http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/24/news/Triangle_fire_centennial/index.htm?hpt=C1

In memorium for those that have perished from corporate greed.

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Janice

Almost all Americans see Union Greed akin to Corporate Greed. Thus their Destruction and rightly so.

Corporations stay healthy and thrive because they look for better pricing and get it to us.

Most Union Workers shop and buy products Made in China.

Would bet if you looked at their shirt/pants/shoe/etc. labels right now you would see China et al.

America does not care about Unions and they are not coming back.

Maybe some people get a sense of doing good when they buy a Union Label product from a Thrift store-at a 95% discount.

iWorm 'em.

If I don't like the company or their politics, I don't buy from them.

If a worker is in a unionized business, they take a worker's money involuntarily and throw it towards THEIR politicians whether the worker agrees or not. The dues aren't a CHOICE.

Corporations are market driven. If demand for a product or service goes down, they cut back.

Unions hold a gun to the company's head to assign X number of union lackeys to a task regardless of demand for product or a competitors business model. It's basically a jobs program. Not working to well in the global economy.

This initiative to get rid of the secret voting ballot through card check? It's just to intimidate workers to vote a certain way. Very very unAmerican.

U.S. unions are ruled through thuggery. Japanese and German unions are much more reasonable..."co-determination" is their model, but with a much better educated workforce. And they automate much more through robotics and the union doesn't fight them left and right. Wikipedia it. The AFL-CIO and UAW could learn a lot from that. I have a feeling they will, whether they like it or not. $70/hour in salary and bennies to turn a wrench isn't gonna do it anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1OkZ3xowKQ

I make sure to look for the non-union label, especially on big purchases. I will not support the Democrat party.

In a union shop, the craft jobs come with the services of the union. If you do not want to pay them, you can decline it. It is part of the package as well as all the benefits that come with it. Union dues usually come with medical plans, dental plans, retirement plans, and many other things that often do not exist with most non-union jobs. Some companies offer it ONLY to stay competitive to those with union backing, and usually with much less scale, lower wages, and all the other things that go along with bargaining against a corporation alone.

There is strength in numbers. To bargain hat in hand against a corporation that can easily replace anyone at their whim(and often do) is foolish.

Honestly bargained for benefits do not mean excessive benefits. There is strength in both sides, so it will lean towards FAIR if allowed to.

If you shop for walmart prices, expect walmart wages.

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Janice

If an Invisible Man(Union of course)were to sneak about the White House and Capital looking for Union Labels, how many would The Iman find?

The Iman checks everything and what does The Iman find? Union Label wise. Certainly don't want to know about the Other Stuff. Do we? HeHeHe.

Anyways, back to The Union Label Search.

Well, The Invisible Man(hired by me at Horrendus Expense-Union Scale you know) was able to get a count and guess what Iman found?

Not One Union Label. Iman was crushed. I was non-plussed.

We will keep it Our Secret.

iWorm 'em.

And now the UAW wants to take a bite outta Ford again, because they are making a profit.
They wanna go back down the torn up tracks that led them to where they are now.

The only argument they have, and even though I am anti-union I have to agree with them....

Ford paid some outrageous bonuses to top execs. I have a problem with that too, don't get me wrong.

But if the UAW figures that some black ink in the books means it's time to wallow around the feeding trough again, they are gonna go right back to whence they came.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

The Union Bosses; Members; or anyone else in The World, Union Supporter or Not, could have bought Ford Stock at $1.00 per share in 2009.

And Reap The Rewards of Our Great Capitalist System.

Or not. Your choice. Collect crap Bank Savings Rates or Be Smart.

It's a way to make Your Own Corporate Bonus.

I picked up some a $1.25

iWorm 'em.

Union or not, the workers in this country(and those abandoned by the companies they spent years being loyal to) can only take so much, bend so far. They are out. Corporations (and traders, but that is another thread) have taken advantage, gotten everything they can out of them, and pay back the loyalty with pink slips. One way or another, the tides will turn if they have not already started.

Now I am sure the top .005 must not think so. But if I was among them I certainly would not sleep well at night. We just might have democracy come back to the USA.

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Janice

Loyalty and Democracy is so 20th Century. Both Dead and Gone.

The 24/7/365 "Media" shows a lot of Angry People - faces distorted, fists pumping, loud ranting/raving(most of them Democrats-how sweet The TeaPartiers are being left alone)but in Real Life, people are working, eating, and sleeping quite well and doing what they have to do.

The "Media" wants a Froth In A Stew Pot, but they ain't gonna get it.

There will be No NationWide Protest Movement to Get Back To The Way It Was or Get Us To What Should Be.

It will be A Lonely Crusade for those who will want to have "Marches" and The Like.

Start a Hedge Fund for Workers and make them some money.

iWorm 'em.

Marie Antoinette that peasants asking for bread was sweet too.

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Janice

The London Protest(parade) had nothing going for it, except for the usual "Tax the Rich" mantra.

No answers, solutions, except for the same 'ole same 'ole rant/raving about the Haves.

Most of The Parade Participants agreed More Cuts are still necessary.

Yeah, World Wide. Sweeping The World.

I'm looking out My Window right now...huh? What is that? Protestors.

Got to go. Panic Room time.

iWorm 'em.

"Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Waist Company. Within minutes, the quiet spring afternoon erupted into madness, a terrifying moment in time, disrupting forever the lives of young workers. By the time the fire was over, 146 of the 500 employees had died. The survivors were left to live and relive those agonizing moments. The victims and their families, the people passing by who witnessed the desperate leaps from ninth floor windows, and the City of New York would never be the same.

Survivors recounted the horrors they had to endure, and passers-by and reporters also told stories of pain and terror they had witnessed. The images of death were seared deeply in their mind's eye.

Many of the Triangle factory workers were women, some as young as 14 years old. They were, for the most part, recent Italian and European Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States with their families to seek a better life. Instead, they faced lives of grinding poverty and horrifying working conditions. As recent immigrants struggling with a new language and culture, the working poor were ready victims for the factory owners. For these workers, speaking out could end with the loss of desperately needed jobs, a prospect that forced them to endure personal indignities and severe exploitation. Some turned to labor unions to speak for them; many more struggled alone. The Triangle Factory was a non-union shop, although some of its workers had joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

New York City, with its tenements and loft factories, had witnessed a growing concern for issues of health and safety in the early years of the 20th century. Groups such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) and the Womens' Trade Union League (WTUL) fought for better working conditions and protective legislation. The Triangle Fire tragically illustrated that fire inspections and precautions were woefully inadequate at the time. Workers recounted their helpless efforts to open the ninth floor doors to the Washington Place stairs. They and many others afterwards believed they were deliberately locked-- owners had frequently locked the exit doors in the past, claiming that workers stole materials. For all practical purposes, the ninth floor fire escape in the Asch Building led nowhere, certainly not to safety, and it bent under the weight of the factory workers trying to escape the inferno. Others waited at the windows for the rescue workers only to discover that the firefighters' ladders were several stories too short and the water from the hoses could not reach the top floors. Many chose to jump to their deaths rather than to burn alive."

This.. is why unions are needed. These were humans, trying to get by in the world. And they deserve better treatment.

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Janice