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cyranoSpotted on Al Petterson@FaceBook #socialism:
Since the recovery started in mid-2009, productivity has increased 5.3% (that's huge!) and wages have increased 0.3%. Divide. 94% of your increased productivity has gone straight into corporate profits. You got 6% of it. Keep carrying water for the aristocracy: you're doing a great job!
Which leads into some thoughts I've been having, sparked by the anti-union vitriol and the upcoming centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
For those of you whose history class didn't cover it, at this point a hundred years ago in New York, a group of largely poor largely immigrant women were on strike. They had stopped working thirteen hour days for six days a week--that is, when their pay wasn't docked for a myriad of possible offences--so that they could be beaten by police and harassed by citizens who felt that they were 'out of line'. The factory finally lost enough money to offer some concessions, but they refused to concede on the point of unionization, among others.
On the twenty-fifth of March, a fire broke out in the factory. While management fled the building, the workers were not alerted about the fire. Treated fabric and shredded scraps fed the fire quickly. Doors leading out had been locked, to prevent theft or unauthorized breaks.
You can guess how this ends. That's right--with a public outpouring of demand for the creation of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Because for a banker to get support, he shows the red in his books. For some people, it takes actual blood or burned corpses. Or a union.
Since the recovery started in mid-2009, productivity has increased 5.3% (that's huge!) and wages have increased 0.3%. Divide. 94% of your increased productivity has gone straight into corporate profits. You got 6% of it. Keep carrying water for the aristocracy: you're doing a great job!
Which leads into some thoughts I've been having, sparked by the anti-union vitriol and the upcoming centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
For those of you whose history class didn't cover it, at this point a hundred years ago in New York, a group of largely poor largely immigrant women were on strike. They had stopped working thirteen hour days for six days a week--that is, when their pay wasn't docked for a myriad of possible offences--so that they could be beaten by police and harassed by citizens who felt that they were 'out of line'. The factory finally lost enough money to offer some concessions, but they refused to concede on the point of unionization, among others.
On the twenty-fifth of March, a fire broke out in the factory. While management fled the building, the workers were not alerted about the fire. Treated fabric and shredded scraps fed the fire quickly. Doors leading out had been locked, to prevent theft or unauthorized breaks.
You can guess how this ends. That's right--with a public outpouring of demand for the creation of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Because for a banker to get support, he shows the red in his books. For some people, it takes actual blood or burned corpses. Or a union.