thoughts on collective bargaining

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Carl Jarvis

To: blind-democracy@octothorp.org

Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 9:32 AM

Subject: thoughts on collective bargaining

Triangle Fire On PBS

100 Years is Too Soon to Forget Watch Monday, Feb. 28 at 9pm!
www.pbs.org

 

100 years ago the working conditions in the Triangle Factory were common.  It was not the kindness and generosity of factory owners that brought about better working conditions.  It was the oppressed workers.  We blind people should know better than to think that the authorities and sheltered shop owners are going to greet us in the morning with the good news that they are cleaning up our sweat shops and hiking our pay and adding all sorts of fringe benefits such as retirement, health coverage, paid vacation  and sick leave. 

The Seattle Lighthouse has come a long way from its days as a broom shop down on Elliot Avenue.  But improvements did not start at the top.  It was pressure from the workers and from the organized blind that has resulted in a work place that provides decent, respectible employment to blind men and women. 

 

Remember, our history books only taught us about the successful captains of industry, the great military battles and our national growth as an Empire.  Looking below the surface would show us that until the Second World War, the majority of Americans struggled to make a bare living.  By the War many working class and middle class families had a car, usually used, a radio, a four party telephone line and at least an ice box.  Many Americans did not have inside running water, or toilets, or washing machines.  Wood or coal stoves provided most folks with their heat.  Single pane windows and no insulation in the walls or ceilings made homes drafty in cool climates and unbearable in the South. 

Do we really want to return to bare bone conditions? 

It was the labor unions which brought the Middle Class into prominence.  Better wages and shorter hours gave folks the ability to not only buy previously considered luxury items, but also the time to enjoy them.  Increased wages created new businesses, which in turn created new jobs.  It was not Corporate America that created the jobs or the wealth.  Corporate America profited from our ingenuity and labor, giving only what they were forced to give and taking greedily wherever they could. 

America was at her greatest when the unions were vigorous and healthy. 

But the hard won balance of power is changing quickly. 

This does not bode well for Blind Americans.  Despite our hassles with some unions, overall it has been organized labor which created conditions allowing blind people to enter into the job market.  Once the control is again in the hands of Corporate America, we will find ourselves at the bottom of the labor pool, if we are even in the pool. 

We really need to pause and consider just where we place our loyalties. 

 

Curious Carl

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Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves. --Eugene Victor Debs
1855-1926