Ryan’s rant: write it upon the doorposts of your houses and on your gates
Ohio congressman's viral speech is more than inspiration: it's a call to action
Wednesday morning, as I lay abed reading from my phone and catching up, I came across Tim Ryan’s outburst in the House of Representatives in defense of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
Like the millions of people who had already heard the Ohio Democrat’s rant, I wanted every American with working ears to hear them, too.
I know it’s blasphemy, but I have waited so long for someone to shout the truth about American labor and its abuse at the hands of the lying liars of liardom that all I could think of was to welcome Ryan’s words the way Moses trumpeted the arrival of the Ten Commandments.
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Many of you have already heard the rant from Ryan, the same man who chided Bernie Sanders less than two years ago, “You don’t have to yell,” and saw it become the stuff of bumper stickers.
“Mr. Speaker, one of the earlier speakers said that this is the most dramatic change in labor law in the last 80 years and I say, ‘Thank God.’
“In the late '70s, a CEO made 35 times the worker. Today it’s three to 400 times the worker,” Ryan said. “And our friends on the other side ... running around with their hair on fire,” Ryan shouted at conservatives Tuesday.
“Heaven forbid we pass something that’s going to help the damn workers in the United States of America.”
“Heaven forbid we tilt the balance that has been going in the wrong direction for 50 years. We talk about pensions, you complain. We talk about the minimum wage increase, you complain. We talk about giving them the right to organize, you complain. But if we were passing a tax cut here, you’d be getting in line to vote yes for it. Now stop talking about Dr. Seuss and start working with us on behalf of the American workers.”
I’ll add to that a remonstration of liberals: Now stop talking about Meghan Markle and start working with us on behalf of American workers.
Any Black American who would marry the grandson of the Queen of England and is surprised by what she got is not bright enough for us to waste so much time tearing our hair out over when the future of millions of our own impressively underpaid countrymen is at stake.
How many of you Markle defenders even knew about the PRO act as far back as Monday? Soon it will go to the Senate, stocked with hoary old corporate-owned criminals and younger, wacko traitors. It needs people to fight for it.
I am an old union man, and I was moved by the passion of Ryan — admittedly an uber-ambitious politician — to help American workers do the only real thing that will raise them to decent lives.
Sadly, no “Fight for 15” will help much. An hourly wage of $15 is twice the federal minimum, but it will not get you an apartment in West Ridge.
Organizing, defended in the new bill, must be legal everywhere. Unions need to be allowed to be strong. Americans have to be left alone to fight for themselves.
The PRO Act would also chip away at “Right to Work” provisions that allow unionized workers to easily avoid paying dues, or even having to join the unions that have been elected to fight for them. The local RTW laws make union efforts to raise wages and work safety standards toothless.
Those of you who work for wages yet support Right to Work laws are kidding yourselves. Nothing in a Right to Work law helps you, and every union victory raises wage rates, often even for those who aren’t unionized. That’s how the labor market works.
But lots of working folks think that keeping unions weak is good for them, because one day, they’ll be in charge, and in the position of screwing their own employees. For most people, that’s not realistic.
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