Look for... the Union Label...

Dec 31, 2006 16:41

My Internet's been down, and I've been reading lj at the library, so I didn't have a chance to post this sooner ( Read more... )

union, work

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Re: Another point of brotherhood heosphoros January 2 2007, 21:58:29 UTC
Thanks.

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christeos_pir December 31 2006, 23:34:42 UTC
Congrats from a former IBEW chief shop steward!

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heosphoros January 2 2007, 21:59:41 UTC
Thank you.

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k_navit January 1 2007, 11:34:21 UTC
Wow. You kick ass (and you do, and you will.)

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heosphoros January 2 2007, 22:00:35 UTC
Thanks. I'm glad you think so.

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ajrose93 January 1 2007, 13:21:52 UTC
93, Bro ( ... )

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heosphoros January 2 2007, 22:05:47 UTC
Thanks. It was a toss up for me which version of Joe Hill to include. I went with Phil Ochs 'cause it's my favorite, and it has more detail. I'm glad you threw this one in too.

And a very Vulgar New Year right back at'cha.

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tau_lucem_fero January 6 2007, 22:46:39 UTC
Keep up the good work! Unions have a place in every fair market of the world to protect the interest of the workers! Denmark has a long history of organised labour and unions, and it's seldom to encounter people who are against it (over here). In the long run unions not only represents the interests of the workers, but also has a beneficial impact on the development of companies since unions oftens raises ethical and environmental issues, which - if the employers act well and listen - aids to profiling their company as a responsible and reliable producer on the market. And not least, many unions offer good solutions to complex problems by letting their members partake in the discussions ( ... )

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heosphoros January 7 2007, 03:42:34 UTC
Thanks for the words of support. Once again you've made me wish that the country of my birth would hurry up and join the civilized world.

Georgia is what is know euphemistically as a "right to work" state, meaning the laws are set up to work against unions, in addition many people have been sold on the propaganda that says unionization hurts workers. That's part of what I'm up against. Plus, minority union = bad contract = inability of the union to adequately fight for the employees = people convinced that the union has nothing to offer them. The company knows this and is already making little moves to dissuade workers from getting the idea that things might change if we got more members.

But I'm not ready to give up yet.

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tau_lucem_fero January 10 2007, 22:23:22 UTC
There's a lot to fight for here. A good friend of mine aged 75 has been a union leader for many years and he asked me to always consider that there can only be two kinds of people on the job-market, namely those who want to buy work (employers) and those who want to sell work (workers) - and that workers are kind of stupid if they don't sell their labour as expensive as possible. So how do you do that? Well, of course you round up all the workers, make an agreement with them in which all agrees that they'll refuse to work if not paid properly.

As a student of history I met the phenomenon of unions in an early account from France (the 18th century). In Robert Darnton's "The Great Cat Masacre" an apprentice at a printers shop is welcomed into the guild by the following lesson: "The newcomer is indoctrinated. He is told never to betray his colleagues and to maintain the wage rate. If a worker doesn't accept a price [for a job] and leaves the shop, no one in the house should do the job for a smaller price. Those are the laws among the ( ... )

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