From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue Apr 17 2001 - 08:09:55 MDT
>From: Michael Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com>
>Its funny, when the jobs being exported were resource recovery
>jobs, like mining, agriculture, lumber, etc, there was not such a
>big hew and cry from the unions, since cheap resources meant more
>manufacturing jobs and higher pay for those manufacturing jobs.
>The unions are stuck now, because now the third world is
>developing, and they are developing manufacturing base that is
>cutting into their core membership, while the unions are finding
>it difficult to migrate into the info-worker market, since
>info-workers tend to be far more informed, intelligent, educated,
>and independent minded than manufacturing laborers, and the
>info-labor market is a sellers market, where manufacturing-labor
>was a buyer's market for decades due to high immigration. We don't
>need unions to make good money in high-tech. So, consequently, the
>unions are doing anything they can to make it more difficult to
>ship more manufacturing jobs overseas.
Mike, I've been a Union member for almost 20 years, and I sit
typing this in the core of one of the highest tech data/routing
centers in the U.S. and I built and run every network here.
There are two very different types of Unions, the Industrial Unions
where you become a member just by being hired, and the craft Unions
where you have to serve an apprenticeship, got to school, pass
tests, and actually know something.
I sit here typing less than two blocks from the infamous haymarket
square where Union members were framed and killed for trying to
establish the 8 hour workday.
The simple fact of the matter is that everything modern workers
enjoy, from the eight hour workday, overtime pay, 40 hour workdays,
etc,etc,etc, was earned for the American worker by UNION labor.
>It's unfortunate for them that manufacturing robots are not
>intelligent, otherwise the unions would look to them for
>membership... ;)
Most of the people who install and repair them are. ;)
>Every nation's industry must go through a sweatshop phase to
>develop, and frankly, the majority of the charges you hear about
>'sweatshops' is bogus spin doctoring by unions and other labor
>agitators.
Nonsense, sweatshops are not essential to industrialisation
>Nah, efficient resource utilization (to prevent malthusian
>meltdown prior to the singularity) demands maximizing comparative
>advantage. Family run dairy farms in Vermont are cute and fun for
>the tourists, but frankly, I don't give a crap where my milk came
>from, so long as it's not diseased and it's as cheap as possible.
Well, to each his own. I personally try to do as much of my
business as possible as close to home as possible. I find it hard
to live in peace if my neighbors suffer.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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