WERC: They Have To Be Kidding !
Earlier today I was listening to one of the better local talk shows, the Armstrong and Getty show when they discussed an e-mail they had received from a listener in Portland, Oregon. The subject of the e-mail was the fact that the union to which the listener belonged had announced to its members that they ‘would be supporting’ the WERC campaign. There was no debate or discussion but simply a declaration that they would support the agenda.
And what an agenda it is, something to make even the most liberal among us blanch a little bit. The web site for WERC can be found here but I thought I’d offer a little summary of what they are proposing.
1. Put a halt to the Wall Street bailout plan.
2. Enact a moratorium on all home foreclosures, utility shut-offs, evictions and rent hikes.
3. Nationalize the mortgage industry, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
4. Enact H.R. 676 — the universal, single-payer health-care plan.
5. Enact the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) so that every worker can have union representation.
6. Stop the layoffs in auto and other industries across the country. Nationalize the Big 3 automakers. Re-tool the auto industry to build rapid mass transit, solar, and wind systems.
7. Stop the scapegoating of immigrant workers. Stop the ICE raids and deportations.
8. End all funding for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home now.
9.Enact a massive national reconstruction public works program (minimum expenditure needed of $1 trillion).
10. Defend and expand the rights and economic security of those who are unable to work. Grant living-wage benefits to single parents, disabled, seniors, and the unemployed. a workers’ recovery plan.
This is just a thumbnail of what they are proposing and the union members are being forced to support the agenda. As I have discussed before, I am a big supporter of the basic rights of workers but this includes the right of the worker to decide what they do and do not support. This kind of radical agenda is basically Marxism and I don’t think most workers these days support such a policy.
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Sigh. How is this different than an employer supporting a right wing slate of causes – what if the stockholders don't agree with those causes? What if the customers don't? Or the workers?
Why doesn't this union member tell his shop steward that he opposes the WERC campaign. Perhaps he can get a majority of members in his local to oppose the WERC campaign and thus force the union to divest from it.
Hmm… so you agree with everything in the agenda ?
The point of my post was how ridiculously far left the agenda is.
As to talking to his shop steward, my understanding is that he did and was told to sit down and shut up.
The only thing on the list I agree with is #7… stop scapegoating immigrant workers and stop the ICE raids and deportations… Even then I think if laws were broken (by an illegal immigrant) then that person shoudl probably be deported… but it should be a case by case decision. Companies, too, should obey the laws….
The rest of the list is whacky. I can understnad the issues and I agree that something needs to be done, but not what they are proposing.
#1 Lots of folks across the spectrum oppose the various bank bailouts. Hardly a left-wing position when even Rick Santelli thinks we should bail out the banks.
#2 Crazy as a “moratorium” sounds, many banks have initiated these voluntarily. Localities do this on occasion too. The question is how long such a moratorium last.
#3 Nationalize some of the failing banks? Sure. But I don't think this was referring to nationalizing Citi or BofA. Freddie and Fannie are already nationalized. If it really means government-run mortgage origination then, yes, this is bizarro socialism.
#4 I disagree with HR676 but it isn't exactly nuts.
#5 Again, a pretty mainstream Democratic, pro-labor position.
#6 This is stupid. Encourage them to use clean energy? Sure. Nationalize them? Yeah right. And I don't see what the auto makers have to do with solar and wind systems.
#7 I'm with StockBoy on this.
#8 This is stupid too – and irrelevant to labor.
#9 A big infrastructure public works plan is in the stimulus. One trillion dollars? No way.
#10 Depends what this means in practice. Sounds zany as written.
So, yes, some of these proposals are whacked. But some make sense.
I've never heard of WERC. They're not even on the front page of a Google search for the term WERC. They weren't on the next few results pages either. So I imagine it's safe to say I'll never hear of them again.
Who cares what they think?
GM has a market value of $6.5 billion, we have already loaned them more than they are worth.
Iraq has cost us $648 Billion so far, and will cost us approximately $3 Trillion when all is said and done. Has pouring all that money in the sands of Iraq made you feel any safer? And where do you think that wasted money is going to come from if not from the pocket book of every working American?
Why Not? We will have spent $3 trillion in Iraq with nothing to show for it, at least after we spend a trillion on infrastructure we will have something to show for it.
In theory, option 1 to 10 sound good, we would have to see how they would be put in practice.
I think the call is a fraud. WERC appears to be a 3 month old blog. There is a list of 181 individuals and groups that support it. None of them are mainstream labor organizations. I'd want to know what union this supposedly is that has decided to support an obscure movement that, as George points out, doesn't even show up in a google search for its acronym. Loony? Parts of it certainly are. But something about the e-mail doesn't pass the smell test.
Nancy Wolforth is on the executive board of the AFL-CIO – I'd say she's pretty mainstream..
One odd thing about the email is how poorly written it is. It reads like a half-baked sign at an ANSWER rally.
That's funny stockboy, I was reading the list on the main page and decided the only thing I DIDN'T agree with was #7…lol..
Illegal immigrants are bleeding job and funding for health care etc. that american workers already lack. It is absurd to provide for foreigners when our own citizens come up short. I think raids should continue unabated on employers who prefer to hire illegals at sub-standard wages…who exploit those workers' fears of being deported by working them like dogs and subject to firing on a whim or denial of insurance coverage for injury or illness while on the job. The situation is creating a human-rights travesty as well as ripping off americans. The best border fence we could erect is aggressive raiding on employers and huge fines. Also we could enact subsidies for farms to hire american workers at minimum wage to which Uncle Sam could pay part of. Put out of work people back to work at a living wage and do the farm subsidies that way instead. Any farm caught hiring illegals should be heavily fined. Those found abiding by the law should be also rewarded in some way.
There's your border fence right there. And there should be hotlines posted everywhere for numbers to call if you suspect illegals are working in the US.
Hey, Sil.. actually #7 was about immigrant workers (not just the illegals). While I generally think illegal workers should probably be deported an exception might be in order if that person has been here for many years, has children who were born here and are otherwise good “citizens”.
Can people please stop posting things like “this is basically marxism”.
This.Is.Not.Marxism Marxism is a pretty complicated ideology, not just someone saying that some failing industry should be nationalized.
This IS Marxism http://www.marxists.org/subject/students/index.htm
I also have no idea who this group is. Their list is hit or miss but, as others have said, who cares?
Marsh, look again. Notice this disclaimer: “* title listed for identification only”. In other words the union is not supporting this group, this one individual is supporting it.
Sils comment is just an indicator of how little people really know. The average wage for farm labor is around $10 an hour. How much should it be? Pick up a guy at the local hardware store and if you were not paying $10 an hour they wouldn't want to work. The biggest hits are not unskilled labor but rather the skilled. Plumbers (not the master with the license but the guy who do the work) starting at $8. Carpenters and framers that only get $10. Plant workers who are no longer middle class because of cheap labor. The recent economic down turn may have far reaching effects but recently the problems were hitting the “working class” very hard.