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Apr. 12th, 2005 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaI joined the union today. I was going to anyway, but the importance of doing so was driven home by something the union rep said -- that without a union in place, an employee has ultimately no input at all into decisions made regarding her work conditions, tasks, expectations, and so forth.
And while an employer might set out with the intention of taking the good of its employees into account, it happens (as we've seen) that greed disguised as "need for competitiveness" will eventually erode that intent and we'll see a race to the bottom with regards to employees' conditions. This is in fact what has happened in the United States, with stagnating real wages, fewer benefits being offered, more jobs being offered only as contract or temporary positions.
I'm going to look into possibly supporting organizations that are working to promote union organization in developing parts of the world. One of the great failures of "free trade" has been its effect in lowering, rather than raising, the standard of living for people worldwide. Labor exploitation is a major cause of that.
And while an employer might set out with the intention of taking the good of its employees into account, it happens (as we've seen) that greed disguised as "need for competitiveness" will eventually erode that intent and we'll see a race to the bottom with regards to employees' conditions. This is in fact what has happened in the United States, with stagnating real wages, fewer benefits being offered, more jobs being offered only as contract or temporary positions.
I'm going to look into possibly supporting organizations that are working to promote union organization in developing parts of the world. One of the great failures of "free trade" has been its effect in lowering, rather than raising, the standard of living for people worldwide. Labor exploitation is a major cause of that.
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an interesting collective to belong to
Date: 2005-04-12 08:54 pm (UTC)Re: an interesting collective to belong to
Date: 2005-04-12 08:59 pm (UTC)kind of both
Date: 2005-04-12 09:02 pm (UTC)i am not judging, nor suggesting you may find this confict personally - i was simply relating my experience in the matter.
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Date: 2005-04-12 08:58 pm (UTC)Congrats. The Industrial Workers of the World website is always a good place to check out.
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Date: 2005-04-12 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-12 09:01 pm (UTC)and remember the great union song
Date: 2005-04-12 09:03 pm (UTC)Can be won can be won
Many stones can form an arch
Singly none singly none
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly none singly none
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Date: 2005-04-12 09:10 pm (UTC)- unions can be great, or they can turn into crooked machines. living in pittsburgh makes me a bit cynical. as far as i can tell, workers are still being given the crap end of the stick, only they get to pay union dues on top of that.
- corporate greed and the "need for competitiveness" are two different things. the latter is a simple fact of capitalism powered by none other than you and me, the "greedy" consumer shopping for the lowest price. i'm not saying that we don't need institutions to protect working conditions from erosion by market forces, but i do bristle when all these evils get pinned on some mythical corporate bad guy in the sky.
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Date: 2005-04-13 12:10 am (UTC)Your second point is good, also. I need to work on trying to remember that empires happen because there is complicity at many levels, and not just imposition of evil from the top.
I also need to work on a thought I had while commuting home, about how "social edifices" are really the problem. I mean, a solution is presented to a problem where a social edifice of some kind is causing trouble. Then that solution becomes an institution itself, and goes slowly over time from being solution to being problem. I think the "Critical" school did some work on this problem.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-13 06:44 am (UTC)(Woody Guthrie)
There once was a union maid
Who never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks
And deputy sheriffs who made the raids
She went to the union hall
When a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys came 'round
She always stood her ground.
cho: Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union,I'm sticking to the union
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union till the day I die.