….consistent with the oath taken by all Building Trades members. He stabilized the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board). He was a key player in the effort to secure $91 billion from taxpayers to shore up Taft-Hartley pensions. And, he advanced infrastructure in the U.S. Now Marty is off to the NHL and his successor has… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Labor Rising
Marty Walsh Leaves the Building Trades Better Than he Found it….
Time to Push the Numbers Baby – A Rank & File Trades MOVEMENT
When I first became an Ironworker Organizer, my BM sent me to train under Brent Emons BM for IW 8. Driving the backroads of northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan, I asked him, “What is the single best trait that makes an organizer good or even great?” His response was – persistence! I never… Continue Reading
Our Own Tammany Hall – But all Trades Internationals Have a William “Boss” Tweed at the Helm –
The electricians shuffle. Fresh out of convention the current International President has resigned, and an appointment will fill the remainder of his presidency starting January 4th, 2023, with their small cabal of insiders exclusively dictating who that is. All trades, by and large, have done this. The rank & file seldom gets a vote. Before… Continue Reading
Biden & the Railway Workers – Nothing Our International Presidents Haven’t Done to Us for 50 Years –
Which, by the way, is giving the management alliance bosses what they want! In fact, the numbers over the last five decades demonstrate that our senior officers have perfected being “toadies” to the “bosses”. Consider – How much has the price of a dollar increased since 1975? The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.70%… Continue Reading
My Pension is “GREEN” – You are an Idiot Labor Rising. Well Let’s See –
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPP) created the zone statuses of red, yellow & green. The Act helped define funding levels of multiemployer pensions among making many other substantive changes! Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 expanded zone status to fine tune options for funds in trouble, giving them the ability to potentially cut… Continue Reading
So, The Rank & File Thinks They Have a Pension Thru 2051?
At Labor Rising we deal with measurable facts in the full light of day! We have written 4 versions of this blog with the longest being 3,983 words, this is number 5. The issue of multiemployer pension underfunding and pension failures is setting up average R&F members for a very real financial haymaker! The American… Continue Reading
Work to Rule Regarding Safety on PLA’s is NOT…
a strike(s), sympathy strike(s), work stoppages, picketing, slowdowns, interference with the work or other disruptive activity by the Trades on a PLA job. This is what is being told to union building trades members throughout the U.S. by officers of the respective Internationals where Work to Rule is unfolding on PLA’s, and even a couple… Continue Reading
Workers Own the Job – Work to Rule
Not management – not the senior trades leaders – we, the workers, do! Consider: Measurable market share over the past 50 years has continuously declined “NET” across the trades. Density of trades workers vs. non-union workers is worse than market share and is the better measure for senior leadership’s failures over the same 50 years…. Continue Reading
Meanwhile on the Non-Union Side of Work to Rule –
Those who have taken the Labor Rising Foundations course on organizing know that we have a solid foothold with 17 non-union Facebook Groups. Combined “members” of these 17 groups total approximately 235,000. Part of an organizers mission! Those non-union group members interact to a high degree with our posts. They have followed the posts regarding… Continue Reading
WWOFD – What Would our Founders do?
Many of the founding fathers were not looking for trouble. An example is Archibald Barnes, 1888 First General President of the Tin-Knockers. Brother Barnes wanted the tin-knockers to be recognized as a valuable partner within the industry and with employers. Sound familiar? However, employers believed to their core that capital and labor had “nothing to… Continue Reading