Serfing USA: Corporate America Is Robbing American Workers

[Almira]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 10:45pm

Serfing USA: Corporate America Is Robbing American Workers



Dave Lindorff, This Can't Be Happening: "Along with the staggering theft in broad daylight of Americans' assets that has occurred in the course of the ongoing financial crisis, as taxpayers funded multi-trillion bank bailouts and banks stole homes through foreclosures with the help of fraudulent paperwork, American companies have also been picking the pockets of workers more directly."

Complete Article:

http://www.truth-out.org/serfing-usa-corporate-america-robbing-american-workers66399

Updated On: 12/30/10 at 10:45 PM

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 9:17am

Workers? Try everyone.

The thing I find bleakly amusing about all this is people running around saying "Corporate profits are up! Why is unemployment so high?" Because, ya dimwits, the money's being made overseas, in developing markets with a local workforce. Not here. There. The only thing here are the corporate offices, which are pretty much just skeleton crews these days.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 11:13am

This article is very lopsided in its thinking.

First off, workers get paid because they provide work (their time and talent for money). Companies hire based on the work they need done. The more valuable an employee is, the more they get paid.

Unions try to mess with this equation and end up creating economic problems. Unions try to force companies into hiring more workers than they need, thereby driving up the cost of a product or service. Remove unions from the equation and let natural market forces take over and the economic problems will correct themselves.

[madbrian]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 11:22am

"Remove unions from the equation and let natural market forces take over and the economic problems will correct themselves."

I am not pro-union, but that statement flies in the face of recent history. Among the many factors that contributed to the recent economic disaster, deregulation was a much larger factor than unions. The extreme right position that the market, left on its own, can solve all its own problems is not a valid argument. Its overly simplistic to claim that economic problems will fix themselves.

That said, many companies, states and municipalities are burdened by union deals made decades ago. Actuaries underestimated life expectancy, and underwriters didn't forsee the staggering increase in the cost of healthcare. Many unions were able to negotiate free or low-cost healthcare for retirees, and they're stuck with the overwhelming cost of those deals.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 12:24pm

"I am not pro-union, but that statement flies in the face of recent history."

New York City streets didn't get properly plowed because unions decided they had a grudge against Mayor Bloomberg. Injuries continued to happen in the Broadway production of Spider-Man because unions didn't want to interfere with the creative process (or maybe just didn't care that actors were being exposed to dangerous conditions).

Unions may at one time have been a good idea, but now they are like the government, only out for a power grab.

[Almira]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 12:30pm

I've never fully understood why when labor organizes (unions)it is evil. But when businesses organize (Chamber of Commerce) it is simply part of the "natural" order.

Anyway.. Here is interesting 2009 article:

The Union Way Up
America, and its faltering economy, need unions to restore prosperity to the middle class.

by Robert B. Reich

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-7

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 2:01pm

"New York City streets didn't get properly plowed because unions decided they had a grudge against Mayor Bloomberg. Injuries continued to happen in the Broadway production of Spider-Man because unions didn't want to interfere with the creative process (or maybe just didn't care that actors were being exposed to dangerous conditions). "

Yeah, the snow problem wouldn't have anything to do with, y'know, the fact that the department has 400 less workers due to lay-offs, could it?

You second suggestion that unions are to blame for Spider-Man injuries is simultaneously laughable and despicable.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 2:22pm

>> New York City streets didn't get properly plowed because unions decided they had a grudge against Mayor Bloomberg.

Uh right. The monster drifts on EVERY street had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with it.

I'm nt big on unions sometimes (the designers' union, AFAIC, is a waste of time and money), but that's patently absurd.