labor laws are among the protections and benefits that workers in the labor movement helped secure for millions of Americans. The 40-hour workweek (as opposed to 60, 70 or 80 hours) did not materialize from one day to the next; it was the subject of a hard-fought battle spearheaded by the labor movement for more than a century. This arduous fight--led by hundreds of thousands of union activists who marched, fasted, lost their jobs and even, in some cases, their lives-- won workers the now-standard eight-hour day.

We must defend these rights. Collective bargaining gives workers a way to negotiate with employers for higher wages, job security, and safer working conditions. The hallmarks of the American middle class--raised wages, retirement funds and paid vacation time--weren't gifts from corporations to their workers. They were the result of collective bargaining. Yes, collective bargaining, the same right that the Wisconsin Republicans, at the bidding of the billionaire Koch brothers, just yanked away from public workers despite massive and unprecedented public protests.

These measures target teachers' aides, nursing assistants in public hospitals, road repair workers, sanitation workers and others who already labor in tough and low paying jobs. Gov. Walker and his cronies have stripped even these vulnerable workers of their basic right to negotiate for higher wages and better benefits.

Losing Wisconsin could mean losing the first line of defense that workers have when facing abuses. And those who will suffer the most are the workers who are already the most vulnerable in the nation: minorities.

FULL story at link.

[jwirr]

1. Correction. They will take OUR weekends but they won't go after

their own.

[calimary]

2. This is more irrefutable evidence that we MUST MUST MUST keep Latinos in the DEM column.

We need to be lockstep with them - this is a huge vulnerability THEY obviously notice that they're facing as workers, and we Dems have to make DAMN SURE that they stay in OUR camp. We must NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER take this voting bloc for granted!!! They're OURS now, and they need to stay OURS. And nobody can make sure of that except us.

[truedelphi]

3. A lot of Americans don't have week ends.

<sigh>

I guess you mean for the unions.

I am in Solidarity for everyone fighting for labor, but a lot of us cannot even remember what "weekends" means.

[snot]

4. Agreed.

[999998th word]

5. Some jobs [healthcare]have to be 24-7,but a union can make a huge difference

with scheduling fairness, weekend differential,etc.
I know firsthand, CNA for years.That is a tough job anyway ,would have been much worse without a union.

[Chipper Chat]

7. I can remember "weekends" in the 1950s.

Dad worked at the Square D plant - 40 hours - no Saturday or Sunday. Family life was great on the weekend. Dad took us fishing and we played cards with both parents on Saturday night - mostly Canasta or rum. Rook and Touring were popular too. Saturday afternoons my brother and I got a quarter for allowance which we spent on a double-feature, cartoons, and a serial at the Ritz Theatre (14 cents to get in & a dime for popcorn which we shared with the rats (we sat in the first row). But I digress..
I know, I know - those Ozzie & Harriett days are over - but I miss them.

[truedelphi]

8. Yep, those were pretty nice times.

If a middle class family wanted to attend a major league baseball game and lived near a big city - no problem.

Now you practically have to have a major league player's salary just to enter the ball park.

My folks were not into sports, but the family down the block was. (Ironically, they were the poorest people my family knew - the dad was an elevator operator for a large Chicago skyscraper, and the mom worked part time retail.)

My day at the ball park was their treat. The ball stands were fully integrated - it was the only time in my childhood when I sat next to black people.

Mr. O'Leary would be talking with whomever sat closest to us, exchanging stats on the players. The whole ball park audience was like an extended family.

What I learned from human interaction at the ball park was a major revelation. Black people were as normal as you could get. There was no reason why they should be delegated to second or third or fourth class citizenship. I learned first hand from being at the Cubs' ball park that people of color who wanted to change America were not being "uppity" or being card-carrying "Communists."

They were just trying to attain the lifestyles that everyone else of middle class held.

(Sorry for the ramble, but I do remember this all being so eye-opening. Schools were not integrated back then, so I would never have learned this from being at school.)

[snot]

9. To be clear, my main point is . . .

. . . I remember back in the '70's, more households lived on one income, and the average hours worked per job were lower. And even back then, people believed that in our lifetimes, we'd have even MORE leisure and a HIGHER standard of living, because productivity gains were well in view, and people assumed we'd all benefit.

And productivity DID increase -- massively -- but now (or at least until so many became unemployed), even though many more of us are working, AND we're working many more hours, our standard of living has NOT improved.

Because all the additional wealth we've been creating has -- for decades -- been going to the top.

[truedelphi]

10. Oh I agree, but I think a more meaningful message would be the

Sound byte that you just mentioned - that for decades the money has been to going to the
very top.

The concept of "weekends" is now a fuzzy one - almost as quaint as the village black smith's.

Even Americans who have weekends sometimes spend them working their second job.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

6. I think the labor movement should refine it's message

To be clear, I am on your side, but the deal is, most new jobs are of the low paying service type. Weekend? pray tell, what is a weekend? Most new jobs having hours in the evening, on the weekend, and at nights. It is the new reality. I know people who consider themselves lucky to get 2 days off in a row, that is considered a bonus, as opposed to say, Wednesdays and Sundays off.

What I think is more at risk are the minimum wage and overtime laws.

[Thomas Veil]

11. Weekends...that's almost a whole 'nother subject

At work we occasionally talk about how the country might be a better place if we actually kept the stores closed on Sundays, the way it was when I was growing up. Not out of any religious conviction, but just because there's no reason everybody has to shop ALL the time. Might be nice to spend more time with our families and know that there is at least one day in the weekend when EVERYBODY gets to relax.

Of course, in our 24/7/365 world, returning to those days would just throw a lot of people out of work. That WAS an era when a lot of people worked at factories and fewer were forced into the service sector. Now service sector jobs are all a lot of us can find, and if we weren't spending our Sundays refilling the racks at Target or Home Depot, we wouldn't have any work at all. It's sad.