"abandon bread and roses for the rising tide of trickle-down"
2 marks!
But I'm equally (easily) amused by The Voice staff being repped by Teamsters. Assuming the staff was mostly writers* should not y'all been repped by the Reamsters?
I'm not much of a one for signs and portents, but a 100 year old tree falling on Ron DeSantis's house, hippie-cosplaying wealthy techbros getting flooded out at Burning Man, and MTG screaming that Joe Biden has created too many well-paying jobs in her state may mean the universe is on our side here.
I come from a union household -- UAW. We had a framed photo of Walter Reuther hanging up in our apartment. As the saying goes, "the boss needs you, you don't need him."
Former IBEW Local 1313 member here. That was the union at WPIX-TV New York. Best-paying job I ever had, though one that was ultimately deadly for most of the employees.
Reagan firing the controllers really triggered something strange among Americans. Before PATCO, someone might look at their union-member neighbor and think "Wow! He's got an excellent paycheck, full healthcare, a pension, and weeks of paid vacation. I should have those things! Maybe I'll join a union."
After PATCO, that was turned on its head. Someone would look at their union-member neighbor and think "Wow! He's got an excellent paycheck, full healthcare, a pension, and weeks of paid vacation. I don't have those things! And neither should he!"
I never had the privilege of working in a union job. Though there were positions where I wished we could start one; I could tell my PMC colleagues wouldn't go for it. Not trying to persuade anyway is my bad, but I already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and I had a family to support. I'll always remember recruiting a woman who insisted she wouldn't take a job if it was covered under the bargaining unit adjacent to us. She was from Mississippi not coincidentally, but harbored some resentments because of competing for positions or arbitrating against AFSCME. Workplace disputes are intense, and not because the stakes are low.
I never did enough acting to got into Actor's Equity, but the folks who did were very up on it.
Dad was a member of the Rural Letter Carrier's Union: hardly a union, they can't strike, and very rarely endorse: but in the runup to '20, Postmaster Gen. DeJoy had pissed enough people off for even many of the MAGA types to vote against him, if not tRump. They also exposed the problems DeJoy was imposing on the mail.
Among my earliest memories is the news from Chattanooga TN full of Jimmy Hoffa's racketeering and jury tampering trial. Chattanooga was a manufacturing hub, steel, appliances, chemicals (Dupont gunpowder, and Atlas explosives) and the Ochs Schuleberger Chattanooga Times had lead the anti union crowd since the '30s. It was a most antiunion town, violently historically. Hoffa didn't stand a chance even if he was guilty as sin.
When Volkswagen opened it's plant there they wanted, being good Germans, to have the sort of labor councils that ran well in Deutschland: one engineer I talked to just didn't get the animus of the locals.
The attempt to unionize was closer than I would have expected: and a time will come when it happens.
Unfortunately, today we live in the gig economy and with AI technology, it will only get worse. The days of unions are long gone; at least Unions as we know it. Globalization, whether you consider it a blessing or a curse, has changed the business dynamics for all global industries.
Yet, for those who think globalization is bad, think again. Corporations outsource to create less expensive goods and society at large benefits because more consumers can afford what we’re previously deemed luxury items. And by reducing overall production and manufacturing costs, companies actually save more jobs in times of recession, because they are manufacturing a portion of their products overseas and can withstand a recession more effectively.
Additionally, global outsourcing and trade deals also contributes to tens of millions of jobs; NAFTA alone created tens of millions and that trade deal only affected three nations: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
And protectionism is a double edge sword. Tariffs by Trump on China, to protect 5k steel workers, cost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs that rely on steel as a major manufacturing component and resource. Not to mention, 3,500 of those steel jobs were lost anyway; within two years because the US steel manufacturers still couldn’t compete globally.
In addition, China retaliated and destroyed our $42 billion agricultural export industry, which required a $42 billion federal bailout that we are still paying for. The second largest bailout in US history after the financial industry bailout.
So while I sympathize with union workers, and workers in general who need several jobs just to make ends meat, the issues are far more complex than we understand.
In the immortal words of HL Mencken:
“Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers!”
I’ll leave it at that. Happy Labor Day everyone and have a wonderful week!...:)
My mother, who always voted Republican, nevertheless proudly claimed that her older brother helped found the bakers' union in Newark in the 1920s; and my dad was represented by the IBEW, which is how my siblings and I got a start into the middle class.
A story about my Dad: He was an air traffic controller, not a tower controller, but an "en-route" controller, the guy who gets the hand-off as the plane departs the controlled airspace around an airport and helps it get to the next airport. He and his co-workers weren't unionized, so they went to PATCO (anybody remember PATCO?) to say they wanted to set up a local. "Oh no", said PATCO, "For you are merely en-route controllers, not fit to share a union with exalted tower controllers such as us!" (shades of the old craft unionism in that, I think.) Anyway, they left PATCO behind and formed their own local - with the Teamsters.
35 year member of the APWU here. Now comfortably retired. The Service no longer calls it a "pension", it's an annuity. Somehow the p-word became a dirty word? Of course, Labor Day should be celebrated on May 1 but that's not how things work here in 'Murica. Cheers and blessings to all.
I cannot believe that anyone would not join a union if one were available. I was a member of the NTEU and I am enjoying tangible benefits in my retirement. I was in the New York Region of the FDIC. Union support was strong in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore (my office), not in places like Harrisburg. They were freeloading assholes. Taking benefits w/o paying dues. They were also the type to complain about welfare queens.
I don't think the working class imbeciles of the 70's and 80's bought into trickle-down as much as they already owned a complete set of racist shibboleths adorned with a complete ignorance of How Things Really Work. Many of my blue-collar colleagues lacked any awareness that unions accorded POWER over their lives that capitalism denied. Thus, in a stupid betrayal of self-interest, they were easy pickings to get sucked into the right-wing Limbaugh anti-union (anti-working class, anti-liberal, etc.) vortex to the point where, even as fucking union members, they still supported Reagan. I've lost touch, but I have no doubt the older ones moved on to support Trump.
"abandon bread and roses for the rising tide of trickle-down"
2 marks!
But I'm equally (easily) amused by The Voice staff being repped by Teamsters. Assuming the staff was mostly writers* should not y'all been repped by the Reamsters?
*(OK maybe a few truck drivers to deliver it)
AFSCME Local 1989 sez: Hell ya!
I'm not much of a one for signs and portents, but a 100 year old tree falling on Ron DeSantis's house, hippie-cosplaying wealthy techbros getting flooded out at Burning Man, and MTG screaming that Joe Biden has created too many well-paying jobs in her state may mean the universe is on our side here.
I come from a union household -- UAW. We had a framed photo of Walter Reuther hanging up in our apartment. As the saying goes, "the boss needs you, you don't need him."
Former IBEW Local 1313 member here. That was the union at WPIX-TV New York. Best-paying job I ever had, though one that was ultimately deadly for most of the employees.
Reagan firing the controllers really triggered something strange among Americans. Before PATCO, someone might look at their union-member neighbor and think "Wow! He's got an excellent paycheck, full healthcare, a pension, and weeks of paid vacation. I should have those things! Maybe I'll join a union."
After PATCO, that was turned on its head. Someone would look at their union-member neighbor and think "Wow! He's got an excellent paycheck, full healthcare, a pension, and weeks of paid vacation. I don't have those things! And neither should he!"
AAUP here: even "public" universities are profit-grubbing sunsovbisshes these days, so we stand union-strong here.
I was IBEW for 30 years - I got one thing to say -
https://youtu.be/G2-J-nFFtSg?si=FQm1yz2yOuDz4K__
Great article Roy. Grover, we hardly knew ye.
I never had the privilege of working in a union job. Though there were positions where I wished we could start one; I could tell my PMC colleagues wouldn't go for it. Not trying to persuade anyway is my bad, but I already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and I had a family to support. I'll always remember recruiting a woman who insisted she wouldn't take a job if it was covered under the bargaining unit adjacent to us. She was from Mississippi not coincidentally, but harbored some resentments because of competing for positions or arbitrating against AFSCME. Workplace disputes are intense, and not because the stakes are low.
I never did enough acting to got into Actor's Equity, but the folks who did were very up on it.
Dad was a member of the Rural Letter Carrier's Union: hardly a union, they can't strike, and very rarely endorse: but in the runup to '20, Postmaster Gen. DeJoy had pissed enough people off for even many of the MAGA types to vote against him, if not tRump. They also exposed the problems DeJoy was imposing on the mail.
Among my earliest memories is the news from Chattanooga TN full of Jimmy Hoffa's racketeering and jury tampering trial. Chattanooga was a manufacturing hub, steel, appliances, chemicals (Dupont gunpowder, and Atlas explosives) and the Ochs Schuleberger Chattanooga Times had lead the anti union crowd since the '30s. It was a most antiunion town, violently historically. Hoffa didn't stand a chance even if he was guilty as sin.
When Volkswagen opened it's plant there they wanted, being good Germans, to have the sort of labor councils that ran well in Deutschland: one engineer I talked to just didn't get the animus of the locals.
The attempt to unionize was closer than I would have expected: and a time will come when it happens.
Happy Labor Day Roy, and to your family.
Unfortunately, today we live in the gig economy and with AI technology, it will only get worse. The days of unions are long gone; at least Unions as we know it. Globalization, whether you consider it a blessing or a curse, has changed the business dynamics for all global industries.
Yet, for those who think globalization is bad, think again. Corporations outsource to create less expensive goods and society at large benefits because more consumers can afford what we’re previously deemed luxury items. And by reducing overall production and manufacturing costs, companies actually save more jobs in times of recession, because they are manufacturing a portion of their products overseas and can withstand a recession more effectively.
Additionally, global outsourcing and trade deals also contributes to tens of millions of jobs; NAFTA alone created tens of millions and that trade deal only affected three nations: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
And protectionism is a double edge sword. Tariffs by Trump on China, to protect 5k steel workers, cost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs that rely on steel as a major manufacturing component and resource. Not to mention, 3,500 of those steel jobs were lost anyway; within two years because the US steel manufacturers still couldn’t compete globally.
In addition, China retaliated and destroyed our $42 billion agricultural export industry, which required a $42 billion federal bailout that we are still paying for. The second largest bailout in US history after the financial industry bailout.
So while I sympathize with union workers, and workers in general who need several jobs just to make ends meat, the issues are far more complex than we understand.
In the immortal words of HL Mencken:
“Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers!”
I’ll leave it at that. Happy Labor Day everyone and have a wonderful week!...:)
My mother, who always voted Republican, nevertheless proudly claimed that her older brother helped found the bakers' union in Newark in the 1920s; and my dad was represented by the IBEW, which is how my siblings and I got a start into the middle class.
A story about my Dad: He was an air traffic controller, not a tower controller, but an "en-route" controller, the guy who gets the hand-off as the plane departs the controlled airspace around an airport and helps it get to the next airport. He and his co-workers weren't unionized, so they went to PATCO (anybody remember PATCO?) to say they wanted to set up a local. "Oh no", said PATCO, "For you are merely en-route controllers, not fit to share a union with exalted tower controllers such as us!" (shades of the old craft unionism in that, I think.) Anyway, they left PATCO behind and formed their own local - with the Teamsters.
35 year member of the APWU here. Now comfortably retired. The Service no longer calls it a "pension", it's an annuity. Somehow the p-word became a dirty word? Of course, Labor Day should be celebrated on May 1 but that's not how things work here in 'Murica. Cheers and blessings to all.
I cannot believe that anyone would not join a union if one were available. I was a member of the NTEU and I am enjoying tangible benefits in my retirement. I was in the New York Region of the FDIC. Union support was strong in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore (my office), not in places like Harrisburg. They were freeloading assholes. Taking benefits w/o paying dues. They were also the type to complain about welfare queens.
Sam Alito hates unions as much as John Roberts hates voting rights.
CWA Local NYC, UFT District 17, IATSE 52(?) here.
I don't think the working class imbeciles of the 70's and 80's bought into trickle-down as much as they already owned a complete set of racist shibboleths adorned with a complete ignorance of How Things Really Work. Many of my blue-collar colleagues lacked any awareness that unions accorded POWER over their lives that capitalism denied. Thus, in a stupid betrayal of self-interest, they were easy pickings to get sucked into the right-wing Limbaugh anti-union (anti-working class, anti-liberal, etc.) vortex to the point where, even as fucking union members, they still supported Reagan. I've lost touch, but I have no doubt the older ones moved on to support Trump.