Come and meet my little friend!

The outgoing Federal administration is running scared, and the anti-Union, anti working family, conservatives in Maine are starting the campaign to blame State Employees for any thing that is wrong in Maine. On several Radio Stations there are now ads running saying that State Employees are too well paid, have too many benefits and the leader of the organization in an interview on WVOM radio on January 3 said the State should just break the contract now and stop paying the benefits. As I have said previously the articles have started in the K.J. a new web site is up, and they are directly telling legislators that they are being watched.

One thing they say is right. The legislators are being watched by the most organized voting block in the state. Union Members vote. This is all a run up to the next gubernatorial elections. The Republican candidates will be like Tony Montana in Scarface, telling State employees to "Come and say hello to my little friend!" before they start screaming and shooting. They will be trying to out do each other calling Union members the devil, lazy, greedy, and blaming you instead of failed national policies. The Federal present and near term future are the blueprint for what will be attempted in Maine.

In the next year the Bush Federal Anti Labor board will be trying to engineer a blitzkrieg against labor, taking the whole organized labor system into a death spiral that no Democratic presidency will be able to fix. They would rather destroy decades of law than leave anything for the survivors. The propaganda has been running for years picturing organized labor as an already beaten and despised remnant of weaklings. This is the Republican way. The Unions and the American middle class are quickly becoming unable to provide the things their parents grew up to believe are the American birthright, health, a good home, and to provide for families. They call names and tell lies, all State employees are lazy, all Unions are corrupt, and they are attempting to put us in isolation and blame their own failed polices on labor. This will happen in our working lives, and it will be bad for Maine and the U.S. The drive of the middle class, American optimism and can-do spirit will be gone, replaced by employers that will say “you are lucky to have a job at all”.

If the Republicans can’t finish us in a year they will try to prevent meaningful reform during a Democratic presidency and force the nation into a slowly decaying one world, Wal-Mart economy, where only a few share the wealth. Everything will grow worse. Your children will know something is wrong, but without good jobs with security and benefits they will have nothing to compare to. Don’t fall for the bull; it is not the teachers Union that is running schools down, it was the Republican takeover of our schools to teach good consumers, not good thinkers. They blame the teachers Unions while children become less and less able to compete against better educated foreign students.

It seems like we may win against the false conservatives. The new direction we need to go in could be called "conservative" in the best possible sense of the word. Our children need to be educated in reading, writing, science, and math. We must stop teaching a false U.S. history where we helped the ignorant red man and all American wars are good wars. An educated citizen is the best weapon against the big lie.

We must start locally and so will we become involved with our Union or will we return to the seeing employers as royals, while we are the grateful serfs? The Republicans say that the employer freed of Unions will happily reward the productive employees (with whatever they feel we deserve). Under Republican logic Wal-Mart is rich and successful so therefore all Wal-Mart employees must be rich and successful with not Unions. One more example of Republican logic is that tax cuts increase government revenue. Therefore I would think that cutting all taxes would increase government revenue so much we could all retire now.

As a State and as a Union will we remain so divided from one another that no one can get anything they want? Or, should we organize and by reaching out to others overpower the tower of lies that have been told about all of us?

Will we be able to picture a future, and know the only way to get there is together?

Remember, Union households vote at a three to one ratio to the rest of the Public. Find your legislator. You can do that on this Blog and email your legislators. Ask what they will do to protect the pay and benefits promised to you for one, five, ten, even thirty five years.

Ask them if they want to cut your pay if they will then support your right to strike? If you are so unimportant you can be lied to and stolen from then giving you the right to strike should not matter.

Solidarity

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