The middle class can only crash so hard before they hit bottom and go splat.

[Union Yes]

Then, on that glorious day they'll rise up, pull their head out of their ass and unionize.

Solidarity and Americans joining unions..

I'm 39, I just hope I get to see it sometime in my lifetime.

RE-UNIONIZE AMERICA.

It's time to demand the Employee Free Choice Act be passed and signed into law now!

America's middle class cannot sustain without this law.
It's that damn simple folks.

[RKP5637]

1. Exactly!!! Americans need to pull their heads out of their asses! n/t

[Arctic Dave]

2. As a union member, I say, this would only be a small step.

The leap we need is to do away with "free trade" and start fair trade.

[Mojambo]

3. Luckily they've got the bloody corpses of the American working poor to cushion their fall. n/t

[leftstreet]

7. +1

[LiberalLoner]

4. I want to just yell and scream when I hear people dissing unions rop

I have one right-wing acquaintance who actually said over dinner, "Well, unions were needed back in the 1800's but they aren't needed anymore..."

I felt like asking, "what, greed has been completely eradicated and we can trust blindly that businesses will never cheat their workers???"

I am completely disgusted with right-wingers. Between stuff like this and the video of the right-wingers yelling at the poor guy with Parkinson's...sheesh. I wish they would just all move to some other country.

[readmoreoften]

5. +1 but it's actually a little more complex than that.

The post-McCarthy redbaiting inside the unions and conciliatory attitude union bureaucracy to management in later years (of course, in addition to the unprecedented challenge of globalization) contributed to the demise of union power. We need unions again--but we need FIGHTING UNIONS as opposed to lobbying unions.

We can start rebuilding unions by rebuilding an attitude of working class solidarity. Solidarity means not dismissing other people's immiseration, not telling other people to "suck it up" and "wait" for their rights, and not resenting other working class people for the gains they've earned.

A culture of solidarity will help us rebuild our fighting apparatuses.

[Greyhound]

8. +01

:thumbsup:

Creating new unions will also require a government that will strengthen and enforce anti-trust laws and take control of our money back.

[FarCenter]

6. Why would the middle class be interested in unionizing?

I thought that unions were for workers?

[Edweird]

10. So you believe that Union workers aren't 'middle class'. Is that correct?

[FarCenter]

12. Workers are not middle class

"Middle class" generally refers to managers, professional, bureaucrats, shop keepers, and small and medium businessmen of various types.

Wage-earning workers who have no managerial responsibility are not generally middle class.

Union members are not usually middle class, although some skilled trades, such as aerospace machinists, and some professionals, such as college professors, would be what are thought of as middle class.

[Edweird]

13. I see, so you see 'middle class' not as an income level, but more like 'caste'.

[FarCenter]

15. Not like a caste, since a caste is hereditary

Middle class is the socioeconomic group between the upper class, who are people of sufficient property to not have to actually work at all, and the lower class, who are non-managerial wage slaves.

See wiki for a more complete explanation --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class

The middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the bourgeoisie before or during capitalism, or some emergent new class within capitalism. In common parlance middle class refers to a set of culturally distinct contemporary Western cultures that emphasise sedentary consumerism and petty property ownership within capitalism.

<SNIP>

[Edweird]

17. So, according to you, a Union Lineman making $100,000/year isn't 'middle class', correct?

[FarCenter]

18. It would depend on the skills, training, and degree of independent judgement exercised on the job

A lineman might be judged to be a professional and hence middle class. A Verizon FIOS installer, for example, has a highly responsible job.

But this is a hang-over from earlier days, when the CWA organized telephone company worker, many of whom had fairly simple jobs in the days of relays, wires, cord boards, carbon button microphones, etc.

[onethatcares]

14. I theeenk you have

mid management and middle class a bit muddled up. But that's just my opinion.

[FarCenter]

16. Middle class need not have management responsibilities

Doctors, lawyers, land-owning farmers, a plumber who owns his business, etc. would also be typically middle class.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Don't hold your breath

They're mostly sheeple

[pampango]

11. K & R.

[branders seine]

19. Maybe, someday before we die,

it will be like the 1920's again, and we'll start to take back a few nickels of the trillions of dollars the wealthy have stolen.

Gee. Maybe someday.

[Wilms]

20. .