[lbo-talk] Strike Funds

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> [lbo-talk] No Business As Usual-National Day of Absence
>
> Michael Pugliese michael.098762001 at gmail.com
> Tue Nov 22 07:15:04 PST 2005
>
>
> Without union protection (is it down to 13% of the US working class  
> overall in a union now?) walking off the job will get one fired or  
> at least reprimanded. "At will" contracts mean non-unionized  
> workers will and can get the axe instantly.
> Will TONC with Brian Becker fight on behalf of fired workers who  
> walk out for their unemployment benefits (usually half of net wage  
> paycheck, oh boy!) Buy lentils to feed your family on that while  
> you look for another job.
> Advocating this tactic w/o having any means or intention to help  
> support those who do walk out is ultra-left irresponsibilism. High  
> school students in LAUSD who walked out on Nov. 2nd for the World  
> Can't Wait protests? Expelled.

TONC's not in a position to call any general strike, so it's no use  
beating the dead horse.

As a matter of general principle, though, it's odd to say that one  
can't advocate for X unless one has the means to pay for all  
consequences of X.  If that's the principle, only the ruling class  
can call any action.  Even union strike benefits aren't fat enough to  
compensate for all sacrifices that workers make during strikes.

Speaking of strike benefits, Sam Gindin says that the UAW is sitting  
on an "ever increasing and unused $900 million strike fund" (at  
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/gindin151105.html>).  Collectively,  
US unions must have at their disposal billions of dollars.  If they  
don't put it to good use, pretty soon there will be no job in the  
United States worth fretting about losing.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>