This country needs a good, honest labor movement.

[kentuck]

Not as a reaction to the present scam that the Repubs are getting ready to run about raising the minimum wage. Small businesses need a break if the minimum wage is increased, they say. Never mind that those working for minimum wage have not seen a wage increase in almost a dozen years. It is highly unlikely that there are small businesses that have not increased their prices or their profits in the same time frame?

But, where would we start? Would a labor movement have to be done thru the "union" model? Would the employees be able to get any concessions without forming a union? And in what areas of the work force would it be possible to unionize? We have lost many manufacturing jobs and replaced them with customer service-type jobs. Where would we begin?

[benny05]

1. SEIU

Where you live, unions are practically non-existent which may be prompting the questions.

[Fierce]

2. Anyone can unionize.

But it isn't easy. People forget that.

[Dr.Phool]

3. It can take years to unionize.

They throw up every conceivable roadblock, and harass and fire the organizers at will.

[Fierce]

4. That's right.

That's why I said it isn't easy. You have to come back, and come back, and come back. Some people just don't have it in them.

[rucky]

5. there IS a labor party, ya know

www.thelaborparty.org.

But I think the solution you're suggesting stems from cooperative employee-owned businesses. Who needs labor-management contracts when labor IS management?