The turning point for unions. The rise of unions and the middle class. Released today on DVD and rental/streaming.

Brothers On The Line

Trailer. BROTHERS ON THE LINE - Official Trailer - YouTube

Rent/stream. Amazon.com: Brothers on the Line: Martin Sheen, Walter Reuther, Ted Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson: Amazon Instant Video

Brothers On The Line is an award-winning documentary feature exploring the extraordinary journey of the Reuther brothers – Walter, Roy, and Victor – union organizers whose unshakeable devotion led an army of workers into an epic struggle for social justice. At the height of the Great Depression, the Reuthers are among a small band of trade unionists that take a stand against oppressive working conditions in the auto factories of Detroit and Flint, MI. Their bold work stoppages and coordinated sit-down strikes, facing intimidation and physical violence at the hand of company thugs, shatter a status quo of greed and discrimination. The rise of the United Auto Workers union and their hard-fought collective bargaining agreements result in unprecedented quality-of-life gains, increased safety regulations, a voice on the job, and overall contribute to lifting millions of workers to a middle-class living.

 

Their efforts, with others, led to a 50-year economic stimulus that put money into middle class, where it was spent, not squirrelled away, creating the largest and longest period of economic growth ever seen. With the destruction in the 1980s of what unions began here, bit by bit, we see the these gains lost and the shrinking of the middle class and the polarization of wealth and poverty.

Ironically, the politically conservative foundational principle that unions are universally bad, ends up increasing the size of the federal government as most of whom would become the spending middle class remain at the bottom, with more relying on government safety nets than would have been otherwise if unions were still a force.

Congress shot down the minimum wage this week with the same effect--allow companies to keep swaths of workers below poverty line thus burdening the taxpayer rather than the company for basic needs. This will inevitably grow the government--and the wealth of the people who run the companies as we pick up the tab.

Smisek's "labor is not needed for this merger" is a classic--and possibly fatal--disrespecting of workers and labor. I guess this country will have to fall into another Great Depression before voters realize how they've been robbed by the wealthy buying politicians who are anti-labor.

 

It won't matter. Look at the electorate and your average Walmart shopping American. We're toast. People elect guys "they'd like to have a beer with" irrespective of any other metric.

 

And from the other end the activist Supreme Court is changing long held law that give corporations individual rights like speech and religion. There are no limits to how much money they can now spend to keep labor in the pits, a modern-day version union-busting thugs. Their ruling on the Hobby Lobby case may give them religious freedom to do the same think. CEOs will suddenly get religious and say it's against their religion to provide healthcare, pensions, and decent wages.

Jesus: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Matthew 6:19

CEO: "It's against my religion to to give my workers "treasure on earth" as it will undermine their motivation to rely on God in faith."

Jesus: "The poor you will always have with you." Matthew 26:11

CEO: "I will not pay minimum wage as my religion requires me to make there are always poor people with us."

Jesus: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24

CEO: "I cannot let my workers unionize because then they will have "two masters," me and the union." *

Jesus: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear . . . do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." Matthew 6:25-34

CEO: "My religion prevents from providing any basic necessity to my workers because it would make them pagans.

* Yes, I actually heard this from an '83 hire as to why he crossed. Unfortunately he took this verse out of context as it ends with "You cannot serve both God and money" and guess which one you're serving when you cross a picket line?