- Joined
- Sep 3, 2000
- Messages
- 6,694
Courtesy of a good friend's blog
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Everyone loves Labor Day. It's a great three day weekend, with a paid
day off. The weather's fine and the back yard and patio look as good
as they have all year. If you're not going to the mountains, lakes
or seashore... kick back, light the grill, and suck down a brew.
You might also remember to thank the men and women of organized labor...many
of whom were beaten, murdered, or run out of town so that we could enjoy the
eight hour day, paid vacations, pensions, and guarantees that women and
children would not be exploited in the workplace.
You may have forgotten, but the eight hour day and the paid vacation are
not part of the natural order of things. They represent labor union victories.
I am now about to use a certain word. It's not a bad word, it's just
a simple noun. I guarantee you I do not freight it with any nasty
emotional overtones. Ready?
Capitalism. Our economic system is Capitalism. It is a nifty system; it really works.
But it is intrinsic to that system that it treats labor like any other raw material and
will always try to buy it as cheaply as possible. It will go overseas for it; it will confine
it in little cubicles; and it will buy a lot of it part time so it doesn't have to pay benefits.
That's the way the system works...for labor. It doesn't work quite that way for other
kinds of raw material. Sure, a contractor will try to buy cement cheaply, but he has
to dicker with the cement guy, who will raise or lower his price until the two can
agree to do business.
In the sports world, when college players hire an agent to negotiate with team
owners we think nothing of it. The agents bargain with the owners for the players'
services and the athletes refuse to play until they have a contract. But if a group
of carpenters gets together to do the same thing it's socialism...or worse.
On the 2nd of November in 1909, during what became known as the "Uprising of the 20,000,"
female garment workers went on strike in New York. Many were arrested and a judge told
those arrested: "You are on strike against God."
Wow...who'd have guessed?
There's nothing unpatriotic about the union movement; it's as American as apple pie.
Boston carpenters walked off the job in April of 1825 in the interest of a 10 hour work
day. Ten years later, children working in the silk mills in Patterson, New Jersey went
on strike. Of course they had an outrageous demand: A six day work week of eleven
hour days.
Sweatshops, eleven hour days, inadequate wages and wretched or dangerous working
conditions are largely a thing of the past. The result is we tend not to notice or care about
Capitalism's continuous attack on the power and even the existence of the union movement.
This may not be a good thing.
A union is the average hourly worker's only defense against the economic power of a
system that always tries to buy raw materials at the lowest possible price. It's not dumb, if you're
an hourly wage person, to remember you're just so much raw material to that system.
The union maid and her guy aren't opposed to Capitalism. If you stop and think about it,
the fact is that just the opposite is true. These folks simply want to behave exactly like all
the other links in the capitalist chain of supply and demand. All they ask for is the right to
bargain for the price they get for their labor and the conditions under which it is supplied.
Why should they be the only players in the game denied that right?
But for now, enough. Get the ol' hammock swinging, pop another brew, and dribble mustard
from a hot dog on your shirt. Enjoy the day off with pay. It looks like we've all profited from
the American labor movement, even if we've never belonged to a union.
On Labor's special day let's all heed the old organizing slogan and "Take it easy....but take it."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everyone loves Labor Day. It's a great three day weekend, with a paid
day off. The weather's fine and the back yard and patio look as good
as they have all year. If you're not going to the mountains, lakes
or seashore... kick back, light the grill, and suck down a brew.
You might also remember to thank the men and women of organized labor...many
of whom were beaten, murdered, or run out of town so that we could enjoy the
eight hour day, paid vacations, pensions, and guarantees that women and
children would not be exploited in the workplace.
You may have forgotten, but the eight hour day and the paid vacation are
not part of the natural order of things. They represent labor union victories.
I am now about to use a certain word. It's not a bad word, it's just
a simple noun. I guarantee you I do not freight it with any nasty
emotional overtones. Ready?
Capitalism. Our economic system is Capitalism. It is a nifty system; it really works.
But it is intrinsic to that system that it treats labor like any other raw material and
will always try to buy it as cheaply as possible. It will go overseas for it; it will confine
it in little cubicles; and it will buy a lot of it part time so it doesn't have to pay benefits.
That's the way the system works...for labor. It doesn't work quite that way for other
kinds of raw material. Sure, a contractor will try to buy cement cheaply, but he has
to dicker with the cement guy, who will raise or lower his price until the two can
agree to do business.
In the sports world, when college players hire an agent to negotiate with team
owners we think nothing of it. The agents bargain with the owners for the players'
services and the athletes refuse to play until they have a contract. But if a group
of carpenters gets together to do the same thing it's socialism...or worse.
On the 2nd of November in 1909, during what became known as the "Uprising of the 20,000,"
female garment workers went on strike in New York. Many were arrested and a judge told
those arrested: "You are on strike against God."
Wow...who'd have guessed?
There's nothing unpatriotic about the union movement; it's as American as apple pie.
Boston carpenters walked off the job in April of 1825 in the interest of a 10 hour work
day. Ten years later, children working in the silk mills in Patterson, New Jersey went
on strike. Of course they had an outrageous demand: A six day work week of eleven
hour days.
Sweatshops, eleven hour days, inadequate wages and wretched or dangerous working
conditions are largely a thing of the past. The result is we tend not to notice or care about
Capitalism's continuous attack on the power and even the existence of the union movement.
This may not be a good thing.
A union is the average hourly worker's only defense against the economic power of a
system that always tries to buy raw materials at the lowest possible price. It's not dumb, if you're
an hourly wage person, to remember you're just so much raw material to that system.
The union maid and her guy aren't opposed to Capitalism. If you stop and think about it,
the fact is that just the opposite is true. These folks simply want to behave exactly like all
the other links in the capitalist chain of supply and demand. All they ask for is the right to
bargain for the price they get for their labor and the conditions under which it is supplied.
Why should they be the only players in the game denied that right?
But for now, enough. Get the ol' hammock swinging, pop another brew, and dribble mustard
from a hot dog on your shirt. Enjoy the day off with pay. It looks like we've all profited from
the American labor movement, even if we've never belonged to a union.
On Labor's special day let's all heed the old organizing slogan and "Take it easy....but take it."
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