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Boston janitors could walk
By adamg on Sat, 09/22/2012 - 6:17pm
This video shows members of SEIU 615, which represents roughly 14,000 janitors at Boston-area buildings, voting to authorize a strike if negotiations with management break down.
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Comments
Where in Boston?
Adam, do you know what venue you they are in?
Looks like the Tremont Temple
http://www.tremonttemple.org/image/tid/3
A very nice building.
I support working families.
I support working families. They should get a fair wage and decent benefits. We live in one of the most expensive cities in the country and they live here too.
With unemployment being what
With unemployment being what it is, do they really thing now is a good time to demand high wages for menial labor?
Worst case scenario they are all out of jobs and replaced with people making half the former salaries.
Beat me to it
Yep, 8% unemployment. Don't let the door hit your asses on the way out.
With thinking like that...
...we'd still be working weekends, evenings, child labor, no benefits...wait...uhm...I guess that's what we're sort of going back to. nevermind.
Demanding "high wages" for menial labor. What assholes. They should just be happy that they are allowed to live in the land er da free.
Well it seems that if you are
Well it seems that if you are a unionized government employee, or a union employee of a government subsidized industry, you're set for life with an early retirement. Meanwhile the serfs in the private sector get to work until they die to pay for your early retirement, plush benefits, and guaranteed pension.
Somehow I don't see that being sustainable in the long run.
Well,
the serfs in the private sector should form a union then! Not really sure about the attitude of "if I can't have it they won't either". The things you mention above are all things that provate companies used to give out even in leaner times, and now, in order to maximize the CEOs paychecks, they cut them down to nothing.
Yeah sure, the reason why
Yeah sure, the reason why private sector union membership plummeted over the decades is that they tended to put their host companies into bankruptcy. Ask a former steelworker or shipyard laborer how well their union worked for them. A CEO's lavish pay is nothing compared to unsustainable benefits and work rules for an entire workforce.
Unions weren't really responsible for weekends either. Nor were they angles in pushing to end child labor, it was really a means to get of cheaper labor which they didn't want to compete with.
the reason why private sector
This is quite a bold assertion. You should show authoritative evidence.
When the US starting pursuing the strategy of globalization at the behest of large US corporations, we traded tariffs on imports for cheap labor abroad. This policy came at a great cost to US manufacturing base and all of the middle class Americans it employed.
Many of the jobs we lost in private sector unions were manufacturing jobs in the US that were shipped oversees to cheap labor markets.
At the same time, Republicans have passed right to work legislation for business owners, primarily in the southern states and more recently in Wisconsin and Ohio. These laws allow workers in union shops to get the benefits of union representation in wage negotiation and working conditions without paying their dues. These intentional efforts to undermine unions for business profit at the expense of working people also depressed union membership.
What's really interesting is that the average income of the middle class as a whole. still closely tracks to the percentage of people in the USA in unions. The fewer people ni unions nationwide, the lower the average salary for people in, and no not in, unions.
If every industry in the US
was unionized the country would collapse. Fair pay is one thing, but pensions are a completely different beast. If one is making "fair" wages they should be able to invest for their retirement like the rest of us.
"Unionized govt employee"
Uhm... These are janitors. Not necessarily working in govt buildings as I understand it. Nothing to do with "govt employees," not "govt subsidized."
You're reading the wrong talking points.
So instead of raising the standards in
the private sector, let's destroy the unions too, so business can save an extra buck! What is wrong with you people?
corporate profit eating wages and benefits
The drive for corporate profit has been eating into salary and benefits. From 2000-2007 the majority of corporate profit growth came from cuts in wages and benefits, according to a study by JP Morgan.
Unions are corporations too.
Unions are corporations too. Don't ever forget that. Not to mention they are another layer of that dreaded and often vilified MANAGEMENT which unions are always blaming for every failure.
listening to most of the posters here talk about capitalism
is like getting marriage advice from my priest. OK, we're in a recession. All the socialist talking points won't change that, or the fact that SEIU is so corrupt that even the Teamsters aren't actively supporting them. Hottest part of the property management biz right now is PM's that aren't affiliated with SEIU. Teamsters have their own, less confrontational template. Watch who gets the contracts. Ever hear the expression "pigs get slaughtered"?
Yes, and just who are the
Yes, and just who are the pigs here? For years wealth and income have become more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Those at the bottom have gotten less and less, yet somehow all our economic problems are their fault. There is something very wrong with this story line.
In 1981 I briefly warmed to Ronald Reagan and his arguments for "free enterprise". Lately I've been reflecting that Karl Marx had some good points after all. The pendulum has one too far and it will swing back.