HOW DO YOU TAKE BACK YOUR POWER?

By Penny McQuaig

In my reading through another site [labornotes.org], I found an article about the settlement of a court case between SEIU and National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2010/04/seiu-vs-nuhw-who-owns-union

The  battle between SEIU and NUHW has been settled by the courts instead of its members.  Now I am not a part of  [the dispute] but I do understand the problem.

Perhaps we all need to take a look and a lesson from this.  The problem is that the members of each and every union continues to allow the officers to become so large and detached from the base (members) that it loses control of the one and only power initiated and contained by the members.  The key to regaining control over your union(your lives) is the same as regaining control over your state and your country.  Knowing that neither will happen without your participation and due diligence.  This situation, as it would be with any other similar situation, should have been settled by the members.  But did the members gather the information that they needed to make a decision?  Or did the members use favoritism to decide which side they were on?  The only way to have a voice is to use the voice that you have.  It’s not a trick or sales pitch.  You don’t need to purchase anything.  You already have a voice.  Somehow they are not going to do anything, or there is nothing that I can do, seems to always be in the way of THERE IS NOTHING THAT I WON’T DO TO PROTECT MY RIGHTS TO LIVE COMFORTABLY!  How do we become so disillusioned with what has welcomed us in and allowed us to share in what it had already gained through struggle?  How did us become you?  Why didn’t we feel obligated to fight on,  to maintain and grow what was handed to us when we arrived?  It was left in trust to us and we are not taking very good care of it.  Could it be that we never really knew what it meant.  Well, I looked it up and it says [an act or instance of uniting or joining two or more things together.  A UNIFIED condition]. That means we have to be concerned about and react to the things that are important to all of us not just a few of us.  ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE!!  We cannot falter because we are being watched and measured.  Are you willing to give up all of your gains?  They are being taken back from you bit by bit.  You lose by not gaining with  each contract.  The cost of living has risen but your salary has not. The proliferation of the gas bill, the electric bill, the water bill, the food and rent have put a such a stress fracture on our lives while the corporations and government have convinced you that you must cut back for their sake. Yet the only thing that they have cut back on is you.  The media which is own by the few corporate giants have hypnotized you into believing that you are getting unbiased information.  So since it is fair and balanced, you should believe that everyone but the rich needs to cutback.  The country cannot afford to pay you a living wage and give you benefits without layoffs and wage freezes.  The problem is with the illegal immigrants and the poor people.  You should be sick of carrying the weight for them.  While you are stepping on those who are already down, you wont’ {and don’t} pay attention or charge the rich with giving back.  With your help and devotion, they (2% )now own over 50% of the wealth of this nation and all others {the working poor, the immigrant, the unemployed and us}-98%- own the rest combined.  How did this happen?  It happened because we took the easy way out.  We found it easier to fight with one another and to discriminate against someone who has less than us and we did it because we felt we weren’t powerful enough to fight the REAL CORPORATE PROBLEM.   Well I’m here to tell you that we have the power, we just didn’t use it.  We have to start here and NOW.  We must arm ourselves with INFORMATION and PASSION to fight the fight!

We are at the stage of discontent, the burden on hard times lay heavily upon our shoulders.  The demagoguery and corruption of our public officials should have been an insuperable dissent before it was allowed to become invasive.  We should have known that no composition could be worse than to entrust the politicians with control of the wealth-producing machinery of the country.  We the citizens must take control over our lives.  We must never again fall prey to greed by way of our ignorance and complacency.  The dedication and sacrifice and brave actions of those whose shoulders we stand on, should remind us each and every day of our personal responsibilities to stand up for what is right and the central truth that our greatness as union derived from seemingly ordinary people who did extraordinary things.  So today because of them we can say WE ARE UNION.