From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Tue Aug 28 2001 - 22:29:21 MDT
Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> >From: "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin@tsoft.com>
>
> >I think that the labor movement occurred when it did because
> >of a lack of entrepreneurs and hence a labor over-supply. Under
> >such conditions, laboring men in certain industries didn't want
> >to compete against each other and against all the other men in
> >the street who wanted their jobs---this would have caused wages
> >to go lower. So they banded together for collective bargaining
> >which is all right (unless they then try to use force to prevent
> >owners from firing all of them, or use politics to keep owners
> >from getting them to sign contracts, and use politics to keep
> >those contracts from being legally enforced).
>
> The labor movement started when corporation formed monopsonys (one
> buyer) and work conditions became so deplorable that the workers
> developed monopolys (one seller) to counter them.
>
> The owners used politicians where possible, and private thugs (The
> Pinkertons) whenever they couldn't buy a politician.
>
> >As painful as it would be to be at a market disadvantage (it
> >happens to employers too when they just can't get enough
> >qualified people and have to pay extortionate wages for them),
> >the proper view is to regard such periods as transitory: as
> >soon as the wages go very low, other entrepreneurs (including
> >the working men themselves) would have sprung up to take
> >advantage of the "obscene" profits. That's how it is supposed
> >to work. Unions, unfortunately, only prolonged IMO the period
> >during which working men and women didn't earn very much.
Perhaps professionals were limited to meager incomes but the vast
majority of blue collar workers benefited from decent wages, a
shorter work week, safer work spaces, and a check and balance to
the barons of industry.
> Every benefit modern workers enjoy was earned for them by Union
> labor.
The employer benefited from higher productivity of better quality.
> I sit here less than a block from the scene of the Haymarket square
> riot where union organizers were framed then hung for the terrible
> crime of trying to establish the 8 hour workday.
Yes, Haymarket Square in Chicago and the strikers and their families killed
and wounded in a pitched battle in Colorado.
Terry
> Brian
>
> Member:
> Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
> National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
> SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
>
> Disclosure notice: currently "plonked"
> "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com>
> "Party of Citizens"<citizens@vcn.bc.ca>
--
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
Alternate: < terry_colvin@hotmail.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage *
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