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In reply to the discussion: Republicans' plans to slash Social Security and Medicare are becoming clearer: 'We have no choice... [View all]DENVERPOPS
(8,888 posts)I swear......the perfect title for a book on the last 40+ years would be: WHILE THE NATION SLEPT
Twenty years or so ago, two of the unions, Safeway Grocery and RTD bus drivers both sold out to management at the end of both groups contracts.
The existing Bus Drivers, signed off on a contract that gave THEM a dollar raise and, in turn, gave management the go ahead to start new hires at half of their wages. HALF.......Instead of new hires getting 20 bucks an hour, the "Got Mine, Screw You" mentality signed the contract that new hires would start at ten bucks. I couldn't believe it !!!!!!!!!!! I asked a couple of the RTD drivers I knew What.The.Fuck.Are.You.Doing??????? I told them they should be ashamed. There were countless union employees who had to go out on strike for long periods of time so that they could get the 21 bucks an hour that they were now enjoying.
Then the Safeway employees did the exact same thing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A safeway checker I was talking to last week told me he was up to 16 dollars an hour after ten years, and was excited. I shook my head and told him that I lived with a Journeyman checker in 1980, and she had eight years, and she was earning 20 bucks an hour in 1980. He just stared at me........
When Reagan, (actually it was HWBush and Cheney, et al) fired half the Air Traffic Controllers in 1980...it was the shot heard round the world, or at least across the U.S. It told every Union employee that there was a new sheriff in town, so to speak. The next week, I distinctly remember, the Denver Electrical Union was obliterated and they HAD been earning 22 an hour and 26% fringe. Suddenly, they were earning 12 an hour and zero fringe.............It took them nineteen years to get back to 22 an hour and only had 12% fringe.
Side Note on the ATC trying to control all the planes in the air with half the employees. Pilots told me that they were extremely frightened knowing the ATC were extremely short handed. They told me that when there were massive delays, the pilots could not inform the passengers that it was due to Air Traffic Controllers needing to space the planes farther apart. Airline management told them that they could only say "Due to ATC" delays, they were running behind schedule. Most passengers had no idea who the "ATC" was so they wouldn't know that it was a direct result of half the controllers being fired by Reagan.
Republicans didn't like the fact that there was a ton of money coming due to SSI retirees in the future. Money that wasn't there, because there was no "Lock Box" for SSI. The past politicians had merely thrown the money into the General fund and it was mostly spent. Soooooo Reagan panicked everyone, told them he needed to DOUBLE the SSI withholding to make sure there was ample money for the future. Of course everyone went along with that LIE. The money poured into the Fed Gov't and of course didn't go into a lock box, but into the general fund. It was a windfall to the Feds. Reagan used that surplus coming in to tell people we were in great shape and he instituted the Largest Tax Cut Ever, but he cut taxes only to the rich and corporations..........The future of SSI was still in danger.
And here we are today............In addition to tax cuts to the rich, he took many large deductions away that mostly helped the middle class, so it was a double whammy.
Like I said at the beginning: The perfect title for a book on the last 40+ years would be: WHILE THE NATION SLEPT