topic Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY! in Community Chat

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

terrier3 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:09:47 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

gazelle77 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:12:38 GMT

Bravo!

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

terrier3 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:19:06 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Preds — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:19:25 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

gazelle77 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:20:57 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

terrier3 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:20:59 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

LyndaGee — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:22:50 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Preds — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:28:11 GMT

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.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

terrier3 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:34:06 GMT

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!

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Lila Belle — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:18:27 GMT

Why do people support management/owners over workers and begrudge them a living wage ?

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

esmerelda — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:33:42 GMT

On 9/1/2014 gazelle77 said:
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.

Nobody's making them stay. They should leave and find better.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

kittymomNC — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:34:06 GMT

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.

If unions are causing companies to go out of the country, then why is Burger King relocating its headquarters to Canada? Burger King is not unionized. They're going out of the country to avoid paying their fair share of taxes here in the U.S., it's not because of unions. The number of unions and union members has drastically decreased - maybe if they hadn't been beaten almost totally out of existence, their strength might help get the minimum wage raised for workers who have to work 2 or 3 jobs to support a family. It was due to unions that we even have a minimum wage.

This is an excerpt from an interview with a Burger King employee in 2013:

August 6, 2013 Claudette Wilson is 20 and works two jobs in the fast food industry, one at Burger King and one at a pizza place. She is on her feet, sometimes for 12 hours a day, and makes $7.40 an hour.

What's your annual salary? Do you get benefits?

I get paid $7.40 an hour. My annual salary varies depending upon how many hours I work, but I have not made over $15,000 ever annually. I do not receive benefits. I have worked as a cook, cashier and in just about every position short of management off and on for the last three years. I still live at home with my mother and try to go to school on the side. I do dream of something more, but it's really hard to get jobs right now.

I participated in the strike on 31 July 2013 for District 15 (Detroit, Michigan area). I did it because I desire to accomplish a few things: I want to be able to form a fast food workers union and earn a higher wage. Also I would like to see fast food workers taken more seriously and actually respected for the hard work that we do.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

esmerelda — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:35:24 GMT

Not directed at the OP...but I find the "Happy Labor Day" greeting to be...well, frankly, a little stupid.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Lila Belle — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:35:27 GMT

On 9/1/2014 esmerelda said:
On 9/1/2014 gazelle77 said:
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.

Nobody's making them stay. They should leave and find better.

Really ?

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

kittymomNC — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:44:54 GMT

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 unions and their members have taken cuts in pay and benefits to help keep companies going -- take for instance, the auto industry, which has come back in a big way. That doesn't sound like greed to me. Did all the CEO's and top execs take pay cuts and less benefits like their unionized workers did?

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Lila Belle — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:51:55 GMT

Uh, since most unions support Dems that makes them e-vil, dontchaknow.

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

tansy — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:53:30 GMT

Is it a coincidence that our shrinking middle class is connected to the attack on unions??

Re: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Lila Belle — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:54:22 GMT

On 9/1/2014 tansy said: Is it a coincidence that our shrinking middle class is connected to the attack on unions??

No.