Union made

Solidarity for the middle class

While it's obviously getting a lot of play here in the Motor City, I'd be willing to bet that the rest of the country isn't getting quite the daily onslaught of stories concerning the UAW strike against General Motors--but its influence on the rest of the country could be monumental.

When GM was struggling in 2009, the UAW made huge concessions to help keep the company afloat, but now that GM is swimming in money ($18.1 billion in profits last year) they seem to have developed a case of amnesia when it comes to rewarding their workers.  The UAW rightly seeks its fair share of the company's success, and it is striking to not only help themselves, but to help all of the middle class.

Unions built the middle class, and it is unions that will rebuild it.  Income inequality has become an epidemic and if we don't draw a line in the sand, it will only get worse.  This strike is a step in the right direction to helping us all. 

When I first moved to Detroit, I remember thinking that if it weren't for the UAW and the wages and benefits that it had gotten for its workers, there was no way KMart would have ever paid me a decent wage or given me decent benefits.  Thanks to the UAW I was able to make a decent living.  And it's that way for all of us, not just here in Michigan.

If this strike fails, it's hard to imagine a way back to a vibrant economy that works for all of us, and not just the wealthy, without a lot of ugliness that the powers that be will sorely regret.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

A new morning in America

Amen, brothers and sisters

In lieu of General Motors having record profits and yet still closing plants and laying off up to 14,000 people, a Fox Business News pundit this past week wondered just how long it would be before Americans woke up to capitalist bullshit and elected not just a Democratic Socialist to the Presidency, but a gee, by golly actual Socialist.

My guess is not too long--especially after all the folks who voted for Trump thinking he'd bring the good manufacturing jobs back realize he's not bringing the good manufacturing jobs back and is only there to further enrich himself and America's wealthy elite.

And considering that Fox has been has been championing the republican agenda of subsidizing the wealthy with our tax dollars since Jesus was a cub scout, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy that bit of schadenfreude.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee