Do you remember when you worked a 10 hour day 6 and 7 days a week? Remember when you never received shift differential and overtime meant you got home after supper? Remember when you worked the construction industry and you had no protection against acetone and asbestos and all the other deadly chemicals everyone was exposed to? Remember when your children worked 8 OR 10 hours a day in a sweatshop?Remember when you never had holidays, vacation or sick leave? Remember when you received a dollar a day and you lived in company quarters and you paid the company store and the debt from that store got past on to your children and great grandchildren? Remember when you were hurt on the job and you lost weeks and weeks of pay? Remember when you were fired for going to your spouse's funeral and you never got unemployment? Remember when the farm workers were paid 50 or 75 cents per day, lived in "provided housing". Remember when the boss's best friend got the promotion and you got squat?
You say you don't remember these things at all? Of course not because so many of our fathers and grandfathers literally fought and died for the rights of workers. And Unions were formed and unions bargained for the basic necessities of life. You say you don't remember and it could never happen again? Review the minimum wage laws and see how many Republicans vote against it! Review worker's compensation laws and see how many Republicans vote against it! review the state disability laws and see how many Republicans voted against it!
If you don't think it can happen again listen to the issues in Wisconsin. Did you know that between Governor Brown and President Pro Temp Darrel Steinburg (BOTH DEMOCRATS) the public pension system in the State of California was gutted. The average teacher retires at about $39,000 per year in pension but they felt it was too much. Never mind that these pensions had been bargained. That teachers usually go their whole life and never see a distributive scheme let alone profit from it or more to the point ruin other peoples pensions by using it. But hey, the rich get tax breaks and the teachers and other public servants get to pay for the tax breaks.
If you think it can happen again then say THANK YOU to all our union constituents for all the hard work, then, now and in the future. Happy Labor Day. A Vote for Romney is a vote for eliminating Labor Day.
A Place for Discussion
5 comments:
No doubt about it. When I was 18 I was a member of the Retail Clerks Union (I started part time at a Department Store that was a closed union shop while going to college in San Jose)..the old ladies, I mean really old ladies that worked at the store told me ¨how it was¨ without the Retail Clerks Union, before ¨benefits¨ came their way...they also spoke fondly of Mr. Hart and his Father who very willingly welcomed the ¨union¨to Hart´s Department Store...these Men were real men of the caring and responsible employer kind and also very civic minded...I worked for Alex Hart the son of the son who became President in 1943...he was a really fine man and my mentor in the retail business from 1961, Fall, through my early-mid twenties...he taught me how ¨to be¨ a gentleman, a buyer and a well-mannered young man in the New York Market...these men were real class of the non-current-day-republican variety. BTW, Alex Hart helped me later secure a very big job in another Deparment Store in a far away city from San Jose-- what a man to give a glowing reccomendation even after I no longer worked for them.
Leonardo,
I beleive Mr. Hart must have done an excellent job becuase you are indeed not only a wonderful artisit but an exceptional gentleman.
Leonardo,
I beleive Mr. Hart must have done an excellent job becuase you are indeed not only a wonderful artisit but an exceptional gentleman.
Labor represents only government workers (85% of Labor members work for some branch of government). Hard to sympathize with these "workers".
Turnip Ghost,
When you make a statement likethat you should also cite your source. I would be interested for a couple of reasons. First, the retail clerks, the railroad workers, the miners, the auto workers, and all of AFl-CIO makeup only 15% or labor? I really find that one hard to believe. Governement workers are generally underpaid and over worked and under pensioned, e.g. the average teacher penion in the State of
California, according to STRS, is $39,000.00. Second, if you are just spinning fadcts to suit your needs (like so many other right wing conservatives) then lies and damned lies wilol not be tolerated on this site.
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