Does anybody read these?

Laura's pro-labor rant...

I'm for unions. Never in one million years will you hear me bitch about unions. Yes, you have to pay the workers a fair wage, which sometimes makes it more expensive to get things from unions than to buy them from China or some other country where workers' rights are violated, their health is endangered and they live in squallor. Supporting unions should make you feel less dirty about the money-grubbing state of corporate America. And if you're someone like me, who was taught growing up that everything she had in life she received because the United Auto Workers provided her father with dignities and rights all workers deserve, then you support and celebrate unions even when it's inconvenient for you. Because it's a lot less inconvenient for you than for the worker who's on strike who doesn't know how he's going to feed his kids while he's not working, but also doesn't know what he'll do if he loses his health coverage.

In the past few years, I've been very disturbed by the trend in this country to erode workers' rights. Wal-mart, despite union-busting activity is the #1 retailer in the country. The government has passed legislation (and executive orders -- I love them!) to water down the role of unions. And now, Governor Pataki has refused to even negotiate with the Transit workers until they go back to work.

That's not how it's supposed to work, folks. The reason strikes are effective in getting workers what they need is because they cripple the organization until it has to compromise because it needs the workers to go back to work. It's a bargaining chip. And honestly, everyone SHOULD have the right to leave work if they are not being treated fairly. It's not reality, but it should be.

I think it sucks that New Yorkers are crippled by the strike. But if the transit workers had been treated fairly before the deadline it wouldn't have happened. They didn't just strike for kicks and giggles on some random day. They gave a deadline and it wasn't met. They followed the rules. It's the government who's not. Of course, who's going to stop them? Our anti-labor president and his buddies on the Supreme Court. It's gone downhill since Reagan fired all the air-traffic controllers.

I know not everyone's going to agree with me, but y'all should know by now that I'm all about workers' rights and lots of other crazy left-wing ideas. I just can't bite the hand that feeds me (and will be putting Christmas presents under the tree in a few days). And for many, many years, organized labor did that. So, I always support workers' rights to strike and I don't cross picket lines. I have serious issues with Wal-mart and can't wait to live somewhere that I don't ever have to go there...

posted by Laura at 10:37 AM