How could any worker/laborer be Anti-Union? (Long read)

[TheDebbieDee]

any documentaries on the History Channel about the abuse of industrial workers in the early part of the 20th century, then you wouldn’t know about all of the advances that labor unions have made on the behalf of workers. Most of the people that worked before the advances gained by unions are very old now and are dying off. Very few people can tell us first-hand how workers were screwed over on a daily basis by big companies.

The old-time company towns (The only one I an think of off the top of my head is Hershey, Pennsylvania.) were actually more like labor camps than working communities. At the end of each day or pay period, many of the lower-skilled workers wound up owing more money to the company (for housing, food, equipment and clothing needed for work) than they were owed – they were for all intents and purposes treated like sharecroppers.

If worker got injured on the job, the worker was told to go home and not come back til they healed up – there was no paid sick leave or Workers’ Comp. Many things, like 40-hour work weeks, paid holidays and Workers' Comp are taken for granted today.

To make a long story short, (I know, too late for that already!) companies would NEVER have started treating workers like human beings (instead of disposable resources) without hard-nosed, bat-wielding laborers banded together in groups. Through the threat of violence (to both companies and scabs), these laborers forced companies to fairly compensate workers and provide other benefits.

If more people could be educated in the abuses of workers/laborers that were common place back in the day, I figure that fewer people would be "Right-to-Work" supporters.

[begin_within]

1. Employers use the threat of layoffs to scare workers away from unions.

[peacebuzzard]

2. How easily people forget.....

even if they have a vague idea of what has occurred in the past to bring us to this point of going back to the pre-labor movement. Unfortunately, complacency is the mainstay of life and it is not mainstream to question anything again. Just work for "the man" or "the machine". Metropolis.
http://www.kino.com/metropolis/

[WildClarySage]

3. Today, too many people believe that government regulations keep

businesses in line.

[Fridays Child]

4. I bang that drum every chance I get.

Just yesterday, I gave a little impromptu lesson on the history of the Labor Movement to a twenty-four year old. She had no idea that many the workplace benefits she takes for granted were earned for her by the blood of workers.

[driver8]

9. I am in a union and you won't believe some of the idiots I work with

I am in IATSE Local 700 (Editor's Guild) and we have amazing benefits and great pay. During the election, I could not believe how many of my co-workers were supporting Bush. A lot of the guys supporting Bush were "old timers"; maybe they figured there was nothing left the union could do for them??

Anyhow, the younger guys that supported Bush did it because "Kerry is a pussy" (their words) and gun rights. I told them, "I cannot believe how stupid you guys are. Do you enjoy those benefits? How about that paycheck you get every week? Bush doesn't give a fuck about you or your benefits and, if it was up to him, all unions would be history."

"Yeah, but Bush is tough on terror. Kerry is a pussy..."

AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mcctatas]

12. Along those same lines...

my hillbilly grandma from Ohio was disgusted by the outcome of the last election and she said to me..."Honey, I just don't understand people. A working man voting for a republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." Half the country supports ideas and politicians that are in direct opposition to their own self-interest, well-being, and (if we take away God, guns and gays) their own values!:wtf:

[driver8]

13. Your grandma is absolutely right!!!

[CAG]

5. People want to believe that they got that $10,15,20 per hour by themselves

Along with the 40 hr work week, vacations, employer-shared pensions/IRAs, and health insurance. They don't want to believe that those "librul" unions ever had anything to do with it.

The truth is we would all still be working for 25 cents an hour and seeing any vacation or sick leave as rare privileges if it weren't for unions.

And to think, I'm in management and I think this way....

[oasis]

6. Amen. Though I do believe that many scabs are just cheapskates and

will use any excuse not to ante up.

[bobbieinok]

7. I remember when I first heard '16 Tons' by Ernie Ford

"SIXTEEN TONS"


By Merle Travis

Some people say a man is made out of mud

A poor man's made out of muscle and blood

Muscle and blood, skin and bones...

A mind that's weak and a back that's strong

_________________

Chorus

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?

another day older and deeper in debt

St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

__________________

I was born one mornin' and the sun didn't shine

I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal and

the straw boss said, "well bless my soul!"

.....you loaded...

(Chorus)

__________________

I was born one mornin' it was drizzlin' rain

fightin' and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in a cane-brake by an old mama lion

can't no high-toned woman make me walk no line

(Chorus)

__________________

If you see me comin', better step aside

A lot of men didn't, a lot of men died

One fist of iron, the other of steel

If the right one don't get you, then the left one will

(Chorus)

__________________

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt

St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

[eridani]

8. *cough* Taft-Hartley Act *cough* n/t

[wli]

10. yes, that one took the teeth out of unions

[Broken_Hero]

11. Its easy...

I was in the food workers union with Safeway Carrs, of Alaska. WE had to pay a 300 dollar due, to get in the damn union, well, we HAD to do it, FORCED to join, and they took 25 bucks out of my check for dues, and do you know what those union reps did for me? not a god damn thing. I started at 7 bucks an hour and a year and a half later, i was at 7.24, i paid all that god damn money for a 24 cent raise. I was a good worker, i did my job, and the company was a damn joke. They treat you like crap, when you complain to your unions all they say is, we will look into it....WTF, i hate the damn unions, and would never join one, again, ever. My dad was IBEW and he hated his union also, they did jack for him.....

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. You know for every story like yours

I hear ten that counter it... and nothing personal but you do owe your 40 hour week to the unions