Hi, I am a member of a belligereant union with historical ties to the CIA via the American Institute For Free Labor Development (AFIELD) that helped support the mass murdering Death Squad governIment in El Salvador and Guatemala, among other grass-roots activities. I speak of the United Federation of Teachers.

Actually the book Strike by Anthony Brecher stays mostly domestic, but it is so important in understanding the coorporatisms of todays Bocca Raton Grass Roots union leadership.

It is pro-union, but against union corruption, and offers a succinct historical overview that makes very substantive and fun holliday reading. One really learns a lot about the years 1946, and 1970 in the history of the US labor movement. Please read this and tell other union members, so that our dues will no longer fund the Hillary Rodham Bush's of this world... one day.

The Union, Corporate and Government elites all know what #1 threat to the country is and they have all agreed to never cripple the country or threaten the security, so are just gatekeepers again to the illusion of democracy and its existance. It is all a ruse to be used as required.

When we are all aware of our wage slavery, making us willing subjects of authority even though we seem to resist, we will throw down this tyranny and develop a new monetary system where corruption is a thing we used money to develop, but it was merely usury as usual.

In the future money will have no interest, just an administration fee so banks won't get two houses and you get one, when they create money with the stroke of a pen.

We must strike against all three of these forces if we want the banks to fall. They're all in this together and "WE, the Workers" are just dupes of their games, all to willing to turn on each other, selling our souls(freedom, liberty, intelligence) for a pittance! We've been used, bought and sold and we do it willingly.

Debt- An ingenoius substitute for the whips and chains of the slavedriver.

Have either of you ever belonged to a union.

When I was 18 I was a scab working for the post office when they had their annual christmas strikes. I guess that was when unions were beginning to lose their power(early 70's) as the management side slowly started eroding hard earned powers. Later in my travels I was a member of the Paper Workers union for a year.

The best exposure to unions was recently when Ms. Do.g's brought a union into her work. That involved over 3 years of work trying to establish it and final negotiations are still going on. The whole thing was precedent setting because of the nature of the work and the cross cultural complexities. The management was so hostile and disobeyed all orders constantly. There was only threats to try to get them to comply, but they wouldn't and fought it all the way. Finally Ms. Do.g's quit, the stress was so great that the whole reason for protecting workers from management tyranny was being overshadowed by the lack of accountable work in the communities and families were suffering too. And management takes none of the responsibility blaming the union for all the problems. She got a great job immediately at the ministry and is a member of the public service union and loves her job again.

Its all so political and intertwined, like the way things always intersect with each other, that they have to abide by written and unwritten rules with the greater good of the country taking precedent. But in the workplace where the workers and foremen walk, no one wants to give or take, except management taking whatever it conceded in the past. With unions losing power and membership, they are forced to comply- sometimes by provincial or federal mandate- like Reagan did to the air controllers.

Many an education strike has been ordered back to work here. Is that the same in the states? They are considered an essential (babysitting/daycare) service here and parents are only too ready to complain against the teachers and blame the union, or at least the press will paint it that way!

The only union I ever belonged to was the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). It was (and is) an excellent organization, although the dues were a bit stiff. However, the NCAE has been instrumental in lowering class size in NC, lobbying for teacher pay increases, and COLAs. During my teaching career, I always belonged to the NCAE and felt that it did a great deal for the state's schools and all educators.

NCAE didn't call for teacher strikes statewide during my career, although some of the larger counties out east were pretty militant when it came to teacher/pupil ratio and demanding that NC salaries be brought up to the national average.

I couldn't argue with any of that.

Catherine as I said I belong to the United Federation of Teachers . I am pro-union. but anti- almost all of union leadership. This is a difficult position to explain, but becomes much more tennable after reading the above mentioned book . The UFT accomplished some great things. For a long time now, however , it has become a means of controlling the workers.

My Dad was a union man. I remember the stories about how people who tried to start unions were beaten and killed. He talked often about the bad old days before unions.

As I said, he was a union man all his working life, and I have never stepped over a picket line in my life. But that all happened back when unions were on the side of people--not strictly monied people.

Like many entities, unions started out with a noble goal. But corruption has a way of finding those noble people and pushing them out.

Corruption, like Rs, is like dry rot as I have said many times. By the time you find out it is there, it has done it's damage.