Walking in the brisk darkness to the day labor agency serves one purpose: the demonstration of continuing to try to find work. Those who show up can wait for the phone to ring; a call came in today as a matter of fact for one forklift operator. The agency waiting room is like a support group except we talk about anything but the reason we wait. My inner metronome pulses between fear and determination in the hope that it will stay within a normal range and not stray into panic and anger.

 Walking to the library this morning for my two hours of online hope and communion it occurred to me. This isn't an economic downturn; it's a lockout. Employers find that the profits fueled by the productivity of the few remaining employees who fear they will be the next to be locked out sufficient for now. This new normal will do as far as they are concerned. Those who remain dare not speak out; those on the outside are seldom heard and often misjudged. The voice of a friend and Assistant General Council at my union haunts and angers me. He said; One of these days I'm going to have to kick your ass and get you to find a job. From the comfort of his modest lifestyle he simply sees his attitude as compassionate truthtelling.

So I have a modest proposal. First, lets change our rhetoric. It's not good enough to say that millions of Americans want jobs but can't find them. We know the numbers are fixed to report that those still receiving unemployment compensation are the only unemployed that count. Millions of other workers, like me, are the 99'ers or in my case from the State of Maryland 77'ers. Who says we are discouraged workers who no longer are seeking employment? We certainly don't say that as each day we try to find a way to believe that years of unemployment will end this day.

The term 'lockout' is all over the sports pages these days as both the NFL and NBA owners contemplate shutting their doors. A lockout is essentially a management strike. Management decides that they need to teach workers a lesson and assume the general public even though they are workers themselves will see the management point of view and still blame the union for the lockout. Today's business culture values control over quality; profits over productivity; and shareholders over the community. To the Right the unemployed are 'the other' too lazy to fish but demanding to be handed fish inperpetuity. To the professional Left the unemployed are talking points; rhetorical weapons to bash the enemy.

The fact of the matter is that elites are elites. While some may take a professional position in support of the poor and unemployed they are no different than those on the Right who 'earned' their standard of living. Like my attorney friend, they see no incongruity between earning better than average wages while being the voice of 'The People'. I'm a little biased I suppose, as a union martyr with decades of service to the labor movement in good times and bad. During the last Presidential Campaign SEIU created a public relations vehicle called 'Walk a Day in My Shoes'. It was a clever way to have those who support workers to get their picture taken with an actual worker chosen by the union while beating up on those they would never support anyway for not 'walking the walk.'

It's time to set up a Strike Fund for the unemployed. It's time to call this downturn what it is: a lockout. In most states workers who are locked out in a labor dispute can receive unemployment benefits while those on strike cannot. A union will set aside funds for striking workers so that the economic pressures don't turn good members in an impossible situation into Scabs. When a lockout occurs like the current struggle at Honeywell's Metropolis Works facility, groups organize charity drives to provide food and other kinds of assistance to the locked out families. That's what I propose, that progressive organizations and unions launch a campaign to fund this effort with one hundred percent of the funds raised going directly to the benefit of the unemployed; the nation's largest groups of locked out workers.

How to fund such an effort?

Walk a Day in My Shoes.

Each individual working in a non-support staff position for a progressive or labor organization and those working for politicians who speak out for the unemployed should be encouraged to contribute ten percent of their take home pay to the effort. They should 'walk a day in my shoes', spending the day with an unemployed family or individual; try sleeping on a park bench as I and many others have done. But no cameras, no publicity, no high-minded self congratulations.

I know families in my elite former Silver Spring neighborhood who are struggling on six figure union and progressive incomes in the name of maintaining a 'lifestyle' keeping their kids in good neighborhood schools. Have they ever considered the brain drain effect segregating their children has on working class schools. Elites are elites for a reason. They went to the best schools, know all the right people and believe they earned their lofty position in society. Its time to climb down from the loft and actually meet those you support. Put your money where your rhetoric is. Support neighborhood schools other than your own. Adopt a baby from this country's underclass. Use public transportation and encourage your children to do the same.

Groups like The IAMAW UCubed speak out and organize to some extent the unemployed. Let's take it to the next level. Picket employers with high profits who refuse to provide more jobs to the community. Picket the offices of progressive organizations and politicians who don't join this effort. We don't need our asses kicked; maybe they do.

I continue to look for work and to speak out for my Brothers and Sisters in TSA who suffer under the yoke of an Administration that promised change then dragged its feet to provide collective bargaining rights. I'm angry, I'm scared, I'm talented, I'm dedicated, I'm valuable, I'm unemployable, I'll be a Union Man 'till the day I die. Don't Mourn, Don't watch MSNBC, Don't blog against the opposition; Organize!