Advoken's Blog

I drained my tea last night, and my heart sank! At the bottom of the cup the remainders of my tea leaves formed a frightening design. Reading them, here’s what I saw:

Because of the failures of leadership (read Trump), the coronavirus will gain new vigor and strike down another 100,000 Americans; the rich will grow even richer while the rest of us will struggle; people of color will grow more frustrated, resulting in more marches and scenes of armed “patriots” gunning the peaceful protesters down; our racial divisiveness will get worse not better; the polar bears will lose their habitat and much of Southwestern USA will become like Death Valley and its 130 degree record heat this summer.

That’s what my tea leaves told me last night. Scary, eh?

But, we can seek to show that my tea leaves were dead wrong! One answer, of course, is to make sure Trump is kicked out of office and the Democrats gain control of Congress, but that’s just the beginning.

Perhaps, the most important goal will be to redirect this nation’s wealth from the richest of Americans and dedicate it to the general welfare. Once, the ordinary Joes and Janes, Joses and Marias, Abdullahs and Angelicas have more cash in their jeans and purses, they will make the purchases to keep the economy purring. They will begin to believe that they have a stake in our nation. They will direct their attention to becoming informed citizens and voting.

Of course, tax laws can be changed to help move funds from the wealthiest to serve the general welfare, and Joe Biden has made that an important part of his agenda.

The most critical change is to strengthen our workers’ ability to gain a living wage and decent standard of living. And they can best do that through the collective bargaining system, that is, through strong labor unions.

Data has shown clearly that the steady gains in buying power of ordinary American families rose during the post-World War II period until the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It was then that the power of our nation’s labor unions began to wane, a product of changes in labor law under successive Republican administrations and in the movement of mainly union jobs in manufacturing from the USA to other nations. Since then, the living standards and the income of the average family have remained stagnate.

Yes, the revitalization of our unions is critical to a thriving America; it results in all citizens (union and nonunion) to prosper by assuring that working people get a bigger piece of an enlarging pie.

A strong labor movement is also needed to balance the political power in the nation. Strong unions have historically been the base of support for the Democratic Party and for progressive legislation for civil rights, the environment and health care access.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, workers embraced labor unions as a way to a better life and organized in masses, forcing employers to pay better and improve working conditions. They were helped in that by the passage of the National Labor Relations Act that in its earlier form gave workers the tools to form unions. Many economists credit the growth of organized labor as critical to getting the nation out of the Depression.

An economy that rewards ALL of its citizens and not merely the managerial classes and hedge fund manipulators will take the nation a long way toward resolving the problems of poverty and racial divisions. Many are now recognizing the value of unions to maintaining a strong democracy; recent Gallup polls say that 64% of Americans view unions in a positive way.

Today’s labor laws – and the structure of America’s unions themselves – are badly in need of change. The National Labor Relations Act now does more to protect companies from being unionized than it protects to rights of workers to organize. So-called right-to-work laws need to be repealed and fair-minded appointees need to be made to the NLRB, its five seats now being occupied solely by three Republicans, all clearly with a pro-management bias. Much of this can be remedied by legislation at both the federal and states level. Such necessary changes are part of the Biden agenda.

Thus, a lot depends on the outcome of the November elections. But there is hope. Maybe a closer look at the tea leaves left in my cup need to be read again and there is hope ahead. – Ken Germanson, September 3, 2020