There was a sit-down-adjacent strike in Chicago about 20/30 years ago? Where the workers did a lock out when the company (can't remember what it was, Mr. Loomis, help?) Went on for, I want to say, weeks, and ended up with the company instead of closing down, selling the business to the workers. Don't know what happened to it after that, but those workers basically said f the Supreme Court, we're not "sitting down" we're "locking you out". They were massive heroes and the business owners looked like, and were treated like, chumps.
Given enough time and enough attempts an attack can be formulated to defeat any defense.
The labor movement beat down the corporations a little bit in the early 1900s, thanks to the unions and new legislation.
The corporations have defeated the workers defenses by capturing the courts and legislatures (thanks, lewis powell) whereby the rights of the workers have been diminished and the corporations are again in control.
ei: The republicans gained control in Wisconsin in 2010. They blew a massive hole in the budget with a tax cut for the wealthy. They then used the hole in the budget to declare an emergency and passed legislation to break the unions.
An iconic neighborhood bar that has provided the community a comfortable hub wherein to relax and connect is being leveled by a selfish fucking Rethuglicon basically to settle a grudge. FUCK building anything that might return anything positive to the community.
At the moment blistering resentment virtually consumes me.
"If you ask someone today what comes into their mind when they think of the word “worker,” it’s quite likely it’s a man in a factory."
I still remember vividly an "IQ" test when I was in maybe 2nd grade where one of the questions was illustrated--Circle the worker! And it showed a factory guy, a women in what we would call business attire, with a purse, a cop, and a man at a desk, writing. I circled the writer, because that's what my dad did. I got it wrong. So not only did this question define away my father's work, but also a cop is apparently not a "worker," and that broad was probably just out shopping.
EDIT: needless to say, all these people appeared to be white
I've been trying to get my wife to quit her job for two years. She runs a general store six days a week and supervises a couple highschool girls. No vacation pay, no sick pay, no health insurance, no room for advancement. Reading this article reminds me of her.
>>Whether unpaid reproductive labor in the home, working as secretaries in an office building, or laboring in a textile factory, women’s work has been defined as less worthy and thus lower paid.
Really obvious for computer programmers. Initially, most programmers were women, because programming was seen as secretarial work. Then all of a sudden, people realized that programming could be quite lucrative, and then men jumped into that job market.
Hidden Figures was on TV the other day and it still astonishes how those women, who were doing high level mathematics, were treated no better than they would have been if they'd been domestic workers.
It goes the other way, too: once there are enough women in a workforce, the wages start going down. It's often called the "feminization" of a workforce, sector, or labor area, but what it really is, is higher-ups running a wage audit and discovering to their horror that they're overpaying their nurses by 31%, because by golly those market parity rates were based on the workers being men! So down go the wages, on account of how women don't earn as much as menfolk do and by god someone's going to pocket the difference.
THIS is the sort of labor activism that should be discussed at great length in American sociology and US history classes. That such discussions do NOT take place more often articulate less than flattering conclusions regarding this republic's priorities.
Thanks to women like these, and others, when I got my first job at the age of 16 in 1977, I was paid 13 cents above whatever minimum wage was back then and got a 15 minute break every four hours. If I worked 8 hours, I'd get a lunch break, but being in high school, I was rarely scheduled for more than four hours. My job was at Sears in our local mall, and I got a company discount as well. It was just for the Christmas season, and I was saving for spending money for a school trip to Europe during Spring Break in 1978. My parents were paying for the trip itself, as they thought it would be educational (true - English breakfasts are great, but lunches and dinners not so much; French food was wonderful), but I had to raise my spending money. So, in spite of living in a "right to work state," SC, I was able to have plenty of money for my trip. I've never belonged to a union, but I thank them, the union leaders and the union members for me being able to work part time for decent wages as a teen, and later, to work decent hours and for better wages full time while raising two daughters. And now I am able to retire, once again - thanks unions! And thank you President Biden for supporting unions!
You’ll understand this one. No doubt you remember Carowinds. I worked there in 76 as a 15 yr old for a summer. Because it was seasonal AND I was under 16 they got to pay us a fraction of the minimum wage. I swear we made like $1.50 an hour. And it was bloody HOT on that blacktop.
I was in England and Scotland in 2012 and Ireland in 2014. I think I had only one meal on both trips that that was mediocre. The food in the isles improved a lot, but who knows what it's like these days after Brexit.
I sometimes wonder how different the world would be if most societies for the majority of human history hadn't undervalued women. Okay, that's not the right term. Didn't value them as less than men.
Had the efforts and contributions of women in the American labor force not been systematically undervalued or dismissed almost entirely in the past the United States would be a VERY different nation than what it is today.
"Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than you were to their ancestors". ~Abigail Adams to her husband, John when she was arguing that American woman must be viewed as more than mere PROPERTY and must be protected from the unrestrained power of men.
Ta, Erik. I so appreciate reading the history of women throughout the labor movement. Solidarity forever.
Superficial, yes, but I am impressed by the handwritten art-deco fonts used on the sign!
There was a sit-down-adjacent strike in Chicago about 20/30 years ago? Where the workers did a lock out when the company (can't remember what it was, Mr. Loomis, help?) Went on for, I want to say, weeks, and ended up with the company instead of closing down, selling the business to the workers. Don't know what happened to it after that, but those workers basically said f the Supreme Court, we're not "sitting down" we're "locking you out". They were massive heroes and the business owners looked like, and were treated like, chumps.
Evolution.
Given enough time and enough attempts an attack can be formulated to defeat any defense.
The labor movement beat down the corporations a little bit in the early 1900s, thanks to the unions and new legislation.
The corporations have defeated the workers defenses by capturing the courts and legislatures (thanks, lewis powell) whereby the rights of the workers have been diminished and the corporations are again in control.
ei: The republicans gained control in Wisconsin in 2010. They blew a massive hole in the budget with a tax cut for the wealthy. They then used the hole in the budget to declare an emergency and passed legislation to break the unions.
They got your cake and ate it too.
When Woolworth, Kresge, W.T Grant, and small town Ben Franklin ruled.
Republican running for Tammy Baldwin's seat wins 25 year long battle to tear down local bar
https://www.rawstory.com/eric-hovde/
[FUMES with blistering, unmitigated RAGE]
An iconic neighborhood bar that has provided the community a comfortable hub wherein to relax and connect is being leveled by a selfish fucking Rethuglicon basically to settle a grudge. FUCK building anything that might return anything positive to the community.
At the moment blistering resentment virtually consumes me.
It's not healthy KC. I know it's hard but you gotta think of your health. Let it roll off.
This may help a bit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-68414524
"If you ask someone today what comes into their mind when they think of the word “worker,” it’s quite likely it’s a man in a factory."
I still remember vividly an "IQ" test when I was in maybe 2nd grade where one of the questions was illustrated--Circle the worker! And it showed a factory guy, a women in what we would call business attire, with a purse, a cop, and a man at a desk, writing. I circled the writer, because that's what my dad did. I got it wrong. So not only did this question define away my father's work, but also a cop is apparently not a "worker," and that broad was probably just out shopping.
EDIT: needless to say, all these people appeared to be white
I would respect that test if and only if the correct answer was circling all of them.
I would also respect that test if the correct answer was all people except the cop
I've been trying to get my wife to quit her job for two years. She runs a general store six days a week and supervises a couple highschool girls. No vacation pay, no sick pay, no health insurance, no room for advancement. Reading this article reminds me of her.
OT NYT headline
“Election Updates: Michigan is voting today, kicking off a consequential week for Biden’s campaign”
Consequential? He’s basically running unopposed.
We'll see how Uncommitted does.
NYT suddenly realized that they aren't running enough "Biden is old" stories
A headline of "Biden cruising to nomination" does not make as much money as "OMFG the sky is falling and it's good news for John McCain!"
Fingers on the scale for Trump. Why? I can't figure it out.
I'd say it's a Man Bites Dog it's-a-better-story thing, except just telling the truth about Donald Trump is in fact the better story.
iow, it's a Sulzberger is a billionaire thing.
I always enjoy Mr Loomis' articles!
Too bad they weren't steel workers. Could generate more puns (flint - steel - sparking a movement - etc.)
>>Whether unpaid reproductive labor in the home, working as secretaries in an office building, or laboring in a textile factory, women’s work has been defined as less worthy and thus lower paid.
Really obvious for computer programmers. Initially, most programmers were women, because programming was seen as secretarial work. Then all of a sudden, people realized that programming could be quite lucrative, and then men jumped into that job market.
Hidden Figures was on TV the other day and it still astonishes how those women, who were doing high level mathematics, were treated no better than they would have been if they'd been domestic workers.
It goes the other way, too: once there are enough women in a workforce, the wages start going down. It's often called the "feminization" of a workforce, sector, or labor area, but what it really is, is higher-ups running a wage audit and discovering to their horror that they're overpaying their nurses by 31%, because by golly those market parity rates were based on the workers being men! So down go the wages, on account of how women don't earn as much as menfolk do and by god someone's going to pocket the difference.
THIS is the sort of labor activism that should be discussed at great length in American sociology and US history classes. That such discussions do NOT take place more often articulate less than flattering conclusions regarding this republic's priorities.
Thanks to women like these, and others, when I got my first job at the age of 16 in 1977, I was paid 13 cents above whatever minimum wage was back then and got a 15 minute break every four hours. If I worked 8 hours, I'd get a lunch break, but being in high school, I was rarely scheduled for more than four hours. My job was at Sears in our local mall, and I got a company discount as well. It was just for the Christmas season, and I was saving for spending money for a school trip to Europe during Spring Break in 1978. My parents were paying for the trip itself, as they thought it would be educational (true - English breakfasts are great, but lunches and dinners not so much; French food was wonderful), but I had to raise my spending money. So, in spite of living in a "right to work state," SC, I was able to have plenty of money for my trip. I've never belonged to a union, but I thank them, the union leaders and the union members for me being able to work part time for decent wages as a teen, and later, to work decent hours and for better wages full time while raising two daughters. And now I am able to retire, once again - thanks unions! And thank you President Biden for supporting unions!
You’ll understand this one. No doubt you remember Carowinds. I worked there in 76 as a 15 yr old for a summer. Because it was seasonal AND I was under 16 they got to pay us a fraction of the minimum wage. I swear we made like $1.50 an hour. And it was bloody HOT on that blacktop.
I do remember Carowinds! And yes, that blacktop is bloody hot, but it's different when you are there for fun, rather than to work.
I was in England and Scotland in 2012 and Ireland in 2014. I think I had only one meal on both trips that that was mediocre. The food in the isles improved a lot, but who knows what it's like these days after Brexit.
Wonderful non-comment by you.
"The English they do not have a cuisine, my friend, they have only the food"
Hercule Poirot
We don't require a twenty-minute festival of culinary dance to dignify a plateful of snails, either. :D
"Grub" is all too entirely applicable in this context.
But the breakfast tea, rolls and marmalade was great. Too bad we couldn't have that for lunch and dinner.
No one would have stopped you. There are no furious gastronomes hiding in our hedges to tell you that you aren't experiencing cuisine RIGHT.
Not with the plan I was on - we had certain places to eat with a set menu.
The Horror. The Horror.
Everybody knows what trubble those Deeetroit wimmenz can be. HI EDITRIX!
I sometimes wonder how different the world would be if most societies for the majority of human history hadn't undervalued women. Okay, that's not the right term. Didn't value them as less than men.
I wonder what the world would be like if it was matriarchal instead of patriarchal.
Had the efforts and contributions of women in the American labor force not been systematically undervalued or dismissed almost entirely in the past the United States would be a VERY different nation than what it is today.
As in: What would have happened if Mr. Adams had *remembered the ladies?*
"Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than you were to their ancestors". ~Abigail Adams to her husband, John when she was arguing that American woman must be viewed as more than mere PROPERTY and must be protected from the unrestrained power of men.