Vacation Time

Labor Day: A Day To Recall Labor Unions And What They Have Done For America’s Workers

Ronald 2 Comments

Today is Labor Day, and it is too often a day ignored for its true meaning, the celebration of American workers and the labor unions which brought about the middle class in America, now under direct attack and threat.

It was the hard work of labor unions and workers that brought about the reforms we accept as normal today, including wages and hours laws, the minimum wage, the end of child labor, promotion of equal pay for equal work, occupational safety laws, and the expansion of basic worker benefits, such as health care, sick leave, vacation time, and pension benefits for millions.

But in the age of corporate greed and concentration, the second Gilded Age that we are in since the Ronald Reagan Presidency, we have seen the rapid decline of labor rights and of union power, and many ignorant Americans actually believe somehow that this is all to the good.  People applaud the anti union record of the Republican Party, which has been consistent for a century, and some think the war on public union rights by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is to be applauded, when it is an outrage!

Many people do not seem to realize that their basic worker rights have been curbed dramatically, and then wonder what can be done about it, and the answer is to work to promote union rights, and stop seeing unions as somehow a negative, simply because of some examples in the past of union corruption.

Yes, there have been union violations at times, but nowhere near the corporate violations of the public trust, and the way to expand labor rights is to support union expansion to combat the power of the corporations that have too much power over the American economy!

Bernie Sanders Is Running For President! A True Champion Of The Average American, A La FDR and Hubert Humphrey!

Ronald 3 Comments

Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders is running for President as a Democrat, and the nation will benefit from his candidacy in so many ways.

It will make at least one competitor against Hillary Clinton, an essential step, as no one should ever be unchallenged for a Presidential nomination.

It will force Hillary Clinton to move to the populist left, and to take bold stands on many issues, and if she fails to do so, do not think that it is impossible for Sanders to win the nomination.

If Barack Obama could win, a real long shot, it is conceivable, although not likely, that Sanders could go all the way.

The Iowa Caucuses could favor Bernie, as Clinton only ended up third behind Barack and John Edwards in 2008.

The New Hampshire Primary will again be crucial, and Sanders being a New Englander, could have a shot at winning in this neighboring state to Vermont.

Were Hillary to lose both the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, she could be in trouble.

The campaign will allow people to see that Sanders, an independent Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, is not a “monster” because he is Socialist; that he is perfectly harmless and simply speaks for people who are not rich, and cares about the middle class and the poor, the environment, and reviving the “American Dream”.

Sanders is the longest serving Independent member of either house of Congress in all of American history—16 years in the House of Representatives, and 10 in the Senate by 2016, making him one of the most experienced people in government ever to run for President.

Sanders will be able to show that Socialism brought us so many of the programs we accept as normal in America–Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Compensation, Minimum Wages, Maximum Hours, Sick Leave, Vacation Time, Labor Unions, Aid to Farmers, Public Education, Environmental Protection, Consumer Protection, Civil Rights, and so many other great initiatives that have made America a better place. And it has not led to dictatorship, loss of civil liberties, or any other ridiculous fear that the right wing loves to promote.

Bernie Sanders is a very genuine, kind, gentle man, who is gruff in his voice and rhetoric, because of his passion for those who are not connected to the corporate interests; but he will refuse to run a nasty campaign of attacks or allow himself to be corrupted by corporate money.

Sanders is a true man of the people, and he will elevate the discussion and the tone of the upcoming Presidential campaign of 2016!

Sanders would also be the second Jew to have announced for President, after Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in 2004, although Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was reported to be planning to run the same year had he not been killed in a small plane crash in 2002.

Bernie Sanders is in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Hubert H. Humphrey!

America And Labor Rights To a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION!

Ronald Leave a comment

Many Americans love to mouth the idea that we are a “special’ nation, which is involved in the promotion of human rights!

If that is so, isn’t a basic human right in the modern civilized world to be able to have a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION time to spend with the family, to explore new horizons through travel, to get away from the stress and tension of corporate America and the capitalistic system which has little regard for labor rights?

It is well known that corporations love to work their staff hard, to the point that by the mid 40s, many have heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, caused by the stress and pressure of their jobs, and then many are summarily dismissed without any pension guarantees and told to clean out their workplaces while security is watching, so that they don’t overreact to their being mistreated and abused!

Why is it that in this nation that is so outstanding, according to political rhetoric, the average worker receives no more than two weeks vacation, and in many cases, is expected not to utilize it all, and certainly not two weeks in a row, while elsewhere, the norm is FIVE to SIX weeks, often altogether plus Holiday weeks, off rather than days off?

More than two dozen industrialized nations require workers to take four or more weeks of paid vacation, and three nations—Finland, Brazil and France—guarantee six weeks off!

The fact is that there is no federal law that mandates that employers offer ANY paid vacation, and one out of four people, therefore, have no ability to take vacation at all! This country is the ONLY advanced nation that does not guarantte annual leave for all citizens!

Many love to say we don’t want to be like France–as if it is terrible to emulate the French and other advanced nations in promoting the human right to a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION in the 21st century!