: Hi Quin,: I have not posted on unions before but I feel a need to now. I studied labor history in college so I do know what I am talking about.
Then I encourage you should keep studying labor history now that you're out of college.
: I think that unions do serve a purpose in some cases but in a lot of others can be destructive. In the case of UPS, because they want on strike many people were laid off and I for one don't think that was a positive aspect of unions.
Whenever there is a strike there will be risks.Layoffs are one of them.
Now first of all that strike was due to rank-and-file pressure and the Teamsters heirarchy wouldn't have gone forward with it if working people weren't in a fighting mood.The right wing take on this strike is to almost always magnify the issue of layoffs and then to churn it out in the corporate media.But what about downsizing? Did the big corporate media outlets really spend much time on that subject?
Since I was in the trucking industry and also the delivery business for a very long time I feel I do know what I'm talking about.I don't know how much the CEOs at UPS take in each year but I'm inclined to think that it's a lot more than the average delivery driver who does much of the real work. In contrast, the typical UPS CEO probably doesn't do
much physical labor. Who deserves a raise?
:Another case is when my stepfather was a truck driver . In the late 70's during the truckers strike ind. drivers were murdered.
Keep going into the past and start mentioning the strikers who've been murdered.Either way it's really bad and if you go back into the 1930's you may find that even the European press was apalled at the extent of the violence perpetrated by strikebreakers in the US.But that's a lot of research.
: Im not saying that fast food restaurant are perfect but I think the problems can be better taken care of with dialogue. People need to start talking about changes and needs. No one will ever make it rich working in fast food but it can be a good job. So my advice to corporations and managers and employees is to start constructive dialogue and make changes asap.
The only way that that is going to happen is when there is a wporkers organization to represent those workers. Any other way of constructive dialogue will be in the form of phony "business unions" and yet another variation on the "Team Concept".
None.
