American workers who take pride in their performance and bring real skills to their jobs deserve to be happy this Labor Day. Thankfully, American workers do have a few good reasons to be upbeat on their holiday.
The U.S. economy has rebounded despite Trump's dismal and bungled response to the pandemic, and nearly 16 million jobs have been created during the Biden-Harris administration. Incomes are up as inflation has cooled and consumers are spending at a healthy rate, writes economics maven Neil Irwin at Axios. The recession that Republicans and conservative economists promised has not materialized, much to their disappointment.
Workers indeed have much to appreciate about the Biden-Harris economic rebound, but they still have to look over their shoulders and be prepared to fight to protect their rights today and everyday.
Workers are up against a powerful cabal that conspires and cooperates to smack down workers at every opportunity. The anti-worker oligarchs are a familiar bunch of scoundrels likened to modern-day robber barons, and they have spent upwards of $400 million for lobbying and propaganda to keep workers from organizing in their industries, which are ripe for collective bargaining.
● Billionaire Charles Koch deserves top billing because he and his late brother David have been messing with workers the longest. Their right wing political arm, the group Americans for Prosperity, seeks to end collective bargaining and has a history of backing anti-union candidates and astroturfed movements, like the Tea Party, which tried and failed to topple Obamacare dozens of times.
● Billionaire Starbucks founder Howard Schultz does not like sharing the profit from a premium priced cup of coffee with the people who brew it, pour it and serve it. When a worker tried discussing workplace issues with him, Schultz barked, "If you're not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company.” The guy is a greedy morale killer.
● Richest man in the world Elon Musk longs for the day that he can build robots to replace his workers that build his self-driving electric cars and spaceships. Musk, whose companies have been plagued by layoffs, has threatened to fire workers that try to unionize.
● The nearly richest man in the world Jeff Bezos doesn't rise to Musk's level of villainy, but he still has one of the most notorious anti-worker records in history. The man made rich by making bookstores obsolete would rather fire long-term employees than pay them what they're worth, even amid a rate of worker turnover reportedly at a whopping 150 percent at Amazon warehouses.
● The billionaire Albrecht family is not as well known, but their Trader Joe's and Aldi brands are well known for their anti-worker agenda and they have joined Bezos and Musk in trying in the courts to overturn the National Labor Relations Act, which grants American workers most of their rights.
And that brings us to the most corrupt and dangerous players in the oligarch's anti-worker conspiracy: the extremist MAGA majority on the Supreme Court. Many people are well aware of the MAGA majority's war on the individual rights of women, made possible by Trump and Mitch McConnell's three unqualified and embarrassing nominees to the court. Folks also know that the MAGA majority has targeted minority voters and students, and the misguided justices have made it possible for Americans to convert guns into rapid fire weapons despite the epidemic of school shootings and gun violence in America.
What most Americans don't know is the majority on the court has allowed companies starting with Starbucks to delay rehiring workers that are wrongly fired for organizing, and companies like Amazon can keep workers for 25 minutes after their shifts end without pay to rifle through their pockets to make sure they are stealing anything.
The MAGA majority of the Supreme Court has also banned workers from filing class action lawsuits against employers, however it allowed companies to sue striking workers for losses. The conservative justices also ruled union dues are a violation of government workers First Amendment rights. Really? That's an ignorant excuse to hurt unions and one of the MAGA majority's lamest constitutional arguments/
"A 2022 study found that of the 57 justices who have sat on the court over the past century, the six justices with the most pro-business voting records are the six members of today’s 6-3, rightwing supermajority, all appointed by Republican presidents: Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett," wrote Steven Greenhouse, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a labor and workplace journalist and writer. Greenhouse.
"The study found that Donald Trump’s three appointees – Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett – were the three most pro-business justices of the 57 evaluated," added Greenhouse, who’s covered a lot of ground in his article titled "Most Americans have no idea how anti-worker the US Supreme Court has become" in The Guardian.
Workers are under assault from all sides, including Trump, the extremist justices on the Supreme Court, and the billionaire oligarchs and their culture of greed. But loyal and grateful Americans fight on today and everyday for workers, their families and their pursuit of happiness. It's the right fight and it's worth it. As Vice President Harris noted recently, "When union wages go up, everybody's wages go up. When union workplaces are safer, all workplaces are safer. When unions are strong, America is strong."
Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.