Robert Reich, "One of the most encouraging things I'm seeing isn't happening in Washington.

[Playinghardball]

[Shemp Howard]

1. Union membership is dropping like a stone.

The unions did so much to help build America's middle class. But now the manufacturing jobs are overseas, union membership is declining, and the middle class is disappearing.

And no politician seems to care about that. Its a shame that Robert Reich wasn't Labor Secretary for four years. He would have been in a position to do something. He could have made angry speeches, and resigned in protest if necessary.

Oh, wait a minute. Robert Reich was Labor Secretary for four years. The job-killing NAFTA bill was signed when he was in office.

We don't need sideline slogans from fake progressives. We need real action from real progressives.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. We should inform the tea party, aka Koch heads . . .

. . . America's golden age was when the most productive Americans had an easier time joining labor unions.

[Shemp Howard]

5. In the meantime, cancel NAFTA

I'm all for carefully targeted protective tariffs to get industry back to America. But I'd be happy enough (for now) if Obama would just announce that the US was backing out of NAFTA. Of couse that will never happen.

Now I'm off-topic Jack Rabbit, but Woody Guthrie was the man. I never heard a song of his that I didn't like. Awhile back, our union was involved in a dispute with management. At one meeting someone began to play Anne Feeney's "Union Maid", a song that I had never heard before.

"I'll bet that's one of Woody's," I said to myself. And I was right.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. And turn back TPP/TPIP

That's an absolute must.

Corollary: Should either of both be approved by the best government money can buy, the proper response is civil disobedience, by which is meant total civil disobedience.

[bvar22]

12. Yep! We should have elected THIS guy instead:

Whatever happened to that guy?
He would have made a good president.

If we had elected him, the Unions and "Ordinary Working People" would have been involved in the negotiation of the TPP and the TTIP, and not just lobbyists and Corporate Owners.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

17. Wow, no one even saw this...???

I know Obama, the media, the multi-national corporatists want TPP talks to be secret and the treaty fast tracked and all, but DU whiffed on it?

OBAMACARE!!!!

[pangaia]

26. And when taxes were much higher on the wealthy and corporations.

[el_bryanto]

3. Maybe new unions will come out of the movements he's talking about

more powerful unions to protect service jobs - while i agree that economically those sorts of jobs aren't the best, they do need to be done, and the workers who do them should receive decent salaries and benefits.

Bryant

[KittyWampus]

6. I hope so. IMO, Unions have failed to keep apace with the rightwing onslaught. And they are too

fragmented. Too willing to go with the flow as long as their particular membership benefits from policy x, y or z/

[Myrina]

4. Fake progressives huh ?

And you have a Dennis Kucinich - darling commentator on Faux - as your avatar.

Welcome to DU.

[Shemp Howard]

7. Yeah, that does bother me a bit...

All I can do is hope that Kucinich gets his message across on Fox. It's sort of like a voice in the wilderness, but you never know.

And please remember that while so many people complained about Bush II, Kucinich actually tried to do something about it. On June 10, 2008 he introduced articles of impeachment against Bush. That's perhaps the main reason I chose the Kucinich sign as my avatar.

The articles went nowhere of course, but at least it's on the record.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efforts_to_impeach_George_W._Bush

[liberal_at_heart]

11. and he was the only one to vote no on the initial Iraq vote.

He has proved his progressive credentials.

[bvar22]

13. Yep. No good Democrat should EVER go into the Lion's Den...

...because preaching to the choir is so much more effective.

[Enthusiast]

22. ...

[INdemo]

15. Actually Union membership is on the rise.

The problem is todays potential young members are being brainwashed by Tea Party slogans and Fox News and the modern John Birch Society(The Tea baggers) with the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and the list goes on......Aside from all these negatives there are signs of renewed interest. I see this first hand ..I have been a union member for over Forty years.

[SunSeeker]

8. K & R

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

[cui bono]

14. And I believe Occupy Wall Street had a lot to do with this.

[pinboy3niner]

20. I went to the biggest Black Friday Wal-Mart strike/protest in the country last year

It was at the Paramount CA store, with more than 1200 protesters. In addition to WM workers and former workers, supporters included labor union members, college students, churches, etc. And a LOT of the protesters were Occupiers from Occupy L.A. and other SoCal Occupy groups.

It's not well-known that Occupiers are involved in a lot of "affiliated organization" actions. Probably half of the Occupy protests I've gone to were not officially Occupy events. The official sponsors were labor groups or immigrant rights groups or others. But Occupy groups publicized them on their websites and put them on their calendars as affiliated group actions and encouraged support and participation by Occupiers.

P.S.--I love your sigline.

[cui bono]

21. I really think OWS spurred a lot of this by getting income disparity out into the dialogue.

It made the media talk about it and made people take notice of it.

p.s. Thanks!

[Shemp Howard]

23. OWS: perhaps the only folks with good intentions left

nt

[ReRe]

16. K&R

Congress should be taking care of minimum wage for We the People. Looks to me like what we have here is a case of old-fashioned taxation without representation. Their organizing from hither to yon IS an encouraging sign in this down-and-out-economy. I am old enough to remember when employers gave their employees cost-of-living raises or merit raises each year. I think Nixon nixed that around 1973. And since then, the only raise they got was when Congress forced employers to pay a minimum wage. Yip, and then there's Congress, who represents the employers and not We the People anymore. It's a big maddening circle, this country. Nothing but a rat race. And we're getting nowhere fast. Caught in a trap. I hope those fast-food workers and Walmart employees keep rallying and organizing. Remember what Nelson Mandela said: "It always seems impossible, until it is done."

[pinboy3niner]

19. Sorry, wrong place

[RainDog]

18. k&r n/t

[TBF]

24. K&R nt

[mountain grammy]

25. K&R As retired union members, we are hopefully watching the rebirth

of the labor movement in America. It was done before, but took plenty of blood, guts and tears.
I think Americans have been beaten down enough now to fight back.. I sure hope so.