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unions

Sunday 7th of December 2025

2016 Presidential election Ironically, for many of them [working-class whites], the America that they hope the president-elect can make great again is from an era in which unions were strong and incomes more equal, the mid-20th-century period that economists call the Great Compression. It was a time when the ancestors of today's Trump voters voted routinely for economic progressives, despised conservative Republicans and largely trusted the federal government to do right by them. Michael Kazin, Wall Street Journal, November 12–13, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
2024 Endorsement Union busters say Vote for Trump — he's our kind of guy  ★ ★ ★ Kwiplers say I really don't care what they say, do U  © 2024 Kwiple.com
Children Statistically, kids are safer from mass shootings in a meatpacking plant than in a school. Maybe they'll lose a limb, but hey, they'll probably survive. … Best of all, they're cheap  and their brains haven't developed enough to form unions! Arguments advanced by a lobbyist for water-downed child labor laws like those being passed in many Republican-led states, as represented in an April 26, 2023, cartoon by Jen Sorensen © 2023 Kwiple.com
Duh obvious Mergers at this scale are reconfiguring the American economy in ways that seem to be tilting the scales toward the interests of ever-larger corporations, to the broad detriment of labor. New York Times, November 2, 2016, on the proposed $85 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiple dictionary right to work law (rīt tōō wûrk lō), n. A law intended to kill unions by guaranteeing those who don't join all the rights and benefits unions win for their members, without having to pay union dues. Popular with Republicans and free riders, a large subset of the morally handicapped. © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to define labor organizing as a civil right © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Legalize collective bargaining  by “contract workers” working for Uber and other platform companies © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Technological innovation + an unorganized labor force = increasing inequality in perpetuity © 2015 Kwiple.com
Lobbyists In 2006 … more than half of all registered lobbying organizations represented corporations or business associations, while a bare 1 percent each represented labor unions and poor people. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
Making money the new-fashioned way Being a permanent replacement worker for a striker who thought laws guaranteeing a right to strike should exist, existed or would be enforced © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The disappearance of labor's countervailing power can readily be seen in the 2015-16 election cycle, when corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to candidates from both parties for every $1 donated by unions and all public interest organizations combined. [34:1] Business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million. [16:1] All of the nation's unions together spend about $48 million annually on lobbying in Washington. Corporate America spends $3 billion. [62:1] Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In order to achieve the widest possible distribution of political power, financial contributions to political campaigns should be made should be made by individuals alone. I see no reason for labor unions – or corporations – to participate in politics. Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the 2015-16 election cycle, business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million, a ratio of 16 to 1, according to the non- partisan Center for Responsive Politics. All of the nation's unions, taken together, spend about $48 million a year for lobbying in Washington, while corporate America spends $3 billion. Little wonder that many lawmakers seem vastly more interested in cutting taxes on cororations than in raising the minimum wage. Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, August 3, 2109 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Racism From now on white women and white men will be forced into organizations with black African apes whom they will have to call “brother” or lose their jobs. Vance Muse, lobbyist for the right-to-work movement, explaining its origins in white opposition to racially inclusive unions like the CIO, which were organizing workers throughout the South, including in Texas, where he lived © 2023 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Humble organized labor © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Keep  'em  illegal. Subverts unions. Lowers wages. Raises profits. Increases dividends. © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans to public sector workers Screw you and your bargaining rights and pensions, except for police officers and firemen, who protect our private property and are largely white and male, and whom we love dearly for doing so and being such Scott Walker, Rick Snyder and other Republican governors
State of the union c Labor can't strike, but capital goes on investment strikes by threatening to move if its demands for wage cuts, tax cuts, subsidies, negligent regulatory regimes, union-free workplaces and judicial toadies aren't met © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union With the unions went the wages © 2015 Kwiple.com
Surveillance Nothing except unionization or new laws would stop an employer from taking all the data it is gathering from sensors and  recordings and using them to more precisely adjust wages, until each worker gets the  lowest wage a which they are willing to work, and all workers live in fear of retaliation. This is no more sci-fi than Facebook and Google serving users individualized content and ads designed to keep us on their services as long as possible, allowing them to sell as many ads as possible. Zephyr Teachout, New York Review of Books, Augsut 18, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I think Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike. He said, “You strike, you’re fired.” Simple concept to me, to the extent that we can use that once again. Tim Scott, commenting on the UAW strike against Ford, GM and Stellantis, America's Big 3 automakers  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Unions In many corporations, the mentality is that any supervisor, whether a factory manager or retail manager, who fails to keep out a union is an utter failure. That means managers fight hard to quash unions. One study found that 57 percent of employers threatened to close operations when workers sought to unionize, while 47 percent threatened to cut wages or benefits and 34 percent fired union supporters during unionization drives. Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, August 3, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Unions Unless labor is powerful enough to be repected, it is doomed to degrading servitude. Without unions no such power is possible. Without unions industrial democracy is unthinkable. Without democracy in industry, that is where it counts most, there is no such thing as democracy in America. Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery  © 2021 Kwiple.com
 
Unions White-collar professionals tend to appreciate what unions did for their parents. But they don't view today's janitors or nurse's aides in the same way. Andy Stern, former president, Service Employees International Union © 2017 Kwiple.com