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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!psuvax1!rutgers!cmcl2!notes
- From: galanter@nyu.edu (Philip Galanter)
- Newsgroups: comp.graphics
- Subject: Re: SigGraph, Chicago, and Unions
- Message-ID: <1992Aug14.181846.14470@cmcl2.nyu.edu>
- Date: 14 Aug 92 18:18:46 GMT
- References: <16gpbvINN375@sixgun.East.Sun.COM>
- Sender: notes@cmcl2.nyu.edu (Notes Person)
- Reply-To: galanter@nyu.edu (Philip Galanter)
- Distribution: usa
- Organization: New York University
- Lines: 50
- Nntp-Posting-Host: polar.acf.nyu.edu
-
- In article <16gpbvINN375@sixgun.East.Sun.COM> nick@sunpix.East.Sun.COM
- (Nick England - Sun NC Development Center) writes:
- (...)
- |The Chicago unions are great examples of the very worst sort of union
- |aroogance and abuse that make honest people sick. I have seen and been
- |the victim of the "to hell with you and to hell with common sense" work
- |rules that make co-operation a dirty word. Paying some rigger $50 (one
- |hour minimum) to wheel a crate 40 ft, a carpenter $50 to open the crate,
- |a decorator $50 to hang the sign that was in the crate, and an
- |electrician $50 to plug in the sign is hardly distinguishable from any
- |other form of extortion. If you are lucky, you can just pay them the
- |money and they'll let you plug together your computer system yourself.
- |
- (...)
-
- Unions are hardly unique in their applying old technology business
- practices to new technology businesses. But this is no more extortion
- than the support fees computer companies charge to let you talk to them
- about failures in their product...the response usually being some
- combination of denial, your having to educate them, having them read to
- you from a document that you originally cited to them, and eventually
- being bumped up to someone who will tell you "fixed in the next release"
- and maybe it is and maybe it isn't because all of their best people are
- working on new products, not supporting old ones.
-
- The notion that the need for unions has passed, and that workers are no
- longer abused is of course nonsense. Leaving aside ongoing problems
- related to racism, sexism, sexual harassment, etc...there are still places
- in this country straight out of Sinclair or Dickens. I am reminded of a
- chicken processing plant where workers stand in water above their ankles,
- are locked in the factory ("to prevent theft"), are fired on the spot if
- they leave their post and so will sometimes urinate in place, and missing
- fingers are considered part of the job. The conditions of migrant
- workers, who put food on all of our tables, are still a national shame.
-
- The lesson of the 80's was that when unions (at the macro-level) cooperate
- and make concessions the resulting gains usually go into the pockets of
- the few at the top. I have no doubt in my mind that if unions left cities
- like Chicago conditions for working people there would begin a steep
- downward decline. So even where workers "have it good" there is an
- ongoing need for unions.
-
- Phil
-
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