[AMV] Amerikaanse politiek #544 - Happy Labor Day!

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

SPOILER: juni

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

SPOILER: juni

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

SPOILER: juni

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

A Labor Day parade on Main Street in Buffalo in 1900. President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a national holiday in June 1894, as he faced a crisis of railway workers striking in Chicago.Credit: Library of Congress



In the late 1800s, many Americans toiled 12 hours a day, seven days a week, often in physically demanding, low-paying jobs. Children worked too, on farms and in factories and mines. Conditions were often harsh and unsafe.

It was in this context that American workers held the first Labor Day parade, marching from New York’s City Hall to a giant picnic at an uptown park on Sept. 5, 1882.

The Labor Day parade passing through Union Square in New York in 1887.Credit: New York Public Library

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Just ahead of Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump announced he would freeze the salaries of some 2 million federal workers next year. After outcry, Trump said he’d use the long weekend to “study” the matter. Thus far, he’s spent much of the long weekend on the golf course and rage tweeting about Canada, the Department of Justice, the Russia investigation, his approval ratings, and Tiger Woods.

On Thursday, Trump sent a letter to Congressional leaders saying that the US federal government’s budget can’t support a scheduled 2.1 percent across-the-board pay raise for civilian federal workers slated to kick in in January 2019, or the accompanying raises dependent on where an employee works. He said the increases are “inappropriate,” citing his presidential power over federal employee pay in the case of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting general welfare.”

The maneuver sparked near-immediate criticism from unions, Democrats, and even some Republicans. Trump’s decision comes less than a year after he signed a $1.5 trillion tax cut bill and also just days before the US holiday meant specifically to honor workers.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

President Trump frequently complements himself on the American employment picture. “Best economy & jobs EVER,” he tweeted this past June on his 500th day in office. No doubt he’ll say something similar as he makes note of Labor Day. He’ll probably boast about bringing back coal and steel jobs, too. But one thing Trump almost certainly won’t mention: His administration is presiding over the biggest decline in worker rights most of us have seen in our lifetimes.

Whenever there is a choice to be made, Trump favors the perceived needs of the plutocratic class at the expense of almost anyone who earns a paycheck. Trump claims he’s eliminating “job killing regulations,” but, in fact, he’s simply lining the pockets of the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the health and wealth of everyone else.

“It’s about giving power to employers and hurting workers,” says David Madland, a fellow at the Center for American Progress and one of the contributors to a database the progressive think tank maintains to keep track of every action Trump’s taken to hurt worker rights. It currently has 43 entries.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Two Labor Days into Donald Trump’s presidency, what has happened to the working class?

After Election Day 2016, we heard again and again about how Trump had thrilled those who labor and are heavily burdened, particularly those among them who are white. There was nonstop commentary on just how out of touch citizens in the big and prosperous metropolitan areas had become.

At times, you might have imagined that Trump had been the Marxist candidate running against a creature of Wall Street named Hillary Clinton. Was “Solidarity Forever” about to become the nation’s second anthem?

We don’t hear so much about the working class anymore. We get way more reporting on “Trump’s base,” an overlapping but ultimately quite different group, and how its members will stick with him no matter what. And never mind that in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the president. His supporters have assumed an almost magical role in our politics.

One reason class is receding in our public debates: The Trump years have, so far at least, done little for wage earners. Indeed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, real hourly wages overall dropped between July 2017 and July 2018, and they dropped for mid-wage workers, too. This is not at all the “winning” Trump promised.

No, wages didn't just start rising when Trump was elected

Nor have the policies of the Trump administration been focused on the welfare of workers. On the contrary, one of the scammiest parts of Trump’s politics is that he talks like a labor leader but governs like a corporate lobbyist. His tax cut showered benefits on the wealthiest segments of society and produced deficits so massive that Republicans are now proffering cuts in social benefits that go in significant part to — yes, the working class.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Donald Trump promotes himself as a friend of “forgotten” workers, but in ways large and small his administration has undermined what has traditionally been the biggest champion of workers: labor unions.

Most recently, he used his authority as president to deliver a harsh Labor Day message to the 2.1 million people who work for him, canceling pay raises for the civilian employees of the federal government. In May, he issued three executive orders to weaken federal employees’ unions by, among other things, limiting the subjects they can bargain over. (On Aug. 25, a judge ruled that this move violated federal law.) In March 2017, Mr. Trump signed a law repealing an executive order signed by President Obama that sought to keep the federal government from awarding contracts to companies that violate laws protecting workers’ right to unionize, as well as wage and job safety laws.

Since taking office, Mr. Trump has installed a conservative majority on the National Labor Relations Board that has moved quickly to make it harder for unions to organize. Last December, the board overturned a rule, beloved by unions, that made it easier to organize smaller units of workers in big factories and stores. In another board decision, his appointees made it tougher for workers at fast-food restaurants and other franchised operations to unionize, although that “joint employer” ruling was vacated when a labor board member later recused himself because of a conflict of interest. The board is also looking to slow down unionization elections, a move that unions oppose because it would give corporations more time to pressure workers to vote against unionizing.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Op maandag 3 september 2018 13:58 schreef Ulx het volgende:

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op maandag 03-09-2018 om 13:15:44 Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the things he said were so againt the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem! reageer retweet

quote:

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came down hard on President Donald Trump on Sunday morning over what Trumka called a lack of progress in supporting America’s working class.

Video

“We said when [Trump] was elected that when he did something good for workers, we’d support him. When he did something bad for workers, we’d oppose him,” Trumka said on “Fox News Sunday.” At this point in his presidency, Trump has not done enough for America’s workers, Trumka said.

When host Christopher Wallace commented that unemployment is down to 3.9 percent and employment numbers have held steady, Trumka argued that while those numbers are positive, Trump is still falling short.

“Those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year, and gas prices have been up since the first of the year,” Trumka said. “So workers really aren’t doing that well.”

In terms of the upcoming midterm elections and even the 2020 presidential election, Trumka said, “It’s not about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about electing candidates who will protect the working people of this country.”

However, he added that workers are ultimately more likely to see progress from Democrats because “unfortunately, the reality is Democrats support working people more than Republicans.”

Speaking the day before Labor Day, Trumka also commented on the current status of the North American Free Trade Agreement and how far the U.S. is from reaching a new deal that includes the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

“NAFTA has had a devastating effect on the working people of this country for the last 20 years,” he said. “We’re trying to reach a deal that benefits all three countries, and we’re not there yet.”

There’s currently a lot of missing information about NAFTA talks, he added, saying the public hasn't “seen the details” and is “missing whole chapters.”

“What we need is an agreement that we can enforce, no matter who’s in the White House.”

quote:

Op maandag 3 september 2018 16:40 schreef FlipjeHolland het volgende:

[..]

En het zijn juist die 'forgotten' Americans die de grootste fanbase vormen van Trump.

Dus... Eigen schuld?

quote:

The core of Trump’s ideology, such as it is, has never been about class; his passion has always been for race, culture and immigration. Many post-election studies suggested that Trump’s voters were much more energized by these issues than by economics. Watch the typical Trump stump speech, and you will find that fear-mongering smothers any uplift and that falsehoods about immigrants outnumber truths about the challenges to middle-class living standards.