Senate makes illegal workers legal, wow was that a surprise.

Yes, they did as I have been writing to for two years now. Today in the back pages of the St. Pete Times in a small article hidden in my opinion away from the front page where it belongs the truth is there for all to read. To quote “a product of secret negotiations between the White House and a dozen Senators.”

There in my opinion are the true leaders of this nation.

Yes, they are in my opinion The Society of Sinners as I have written to before. From this day forward America in my opinion is not and never will be the America we have known.

They were many avenues to send these workers home simply by enforcing current law and shutting down employment. In my opinion all of us and especially our children and their have been sold out!

I have nothing else to say except that we will have SPP [The North American Union] sooner then you think and you who are smiling now will one day smile no longer.

66 Senators voted for it. To me it makes no difference. The American people have spoken. They are apathetic and evidently have theirs. I and a few are just some who will have to adjust to the new era of low wages, no benefits.

Remember this as those SUV’s and big houses go up in those secluded neighborhoods, these are the 20% who HAVE and you are the 80% who in my opinion mean nothing.

I for one have had it. Now here is the list of those who voted for it. Post it somewhere if you object. But if you are of the ilk that haven’t voted before then 2008 is the day of reckoning for them!

Here is the list directly from the Senate Voting record Count:

Alphabetical by Senator Name. Notice the possible Presidential Candidates and those missing. Could it be they wish to deceive us by saying during their campaign ‘I didn’t vote for that”. Is that the kind of leader YOU WANT who can’t make a decision?
Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Not Voting
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Yea
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Nay
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Yea
Clinton (D-NY), Not Voting
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Dodd (D-CT), Not Voting
Dole (R-NC), Nay
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Not Voting
Kennedy (D-MA), Yea
Kerry (D-MA), Not Voting
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Martinez (R-FL), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Not Voting
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Obama (D-IL), Not Voting
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Sanders (I-VT), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Sununu (R-NH), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Nay
Thomas (R-WY), Nay
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
Wyden (D-OR), Yea

Yes, here it is America. In my opinion they might as well stop right now and just vote on the entire package because they are the ones I have been writing to all week long. Now remember this. This site will most likely not front page this article.

So pass it along and if this really disturbs you then take it and use it in 2008 and before!

God Bless America.
Robert T. Melaccio Sr. 2007 Copyright ©2007 Robert T Melaccio Sr.

Tags: economics, fair wage, immigration
Categories: Commentary
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Workplace ‘Flexibility’: Comment from Australia Relevant to Populist Perspectives on Labor and a Fair Wage Stateside

Here some strong commentary on ‘casual workers’ and the ‘enterprise culture’ from an anonymous hospitality industry worker down under. It can speak to the predicament faced by many workers across the American Middle West. As he says: “We can fight for a fair go, for a decent share of the profits of our employers and for decent working conditions, But we must do it together.” In Australia and Middle America, the struggle is one.  This is from the site http://www.workersforum. info/   Perhaps the Midwest Alliance needs a similar forum for contingent and low-paid workers.

As labor historian Stan Phipps noted:

“the legacy of the People’s Party to the modern workers’ movement and the struggle for independent political action is substantial. They demonstrated how the plain people in society could build upon the existing democratic forms in the U.S. to generate democratic aspirations capable of mounting a serious challenge to the business-oriented opinion leaders and policy makers. Farmers and workers showed by example how marginalized people could create for themselves the psychological space necessary to organize a first rate struggle for a level of social and economic change which opposed the existing unjust status quo through the creation of an independent political movement that put the interests of farmers and workers first” (“The People’s Party: An Insurgent Party of Farmers and Workers,” Socialist Organizer, http://www.theorganizer.org/LP/USHistory/peoplesparty.html

Maintaining the myth of flexibility: The enterprise culture and Australian Workers

On the surface it would appear that the Federal Government’s employment policies provide flexibility and choice to workers, enabling people to effectively balance work, leisure, family and educational commitments. The reality is that these policies create inequality. The myth of workplace ‘flexibility’ is a weapon of control that is used by employers and the Federal Government to serve the interests of business above those of workers. In an era of reduced union membership, our rights come under attack on a daily basis. The full-time job is no longer attainable for the majority of Australian workers and many of us are forced to work for poor pay and under appalling conditions, often in more than one job, just to make ends meet. I have worked in hospitality for almost ten years and too often have I generated thousands of dollars for an understaffed business in the space of a few hours; only to be rewarded with a wage that could barely buy a large round of drinks and a slap on the wrists for not working fast enough.

The Howard Government’s workplace policies are a result of an increasing global trend towards economic rationalism. Advocates of this neo-liberal thought advocate an “enterprise culture” that promotes:

“hard work, competition, motivation, self-reliance, flexibility, boldness, daringness, innovation and success…essential components of the entrepreneurial individual” (Kenny 1999 p. 54).

Great on the surface, but what of those people that don’t possess the education, skills and mindset to become entrepreneur’s? They get left behind! We are no longer creatures of the jungle where only the strong survive; we formed civilised society so that we could work together and help those that are weaker, slower and disadvantaged. Why? Because it is in our best interests and we will achieve a lot more together than alone!

This enterprise culture has manifested itself in Australian employment policies with the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA’s), the promotion of contract labour, a decrease in collective bargaining and an increase in casual labour. These policies are articulated as “providing flexibility and choice to Australian workers”, “everyone can be their own boss, while promoting economic growth for the great nation that is Australia.”

However, there are a few things that stand in the way of this growth, mainly the liability that is paying workers unnecessary benefits such as holiday pay, sick pay and overtime. But the one thing that provides the greatest obstacle to the implementation of these policies is a unified force of workers; together, we would never accept policies that hurt us, but alone, there is not much we can do.

We have to start making our collective voice heard, whether it be by joining a union or taking part in this forum, or dobbing in a dodgy boss [informing on a tricky boss]; We can fight for a fair go, for a decent share of the profits of our employers and for decent working conditions, But we must do it together. CASUAL WORKERS. UNITE!

Tags: australia, economy, fair wage, federal government, labor, workplace
Categories: Commentary, Economics, Labor, Farmers
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