Smells Like Class Consciousness

Yesterday, labor unions stood in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement and today the protests are spreading across the country. This movement is united by the simple rallying cry of "We are the 99%". President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka says this in support:

Occupy Wall Street has captured the imagination and passion of millions of Americans who have lost hope that our nation’s policymakers are speaking for them. We support the protesters in their determination to hold Wall Street accountable and create good jobs.

We are proud that today on Wall Street, bus drivers, painters, nurses and utility workers are joining students and homeowners, the unemployed and the underemployed to call for fundamental change. Across America, working people are turning out with their friends and neighbors in parks, congregations and union halls to express their frustration — and anger —- about our country’s staggering wealth gap, the lack of work for people who want to work and the corrupting of our politics by business and financial elites. The people who do the work to keep our great country running are being robbed not only of income, but of a voice. It is time for all of us — the 99 percent — to be heard.

Whether you work in a grocery store or a hospital, whether you have a family to support or are saving up for college, whether you are a union member or get no respect on the job, it's time we rise up together. The bottom-line is if working people don't stand up together and demand change, that 1% will continue to walk all over us. They might have the money power, but we have the people power.

Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall St.) from Alex Mallis on Vimeo.

Corporate America just don't understand!

Young workers in this country are getting screwed. They make the lowest wages, few receive health care and job security is almost non-existent. Workers ages 16-28 are treated like they're disposable. Employers invest little time and training in younger workers, keeping them easily replaceable. Corporations will hire masses of young, part- time workers, keeping health care and hourly wage costs down. Often school schedules and other responsibilities are not respected, forcing student workers to choose between a dream of further education and middle class freedom, and the harsh reality of getting by in an economy where cost-of-living expenses continue to rise and jobs are scarce. There have been legislative, community, and unionization efforts to help other groups of marginalized workers such as immigrants, women, seniors, and minorities, but not the young worker. Young workers and student workers are also some of the most abused: injuries on the job are much higher, age makes them targets for abuse from management, and many employers sanction customer abuse by adopting a 'the customer is always right' policy.

Often young workers are seen as lazy and care-free, with few responsibilities to tie them down; their income only going to the newest iphone, video game, or fashion accessory. Low-paying, dead-end jobs (called McJobs by some) are viewed as just part of growing up. However, young workers have many 'grown up' responsibilities. Some have young families to support. Many young workers' income supplements their parents' income. Most live on their own, their income going towards rent, food and transportation, the costs of which are continually rising. Trying to work and save up for college has become a joke. You can visit a table of the rise in tuition costs and their current adjusted dollar amount since the 1980's here at the Nation Center for Education Statistics' website: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76. Higher education costs have risen 37% percent from 1990 to 2010. Have wages for working students risen that much?

So why do we put up with this? How often have you thought to yourself, 'I won't be here forever.' or 'After I finish school, I'm out of here!' whenever something soul-crushing happens at work. Dreams of a brighter future are important, but that shouldn't justify your acceptance of the young workers' plight. Instead of focusing on the injustice of the moment, we focus on what life will be like in 5 years and what we will be doing then. Often the problems younger workers face are what keep them from being successful in the long-term. Low wages make higher education unaffordable. Management's lack of respect for school schedules make it easy to miss classes and fall behind. Rising costs of material needs keep young workers desperate to make ends meet. Focusing on the future instead of the problems at hand creates a passive worker and decreases worker solidarity; a worker who is less likely to engage in radical collective action.

So let me get this straight: young workers make the lowest wages, they are least respected, job security is scarce, few of us have health care through our jobs, it's widely accepted that social security won't be there for us when we retire, higher education is unaffordable, after we meet all the educational requirements for a degree and take out enough loans to pay for it, the economy is so bad that there might not be a job for us when we're done - and we're busy thinking about the future. There won't be a future left if we don't act now! It is time for collective action. It's time for a Young Worker Movement. We must come together and demand change and fairness in the workplace. Together we have the power to make change, but it will take all of us. Collective action gets the goods. What are you willing to do? Get involved now! Email Maria Graybeal and Julia Trist at maria.graybeal@ufcw555.com and become involved in the Youth Action Committee for UFCW 555.

Why we fight...

"You see, Dr. King understood that it is organizing that made us most human. He knew that when we use our social nature to lift each other up, we express our full humanity. We don't realize our potential in life the way corporate America and their media tell us- not by pushing others aside or crawling over anyone's else's back or kissing somebody's ass, but by linking arms and lifting everyone, everyone's family, everyone's kids, everyone's standard of living" ~Stewart Acluff, afl-cio

UFCW 555 has a commitment to rebuild the working class in America. We believe the answer to the current anti-worker climate is link our fates together and organize. Organize for rights on the job, when you cross the threshold at work you lose almost all rights as a non-union worker. Organize for livable wages, real health care and a retirement you can count on. Organize to remind big business who it is that has the ability to hold corporate America accountable; it's not government or regulators, it's the same people it has always been~ workers!

Let's join together to rebuild America and put power back where it belongs in the hands in the hands of workers!