Full at http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2013/02/02/lucky-to-have-a-job/
"Workers in a hospital are sick of management violating their collective
bargaining agreement. Their work is ever more stressful: hours keep getting
longer; patient loads rise; safety rules are ignored. They tell their union
steward that it is time to bombard the bosses with grievances before they
explode in rage. He tells them, “You better not do that. You’re lucky to have a
job.”
In every industry in the United States, there are more people seeking
employment than jobs available. Conservatives and liberals alike say we have to
put men and women to work. They differ in how they would achieve this, but both
shout out the mantra, “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Little is ever said about the kinds
of jobs that need to be created. What will they pay? Will they provide
benefits? Will they be interesting, safe, fulfilling, socially useful?
Perhaps the reason we don’t ask such questions is that we take our work for
granted, beyond our control and as inevitable as the rising sun. But looked at
in the long sweep of human existence, the jobs we do and the way we do them are
unlike anything we did before the rise of capitalism" . . .
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