United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) Them and Us :
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:52 pm
Link to 25 page pamphlet from UE
https://www.ueunion.org/ThemAndUs/
A taste:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Them and Us
UE’s Founders
Them: The Organized Forces of the Employers
Us: The Working Class
The Weakening of the U.S. Labor Movement
UE Core Principles
Aggressive Struggle
Rank and File Control
Political Independence
International Solidarity
Uniting All Workers
Conclusion
Published July 2020 United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) Pittbsurgh, PA • (412) 471-8919 • www.ueunion.org
Design by Polina Godz
THEM AND US
UEUE WAS FOUNDED by workers who understood how the economic system we work under — capitalism — actually works, how it functions to allow bosses (them) to make money off of workers (us), and how bosses maintain their power by trying to divide workers. Profits come from the products and services that we produce with our labor. The less employers pay us, or the faster they make us work, the more profits they make. That understanding is why ue has been able to win gains for our members, resist employer attacks, and play a leading role in the broader labor movement. It is why working people need unions like ue now more than ever.
Capitalism divides society into two main groups. One is those who live by owning, either directly or through financial instruments like stocks or private equity, the factories, land, buildings, vehicles, machines, intellectual property, mineral and drilling rights, and other types of property that are used to produce the goods and services we need to live. This small group can be called the capitalist class, “the 1%,” or the billionaire class.
The other is those of us who live by working, popularly referred to as the working class or “the 99%.” This far larger group must sell our labor in order to pay for food, clothing, and the other necessities of life. Not all members of the working class are working at any given time, but those who are not — children, the unemployed, and retirees, as well as people with disabilities that prevent them from working — rely on wages earned by family members, retirement benefits or savings earned from working, or social programs won by the working class through political action.
Through creativity, skill, intelligence, and hard work, workers turn the property owned by capitalists into products and services. We are paid a wage for our time working, but the capitalist sells the product or service for more than what it costs to create and keeps the difference as profit. The lower the wage paid to the worker, the more profit made by the capitalist. This conflict of interest is a permanent feature of our economic system.
This understanding of the economic system has allowed ue to develop the key organizational approaches needed to take on the bosses and win real gains for workers. The preamble to the ue constitution contains the core ue principles of aggressive struggle, rank and file control, and uniting all workers. Over decades of experience taking on some of the most powerful corporations in the world, ue members have also learned the crucial importance of political independence and international solidarity. It is these five core principles that make ue so effective and consistent at leading struggles for justice for working people both in the workplace and in society more broadly.
Despite attacks from employers, the government, and even other unions, ue has survived because the working people who founded ue, who kept ue alive, and who make up ue today know which side they are on.
Illustrations by Fred Wright, UE NEWS cartoonist from 1949 until his death in 1984.
https://www.ueunion.org/ThemAndUs/
A taste:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Them and Us
UE’s Founders
Them: The Organized Forces of the Employers
Us: The Working Class
The Weakening of the U.S. Labor Movement
UE Core Principles
Aggressive Struggle
Rank and File Control
Political Independence
International Solidarity
Uniting All Workers
Conclusion
Published July 2020 United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) Pittbsurgh, PA • (412) 471-8919 • www.ueunion.org
Design by Polina Godz
THEM AND US
UEUE WAS FOUNDED by workers who understood how the economic system we work under — capitalism — actually works, how it functions to allow bosses (them) to make money off of workers (us), and how bosses maintain their power by trying to divide workers. Profits come from the products and services that we produce with our labor. The less employers pay us, or the faster they make us work, the more profits they make. That understanding is why ue has been able to win gains for our members, resist employer attacks, and play a leading role in the broader labor movement. It is why working people need unions like ue now more than ever.
Capitalism divides society into two main groups. One is those who live by owning, either directly or through financial instruments like stocks or private equity, the factories, land, buildings, vehicles, machines, intellectual property, mineral and drilling rights, and other types of property that are used to produce the goods and services we need to live. This small group can be called the capitalist class, “the 1%,” or the billionaire class.
The other is those of us who live by working, popularly referred to as the working class or “the 99%.” This far larger group must sell our labor in order to pay for food, clothing, and the other necessities of life. Not all members of the working class are working at any given time, but those who are not — children, the unemployed, and retirees, as well as people with disabilities that prevent them from working — rely on wages earned by family members, retirement benefits or savings earned from working, or social programs won by the working class through political action.
Through creativity, skill, intelligence, and hard work, workers turn the property owned by capitalists into products and services. We are paid a wage for our time working, but the capitalist sells the product or service for more than what it costs to create and keeps the difference as profit. The lower the wage paid to the worker, the more profit made by the capitalist. This conflict of interest is a permanent feature of our economic system.
This understanding of the economic system has allowed ue to develop the key organizational approaches needed to take on the bosses and win real gains for workers. The preamble to the ue constitution contains the core ue principles of aggressive struggle, rank and file control, and uniting all workers. Over decades of experience taking on some of the most powerful corporations in the world, ue members have also learned the crucial importance of political independence and international solidarity. It is these five core principles that make ue so effective and consistent at leading struggles for justice for working people both in the workplace and in society more broadly.
Despite attacks from employers, the government, and even other unions, ue has survived because the working people who founded ue, who kept ue alive, and who make up ue today know which side they are on.
Illustrations by Fred Wright, UE NEWS cartoonist from 1949 until his death in 1984.