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perspectives: workplace and history

updated thu 8 jul 99

 

Eydie DeVincenzi on sat 3 jul 99

------------------
Message text written by Ceramic Arts Discussion List

I have not been part of this thread so forgive me if I repeat ideas that
have already been expressed:

=3C=3CObviously the people who are proposing a union have never been foreced=
to
join a union in order to obtain a job.=3E=3E
I am many years from the days when I worked =5Bgraveyard shift=5D =
in
an ice cream factory to put myself through college, but it helps keep me
GROUNDED in reality to remember the system of dangerous working conditions
and poor pay my workmates were trapped into for theirENTIRE lives. Working
in that factory KEPT me in school during the moments when I really wanted
to quit=21 I still thank those workers for giving me a reality check.

=3C=3C...That money is used for all sorts of things...lobbying in Washington
DC. Paying money to their choice of local and national political candidate
and so forth. =3E=3E
So instead do the owners of nonunion shops PUT THE MONEY BACK into the
company=21? NOT=21 The money goes into their bigger houses, cars and =
personal
vacations and to gobble up other companies so they can fire workers (they
call it =22efficiency=22). One way or another, the money does NOT go into =
the
pocket of the worker.

=3C=3C If you screw up they speak for you to your boss.=3E=3E
And in a non-union shop, you get fired at the whim of the boss. That ice
cream factory? I was fired because I wouldn't screw the boss in the
freezer compartment.. No union there to protect me. And when I
complained, the reason given to me was: =22what do you expect, you are a
woman working in a man's job=21=22

=3C=3CThere was a time for unions in this country and there are places in =
the
world
that desperately need them.=3E=3E
Unfortunately, we live in a world where people USE and ABUSE each other and
it the responsibility of the abused to protect themselves. Sad but true.
The time for workers to protect their rights in the workplace is ALWAYS.
We have come full circle a few times in our society. We are now starting
to hear =5Byet again=5D how management is finding ways to abuse workers. =
It's
a cycle. And we are damned to repeating the pain of these cycles until we
as a society learn the lessons of history. Remember, =22he who ignores
history is bound to repeat it=22

=3C=3C Personally I don't fit into the union mode.=3E=3E
Do doctors fit into a union mold? Well they do now. They are unionizing.
Why? Because they suddenly are on the OTHER SIDE of the work equation now
that accountants run the medical game.

=3C=3CI prefer to speak for myself , pick my own political candidates and be=
in
charge of my own life.=3E=3E
Fact is ONE voice =5Bsadly=5D is not loud enough in this testosterone-driven
world.

=3C=3C... pick my own political candidates and be in charge of my own =
life.=3E=3E
Fact is, we don't pick our leaders. Others make the primary selections
based on politics and money/ They just give us the illusion of choice.
Are you in charge of your life when you have to drink water polluted by the
factory upstream because the owners prefered to take the money and run.
Ask people in New Jersey how they feel about having to pay tax dollars to
clean up water pollution left by fleeing factory owners. Do those factory
owners still have jobs after the factory owners flee? Who's in charge of
our lives? WE ARE. What the baby boomers are going to learn =
=5Bunfortunatley
the hard way it seems=5D is that without the communication and cooperation =
of
neighboors, family, workmates, fellow planet-dwellers, individuals are
vulnerable and out of control. We are all suffering from this disease
called =22Singularity=22. This narcisism is making me long for a quiet
mountaintop=21
Eydie DeVincenzi



=3C

Don & Isao Morrill on mon 5 jul 99

At 09:36 7/3/99 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>------------------
> Eydie, Thanks for your post.This anti-worker business has caused
ALL workers rights to go down hill every since unionized workers began to
have it so good after WW 2.They became too damned lazy to continue the
fight, Now we have an entire generation easily intimidated and forced to
work two jobs just to keep their heads above water. Time for a change! I
repeat myself but, most potters in Europe ARE organized. Too bad history
has been expunged from the schools.
Isao & Don M.

Earl Brunner on tue 6 jul 99


I think the biggest anti-worker problem out there is government. I wouldn't
*need* two jobs if the blink'n government wasn't taking half of my income and
giving half of it to some irresponisble do-nothing, and wasting the other
half. Some of my pottery students at the city art center are the worse.
They think all the classes and materials should be free. And I quote, "The
city's got lots of money." This to whine about the cost of the class or to
justify thier wastful behavior with the materials.

Don & Isao Morrill wrote:

> > Eydie, Thanks for your post.This anti-worker business has caused
> ALL workers rights to go down hill every since unionized workers began to
> have it so good after WW 2.They became too damned lazy to continue the
> fight, Now we have an entire generation easily intimidated and forced to
> work two jobs just to keep their heads above water. Time for a change! I
> repeat myself but, most potters in Europe ARE organized. Too bad history
> has been expunged from the schools.
> Isao & Don M.

--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net

Ray Aldridge on wed 7 jul 99

At 04:31 PM 7/5/99 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>At 09:36 7/3/99 EDT, you wrote:

>work two jobs just to keep their heads above water. Time for a change! I
>repeat myself but, most potters in Europe ARE organized.

This is interesting. Can you elaborate?

Ray