Summer School 2008
by Randy Rakes
I would like to thank the local for
sending me to Region 8 Summer School.
I was very pleased with our regional staff. They took very good
care of us, and tried hard to educate us. I can’t imagine
anyone going to Summer School or to Black Lake and not leaving with
valuable information to take back to their locals and to use in
their personal lives.
In the past, I have been low-key in my political views and kept
them pretty much to myself. But after hearing so much about where
America is headed, I feel I can no longer be low-key; especially
concerning labor issues.
We had a fantastic speaker for our morning classes. His name is
Rick Gregory. He is a labor educator. He taught us for three days,
about the history of unions, economic and social justice, and lateral
thinking. Lateral thinking says that you must not only see the facts
that support what you already believe, but you must look at all
the facts before you decide what you believe. Would the war in Iraq
have happened if President Bush had used lateral thinking? Or did
he use only the facts that supported what he already believed? How
much has the war in Iraq already cost? So far, over six hundred
billion dollars. It is already the second most expensive war in
American history. Second only to WWII. Where did our government
get the money for your economic stimulus refund? They borrowed that
money from China. Essentially, our country is bankrupt at this time.
This year, Toyota has passed General Motors to become the world’s
largest producer of cars. In 2007, GM lost $39,000,000 while their
CEO, Rick Wagner, gained 64% in his pay making his annual salary
$15.7 million.
Now I will share an article with you written by our Senator Jim
Webb in November 2006.
The most important—an unfortunately the least debated--- issue
in politics today is our society’s steady drift toward a class
based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th
century. America’s top tier has grown infinitely richer and
more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that
they are literally living in a different country. Few among them
send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved
ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the
stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working
people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income,
up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect
corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.
Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages
for chief executives and others that are out of logic’s range.
The average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million
a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000
a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated
from college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the
average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much.
In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground
labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker
is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down
economics didn’t happen. Despite the vaunted all-time highs
of the stock market, wages and salaries are at all-time lows as
the percentage of the national wealth. At the same time, medical
costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase
comes from wage-earners’ pockets rather than from insurance,
and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all.
Manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Many earned pension programs
have collapsed in the wake of corporate “reorganization.”
And workers’ ability to negotiate their futures has been eviscerated
by the twin threats of modern corporate America: If they complain
too loudly, their jobs might either be outsourced overseas or given
to illegal immigrants.
This ever-widening divide is too often
ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement
has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this
issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign,
I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack
of concern for those who are falling behind. A troubling arrogance
is in the air among the nations most fortunate. Some shrug off large-scale
economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of
the “rough road of capitalism.” Others claim that it’s
the fault of the workers or the public education system that the
average American is simply not up to the international challenge,
that our education system fails us, or that our workers have become
spoiled.
WOW, A POLITICIAN THAT ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS LABOR!
This is a sobering thought. The next generation in America will
probably be the first to have a lower standard of living than their
parents did. We must not forget who came to visit us when we were
on strike, and who sent us a letter of support for our strike. We
must support the people that support us. This is an election year.
Did you know that half of working class American voters vote for
anti-labor candidates? We must stand up for labor. Why would they
represent us, when we do not stick together enough to make a difference
in who gets elected. When the shoe and garment industries were sent
out of this country, we did nothing to protest. And now, look what
is happening. … Its cars… Next, it may be heavy trucks.
We must stop outsourcing American jobs. We must organize satellite
car plants. Buying American is not enough. We must seek out and
buy union made products in America. We must stop doing business
with anti-union corporations such as WAL-MART, 80% their products
are made in China. You all remember the National Right to Work Legal
Defense Foundation. The Walton Family Foundation is a large donor
to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Between 1998 and 2006, 3.4 million manufacturing jobs were lost
in the U.S. Your governments officials have chosen remove the cost
of fuel and health care from the consumer price index to get the
numbers they want concerning the economy. Some of you have asked
why your COLA check has not reflected the cost of gasoline. Now
you know… America is in the shape it’s in because of
poor decisions by politicians. We must go to the polls and vote
and we must vote for labor friendly candidates.
On Monday, June 23rd, PACCAR, the parent company of Peterbuilt,
locked out over 300 UAW workers in Madison, Tennessee. On Thursday,
June 26th, over 100 summer school participants visited Peterbuilt
to show their support. They were blown away by our two buses rolling
in and we were equally proud to stand with our brothers and sisters
fighting for their jobs and their families’ futures.
In Solidarity Randy Rakes |
