"Changing to Grow"

(Yes, I know this is old news...don't shoot me, but I thought I needed to add my two cents on this issue.) The "American dream" is what many people seek to accomplish in life. They want a good job with a nice environment and decent benefits; people want to be able to protect and raise their families. Organized labor, or unions, have been trying to protect that dream for many years now. Ever since the industrial resolution, workers have attempted to come together to protect their rights as a worker. The world has made many great strides in that aspect. The everyday worker has gotten better pay, improved working environments, and more respect from their employers. Things, however, have been changing. A little thing called globalization came around and now it seems like every corporation wants to cuts costs and cut the workers' rights to be able to compete in a global market. Myself, I don't think this is fair. Every worker deserves to be treated better; the heart-and-soul of the company should not have to be the one that gets the axe in this more competitive world of trade. The unions have continually suffered and have seen their influence decrease dramatically; workers are starting to suffer once again. The labor movement is the key to help deter this recent trend of mega-corporations, but they have not been doing their duties. The Teamsters and service workers did the right thing by breaking off from the AFL-CIO. Union membership has dropped and workers have suffered. The AFL-CIO has been pushing for spending more money on political campaigns to receive more clout in Washington; this tactic, however, has not been working. For some reason, this mega union cannot see this. What the Teamsters and service workers plan to do is go to the heart of the organization. They plan to go back to workers and improve membership. This is where they can truly make change. The politicians (Democrat or Republican) don't really care about the worker. What they care about is gaining an office and increasing the size of their wallets. The workers will make the change; for hundreds of years it has been the united workers that have proved to been a successful tool in improving the working environment. These two unions plan to go back to that everyday man that would fight to the death to keep his family alive and well. I do admit that a more united labor movement would be very effective, but this is a start. A start for workers everywhere to unite and say that they deserve better!

Filed Under: news, politics

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