United Auto Staff President Shawn Fain testified earlier than the Senate Thursday, highlighting the progress our nation has remodeled the previous century and the unequal advantages of that progress for working-class People. Chatting with the Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor & Pensions, he agreed there was “an epidemic of individuals on this nation of people that do not need to work,” however he stated it wasn’t the working class as “many on this room may say.”
It’s “the Wall Road freeloaders,” he stated.
Fain spoke to the various bodily, psychological, and emotional drawbacks of working-class of us working lengthy hours, and completed his opening remarks to the committee by slamming the very small minority of individuals greedily absorbing a lot of labor’s fruits.
I do know what folks and lots of on this room will say. They will say, “Folks simply do not need to work” or “Working-class persons are lazy.” However the reality is, working-class folks aren’t lazy. They’re fed up. They’re fed up with being left behind and stripped of dignity as wealth inequality on this nation, on this world, spirals uncontrolled.
They’re fed up that in America—in America—three households have as a lot wealth as the underside 50% of residents on this nation. That’s legal. America is best than this.
So I need to shut with this. I agree there’s an epidemic on this nation of people that do not need to work, individuals who cannot be bothered to stand up daily and contribute to our society, however as a substitute need to freeload off the labor of others.
However these aren’t blue-collar folks. These aren’t working-class folks.
It is a group of people who find themselves by no means talked about for a way little they really work and produce, and the way little they contribute to humanity.
The folks I am speaking about are the Wall Road freeloaders, the masters of passive earnings. Those that revenue off the labor of others have on a regular basis on this planet, whereas those that make this nation run, the individuals who construct the merchandise and contribute to labor have much less and fewer time for themselves, for his or her households, and for his or her lives.
Fain has made headlines efficiently working a large strike, reaching critical positive aspects for the 400,000 U.S. autoworkers his union represents. In September, whereas the strike was ongoing, President Joe Biden made historical past when he walked the UAW’s picket line and spoke with a bullhorn to hanging employees in Detroit. Extra just lately, Fain was invited to be a visitor of Biden’s through the State of the Union deal with this yr, a transfer that earned the ire of an unhinged Donald Trump.
Thursday’s listening to, titled “Staff Ought to Profit from New Know-how and Elevated Productiveness: The Want for a 32-Hour Work Week with No Loss in Pay,” and chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders, included labor consultants in addition to different labor-rights advocates. It coincided with the Vermont senator releasing a invoice that may “amend the Truthful Labor Requirements Act of 1938 to scale back the usual workweek from 40 hours per week to 32 hours per week.”
Getting a lot of something handed with a Republican-led Home that appears unable to chew gum and … chew gum is a tall order. However after a long time of neglect, labor is making a comeback, and the Democratic Get together has an opportunity to earn them again.
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