Yes, Ed, I think you've presented the picture very clearly, which is why I continue to slog on in support of the Basic Income idea.. Sally
> JDS Uniphase, the fibre-optics manufacturer, has reduced its Ottawa >workforce from about 10,000 in early 2001 to about 1,500 currently. More >cuts are expected. A day or so ago, TV journalists interviewed some of >the employees who had been handed pink slips. What I found disturbing >was how absolutely accepting of the situation they were. It seemed to be >something that simply happened, was indeed expected, in that line of >business. Each of the employees appeared to see themselves as being >completely on their own. There was no sense of a possibility of >collective action. In more traditional industries, like the auto >industry, they would have been unionized and would have put up a fight. >Not so in fibre optics. JDS's sales had shrunk hugely and manufacturing >operations have been moved >from Ottawa to China. The employees appeared >to accept that firing them was a matter of corporate survival. >Collective bargaining and action continues in industries whose sales >remain fairly constant over prolonged periods and in government, but it >does not seem to have much chance of establishing itself in ephemeral >"cutting edge" industries that can make huge profits one year and huge >losses the next. Moreover, from the interviews, the JDS employees did >not strike me as people who would be very interested in collective >action. Even though they were being laid-off, they still appeared sure >of themselves, even able to take on the world. They were definitely not >blue collar types. Is this going to become the dominant pattern of the >future? Are companies going to keep inventing new things (e.g. fibre >optic components), glutting the market with them, and then getting out >fast by rapidly downsizing? Will the labour force increasingly accept >this as the normal course of things, benignly moving from job to job as >each new invention storms the market? If so, what's it all about? >Making huge amounts of money for a few people and keeping the rest >hopping? Ed >Ed Weick >577 Melbourne Ave. >Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 >Canada >Phone (613) 728 4630 >Fax (613) 728 9382
