HAPPY LABOR DAY!

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

Let's all remember the true meaning of the holiday.

American workers are the most productive, hardest working people in the world...helping our corporations become the most profitable in history.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to labor leaders who fought (and some actually died) for workers' rights.

I only belonged to a union once (when I worked at a hospital as a student)...but they have indirectly helped us all get many rights we now take for granted - paid vacations, sick days, overtime pay for hourly workers, higher wages, the 40 hour work week.

gazelle77 · ‎03-01-2013

Bravo!

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

My childhood parish had a pastor who was a labor mediator.

Every year we had a parade to the church, with a Labor Mass too.

When I was young, most of the parents in this working class neighborhood were in unions. Parents worked hard and put their kids through college so they could become professionals. They were police, firefighters, teachers, steelworkers, auto plant workers. All were able to support their families (few moms worked) and give their children an education to help them succeed. We even had a dad who was a policeman who put himself through law school, while raising 9 children.

They still have that parade in South Buffalo. But the neighborhood has gone downhill. The steel plants are closed, businesses have left, even the Catholic schools are closed.

It's a shame unionism is so reviled now. It kept many families in the middle class and helped their children become professionals.

Preds · ‎12-17-2012

Unions did a great job until they became greedy. I appreciate what they did to get the ball rolling. Past American workers were and are the best, but what is coming up behind us, I'm not so sure.

Fate whispers to her, "You cannot withstand the storm." She whispers back, "I am the storm."

gazelle77 · ‎03-01-2013

On 9/1/2014 Preds said:
Unions did a great job until they became greedy. I appreciate what they did to get the ball rolling. Past American workers were and are the best, but what is coming up behind us, I'm not so sure.

The big companies with the CEO's making billions of dollars are the greedy ones. The workers deserve better.

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

On 9/1/2014 Preds said:
Unions did a great job until they became greedy. I appreciate what they did to get the ball rolling. Past American workers were and are the best, but what is coming up behind us, I'm not so sure.

Many businesses are greedy now. Corporate earnings are at an all time high...cash profits too...but they aren't being shared with the workers who helped the companies become successful.

We need BOTH, IMO, to balance each other.

LyndaGee · ‎03-11-2010

On 9/1/2014 Preds said:
Unions did a great job until they became greedy. I appreciate what they did to get the ball rolling. Past American workers were and are the best, but what is coming up behind us, I'm not so sure.

Do you think we can trust management to be fair to the workers. Some company owners have been known to be plenty greedy at the expense of the workers, too.

Preds · ‎12-17-2012

Most CEO's and businesses' are greedy, but the unions are so busy trying to be high and mighty that they are causing all the workers to stop working and all the companies going out of the country. They don't work for a "happy medium" to keep America working. They are costing us now instead of helping. As long as they get their "dues", they will keep burying the people that have keep them alive.

Fate whispers to her, "You cannot withstand the storm." She whispers back, "I am the storm."

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

On 9/1/2014 Preds said:
Most CEO's and businesses' are greedy, but the unions are so busy trying to be high and mighty that they are causing all the workers to stop working and all the companies going out of the country. They don't work for a "happy medium" to keep America working. They are costing us now instead of helping. As long as they get their "dues", they will keep burying the people that have keep them alive.

Stop working? American workers have done the opposite. We have the MOST PRODUCTIVE work force in the world....with the highest profits too.

Companies are going overseas because they have the powers that be in their back pockets. No one is stopping them or making it financially difficult to leave. In fact relocating to another country is a taxable DEDUCTION.

I have even heard people saying that the minimum wage has outlived it's usefulness and should be abolished.

The pendulum has swung too far if anyone thinks that makes sense!