Labor Day and Unions: Making America Work

Dear Ronald Reagan: Thanks for Wrecking America

Bill Moyers Makes Newt Gingrich Look Like an Idiot

Right's Stupidity Spreads, Enabled by Too-Polite Left

FOCUS | Madonna, Like a Man, and Hated for It

FOCUS | Why Democrats Fracking Suck

James Grady: "This Labor Day, America's unions face a back to school autumn that will redefine their relevance in our river of politics and power."

About 150 hotel workers and their supporters were arrested for blocking the street outside the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco following a rally and march. Protests against Hyatt were held in 15 cities, 07/22/10. (photo: demotix)

Comments

+3 # Guest 2010-09-06 11:01

I weary of the old chestnut of how unions protect bad workers. If management would have been doing their job...you know, manage...what they are paid to do...there wouldn't BE any bad workers.

But they're too busy playing "them and us"...

Grow up, America...we've got WORK to do!

+3 # Guest 2010-09-06 11:42

Yes, we need a Job Exporting Tax, the JET-Tax. (alluding to jet planes which innocently play a role in this) Yes, everything will get more expensive, but the jobs will be here. We will be working, but not very gainfully, unless we achieve fair wages through unionization. But, of course, that thought doesn't fit into your propaganda poisoned brains. Workers, on your own you will always lose! You need the uniting strengths that come through Unions. (Or should we call them Associations, to defuse the bad connotations?) That's why the powers that are don't want Unions, they want you weak and defenseless, available for utter exploitation. And you so eagerly oblige! Every election you suckers fall for their false arguments and distortions, even as you get evicted from your homes and go bankrupt on your medical bills. Hey, whatever happened to the "Employee Free Choice Act" Does anybody even remember that piece of treachery? Ha, ha, ha!

+1 # Guest 2010-09-06 16:53

I am retired now, but when I worked, (at a non-union place), the workload increased yearly. Job combinations, understaffing, unpaid overtime, you name it, they got away with it. Yet whenever unions were mentioned, my co-workers would shrink back in horror. The very idea! I think that if they were lying on the floor, dying from exhaustion and burn-out, their last words would be: "I don't need no stinking union."

+1 # soularddave 2010-09-06 17:52

Union here, too - very much so! Bigger paycheck every year, insurance, and the pension grows. How could I NOT be pro-union? They endorse the right candidates and follow up constantly. The union has always grown until the downturn in building, but we are trained and poised for new projects.

NPR news reported today that Obama is calling for building projects (highway, rail, and airports). Stimulus money for infrastructure that will stay in America and keep everyone using oil (not too happy about that, tho).

We need to build greener and build BETTER power generation plants that pollute less. Where's the stimulus for that?? Second term? Not holding my breath.

+1 # Guest 2010-09-07 00:29

I am a Union member and I used to think that the Union basically protected underperforming workers. I have to work with them every day. They make my job more difficult and I am constantly stressed.
The problem is management! There is a probationary period where an employee can be dismissed without Union objection. Once an employee passes the probationary period, it takes almost 18 months to get them removed from the schedule because of the disciplinary action steps.
A "decent" manager knows if an employee is capable of doing the job and should either dismiss the employee or recommend retraining, probation extension, or a move to a more appropriate department. They don't....because a body is a body. And the union is blamed for keeping unproductive workers on the job.

+1 # Guest 2010-09-07 04:51

As long as American individuals corner themselves with personal debt and fear, the big boys win. They own and control you. And you are afraid to speak up or question, much less form a union, in your workplace.

+1 # Guest 2010-09-07 07:59

In the land of the Free and the Brave: afraid to form a union!

+1 # Guest 2010-09-08 11:41

The old "business as usual" unionism is dead.With only 12% of workers in unions and more undocumented labor being used to undermine wages, the union leadership finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Globalism means global workforce as well as moving production around the globe. I believe something new will arise to take the place of the old style unionism and indeed it must if humanity is to survive the crushing race to the bottom that globalization has meant to the workers.

Refresh comments list
RSS feed for comments to this post.

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.

rsn

Name:	*
Username:	*
E-mail:	*
Password:	*
Confirm password:	*
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.