Reply #70: I do support unions....

[tirechewer]

I have noticed with the waning strength of unions, wages have fallen while time at work has increased. Safety standards for workers are at an all time low. More jobs come without health or meaningful retirement benefits. More and more corporations are outsourcing to countries, while workers here beg for employment.

I was a shop steward for the union at my job. My employer systematically broke the back of the union and took away our power to negotiate. I worked for the feds. They ignored federal personnel laws without any check at all on their actions. The union spent most of its time in court trying to stop them. There was not too much that we as employees could do to help out. There was a federal law that kept us from going out on strike. Ironic, isn't it?

Union busting bled into the private sector with a vengeance and look at what workers are facing there now. There was a reason that people formed unions in the first place. Go ask the coal miners, or the people who work at Walmart if they might like a strong effective union to protect their safety, their working conditions and their ability to earn a good wage.

When the market chains were being struck here in California, I never crossed a picket line. I was surprised at the number of other people who went out of their way not to cross them either. I found a smaller market to buy food, and I have not gone back to the chains yet. Niether have a lot of other people. That, at least is gratifying.

The big chains being struck, essentially conspired together to break the strike and now one of the chains is facing 53 charges on actions they knowingly took to break the strike and damage the workers. Nothing at all has happened legally with the other chain, even though they were equally culpable. With the courts packed the way they are with guppa guppa right wingers, I wonder what will happen at trial?