Roger I'm sorry to hear you lost your job due to freedom of speach. People have forgotten what unions have done for them....all of them. If it wasn't for unions, the wages would be 3rd world which is exactly what the Bush Administration is trying to impose. We all need to educate the masses about how wages and owning a home got to where we were just about 7 1/2 years ago. I have seen nothing but a decline in everything in this country since Bush 1 was elected. We seemed to have money in the bank when Clinton was president and then junior got elected or should I say he wound up in office. Clinton was the last elected president. I don't see much hope in the two candidates that are running now. Seems as though only elitist crooks run for any office today.

by Jay Timmins (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 113 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 at 8:50:59 PM

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If your employer broke federal law as you contend then you can take them to court and get reinstated with back pay.  Hire a lawyer and sue them.   But keep in mind that large employers usually have good employment lawyers on staff or on retainer and your employer probably did not act in haste in terminating you.  They undoubtedly  checked with those lawyers about the entire matter and have plenty of legal reasons for terminating you.  It is nice to think that they fired you for solely political reasons but I seriously doubt that that would be the only reason.  No company, I can assure you, wants to get involved in a messy employment lawsuit by illegally terminating someone.

 I got fired for almost no reason (for standing up to my bosses), walked out the door and that same day got what I thought was one of the best employment lawyers in the US and a month later won a generous settlement from a company that 'never lost an employment lawsuit'.  You can do the same.  Forget unions.  They are almost all corrupt and are only interested in feathering their officers' nests and protecting their interests not yours.  Take care of yourself.

One piece of advice for next time: quit your job before calling all your bosses or their friends names.

by Mad Jayhawk (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 652 comments [56 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 at 10:29:32 PM

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A lawsuit is not something to be undertaken lightly as it can be a quite expensive adventure.  If you are lucky you might find a decent attorney to work for you at less than $200 an hour, but don't count on it and don't count on winning.  This is a game for people and institutions with deep pockets.

For someone who is now unemployed and wondering how to pay the mortgage and health care, not to mention food and transportation, paying an attorney for an unknown number of hours with no guarantee of success can be a difficult decision to make.  Like most institutions in our society, the system of justice is tilted in favor of the most well-off.

by PrMaine (13 articles, 13 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 510 comments [22 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 at 7:37:03 AM

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 It does seem like America has forgotten about the power Unions can give people, by US standing together.  Are we not all Union People for are Founders tried to form a more perfect Union.

There is even a better way to work called the Mondragon Cooperative of the Basque in Northern Spain.  Its now the 8th largest company in all of Spain.  The Coop owns Banks and a Collage too.  You cash your shares in upon retirement.

Its how I would spread the wealth out in this Land.  For it will be spread out as Isaiah 23:17-18 states.  Even if it takes throwing the kings in jail as Isaiah 24:21-24 states.  That all will give great cause to celebrate that big party of Isaiah 25. 

by Michael Dewey (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 245 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 at 12:20:31 AM

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I am now retired and have been a union member all my working life.  I have seen so many advantages compared to non unionized workers that they are too numerous to mention but certainly include worker security, health insurance and better wages and working conditions.

Unions have had a difficult row to hoe since, after WWII, there was a fascist push to weaken the unions and congress passed (over Truman's veto) Taft-Hartley Legislation that put unions at a severe disadvantage.  Those laws need to be repealed.

There are powerful anti union propagandists among right wing groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce and others that dominate the media to dish negative propaganda about unions and people have fallen for it.  Look at Wal Mart holding meetings with all supervisors and managers trying to discourage employees from voting for Democrats for fear that pro union legislation will pass in the congress.

by Bryan Emmel (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 415 comments [32 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 at 5:16:20 AM

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Yes.

(Good luck!)

by Donald Rankin III (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 60 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 at 12:02:23 PM

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I don't think it's fair to blame the workers, or the American people for the actions, or inaction, of our seriously undemocratic form of government.

 http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp182.html

"Workers want unions more than ever before. The proportion of workers who want unions has risen substantially over the last 10 years, and a majority of nonunion workers in 2005 would vote for union representation if they could. This is up from the roughly 30% who would vote for representation in the mid-1980s, and the 32% to 39% in the mid-1990s, depending on the survey. Given that nearly all union workers (90%) desire union representation, the mid-1990s analysis suggested that if all the workers who wanted union representation could achieve it, then 44% of the workforce would have union representation. The rise in the desire for union representation since then suggests that the share of the nonunion workforce wanting union representation in 2005 was 53%. These results, in turn, suggest that if workers were provided the union representation they desired in 2005, then the overall unionization rate would have been about 58%."

by Morgan Morgan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 at 10:02:19 PM

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