The Holiday Weekend
So, I'm getting some lab work done today (doc wants to know where my cholesterol is at) and the woman with the long pointy thing and the latex (sounds almost like a fetish) asks me, "How was your holiday weekend."
I of course went into the usual stranger chit chat about oh it was good, got to see the family and eat grilled food and of course enquire after hers. What I was really thinking was, "I forgot to rant about the origins of labor day!"
While the day may be past the opportunity to speak on it is never past. First a link to a story a found that discusses how labor day is tied with organized labor. Smart people might think this is a fairly obvious assertion. Smart people are often wrong. I've met many people who don't know that one might interchange the word "union" with the phrase "organized labor." I've met many people who think of organized crime and organized labor as the same thing. Mostly I've met a lot of people who could care less about the reason they are off from work and more about where the party is going to be.
My grandfather on my father's side, his brother and his eldest son (my uncle) were all dues paying meatcutters. (My uncle now works for the union rather than as a butcher). My grandfather on my mothers side (I really ought to just use paternal and maternal) was a bricklayer. My father is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police. Before my older brother finished his degree he was a Teamster.
We are union people. We know that the union got us the weekend and the forty hour work week. We know that the union was instrumental in lobbying for the fair labor standards act (and are daily working to right the recent changes that have been made to mandatory overtime provisions of that act). We know that the labor movement is not dead, that now more than ever, workers need to realize there is power in collective bargaining.
Anyway I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. If I wasn't a lazy bastard I probably would have thought up some sort of way to really celebrate the holiday like giving out union flyers in a Wal - Mart parking lot. Maybe next year I'll attend a AFL - CIO event.
More Laters
I of course went into the usual stranger chit chat about oh it was good, got to see the family and eat grilled food and of course enquire after hers. What I was really thinking was, "I forgot to rant about the origins of labor day!"
While the day may be past the opportunity to speak on it is never past. First a link to a story a found that discusses how labor day is tied with organized labor. Smart people might think this is a fairly obvious assertion. Smart people are often wrong. I've met many people who don't know that one might interchange the word "union" with the phrase "organized labor." I've met many people who think of organized crime and organized labor as the same thing. Mostly I've met a lot of people who could care less about the reason they are off from work and more about where the party is going to be.
My grandfather on my father's side, his brother and his eldest son (my uncle) were all dues paying meatcutters. (My uncle now works for the union rather than as a butcher). My grandfather on my mothers side (I really ought to just use paternal and maternal) was a bricklayer. My father is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police. Before my older brother finished his degree he was a Teamster.
We are union people. We know that the union got us the weekend and the forty hour work week. We know that the union was instrumental in lobbying for the fair labor standards act (and are daily working to right the recent changes that have been made to mandatory overtime provisions of that act). We know that the labor movement is not dead, that now more than ever, workers need to realize there is power in collective bargaining.
Anyway I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. If I wasn't a lazy bastard I probably would have thought up some sort of way to really celebrate the holiday like giving out union flyers in a Wal - Mart parking lot. Maybe next year I'll attend a AFL - CIO event.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 12:14 AM
4 Comments:
unions catch a lot of flack from society and it is a shame.
Most of the men in my family are in unions....they seem to like 'em ok. I opted for a bank job...no unnion here, though we really need one!
Not to be a contrarian, but I worked in a union for five years and hated every second of it. Maybe I was in a crappy union, as I have no basis for comparison, but as far as I could tell, the only thing the union did was keep hard workers down and lazy morons elevated. They leveled the playing field by making everybody mediocre. No one was left behind and no one could advance, and it went against everything I had ever learned about working hard and earning your keep. Hell, it almost led me to become a lazy moron, seeing as the reward is the same regardless of will or ability.
Sirtalksalot - id say check the afl - cio website but then y'allways run the risk of putting ones job in jepordy by trying to organize.
Sweetpotatoe - get the results in the mail probably next week some time.
Katzwinkel - I understand what your saying, but the same things happened to me for the three years I worked as a non union employee in the steel ware house and when we had any sort of problem with the company or another employee there was no way to deal with it. part of the problem with unions is the same with polotics or any other organization. a lot of incompetent people who see where the power is get active in the union and the only way for things to change is be active, make a lot of noise and kiss a lot of ass. not appealing.
The best example I can give is the fop. during the last negotiations there were a lot of detectives on the comittee. they approved a plan whereby detectives did pretty well but the average patrolmen got shafted. in the next union election all the detectives lost their place on the somittee. It is a participation thing and when people let the loud morons do the most talking the loud morons make the decisions.
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