watch it: “What Have The Unions Ever Done For Us?”

A clip from Australia, where it seems people have forgotten, too, how important unions are, and need to be reminded:

Which is by way of a reminder that the WGA strike is still ongoing...

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What else have the unions given us?

40 hour work weeks, the concept of the weekend, restrictions on child-labor, protections against descrimination and unlawful termination, overtime, sick days...lots of things.

Business is about making a profit. But once the profit is made, what do you do with it? Do you reinvest it in the company, including giving some of it back to the workers, without whom you wouldn't have made the profit in the first place, or do you keep it all for yourself, ultimately hurting the very business you claim to care about?

Brilliantly, though, big business in the United States has managed to create an environment for itself in which it can, in fact, do many, many things that ultimately hurt their own workers in order to make themselves fabulously, obscenely wealthy, while simultaneously making it almost impossible for those workers to do anything to improve their own situations. Don't try to form a union if you're among the vast majority of workers who no longer get union protection, because your overlords won't allow it. Don't switch jobs because then you lose your health insurance, which won't pay out if you get sick anyway... if you're lucky enough to get insurance in the first place. Fortunately, there are no jobs to move even if you didn't have to worry about preexisting conditions and such, unless you want to relocate to India or China. Just keep slaving away -- 60 hours a week or more, without taking the vacation you're entitled to, because if you "slack off" by having a life outside work, there's always someone else waiting in line to take your job who will work 80 hours a week. And don't forget to buy as much shit as you can get yourself into debt for -- remember, it's unAmerican not to consume! -- so that those shackles get tighter and harder to throw off.

Evil, but brilliant.

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posted:
Sat Feb 02 08, 2:25PM

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