Democracy is tough for 1 percenters.

They’ve got all that money but, hypothetically, no more voting power than their chauffeur or yacht captain or nanny.

In this one-person, one-vote democracy, though, they’ve got a plan to fix all that for themselves. They’re paying for it. And they’re accomplishing it, even though that means stripping voting rights from non-rich minority groups. Their goal is to make America more of a one-dollar, one-vote plutocracy.

Their scheme is deeply offensive to democratic ideals. In a perfect democracy, each citizen possesses the same power of self-governance as all other individuals, no matter how poor or rich, no matter their religion or skin color, no matter their country of origin or ancestry.

This equity is unnerving to some 1 percenters who believe their wealth proves their inherent higher value than other human beings, which they feel gives them the right to rule or, at least, the absolute right to choose who rules.

Their attempts to distort the democratic system go back decades. In 1980, their hired hand Paul Weyrich told a group of conservative Christians he didn’t want everyone to vote. “Our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down,” Weyrich said. He used tens of millions donated by the 1 percent to create the right-wing Heritage Foundation to promote plutarchy and to launch the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization dedicated to entertaining state lawmakers at fancy resorts to get them to pass 1 percenter-friendly laws.

In 2014, $8 billionaire Tom Perkins flat out said the rich should get more votes. Perkins [cont. on page 3]recommended the country be run like a corporation, “You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes.”

That plan would deny the right to vote in federal elections to millions of workers who labor at low-wage jobs and pay local and state taxes but not federal income taxes. Meanwhile, idle trust fund babies would receive millions of votes for doing nothing but being born to the right parents.

The 1 percent has schemed since before the heyday of Weyrich to make this true. They’ve skillfully manipulated Congress, courts and local and state governments to do their bidding. That is purging voter rolls of poor people; curtailing early voting favored by poor people who often have trouble getting time off to vote on Election Day; slashing...

It is that time of year, please get out and vote on November 6th. 

The Greenbook ratified a new three year agreement.  It was a long process with many long days.  I would like to thank the committee, and Staff Representative Cathy Drummond, for all of their hard work and for representing the membership.  The committee was Brenda Simon, Laura Vu, Lori Johnson and Lindajean Thompson.  Thank you to everyone that took the time out of their day to come out and vote.

Lake Superior Community Health Center Professional Unit will begin negotiations in November.  Lane O’Connell and Jessica Gerard will be on the bargaining committee.

I had the opportunity to attend the Minnesota AFL-CIO 54th Constitutional convention with many powerful speakers; Governor Dayton, Julie Blaha, Senator Tina Smith and Representative Illhan Omar, to name a few.  They all had a common theme in their remarks; we need to go to the polls in November.  There were also elections for Executive Board and Labor Council Positions with congratulations going to Director Emil Ramirez, Staff Representative Michele Fagre and Rapid Response Coordinator Bob Ryan on winning seats on the respective boards. 

Adam Ritscher, Vice President, is now working in the office full-time and a big part of his job is activism.  What is activism and how can you become active in the union?  Reach out to Adam and he would be happy to discuss with you, 218-724-5223.

HERE IS THE CONTRACT SUMMARY TEXT PDF