I have been following this thread for some time now. As some of you are aware I am a lurker on this site. I feel that it is time to put in my 2 cents worth.
I have been a member of several unions - The United Mine workers, The Engineers and Architects, etc. - in the past. Like you, I feel that the unions do not now represent the will of the members. HOWEVER, I also feel that without the unions the workers would be exploited by the companies in sweatshop conditions. I DO NOT believe in the theory that the companies will do what is best for the workers. They will only exploit them to the maximum degree possible for the benefit of the bottom line. At this time there is a vast surplus of workers to available jobs. I was born long before many of you were even thought of, in a little coal-mining town in Pennsylvania. I saw children 10 to 14 years old working for up to 16 hours a day for 20 cents per day doing jobs that you couldn't imagine in order to help feed the family. Many of these children never lived to the age where they could marry and produce children of their own. My family was one of the fortunate ones who had ownership in the mines. I was the rebel in the family who worked on the side of the miners. I advocated placing safeguards for the workers so that they could survive and raise families to produce a future generation of laborers to make money for us. Most of the people didn't care. There were always more bodies to fill the jobs available. Most of the workers were immigrants from central Europe, so they didn't matter anyway. I spoke 14 languages by the time I was 10 years old. It was the only way I could get the neighbor kids to be able to play with me. I had to be able to talk to the parents, most of whom could not speak English, even though the children could, in order to get them to allow the children to associate with me. This too, did not make me very popular with the general society of my town. My family was high enough in the local pecking order to allow me to get away with things that most of the residents could not do. At one time I was engineering liaison (Spanish speaking) to one of the maquiladoras in Mexico. Often while I was down there I was invited to select any of the workers for my evenings entertainment. If I had selected any of them and they had refused they would have been fired. There was always some one who would be available to fill their job. How would some of you liked to have been in that position? Sexual orientation did not matter. (FYI - I am a dedicated hetro.) I operated my own contract design company, Borderline Enterprises, for over twenty years, doing contract computer design for our Aerospace industry in the San Diego area. I am fully aware of the way our businesses work. I would make a bid on a job and it was accepted or not. Later on they would take my bid and counter with a "so and so bid X dollars less, would you like to amend your bid?" It didn't take me long to figure out this ploy. I simply refused to rebid. After the low bidder screwed up the job, and they again approached me, I would add 50% to my previous bid - and get the job. With our present government in power, and the dissolution of our labor protections that were placed in the last 50 years, it would not be long until we would be in the same sweatshop situation. It is only the unions that keep the big businesses in line. Anyone who believes that the Government or Big Business is concerned about you as an individual is sadly deluded. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Marion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 4:00 PM Subject: Re: [kooler] unions (Was: Does there exist good free webhostingfor commercial u > Quoting Stewart Stremler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > Isn't EA a counter-example of that? > > People aren't forced to work there, and with the publicity they're getting, > why anyone new would apply there is beyond me. They're not the only company > out there hiring. > > > Erm. If we give up unions (which were the only way to put a stop > > to the horrid conditions that actually _worked_) on the premise that > > The key word possibly being "were"... we now have a lot of laws on the books > that set limits to what an employer can do (and very few on what an employee > can do[0]). These laws would all have to be repealed. > > > So you hear no talk of unionizing and everyone's happy. > > > > Where's the problem? You're not dealing with a union. Why do you > > object to unions so much? > > I object to unions because I was in one, and it sucked. I don't care if > others want to be in a union, just don't try to come in here and force me to > join or leave my job... those kind of contract clauses should be illegal IMO. > > Also, I think too many people automatically think "union == good" without > weighing the consequences, and once the union is there, getting rid of it is > usually next to impossible. > > > Why should everyone else do without unions, when their employers aren't > > so enlightened? > > I never said they shouldn't. > > -- > Mike Marion-Unix SysAdmin/Staff Engineer-http://www.miguelito.org > Marge: "Homer, sitting that close to the TV can't be good for you." > Homer: "Talking while the TV's on can't be good for you!" > ==> Simpsons > > > > -- > [email protected] > http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list > -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
