Thursday, April 7, 2011

Ray Stever: America Still Needs Unions

Ray Stever is the President for the New Jersey chapter of the Industrial Union Council (IUC). In this interview, recorded on April 4th at the huge UMWA We Are One rally in Newark, Ray Stever talks to GRITtv's Laura Flanders about the history and plight of labor unions in this country. Ray Stever argues that even though manufacturing in the US is nearly gone, we need unions now more than ever.

Stever makes a compelling argument while connecting the dots between the old Congress of Industrial Organizations, the 29 mine workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, killed one year ago, and the current attacks on public workers in New Jersey and beyond.


The interview runs 17 minutes but it's worth every minute, especially when he talks about his hard working republican neighbor who is struggling to make ends meet but continues to support policies that are detrimental to himself and family.

"People don't realize that by not belonging to the union, the only right they have on the job is the right to die. People don't understand that the collective bargaining agreements and the right to organize protects them"




Hat tip goes to Monmouth County Green Party

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Of course America still needs unions! I don't think that argument has been debated (even though some are trying to frame it that way). I think that many believe, however, that there is a difference between the unions representing workers in the private sector and those representing public employees.

The argument is that public unions are are going to be negotiating with those that they put in office. Can't you see that there is a major potential conflict there?

Sorry I haven't commented in a while.

aNON