“The 400 of us pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”

That’s from Warren Buffett, the second-richest man in the U.S., addressing the guests at a $4,600-a-seat political fund-raiser. When one of the world’s richest men is complaining he doesn’t pay enough in taxes, maybe that should tell you something.

Willard Plumerson was dead before his time
but he was born again
in a burst of economic paranoia
heaven and white skin privilege
holding more promise
than his sliding stock quotations

he kept busy
scurrying to the foreman’s office
to tattle on other workers’ toilet activities
in between cutting train axles
on an engine lathe he called his own
for over forty years

Willard made few friends
with his boasts of blue chip stocks
had no friends for support
when they plummeted sometime in the ’60s
in a smoldering heap
like the trash tray’s steel fragments
in the belly of the lathe

he couldn’t quite find his class
not “working”
not “middle”
he floated somewhere on a republican cloud
with his white Jesus
and a micrometer that was always at least
three thousandths of an inch
away from accurate

he couldn’t quite place his heart
not “management”
not “union”
his only seat on a board
was the one behind the lathe
where he’d eat his lunch alone
or on special occasions
with a couple others just as scared as he

there they’d argue the body count
of angels dancing on the heads of pins
out of bibles on their blue-jeaned laps
where bankruptcy
plant closures
and quality circle lies
were never listed as realities of life

- by Sue Doro, from her book Blue Collar Goodbyes.

I picture the above poem being about someone I’d call a “company weasel.” That’s someone who sees the union as less than perfect, and so he seeks to advance his own interest by betraying those of his fellow workers and his union.

This is the one thing that should set us apart from management. They are trained to look out only for themselves, but our strength as union members is in how well we look out for each other. And if we fail to do that, any weakness in our union is nobody’s fault but our own.

And let’s not forget the words of Clarence Darrow:

“With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.”

“Let’s allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country’s middle class again…”
-Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama (Click here to watch his presidential candidacy announcement)

The young candidacy of Barack Obama shows a lot of promising signs. One sign that jumps right out at you when you visit his website is how much can be done with web technology. And everything Obama has done on his site can be paralleled on a union (or union-friendly) website. Wouldn’t it be great to see unions stepping into the 21st century and grasping some of the unique advantages of the interactivity the internet offers?

Barack Obama spoke a lot of hopeful words this past weekend in announcing his candidacy in front of the Illinois statehouse. The quote at the top of this posting makes me hopeful that we unionists can make 2008 the year that unions really make a difference in presidential politics. That way we can make even more of a difference in the lives of this country’s working class (click here to see some of the differences we already make).

The number one way to make that happen is to get intimately involved in the effort to elect a president who will be good for labor and the hardworking men and women the labor movement fights for every day. You can start right now. Find out more about a candidate who supports the rights of working people (Click here for a list of current Democratic candidates). Then find ways to support that candidate.

Send some money.

Volunteer your time.

Just share your enthusiasm for someone you believe in.

Do something to help advance the agenda of labor-friendly candidates and causes in the upcoming presidential election. Do something to make the voice of the working people heard by the people running for office. This way you’ll be doing something to mend the cracks in the American economy so that some day no one else will have to slip through them.

Links in this post:

There will be many important decisions to be made this election season, whether in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between Bob Casey and Rick Santorum, the governor’s race between Ed Rendell and Lynn Swann, or any of the vital matchups in more localized contests for offices ranging from school board to Congress. All of these races are relevant to your future as someone who works for a living. If you aren’t registered to vote yet, time is running out. (Click here to register.)

And don’t forget that ballots for the Teamsters international elections will be in the mail over the next week or two. Don’t forget to make your voice heard by filling out your ballot and sending it in, following all the enclosed instructions. Click here for the official campaign literature from the I.B.T. website. Click here for the candidate forum videos.

Click here to learn more about Clarence Darrow

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

Cybersteward.net is happy to be back online, having finally been rebooted from scratch, and just in time for Labor Day. As long as we’re back on the web, I figured it was a good occasion to share the above quote from the grandaddy of Republicans, Abraham Lincoln – just to demonstrate how much Republican ideals have warped over the years.