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Old 02-27-2011, 02:43 AM   #91 (permalink)
SentraSE-R
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Let's look at some other facts to offset the anti-union propaganda machine that's out to pit worker against worker while the divide between the richest Americans and the rest of us grows wider and wider.

The US Census Bureau found in 2010 that the top-earning 20% of Americans (those making $100,000 each year) received 49.4% of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4% earned by those below the poverty line.

That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968, the Associated Press reports. That's the widest gap on record, and the greatest disparity among western industrialized nations.

Corresponding with that is the fact that the USA is the only wealthy democratic nation with no strong union presence. Private sector unions now represent less than 7% of private sector workers, compared to 1/3 in 1960.

More pertinent facts - public employees made up only 17% of union members nationwide in 1973 and now make up half of all union members in the USA. Public sector unions now represent 36% of public sector workers.

These facts point to a completely different interpretation than the anti-union bashers come up with. The indisputable facts show that the good public sector pay that gripes the conservatives is indeed linked to the presence of strong unions. It also shows that the poor private sector pay that pales in comparison - the model the conservatives insist is best for us, is correspondingly linked to the absence of strong unions.

So now we know why the rich elements of the right wing are targeting government workers to destroy what is left of the labor movement. I wonder why the poor elements of the right wing can't see what their brethren are doing to them. Is it that difficult to put two and two together to see the obvious benefits of unions, and the economic disparity that our lack of strong unions has produced in the USA?

Twenty years ago, only 11% of American retirees could afford to live on their retirement incomes. The present is gloomier, with the average worker's IRA and 401(k) accounts set back a decade by the 2008 recession. The future is even gloomier, with fewer and fewer workers having pension plans, and most Americans having negative balance savings accounts. That's the future that the Scott Walkers, James', Marks, and Thymeclocks are trying to sell to us with their claims of union dominance and their cries to dismantle public sector unions. I'm not buying it. The facts don't support them.

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Last edited by SentraSE-R; 02-27-2011 at 03:35 AM..