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| - With over 700,000 members strong, the almost 7 decades-old United Steelworkers is the mightiest industrial labor union in North America, and its master headquarters has a Pittsburgh address.
Unions were assailed then and are being assailed now by regressive, laissez-fare capitalist forces that bow to the unholy, unstable power of markets and stomp on the dignity of working people. USW is biggest David we have in the battle against the Goliath of Greed that is Corporate America.
The USW was founded in the blood of those who toil, those whose fingernails have soot under them, those 146 garment workers who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, those whose muscles ache at the end of their day, those who make society function, those who produce, those who forge, smelt, lift, climb, rescue, and nurse the injured and sick back to health.
Unions are imperfect, but without them there would be no rights for those who work, and the few in power who scheme, gamble, downsize, and profit would be unstoppable in their economic campaign of terror. Realize where your interests lie. Realize that the USW's issues of universal health care, unfair trade practices, outsourcing, job security, living wages, protecting/bolstering Social Security, a clean environment, and the simple right to organize are your issues too.
I'll leave you with a few quotes from current USW president Leo Gerard.
"All we want to do is sit down and negotiate. Negotiation is the cornerstone of democracy as well. And I've threatened and challenged to debate people. Show me a country on earth that is a democratic country that doesn't have a free, strong, independent labor movement. If you crush the labor movement in America, you crush democracy."
"53,000 factories have closed since the Bush years, since the collapse we have 27 million unemployed and underemployed. Let's be clear -- this mess was not caused by workers, but by corporate thugs on Wall Street."
"How many companies have to go under before Washington gets the message? How many American workers and communities will have to be devastated by the predatory practices of foreign governments before Washington realizes that the country's economic and national security is being totally undermined for the sake of protecting trade policies that have patently failed."
"Anything Goes capitalism is something that must go."
"GOP governors from Ohio to Indiana to Wisconsin have claimed last November's elections gave them a mandate to decimate worker rights. But numerous polls, from those sponsored by the New York Times to USA Today/Gallup, have shown that these Republicans are wrong, that the public is not with them. Consistently, 60 percent in the polls say they oppose legislation terminating worker rights."
They don't want corporations and they don't want governments to return to the days of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, when young women, without a union and without an effective collective voice, labored in a fire trap that eventually killed them. They don't want government to give itself or corporations the unfettered ability to exploit workers again."
"No matter how better educated American workers get. No matter how much more innovative. No matter how much more productive. No matter how many tax dollars the government spends on research and development, if the corporations that benefit move manufacturing overseas, the American workers who paid for it will suffer."
"An ordinary American dreams of a family-supporting job, owning a home, saving enough to pay for a child's college education, helping to build a safe community. Corporations aren't Americans, no matter how often the U.S. Supreme Court grants them rights that the U.S. Constitution guarantees to human beings. Businesses aren't citizens. Their allegiance isn't to America. It's to profits. They dream only of dollars. They concede no responsibility to family, community or country."
"Without the slightest regret or hesitation, the rich are killing the great American middle, rendering it a casualty of their shirked social responsibilities. Their campaign has been abetted by Republicans since Ronald Reagan. The Gipper contended slashing taxes for the wealthy would increase revenues for the government. Republican George H. W. Bush rightly ridiculed Reaganomics as voodoo."
Run, Leo, run, for POTUS that is.
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