This is a lovely summary of an inspiring human being, and it's made me wonder if something like this can be a regular theme of your posts. Given the billions of dollars spent insulting government and turning people against it, it would be great if you could use your virtual megaphone to help highlight heroes like Ms. Abruzzo who represent the best of what a public servant should be. It truly feels like this fight for democracy is going to get a lot uglier before it gets better, so reminders of the many great people out there fighting alongside us would sure be helpful.
Thank you for this! It is astounding to me that back in the 60’s I sang songs like Joe Hill and felt grateful that workers’ rights battles had been fought and won in the US for all time - how wrong I was! The class war continues and people continue to vote against their own interests, electing officials devoid of the slightest interest in the well-being of their constituents.
Very interesting graph. Higher union membership occurred during the time when America had the most brilliant economy in the history of the world.
Lower union membership coincided with a) the days of robber barons, b) the Great Depression, c) the Great Recession of 2008, and d) the fentanyl-suffused, homeless, days of the new robber barons.
Marx misunderstood Smith because he thought that the proletariat would never be able to exert any power unless they rose up in revolution. The result? Russia, China, and North Korea, three failed states run by dictators who menace the world.
Here's to enlightened capitalism, democracy, and....unions.
Remember! It took blue collar origins Joe Biden to finally place people who actually want to do something about corporate excesses to finally put somebody like this in a position of authority. The Democratic party lost all of these blue collar voters by ignoring them. This is why they rally for Trump. And it is not stupid of them to do this, only extremely short sighted. So Huzzah! Jennifer Abruzzo. And Huzzah Joe Biden. So much of this is way overdue.
Something good has come from the truly horrible Covid-19 pandemic! Working Americans have more leverage now than before for achieving higher wages and better benefits. Not taking anything away from Jennifer Abruzzo and her dedication to National Labor Relations Board and helping the American workers. Unions are kryptonite to corporate executives. SHARE THE WEALTH!
Thank you for the article about Jennifer Abruzzo! She certainly is an important force for good in this nation! I wish her tons of success, and will look out for news of her in the future!
Jennifer Abruzzo is actually doing her job for American workers. It is heartening to know that is possible today when the deck is stacked against the average worker for so long and wages have flatlined since the 70's. Good for her and the brave workers who unionize.
We need more public intellectuals to tell the truth to the American people. Robert I admire your work. We need more Jennifer Abruzzo's in the government.
I want to thank you for all of the great, desperately needed information you provide. Without your podcasts and writing I would not be aware of many of these things going on. It helps me to engage in educated conversations with others and influences me to continue to look for deeper knowledge and understanding.
Just as an FYI and not meant to be self-promotional on top of Mr. Reich's excellent and highly informative essays that I just recently and very gladly became aware of, here's a link to some recent articles related to all of this, located at https://wfmonitor.com/category/labor-movement/.
It makes me wonder why so many Americans vote Republican, who approve of Labour unions, since I'm sure 72% of Americans aren't Democrat voters. Presumably Republicans who do approve of Labour unions aren't of the MAGA (cult of Trump) variety and so may be reachable, so there's an opening for activists trained by experienced Democrat political operators (like Rob Reich :) )
An economy is an ecosystem, which cannot function properly, let alone thrive, if all its figurative flora and fauna are not healthy.
The best thing that labor unions can do is to make the larger public aware that the economy cannot be fully healthy when unions are not healthy, but that, as with an ecosystem, all workers, even those who do not belong to unions, benefit when those unions protect and expand the pay, benefits and rights of their members.
I worked for a factory and was a member of the Teamsters union local 493. We had excellent insurance and the local treated us like family. The company moved out of state and I went to work in a hospital where I was assured that, unlike the hospital’s competitor that was unionized, they were going to treat us well so we wouldn’t unionize. At first we were treated well. Over the years this treatment deteriorated. Then they hired a new CEO and placed a union buster in Human Resources. We received notices that we could be fired for any reason or no reason. When I checked with the labor department they said in effect no contract, no recourse. Valuable employees, long term with excellent records were walked out the door. Our raises came less often, and were minuscule, our insurance covered less and cost more, etc. I had worked there over 20 years when they froze my pension. Then my wage was frozen at less than $19.00 an hour after 26 years. All during this time the hospital (non profit) came out well in the green. The CEO got plenty of bonuses and extra money could go into real estate “for use by the hospital.” Then they merged with a hospital that was highly in debt (also buying up lots of property) allowing us to make a profit, offset by the losses at the other hospital. No doubt there is a piece I am missing. Still not sure how that helped our hospital. A lot of loyal, hardworking people were hurt. It goes way beyond that but hopefully I have made my point.
This is a lovely summary of an inspiring human being, and it's made me wonder if something like this can be a regular theme of your posts. Given the billions of dollars spent insulting government and turning people against it, it would be great if you could use your virtual megaphone to help highlight heroes like Ms. Abruzzo who represent the best of what a public servant should be. It truly feels like this fight for democracy is going to get a lot uglier before it gets better, so reminders of the many great people out there fighting alongside us would sure be helpful.
Thank you for this! It is astounding to me that back in the 60’s I sang songs like Joe Hill and felt grateful that workers’ rights battles had been fought and won in the US for all time - how wrong I was! The class war continues and people continue to vote against their own interests, electing officials devoid of the slightest interest in the well-being of their constituents.
Very interesting graph. Higher union membership occurred during the time when America had the most brilliant economy in the history of the world.
Lower union membership coincided with a) the days of robber barons, b) the Great Depression, c) the Great Recession of 2008, and d) the fentanyl-suffused, homeless, days of the new robber barons.
Marx misunderstood Smith because he thought that the proletariat would never be able to exert any power unless they rose up in revolution. The result? Russia, China, and North Korea, three failed states run by dictators who menace the world.
Here's to enlightened capitalism, democracy, and....unions.
Remember! It took blue collar origins Joe Biden to finally place people who actually want to do something about corporate excesses to finally put somebody like this in a position of authority. The Democratic party lost all of these blue collar voters by ignoring them. This is why they rally for Trump. And it is not stupid of them to do this, only extremely short sighted. So Huzzah! Jennifer Abruzzo. And Huzzah Joe Biden. So much of this is way overdue.
Something good has come from the truly horrible Covid-19 pandemic! Working Americans have more leverage now than before for achieving higher wages and better benefits. Not taking anything away from Jennifer Abruzzo and her dedication to National Labor Relations Board and helping the American workers. Unions are kryptonite to corporate executives. SHARE THE WEALTH!
Thank you for the article about Jennifer Abruzzo! She certainly is an important force for good in this nation! I wish her tons of success, and will look out for news of her in the future!
laws lacking enforcement have a tendency to fail. Thank you for this upper. Our mental health needed this.
Jennifer Abruzzo is actually doing her job for American workers. It is heartening to know that is possible today when the deck is stacked against the average worker for so long and wages have flatlined since the 70's. Good for her and the brave workers who unionize.
We need more public intellectuals to tell the truth to the American people. Robert I admire your work. We need more Jennifer Abruzzo's in the government.
I want to thank you for all of the great, desperately needed information you provide. Without your podcasts and writing I would not be aware of many of these things going on. It helps me to engage in educated conversations with others and influences me to continue to look for deeper knowledge and understanding.
Some of best news I’ve heard lately. Thank you.
Just as an FYI and not meant to be self-promotional on top of Mr. Reich's excellent and highly informative essays that I just recently and very gladly became aware of, here's a link to some recent articles related to all of this, located at https://wfmonitor.com/category/labor-movement/.
It makes me wonder why so many Americans vote Republican, who approve of Labour unions, since I'm sure 72% of Americans aren't Democrat voters. Presumably Republicans who do approve of Labour unions aren't of the MAGA (cult of Trump) variety and so may be reachable, so there's an opening for activists trained by experienced Democrat political operators (like Rob Reich :) )
An economy is an ecosystem, which cannot function properly, let alone thrive, if all its figurative flora and fauna are not healthy.
The best thing that labor unions can do is to make the larger public aware that the economy cannot be fully healthy when unions are not healthy, but that, as with an ecosystem, all workers, even those who do not belong to unions, benefit when those unions protect and expand the pay, benefits and rights of their members.
Go, Jennifer! The "little" people really do matter.
I worked for a factory and was a member of the Teamsters union local 493. We had excellent insurance and the local treated us like family. The company moved out of state and I went to work in a hospital where I was assured that, unlike the hospital’s competitor that was unionized, they were going to treat us well so we wouldn’t unionize. At first we were treated well. Over the years this treatment deteriorated. Then they hired a new CEO and placed a union buster in Human Resources. We received notices that we could be fired for any reason or no reason. When I checked with the labor department they said in effect no contract, no recourse. Valuable employees, long term with excellent records were walked out the door. Our raises came less often, and were minuscule, our insurance covered less and cost more, etc. I had worked there over 20 years when they froze my pension. Then my wage was frozen at less than $19.00 an hour after 26 years. All during this time the hospital (non profit) came out well in the green. The CEO got plenty of bonuses and extra money could go into real estate “for use by the hospital.” Then they merged with a hospital that was highly in debt (also buying up lots of property) allowing us to make a profit, offset by the losses at the other hospital. No doubt there is a piece I am missing. Still not sure how that helped our hospital. A lot of loyal, hardworking people were hurt. It goes way beyond that but hopefully I have made my point.