ShowMeBlog

MoveOn Rallies in all 50 States

“As I write to you, working families across Wisconsin are making an historic stand. Using the state's budget deficit as an excuse, the governor of Wisconsin and his allies in the legislature are attempting to strip workers of one of their most basic rights: the right to collectively bargain.

And Wisconsin is just the beginning. In many states across the country, legislation has been – or soon will be – introduced that would drastically curtail the rights of workers to negotiate wages and working conditions. But in order to stop these attacks, we need to show that thousands of people are willing to publicly stand in support of working families.

To help make this happen, our friends at MoveOn.org are organizing rallies in all 50 states on Saturday to show solidarity with the working families. Click here to find a rally near you.

To help underscore why Saturday's rallies are so important, Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and President Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employee International Union joined Catholics United and some 400 people of faith on a conference call yesterday.

Bishop Zavala reminded us that the Catholic Church has long recognized the rights of workers but stressed that now is the time for us to stand with them in solidarity. And President Mary Kay Henry pointed out that the budget deficit in Wisconsin wasn’t caused by middle class workers. The crisis was caused by tax giveaways to corporations and the reckless actions of the financial industry.

It's time to set the record straight and stand up for the poor and middle class families. Will you join one of the rallies taking place near you?

Let's bring the voice of conscientious Catholics and people of faith to Saturday's events. If you make to one of the rallies, take photos and send us a report and we'll be sure to profile it on our blog, www.ourdailythread.org.

Sincerely,
Chris, James and the rest of the Catholics United team”

Message from the SEIU about Wisconsin

“As I write, 30,000 people are gathered outside of the Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin speaking out against Republican Governor Scott Walker's attempt to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees.
Almost 14,000 of our SEIU brothers and sisters stand to lose their rights if Governor Walker gets his way: 9,000 nurses and nursing home staff, along with about 5,000 home care workers.
They've been out there among the demonstrators all week.
We've set up a page on our website that allows you to send a message of support to our SEIU family and everyone else fighting for their rights outside the Capitol.
Share your well-wishes for the working families in Wisconsin and we'll make sure they receive them this weekend.
http://www.seiu.me/wisconsin
While the collective bargaining rights of our members are at stake, it's important to note that the conversation taking place is about more than that alone. When Scott Walker manufactured this crisis by giving tax cuts to corporations and his special interest friends last month, it escalated a state legislative debate into a struggle for economic justice with large corporations not paying their fair share to get Americans back to work.
When you see the news of our members in Wisconsin on the television and online, those are the things they're fighting for.
Send a message to your SEIU brothers and sisters who have been outside the Capitol all week and we'll make sure they receive it.
http://www.seiu.me/wisconsin
Scott Walker claims this is about saving money, but President Obama said it best: this is an "assault on unions."
But it's not just union members at risk; it's the services these members provide-whether that be as teachers, public safety personnel or home health care workers.
I'll be in touch soon with updates from Wisconsin and other states where working families are under attack from a new crop of Republican governors.
In solidarity,
Mary Kay Henry
President, SEIU
PS - Republicans are trying to take away workers' rights in at least ten states. But if we stop them in Wisconsin, we'll make a strong statement that America will not tolerate any more Republican attacks on the middle class. Stand with workers in Wisconsin now:
http://www.seiu.me/wisconsin “

Wisconsin Governor Holds Jobs Hostage

Union busting failed last night in the Senate

  The new head of the TSA John Pistole has said he will allow the people that work for the Transportation Security Administration to have a union.  He has no problem with workers having collective bargaining and says it will not impair the security of air travelers.
  As I told you the union busting worker hating Republicans went crazy with rage. The Republicans in the Senate came up with a amendment to prevent the TSA from allowing unions.
  Last night 47 Republicans voted for the anti-worker anti-union amendment.  Last night 51 Democrats voted down the amendment. 
  The Republican Party has never met a business, a corporation, Wall Streeter, bankers or rich person that they did not love…did not worship…But they hate worker that makes an hourly wage. 
  The Republicans think that the working man is scum.  The Republicans call union people “thugs.”  I was a union member.  My father was a union man his entire life.  Even my mother was a union member during WWII when she built Liberty ships for the war effort.
 

How the middle class became the underclass

CNN Money

Annalyn Censky, staff reporter, On Wednesday February 16, 2011, 4:30 pm EST

“Are you better off than your parents?

Probably not if you're in the middle class.

Incomes for 90% of Americans have been stuck in neutral, and it's not just because of the Great Recession. Middle-class incomes have been stagnant for at least a generation, while the wealthiest tier has surged ahead at lighting speed.

In 1988, the income of an average American taxpayer was $33,400, adjusted for inflation. Fast forward 20 years, and not much had changed: The average income was still just $33,000 in 2008, according to IRS data.

Meanwhile, the richest 1% of Americans -- those making $380,000 or more -- have seen their incomes grow 33% over the last 20 years, leaving average Americans in the dust. Experts point to some of the usual suspects -- like technology and globalization -- to explain the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.

But there's more to the story…” 

Shift work is a “ticking time bomb”

“We all know that getting enough shut-eye is good for us, but now a new study suggests that getting too little sleep can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular disease that can result in early death.

Researchers found if you sleep less than six hours, or have disturbed sleep you have a 48% chance of developing or dying from heart disease, and a 15% chance of having or dying of a stroke.  The study, published in the European Heart Journal, is a meta-analysis of 15 other sleep studies.  A meta-anaylsis integrates a number of studies into one study. Researchers followed nearly 475,000 adults from eight countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Israel for seven to 25 years…”   CNN

    I even worked the midnight shift when I was a welder.  I worked the midnight shift for KW Dart company when I was young.  Thank God, they did away with the midnight shift and I was put on the 2nd shift. 
    Then when I got seniority (we were UAW members) I made it to the day shift.
    When I worked hospital security I do not know how many midnight shifts that I worked…I have never counted it up.. I know I worked 11 years of the midnight shift just at Research Belton Hospital.
     I think all midnight shift workers knew it was hard on us. It was hard on our personal life and it was hard on our health.
    I said it then …. I said that midnight shift workers should be paid a lot more than people that worked the day shift.  I am not taking about 10% more.  I mean a lot more.
    A day shift person would not agree with me…I would always say to them do you want to work midnights..and they would say no… I would take a amount of money and say would you work midnight shift for that …they would say no.. I would just keep increasing the amount until they would say “Hell YES” for that amount I would…Then I would day THAT is what a midnight shift worker should be paid.

  My advice to young people try and not work the midnight shift.  If you do … have regular hours.. sleep and eat as normal as you can.. take care of yourself because you are paying a big price for working midnights.

Union rights for TSA workers

  I am glad that I do not have cable today.  I would hate to hear the rage and the screaming and the crying from Fox News. 

“Washington (CNN) -- The head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday gave the nation's 40,000-plus airport screeners the opportunity to engage in limited collective bargaining, pressing ahead on a hot-button issue that has separated Republicans and Democrats since the creation of the TSA after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

When Congress created the TSA in 2003, it gave the administrator the authority to decide whether or not screeners should be allowed to engage in collective bargaining. Bush administration TSA chiefs opted not to endorse bargaining, saying it would impede their ability to protect the public.

On Friday, TSA Administrator John Pistole announced he would allow airport screeners to select a union for collective bargaining, or to forgo bargaining. In a statement, Pistole said sitting down at a bargaining table with screeners would not jeopardize the nation.

"The safety of the traveling public is our top priority and we will not negotiate on security," Pistole said…”

  Fox News and Republicans hate the working man.  They call all working men “Union Thugs.”  They fucking go into a rage at the idea that workers will have the right to ask for fair wages, fair hour and decent working conditions.  The Republicans want rights for big business and corporations but they do not want the working man to have rights.
  The Republicans think that the working man should be a slave to the corporation.
  So today Fox News and the Republicans are going to be screaming about this… But I don’t have cable so I will not hear most of it. 
  They will spin the story that President Obama is paying off his supporters.  They will spin it that this is just one more step in making the United States of American a Communist state.

OneNation Working Together rally on the mall

The following two photos were taken by "lowkell" and were taken today at the rally on the mall and posted on the Blue Virginia blog.
 

The following video is one I made while the event was still taking place for those at the event and those who attended the event and for all my brothers and sisters.

Scattershot Fox Interview

  I do not hate Republicans.  But I do hate people like this Fox News interviewer.  His sort of person is just the sort of person I hate.

                                                     The poster of this video calls it "scattershot."  My guess is because the Fox Interviewer is asking wild random and indiscriminate questions.  He has no interest in the answer or trying to get the other persons point of view or discuss the issues.
  He has decided that he will gain points by saying it is not fair for taxes to take 50% of what a person makes over $250K a year.  Of course taxes do NOT take 50% and many rich people pay little to nothing in taxes. Even if they are paying taxes the tax rate in no way near 50%.  (Back in the good old days that the Tea Baggers and the Republicans say they want to return to the tax rate was 90%.) 
  This piece of crap interviewer also make it clear that he thinks that someone making millions works harder than the working poor.  That is a fucking lie.  I have seen the working poor standing at a bus stop in below zero weather waiting for a bus to go to work at 4 or 5 AM.  I have seen the working poor coming home after working 8, 10 or 12 hours and seen them dirty, tired and beat down by working in a job where they can not get ahead or even keep their heads above water.
  They did not go to work in a limo with a driver.  They did not take 2 hours for lunch at a club.  They did not watch TV in their office and have drinks in their office.  They did not try and get their dick in one of the girls working in their office.
  The back bone of this nation is the working man and woman. 

  (The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers & Helpers is my old union.  I was a member for years.  My father and mother were both members of the union.)

KC Hospital Workers Join SEIU

  Here is some interesting news.  I worked at both these hospitals. I worked for Research Medical Center for 18 years.  I worked at Menorah Medical Center for one year.
 

"By a more than 2-to-1 margin, workers at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, MO voted yesterday to make SEIU Healthcare Missouri/Kansas their union.  The landslide victory, with a vote of 285 to 136, unites nearly 600 more HCA-affiliated hospital workers in SEIU Healthcare.  They join the more than 300 workers at Kansas City-area Menorah Medical Center who voted to join SEIU just weeks ago.

"The election was a very moving experience and a very needed change," remarked Arthur Dawkins, an EVS Tech at Research Medical Center. "Yesterday we stood together and with a mighty voice we said to HCA that we want to sit down and talk about improvements."  Already, just hours after voting closed, workers are filling out contract surveys and talking about their priorities for bargaining.

More than 15,000 workers at HCA-affiliated hospitals in California, Nevada, Texas, Florida, Kansas, and Missouri are now united in SEIU."

Read more from the

Kansas City Star.

  Both these hospitals needed a union when I worked at them and it was after I left RMC that HCA took them over.  I worked for a HCA hospital in the Orlando (FL) area after I left RMC and Kansas City.  The hospital in FL was the worst hospital that I had ever seen and I had worked 30 years at hospitals.  So I am sure that after HCA took over RMC and MMC that both those hospitals needed even more a labor union.
  I used the hospital employee grievance procedure four times at one hospital (Trinity Lutheran Hospital) and it worked excellent.  It was fair.  I won all four!  Smile
  I used the grievance procedure at Research Medical Center two times.  It sucked.  They almost laughed in your face when you used it.  They also let you know that you would pay for using it.  I won the first time and I lost the second time.  
  Hospital workers need unions.