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Reminds me of illegal immigration de javu..........its not right, either side.
"It Ain't Your Color, It's Your Scabbing": Literary Depictions of African American Strikebreakers.
by Mark Noon
I wonder why
They are so shortsighted >As not to realize >That every time >They keep any worker, >man or woman, >White, yellow, or black, >OUT of a UNION, >They are forcing a worker >To be a SCAB, >To be used AGAINST THEM? >--from "The Negro Worker" > These lines of verse, published in The Messenger in July 1919, make a point about strikes that is frequently disregarded in the hundreds of pages of fiction by social realists who addressed the major labor struggles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: "[A]ny worker / man or woman, / White, yellow, or black" could be a strikebreaker. In the West, for example, railroad and mining company managers used workers from countries such as China, Italy, Greece, Japan, and Mexico to break strikes, fully aware that these immigrants would have no allegiance to the ethnic groups who had thrown down their tools in protest. Surprisingly, strikebreaking even crossed class lines as upper and middle class male college students also took on the role of strikebreaker to express their antagonism toward workers. (1) The variety of sources of strikebreakers is not fully reflected in the fictional response to the strike. In some of the most significant radical fiction of the early twentieth century, black workers--more than any other group--are curiously cast in the villainous role of "scab." In the span of a few decades, these literary depictions ranged from collective racist stereotypes to sympathetic psychological portraits of the pressures faced by the African American laborer. Ample evidence of friction between whites and blacks can be found in some of the U.S. labor movement's key strikes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (2) The use of black troops offers the earliest examples. Black soldiers were used against striking miners in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 1892 and 1899, because African Americans "were believed much less likely than white troops to...
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/29/9271
The concept of "illegal immigration" was a union political invention in the late 19th century . . . ironicly unionism itself came with European immigrants shortly before that. Before that, all immigrants were legal because there wasn't any law to make any distinction. Old World habits of using government powers of coercion to one's own advantage die hard. The result of course is worse standard of living and more political strife for all. Socialism often ends up being national socialism as the pie shrinks.
Kinda how this country started, no?
Regards,
OW
http://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/inventing-illegal-immigration/
Exactly! It's amazing how far this country has gone down the wrong path of creating feudal privileges like they used to do in the Old World. Free exchange, live and let live are good; coercion is wasteful and bad for everyone.
Bingo! You've nailed my political philosophy perfectly. This is exactly what I have in mind when I describe myself as a classical liberal.
If people from other countries are better workers, then this premise suggests sending all work of all types to workers in other countries...? Right?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
That stands to reason and your stating the obvious. We have to go to the fact that the non touch labor is a no value added work concept. Just as the gentleman from the Heritage Foundation started stuttering when he was asked "what do you make"? A PHD made a fool on national television. Everyone is aware that these think tanks and foundations are funded by big business and have no peer review whatsoever, unlike major universities. The common man has learned to read and now he must get by the corporate owned media/public relations machine. Even the Japanese, who have brought this value added/touch labor to all of the business schools, use this as sound business practice. Why do we seek the Lean manufacturing and not the CEO compensation issue from the east? Why do these folks, that you hold to high esteem, employ their workers for life? What is the tradition of the 13 month of compensation? What exactly did these folks in these banks produce?
"Touch labor"? What has Ron G. touched lately? Value is subjective. Different people have different values and priorities. In fact, that's the only way there can be peaceful cooperation between people. Otherwise, if we all have the exactly same preferences regarding everything, wouldn't we be fighting all the time against each other? Instead of complement each other in what we want and what we offer?
That's why information managers and knowledge workers have value . . . often more value than a horse saddle maker after 1905, for example, but not necessarily more than a maker of collectible horse saddles nowdays. Talk about subjectivity! There is no other way you can reconcile the the two realities: (1) a pitiful experienced and proficient saddle maker going out business in 1915 vs. (2) a craft saddle maker taking his sweet time but making big bucks today! What should be the "fair wage" for a saddle maker anyway? if not through fluctuating market supply and demand.
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
Strapped U.S. companies, while continuing to slash their work forces, are deploying a once-rare tool to trim labor costs -- pay cuts.
Latest Layoffs
* AMD: 1,100 jobs, 9% of work force.
* ConocoPhillips: 1,350 (4%).
* Pfizer: 2,400 in sales (33% of group).
* Hertz: 4,000 (13%).
* WellPoint: 1,500 (3.6%).
* Circuit City: 30,000 jobs in jeopardy
Big Firms Deepen Job, Wage Cuts
Regards,
OW
"Texas, also has the natural resources, climate for agriculture, to keep a low unemployment rate in these tough times. They also have a lot of government facilities....The reason why DOE, protects our nuclear weapon stockpile is to protect us from our military if a nut gets in their and was able to gain power and try to overthrow the government. Also I wouldn't want your average soldier near our nuclear weapons thus I like how it is done now with civillians as it limits the number of people that have access... "
-Rocky
rocky/g,
Granted that 5.7% is below the national average but look for that to change soon. When oil goes to the $30's the tough get scared. Look for down sizing from integrated and all oil service related very soon. We may still beat the national average after having learned a lesson or two from the '80's but our numbers will be going up. rocky, agriculture really sucks, unless you have really cheap labor who aren't union.
It's about as attractive as a tank too! See you in 300,000 miles!
As far as I'm concerned, Buick is the ultimate value for the dollars spent!
The Ford Motor Company was in such disarray by 1943 that FDR discharged Henry Ford II, old Henry's grandson, to rescue the ailing company for fear of losing such a major defense contractor. It took Henry Ford's wife Clara's threat to sell her stock to get the old man to step aside and let his grandson run the family business.
I expected some cutbacks in Alaska when the oil prices fell. I remember BP and ARCO almost stopped in their tracks when oil prices tanked in the mid 1980s then again in the late 1990s. So far they have not slowed down production or exploration in Prudhoe area. In the mid 1980s almost all the Unions gave up wages in the oilfields when the price of oil dropped. A company can only pay what they can afford. Unless you are being subsidized as GM/C and the UAW is. That can only go on so long.
While I will agree that it is one of the better looking sedans on the road today. I think you will find it is not that high on the content Made in USA by UAW workers. It is not in the top 10 for US content. Two Toyotas and a Honda are in the top 10. So if you are concerned about helping your fellow citizens you might consider a Sequoia, Tundra or Sienna. All built in Indiana. I know my Sequoia was built by more skillful Indiana workers than my GMC PU truck. The Sequoia doors all shut very nicely without air gaps, unlike what the UAW workers left in my GMC PU truck.
We should blame the UAW workers:
I think it was actually that GM designers and engineers and manufacturing engineers had the doors and seals perfectly setup for minimum clearance at first, but then along came the UAW assemblers who said it was too good and they were going to assemble the doors with larger gaps and with seals not fitting. So the assembly line people talked to the body manufacturing portion of the plant and had them adjust the gaps to be larger, twist the door shapes relative to the openings or vice-versa, and had them design the rubbers gasket material so that it wouldn't work in the new opening as well as it did before. :P
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
That reminds me of something else. Every time I washed the truck I had to slide the rubber door gasket back in place. It was very loose. I thought about gluing it in place. Then I figured it would be a mess to replace it. I would have to say it was partially the design of that door system on the extended cab, and poor execution at the factory. It should not have left without fitting better. They only built 300 of the hybrid PUs. You would think they would have taken special care in assembly.
That must be a GM issue. My 2000 Suburban was the same way. When I was shopping to replace the Suburban last year, I test drove 3 used 08 Yukon XL's, two were Denali's and one a 3/4 ton SLT, all certified used. Two of the 3 had the rubber door gasket hanging out of the rear passenger doors. These vehicles had MSRPs well over $50k, and were high $30k range used, had less than 10k miles on them and already rubber door gaskets were falling out and they were already developing rattles through out the cabin. If I wanted a POS that's falling apart with rattles, I just would have kept my Suburban and saved myself $30-40k. That's how I ended up with an 07 Expedition. I really wanted a Denali, but after test driving several 07-08 Expeditions that were $10-15k cheaper used with 10-30k miles on them, they felt much tighter and put together better. So far I've been happy with my choice, the Expe feels like a vault in comparison. We'll see how it holds up. The Expe was built with UAW labor and I know the 3/4 ton Yukon I drove was made in Mexico, I didn't check on the Denali's.
Who? the UAW or the Senate?
10% is what makes about a good profit margin in any product. If they cannot control cost, their car is going to cost more than they sell it for.
Bill Ford sure must have read the book by Marcus Buckingham, and made sure that Wagoner andhis jesters did not get a chance to read it :shades:
link title
oooohhh.....
Do I hear "Comrades" in this posting?
No. They don't want to buy cheapo autos so that they can provide a higher standard of living for those who make them.
It was me who said that "unions started for a good reason".
>What was that reason?
The reason was that the owners/mgt held all the cards as far as employment was concerned. The labor was not educated enough to understand how to survive on it's single self. That is not the case today. Most labor folks are smart enough, and thankfully educated enough to understand the good and the bad. Over and above, most management respects the labor contributions and willing to share the profits as and when they come. They are no longer captive employees, which was the case decades ago.
ooohhhh....booooo.....
Looks like the worst is coming out :sick:
Maybe. This can happen because you will be promoted to be his boss, and earn more in the process.
I do that too.
I have a salesgirl who was hired fresh. She is now earning more in two months than another girl who has been at the same job for over 6 months now. She was mad and started talking about seniority and all. Turns out her Dad is in the Auto sales business. Now I know why she thinks like that.Performance counts. Seniority does not. She got the message and is now working harder.
Knowing this, do you still believe that they're worth saving? I agree that this isn't exclusive to UAW, but why on earth whould we acknowledge that "hard working people" can't manage their money? Correct me if I'm mistaken but you seem to imply that the hard workers can;t manage their money and we should simpathize?That makes no sense, they made the decisions and shot themselves in the foot. Then they reap the reasults, and now we have to save them?
Come on.
I like being American, however I think the American dream is a total BS. You work more and gain more, there's no work less and gain more, not in this world at least.
Next time I post, maybe I'll tell you about when I went into management. The losers that I tried to fire and the decent folks that DID care about their work.
Maybe those companies that don't want deal with this end up with a union and one size fits all.
Dallas, with all due respect please leave the physically and mentally challenged out of this. I'd never dish them as burdens to our society, they'd never asked for the state they're in anyway. However UAW isn't one of them are they? We're talking about capable adult people here, and all capables must earn their living.
Many years ago, when he was alive, he conducted various seminars on quality. In one type of 4-day seminar, he had students doing a mock work operation with some portion of defective parts (different colored marbles were used). The proportion of defective parts stayed constant day after day and the workers were never able to achieve the desired quality level, no matter what they did, because of ""things out of control of the workers" - defective parts, components provided by management.
Who? the UAW or the Senate?
lol, I think we have a Quote of the Day winner.
Welcome to the frey, Bob64014. It's great to have some more stories from "inside."
In Jobs Bank news, Tokyo Jobs Bank: Japanese Government Helps to Pay Idled Workers. (Straightline)
It makes no sense when a car, say the Malibu I saw came out the Fairfax assembly line with misaligned trunk and then the next one was just fine. Were it a design fault every car of the same model should have the same problem.
A great example was my Ford Escape. There was a half-inch gap between the dash and the bottom of the windshield. Was it a design problem? Then how come the dealer could fix it in minutes? How come when I got another Escape for a loaner such gap wasn't there (but the outside mirrors were rattling constantly)?
Please explain.
Wagoner won't read it, ever. Otherwise he'd recognize that he has no absolutely no capability and lost his confidence or worse, commit suicide. :P
That would actually be interesting to read...an insider's perspective is certainly welcome.
The American dream is impossible, the European dream is impossible - both being destroyed by domestic demographic issues and living wage jobs competing with third world sweatships, but the globalized serfdom dream managed by multinational corporations who exist to exploit cheap and irresponsible labor first and foremost - that's the new reality.