This is the second and last picture of a rat that will appear on this site. Next to the rat was a van that had this slogan painted on the side, “Local 91 – We own this city.” The extortive nature of the rat, the ten fat guys that were standing around, and the arrogance of that proclamation on the van have made me anti-union. It seems to my uninformed and unresearched self that unions do little to benefit the worker or the industry.
This morning on NPR’s “Market Place” the major news was a dock worker strike that has crippled the West Coast shipping industry. Inbound bananas and outbound apples are rotting on the docks while labor negotiators bicker. Plans had been made for the union members to work during the talks, but due to “slow down” nothing actually got done. In an interview, one worker sounded like a rebellious child repeatedly siteing, “Federal speed limits make us work slow because we got no contract”. So the Fall harvest goes uneaten and unsold, stores worry about toy shipments making it in time for Christmas, and workers pretend to work as an adult modern means of settling a dispute. All this occurs during this terrible recession. Eventually George W. is going to settle the whole thing in a way that benefits the manager’s interests, but everyone everywhere will have been screwed. Keep an eye on banana prices. Everything in this world gets paid for eventually.
Perhaps I’m stating the obvious when I say that work stoppage is a very detrimental way to settle contract negotiations and just whining without offering a solution. I’d like to believe somewhere there are owners and labor who see the big picture and have learned how to compromise without killing the golden goose, and that we could point people like the shipping industry to that capitalistic utopia. Maybe the NFL is the only example.
Yes I’m anti-union, but before you hate-mail me, please realize I am also anti-big business and government. And anti-Coors Light ads, but certainly pro-beer.
This is the second and last picture of a rat that will appear on this site. Next to the rat was a van that had this slogan painted on the side, “Local 91 – We own this city.” The extortive nature of the rat, the ten fat guys that were standing around, and the arrogance of that proclamation on the van have made me anti-union. It seems to my uninformed and unresearched self that unions do little to benefit the worker or the industry.
This morning on NPR’s “Market Place” the major news was a dock worker strike that has crippled the West Coast shipping industry. Inbound bananas and outbound apples are rotting on the docks while labor negotiators bicker. Plans had been made for the union members to work during the talks, but due to “slow down” nothing actually got done. In an interview, one worker sounded like a rebellious child repeatedly siteing, “Federal speed limits make us work slow because we got no contract”. So the Fall harvest goes uneaten and unsold, stores worry about toy shipments making it in time for Christmas, and workers pretend to work as an adult modern means of settling a dispute. All this occurs during this terrible recession. Eventually George W. is going to settle the whole thing in a way that benefits the manager’s interests, but everyone everywhere will have been screwed. Keep an eye on banana prices. Everything in this world gets paid for eventually.
Perhaps I’m stating the obvious when I say that work stoppage is a very detrimental way to settle contract negotiations and just whining without offering a solution. I’d like to believe somewhere there are owners and labor who see the big picture and have learned how to compromise without killing the golden goose, and that we could point people like the shipping industry to that capitalistic utopia. Maybe the NFL is the only example.
Yes I’m anti-union, but before you hate-mail me, please realize I am also anti-big business and government. And anti-Coors Light ads, but certainly pro-beer.
