Labor Reborn

 Organized Labor Reborn

“We all do better when we all do better.”

 

We had a celebration during the TV national news the other night when David Muir reported on the unionization of a Volkswagen auto assembly plant in Tennessee. The plant workers voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers in the face of fierce opposition by management and six governors from the surrounding red states who attacked the union as a threat to “liberty and freedoms.”

 

The mainstream media reporting on the vote was fleeting and they missed a major part of the story which is that this was the first successful union organizing drive in the auto industry outside of Detroit and the first major union victory in the South in decades.

 

This win is historic and signals the continued rebirth of the American Labor Movement.

 

My family has been part of the Labor Movement since my grandfather, Rev. William Mann Fincke worked to support labor in New York City’s Labor Temple and Pennsylvania coal miners in the 1920s. He went on to found progressive boarding schools for the children of labor organizers and unionized workers. Two of his sons, my uncles, continued working in labor supporting and labor supported progressive schools in the 1940s and 50s. One of those sons, my Uncle Ben, continued that work at Buxton School which I attended from 1959 to 1964. I picked up the history and worked my way through the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a proud member of the union behind entertainment, IATSE Local 251, in the early 1970s. I took UW-Madison journalism classes from proud members of the Newspaper Guild.

 

When former Governor Scott Walker “dropped the bomb” of Act 10, drastically curtailing the rights of public sector union workers, I organized the first of several demonstrations on the corner of Paradise and Main to support those recently disenfranchised. We were supported by local professional firefighters, teachers, unionized public health workers, public sector laborers and several unionized members of law enforcement. I continued working with local public-school teachers and their union leaders to combat the draconian aftereffects imposed by local school boards. We organized supporters to help elect school board members open to honest converstations with school staff about working conditions and wages.

 

Our local struggles mirrored a decline in union power and influence that started in the late 1970s. Because organized labor helped build a worker led middle class, supported civil rights, voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid, family and medical leave laws and other progressive measures, GOP governors and presidents targeted unions and their leadership.  Their successes led to wage cuts, reduced pension benefits and reduced job security. The result has been more than 40 years of near flat wages while our national economy has grown threefold over the same period.

 

As union power waned, so did the middle class while those at the top accumulated more and more wealth.

 

That has slowly changed. Unions have sprung up in new places and won fair contracts. Look to the Hollywood writers and other behind the scenes unions like IATSE, UPS workers, healthcare workers in California and even university employees who have negotiated significant pay increases and increased job security.  Public school teachers in several states have gone out on strike, ignoring state laws prohibiting public sector strikes, and won new contracts. New Union contracts have averaged pay increases over 7% while Union membership increased by 191,000 in 2023. Public approval of organized labor is on the rise. It is up to 70%, the highest in 50 years.

 

Several factors have contributed to the rebirth of the Labor Movement.

 

Covid showed us that rich Americans had an easier time surviving and that we all depend upon working folks just doing their jobs. Those everyday workers quickly learned that the system is rigged against them. Union wins at the bargaining table showed that change and improvement are possible through collective action and bargaining. The post pandemic economy is growing rapidly, and employers are having trouble holding on to the workers they need to keep up.

 

Finally, we have the most pro-union President in recent history. Joe Biden joined a UAW picket line in support of striking auto workers. Biden issued a statement congratulating the Tennessee auto workers on their historic vote to unionize. He reshaped the National Labor Relations Board into the most pro-union one in decades.

 

All these things are driving the rebirth of organized labor as a positive progressive force in America and will help shape an American future that supports working people as the backbone of a growing economy. With this rebirth, the hoarding of wealth at the top of the food chain will stop as more sit at a longer table to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Vote Empathy, Not Conspiracy

 Vote for Empathy, Not Conspiracy

I became a sentient political being when John F. Kennedy was President, and his brother Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy was his attorney general. Together these Kennedys brought empathy to governance. JFK started the Peace Corps, RFK led the way for the government to restore the unfettered right of Black folks to vote and championed other civil rights initiatives. Bobby convinced his brother to take on these challenges as well. I remember well when both were assassinated.

Fast forward to the present and we find Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bobby’s son, claiming the Kennedy mantle and running for President, first as a Democrat and, after that imploded, as an Independent. Aside from RFK, Jr’s commendable work as an environmental lawyer, he is the anthesis of all that his Kennedy predecessors stood for. They would have been appalled at what RFK, Jr. has embraced and how he has become a pawn for the MAGA crowd’s pursuit of power.

Former President Trump first saw RFK, Jr’s potential as a foil to President Biden’s re-election bid when Junior embraced some of the same anti-vaccination conspiracy theories Trump did.  RFK, Jr. started making unsupported claims that vaccines cause autism and that Covid was cooked up by the Chinese to target Blacks and Caucasians. He went further claiming that the Covid vaccines killed more people that they saved.

RFK, Jr’s 2021 book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” accused Dr.  Fauci of all manner of abuses with respect to the Covid pandemic and the vaccines developed to combat it, echoing claims by the former president.

Some in the MAGA conspiracy have rallied to RFK, Jr’s flag and pumped large sums into his SuperPac in hopes that the Kennedy name will draw votes away from President Biden come November.

Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon Bank family fortune and a top Trump donor, donated $20 million to RFK, Jr’s PAC. The same PAC that supports MAGA sycophant Marjorie Taylor Green is supporting RFK, Jr’s campaign.

If one needs further proof that the MAGA crowd is in bed with RFK,Jr., look at the recent speech by his self-proclaimed New York campaign director, Rita Palmer, to local Republicans. She told them that Kennedy needed to get on the ballot in New York to take votes from Biden so Trump could win the historically Democratic state. She stated her number one priority was to get rid of Biden. She urged the GOP to help get signatures to get Kennedy on the ballot there and in Pennsylvania.

If this unholy alliance does not convince you to stay away from RFK, Jr’s campaign, consider that most of the current Kennedy clan supports President Biden’s re-election and they have specifically and forcefully condemned RFK, Jr’s candidacy. 50 Kennedys took part in a White House photo on St. Patrick’s Day showing their support for Biden.

There is more to RFK, Jr’s unhinged world. He issued statements claiming that those who participated in the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol were merely “activists” who had been “stripped of their constitutional liberties” and their prosecutions may have been “politically motivated.” He questioned the clear evidence that Sirhan Sirhan killed his father and claimed that the CIA was involved in the JFK assassination. Without offering significant support, RFK, Jr.  has opined that environmental chemicals are responsible for gender dysphoria leading to transgender people.

Even if you are disaffected by President Biden, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has no place in American political life given his conspiracy theory driven positions and his delusional beliefs. Trading on his famous family name should not convince voters to cast ballots for him and take votes away from President Biden. Those of us who lived with his famous father and brother in public life know RFK, Jr.  is no true Kennedy.

A Bit of Perspective

 A Bit of Perspective

Because I cannot opine on matters political that appear on the current election ballot this close to Election Day, I offer some personal reflections.

This year, I hit two milestones on the same day, March 28th.

The most important of those is my marriage on that date to my spouse, Gretchen, in 1972. Fifty-two years living with the same person, through thick and thin, is an accomplishment to be celebrated for sure. Along the way we raised three kids and helped countless more. We are lucky and proud that they have all grown up and become successful in their work and personal lives. We’ve been blessed with four wonderful granddaughters. We’ve supported each other’s careers, and both worked to try and make the world a better place. Now that we’re elderly the pace has slowed but the caring for each other and the planet we live on has not. 

The second milestone for March 28th happened in 2014 when I underwent quadruple heart artery by-pass surgery at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee. I have many healthcare providers in the Froedtert system to thank for being alive and able to get up each day and take care of what needs caring. Our healthcare system has its flaws to be sure, but I am still kicking thanks to the one we have. The fact that my surgery took place on our anniversary is not lost on Gretchen and me and, having survived, made it all the more special.

Thinking back on the milestones helped put me in touch with more of my history. One of the most important parts of that history was the five years I spent living in a private co-ed progressive high school in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts. I grew up in Southern California and was spiraling into delinquency as my teens approached. My Eastern bred parents thought it best to send me away to high school and picked one led by my paternal uncle. Buxton School changed my world view from one of California republicans to the more pluralistic socialist view of Eastern progressives. The values and world view I took on in those five years charted a life-long pursuit for social justice and equality. Buxton hit a rough patch during Covid and almost closed. I am helping from a distance by putting together a formal alum association to help the school survive so it can continue to provide a progressive start to kids needing direction.

The final piece of my formative years that helped me get launched was the five years I spent working in the War on Poverty from 1966 to 1971. I joined VISTA after dropping out of a college that I never should have entered. I got trained at the Columbia University of Social Work in New York City with a field placement in Harlem. I learned the basics of community organizing laid out in “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky. VISTA sent me to Houston, Texas to work for the Houston Council on Human Relations where I joined another 8 volunteers from around the country. We lived in the several African American wards in the city organizing new political movements, registering voters, tutoring kids, and learning about race and injustice. After that year I worked for the local Community Action agency and then for a group of Black ministers as a grant writer. Speaking truth to power learned then became part of who I am today. I continued anti-poverty work after taking a job at CUNA International in Madison providing support to VISTA volunteers working in low-income credit unions across the country and then training new VISTAs for the Jane Addams Training Center in Chicago.

 The experiences I had working with and in impoverished and powerless minority communities helped cement my commitment to pursue equality and social justice in my professional and personal life.

Now you might understand a little better the slant I bring to the opinions I share every other week on this page. I’ll keep it up as long as I can think and type and hopefully continue to offer a different perspective on our world than you get anyplace else. 

Joe Biden Gets It Done

 Joe Biden Gets it Done

It is his election to lose

I have never been as optimistic about a presidential election as I am about this one. We now have a rematch between the strongest Democrat and the weakest Republican their respective parties could have picked.

President Biden’s recent State of the Union Address laid to rest all of the posturing about his age or mental acuity. He was able to speak clearly about his accomplishments and plans for governing while dealing spectacularly with the GOP hecklers. He was feisty and enjoyed the give and take. He followed the speech with his proposed 2025 budget which addresses many of the major concerns of most Americans. Rather than retreat into a safe middle ground in this election year, Biden tacked clearly left as he took on unconscionable wealth disparity, reproductive healthcare, support for organized labor and other progressive issues.

Recognizing Wisconsin as a pivotable swing state, his announcements yesterday for urban improvements in Milwaukee and Vice President Harris’ visits touting economic growth and reproductive healthcare were welcome news. Even Dr. Jill Biden has made trips here to show the administration’s support for Wisconsin working families.

Biden has shown what can be accomplished when given majorities in both houses of Congress. His infrastructure improvement actions, reductions in inflation and unemployment, reductions in student loan debt, pushbacks against Big Pharma and others show working American families he is clearly on our side.

As the MAGA majority in the House of Representatives continues to shrink with resignations and retirements, it is still possible that Democrats and more sensible Republicans can come together on a discharge petition forcing Speaker Johnson to bring the bills providing aid to Ukraine and Israel to a vote in the House. The aid for Ukraine has overwhelming support among voters in both parties and among GOP House members who are not aligned with the far-right Freedom Caucus apparently controlled by the former occupant of the White House. There is even hope for passage of the bi-partisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.

All of these positive and productive measures show us that President Biden is more than fit to lead the country for another four-year term.

In stark contrast, the GOP has all but nominated the former president for the rematch. The cult surrounding him has gutted the Republican National Committee of anyone who dares to question the party’s choice. What funds the RNC may have will soon be diverted from electing Republicans up and down their ticket to a slush fund to help the former president pay the judgments against him and the lawyers defending him in his several state and federal criminal cases.

The former president has fully embraced authoritarian Christian nationalism and vowed to end democracy as we know it by eliminating federal civil service, ending protections for minorities, women and the LBNGTQI community. He has vowed to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after those who oppose him and to detain immigrants and others he deems unworthy.

The GOP response to President Biden’s State of the Union address by a young woman Senator sitting in her kitchen feigning outrage and disbelief could not have sent a more telling message. Women belong in their kitchens, serving their men and producing more babies even if they are elected to the United States Senate.

We have yet to hear a single message from the GOP that addresses how a GOP led administration might deal with protecting democracy abroad, making working families more financially secure or how elderly Americans might survive after their Social Security and Medicare earned benefits are taken away.

Most importantly, the GOP has no plan on how their candidate might fulfill the duties of his office, much less play golf, from inside a prison cell. Clearly, the GOP believes that there will be no criminal convictions of their candidate before November and that after election day all these pesky prosecutions will just go away. Having spent several decades in criminal courts, I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that the odds of the former president avoiding conviction and prison time are practically nil.

Last time around Joe Biden won the presidency by over 7 million votes. This time, the margin of victory will be much larger and democracy will prevail.

Abortion Hypocisry

 The Abortion Hypocrisy

Either a Fertilized Egg is a Fetus, or it Isn’t

 

The Alabama Supreme Court has thrown the national GOP into a tailspin. 

Recently, that court ruled that embryos created as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) are “extrauterine fetuses” who have rights and interests. The ruling was based upon language from the the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs case that overruled Roe v. Wade’s protection for some abortions with some biblical references thrown in for good measure. Dobbs held that unborn fetuses are people who must be protected.

The Alabama decision is a logical outgrowth of the scientifically discredited idea that life begins when a man’s sperm fertilizes a woman’s egg. That notion is the basis of the argument that all abortions should be banned and was a major underpinning of the Dobbs decision.

Applying that logic to human embryos created in a laboratory petri dish by fertilizing a woman’s egg with a man’s sperm effectively ends the use of that procedure.  IVF does not work sometimes. When a fertilized egg from the lab is implanted into the woman’s uterus, it sometimes does not develop into a fetus. To allow for multiple attempts to have a successful pregnancy, couples sometimes have multiple embryos created in the lab which are frozen for implantation later. If the first embryo does develop, then the frozen embryos may not be needed and are often destroyed. What to be done with these unused embryos led to the Alabama decision. As a direct result of the ruling, Alabama IVF clinics suspended all further procedures out of a well-founded fear they might be prosecuted for killing an unborn child or held financially liable for wrongful death if they did not preserve them forever.

That is a result too far for many republicans, hence the loud retreat from the Alabama ruling. 

Unfortunately, many in the GOP have supported the Alabama logic. 124 republican members of the House of Representatives, including Wisconsin members, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, and Mike Gallagher co-sponsored the Life Begins at Conception Act in the last session. 18 U.S. senators co-sponsored a similar bill in the Senate. Legislatures in 14 states have introduced similar legislation with four passing their bills into law. A recent bill introduced in the U.S. Senate to protect IVF was blocked by a Mississippi senator. 

Recognizing that IVF is very popular and used by thousands of voters every year to have children, republicans running for re-election have tried to distance themselves from the Alabama ruling and its logic. The former president who brags about overturning Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court appointments just came out in favor of in vitro fertilization.  The republican controlled Alabama legislature is rushing to pass a bill exempting IVF embryos from the “life begins at conception” theory. The GOP controlled Florida legislature just suspended consideration of a “personhood” bill that could have ended IVF procedures there. 

The problem is that either life begins when sperm fertilizes an egg, or it does not. You cannot have it both ways. 

The GOP coalition depends upon support from those who believe ours is, or should be, a Christian nation governed by religious teachings, not the rule of law. Even they will see the inconsistency when their preferred candidates support IVF and undercut their favored argument against abortion that “life begins at conception.”

This dilemma is a perfect example of the need foreseen by our founding fathers of keeping religious beliefs out of the political discourse and governance by erecting a wall between the church and the state. Our founding documents make it clear that we are free to believe in the God of ones choosing but are prohibited from imposing those beliefs on those who believe differently or not at all. Our political and legal systems were meant to be governed by reason and facts supported by science, not beliefs which can not be supported empirically.

The logical problem presented exposes the failure of those in the cult of the former occupant of the White House to recognize why democracy is better than authoritarian dictatorship. Authoritarian dictators make everything about them, facts and science and logic be damned. “Trust me” is the mantra that allows unfettered governance that leads to disaster. It allows the dictator to do has he pleases. Campaign proclamations on this issue are worthless when it comes to votes and donations. 

 In November, voters will have to choose between Democracy and an autocratic Christian Nationalism, you cannot have it both ways.

How to Lose Elections

 How to Lose Elections

 

What remains of the GOP is conducting a master class in how to lose elections. It does not bode well for the 2024 election cycle. 

 

At the top of the ticket, the presumptive nominee is going out of his way to alienate broad swaths of the electorate. After engineering the end of safe abortions and readily available reproductive healthcare, the former president continues to brag about this fiasco that alienates about half of the electorate. He alienates the law-and-order wing of his party by collecting indictments and civil judgments while undermining the rule of law. He alienates those opposed to foreign aggression against our allies by inviting Russia to attack our long-standing NATO allies in Europe. There does not seem to be a significant constituency he won’t offend as he seeks to establish a dictatorship should he be re-elected to the White House. 

 

The MAGA members of the GOP who lead the House of Representatives are not to be outdone by their party’s leader. After claiming to be the party most concerned about immigration problems at our southern border, they killed the very bill that would have given them what they sought. It is clear to everyone, that they did it at the behest of the former president so he could run on immigration in the upcoming presidential contest. How does refusing to accept what you demanded do service to the country, much less fix the immigration problem? They compounded the mistake by impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for not doing what they prevented him from doing by refusing to pass the Senate bill. Their hypocrisy is patent and helped Democrats capture another GOP House seat in New York is the special election caused by George Santos’ expulsion from Congress. The loss of another seat in the already paper-thin GOP House majority was dismissed by the new Speaker as one of no importance. They will hasten the end of that majority by refusing to take up the bill passed by the U.S. Senate that provides aid to Ukraine and Israel that most Americans and even members of the House support. Hopefully, those with sense in the House will by-pass the leadership and pass a discharge petition to bring the bill to the floor and pass it.

 

Closer to home, the GOP majorities in the super-gerrymandered Wisconsin Assembly and Senate see the handwriting on the wall as the newly constituted Wisconsin Supreme Court majority contemplates drawing new districts to bring back fair and contested elections to our state. To avoid an even worse set of maps from the Court, the GOP passed a set of maps proposed during the last redistricting fight by Governor Evers. Evers may sign it but hopefully he will kill the provision inserted in the bill making the new maps effective after the next election using his line-item veto. Either way, Wisconsin voters will have new legislative maps soon which will drastically alter the makeup of both legislative bodies and strip the GOP of its hold on the legislature. 

 

Retreating from their gerrymandered hold on power will not save the Wisconsin GOP as they continue to embrace issues unpopular with a majority of Wisconsin voters. Abortion bans and limitations will strip those in favor of reproductive healthcare away from their base. Support for voucher schools at the expense of public schools and underfunding the latter will alienate those who support a vibrant public education. Stripping the University of Wisconsin system of many of its branch campuses around the state will further alienate students and the local businesses who depend upon them to fill jobs after graduation. Continued rejection of legal and taxed recreational cannabis will further alienate young people and the old folks who take it as a sleep aid. Adding more fuel to the culture war fires with the continued criticism of critical race theory, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, gender affirming care for transgender young folks, and other divisive ideas will alienate more who have come up expecting just the opposite from our leaders.

 

With a strong national economy and effective Democratic leadership at all levels, the current GOP is on its way out and only hastens its own demise by staking out positions on the wrong side of just about every issue. Well done. 

 

Right On Taylor Swift

Right On Taylor Swift

No one in politics paid Taylor Swift much attention as she emboldened her millions of fans with songs of female empowerment, the need for climate change, messages on the importance of voting, and actions that turned the music world upside down. It wasn’t until she had the temerity to begin a relationship with a star NFL football player and started to attend his games that the MAGA crowd recognized how much of a threat Ms. Swift is and then the attacks and conspiracy theories started to flow.

The silliest theory yet is that she is colluding with the National Football League leadership to rig the Super Bowl in favor of her boyfriend’s team leading up to her endorsement of President Biden for re-election. The warped thinking is that she will somehow bring those in the manly world of the NFL into the Democratic fold and take votes away from the GOPs presumptive nominee using her fleeting appearances on NFL broadcasts and her relationship with an NFL star player.

Fearing the worst, alt-right pundits have gone on attack trying to diminish her fan base of young women and NFL viewers who see her having fun with the Kelce family in the stadium suites during her boyfriend’s games.  Couple that with the AI generated fake pornographic images of Ms. Swift that were recently released and then taken down and one can easily see how much of a threat she is perceived to be. 

Trying to discredit and take down a multi-millionaire feminist icon like Ms. Swift will only backfire. Millions of Swifties have already boarded the train and it has left the station. Attacking their idol will only drive more to her message of feminist empowerment. Should she choose to expressly address the looming election issues of women’s reproductive freedom and economic equality, those not already so inclined will follow her to the polls in November and vote blue up and down the ballot. It is in their self-interest to do just that. I suspect her more subtle messaging has already set those wheels turning.

From the other side of the political divide, Ms. Swift’s presence is but another affirmation that Democrats are on the correct side on the issues that matter to most Americans. 

Democrats stand for women’s reproductive freedom and the healthcare needed to ensure its success. Democrats stand for equality between men and women, including in economic matters. Remember who brought us the Equal Rights Amendment and the Equal Pay Act.

 When Ms. Swift took care of those who helped make her recent Eras Tour a smashing success by giving them substantial bonuses and donated significant sums to animal shelters and food banks in the cities on her tour, she embodied the qualities of empathy and caring about others Democrats embrace.

By her actions and songs, Ms. Swift is already separating young people from their more conservative parental generation. The recent hard right conservative attacks will only deepen that divide.

The GOP right wing is in a stuck place with Ms. Swift. They can ignore her and hope she fades away. They can continue to attack and demonize and hope her fans turn away from her and her message. Neither seems to be a winning strategy. She’s not going away, and she and Travis Kelce are having too much fun. She is resonating with young women voters and doing the right thing as she makes a lot of money.

Taylor Swift is showing the world that women can be strong, take control of what they create, make money, and take care of those around her while having a lot of fun in the process. What’s not to love unless you’re a MAGA Republican. 

I, for one, hope Ms. Swift makes it back from her concert in Tokyo in time to celebrate with the Kelce family as Travis and the Chiefs win the Super Bowl.