Tuesday, February 22, 2011

UNION BATTLE'S: "Right to Work"? or "Right to NO Right's"? ... "SLACKER'S & JACKER'S PT.1" (How to Privatize America PT.3)


This "How to Privatize America PT.3" wasnt even planned, or at least any time soon, but just randomly popped up to address another view of this that again lead's back to the same battle behind this of left/ right politic's, which is nothing new in America at all, just go back and look at some of the political opposition that has been ungoing for year's in this nation, such as the era of folk's like Jefferson and Adams, etc. I mean ... this is what democracy is all about, heh(?). Inspiring this post though is listening to the opinion's of folk's on both side's and one Guy the other day that made some great point's about freedom, independence, and the right to work, to me over some small chat and burger's. And I clearly understand both side's here, because both have decent arguement's, and this certainly is not to attack folk's like Gov. Scott Walker, let me point out. A short CNN video clip below and couple newsread link's, then a few flap's of my jaw's on this.



RCJ: GOV. RICK PERRY/ TEXAS: To Give Up the "Best Job in America" to rescue the Country and be GOP Candidate for President (SLACKER'S & JACKER'S PT.2)



***** CBS NEWS: Rallies in 50 states support Wis. protesters ... (newsread/ video)




"HOW TO PRIVATIZE AMERICA PART'S 2 & 1 HERE



The fella I mention above is a Guy named Terry that I worked with many year's ago when we were both young, he is a hard working gent who has never cared much for union's, or at least felt the need for them, he ran printing presses, worked and/ or took on even any grunt job as well that he was asked to do, and never whined about the job ... Terry is a "go getter" a "hustler" and when we teamed up, the customer could go to sleep with confidence, rest assured. And believe me, as I remember this ole boy (heh, heh, heh, heh, heh) ... if he didnt like his paycheck, he would go straight to the bossman/ owner ... and tell him what he need's ... if he didnt get it, without no notice, he would "walk" (and he was worth every dollar you pay him) ... and not care about a "bad" reference or a damn thing, you threaten him with a bad reference or such, he would tell you straight up ... "I dont give a shit Boss ... ", because frankly he was that good of a skilled pressman, one of the best I actually seen to be honest. In his 50's like myself, he now work's inde and started his own little brokerage/ estimate/ consulting service business.

But when this subject just popped up, Terry brought up about the whiner's in these union's and I gave my opinion on it ... Terry just had this look on his face and jaw hanging on to what I was saying as if he was in shock, pointing out how I have changed quite a bit, and recalling my attitude toward's slacker's, union's, and such when I was younger. You know ... maybe I have changed, but I feel the same on many thing's that I value that I did as a young man. For the record ... I am VERY pro business, I have NEVER belonged to a union, and alway's got the job done. Look ... at a time I worked with alot of great folk's in this industry, I actually didnt start to officially "work" on a company payroll until my latter teen's, and I started my work career in Texas. The crew's I worked with had a pride thing about being independent, not needing union's to do jack for them, and the talk we were surrounded with was only about the negative's of union's, not having the right to work, and making your own decision's without someone else speaking for you, etc. Most of the folk's that I worked with back then were born and bred in Texas, had a basic rule ... an honest day's pay for an honest day's work, bottom line. As a child, not being born here, I remembered place's like New York State for instance where the all American thing was "union pride" ... neighbor's and kin folk (relative's) of mine, been union their whole career, whether it was this industry, the steel industry, etc ... I had one uncle for instance who worked just over 38 year's for Ford Motors assembly plant outside of Buffalo,NY, union man, that had the "union pride" banner's on his wall he was so proud, right next to an American Flag. He even drove Ford's his entire life at that. So this idea that union's are compared with anti- American stuff is NOT so, but more or less just "shop talk".

One point that Terry brought up was when he talked about an over staffed government of slacker's in administrative job's and such. I have alway's agreed on this ... I mean, some of the laziest, slowest folk's I have ever seen on the job had to be government worker's, who had benefit's package's and wage's I couldnt believe. I remember once going into the Records Bldg in downtown Dallas to get some vehicle paper work done ... walking up to a counter ... a gal sitting there with a small tele/ TV next to her monitor, watching one of them daytime pop culture show's, stuffing her mouth with "Cheetos", and when I asked her a question, she talk's to me with her mouth still stuffed, and tell's me her computer is down and come back in a half hour, yet I told her what info I needed, that didnt require a computer even, just an attitude that was not appropriate for customer relation's either, and they are all union down there, for the City and County. I remember a guy named Jim, who was formerly a "Bureau of Engraving" pressman of 20 or so year's ... excellent knowledge of the business, but whined on every damn job I gave him, either because of the ink he had on the press, the paper/ stock run, etc, etc. ... when I used to bring Jim a job ... the theme song for "Mission Impossible" would play in my head (some of the pressmen would glance at me walk by on the sly while I was walking with an assignment to Jim's work area and give me that look as if I was pissing in the wind, with a grin on their face), because I knew that he would complain about something, or even if it was an hour before closing time, he didnt want to accept any more job's for the day ... worked by an unwritten rulebook it seemed like of "do's and dont's", and a couple of the other pressmen didnt like it too much, and Jim was a union man for over 20 year's when he worked for the gvmnt, he even got a pension, so he didnt even have to work, and had a home already paid off.

Folk's like me and Terry never understood these folk's I reckon ... I mean ... when someone pay's me to do a job ... I take it serious, and do all I can to get the JOB DONE. If the computer's went down and I had a rush job that needed ... well ... to be "rushed" ... while those on the computer sat there as if they suddenly were de-programmed, I would run back in the shop to try to monkey rig manually some way to get a workable product another way without the computer laying out the format, if I had to do it up by hand, splice the film's myself, and hand- draw and calculate the layout/ format. Even if I was on a lunch break eating in- house in my work area reading the paper, and a customer walked in (I used to plan job's and price quote the client's/ customer's, as well as as keep the pressmen busy with job's and such on the shop floor) ... I would jump up and greet them, ask them what I can do for them?, and see to it that they can count on me ... to me they were "first" as my customer, my break was 2nd frankly ... that is our bread and butter, our paycheck's, our year end bonuses, profit's sharing, etc ... the customer is alway's No.#1 to me. If we were waiting for a rush stock/ supply delivery for a hot job, if I had to ... when the truck arrived, I would go out there and help the men unload the stock and deliver it myself to the pressman ... it WASNT my job to do these thing's ... it was simply to me, "all in a day's work". I didnt have rule's written down to pull out of my pocket to tell me if or not I shouldnt do this or that, if I could do it and help ... I considered it part of my job ... that was just the mindset folk's like Terry, myself, and the other guy's had. If we werent getting paid fair, like Terry ... I would "walk" go find something else, and tell the head honcho straight up if I needed to myself, without anyone else doing it for me, that's how we were.

But I told Terry, "... This isnt about just support for union's, it is about American worker's Bubba ...". I am not saying that Wisconsin doesnt have a budget crisis, or that Governor's such as Gov. Walker are out to take away folk's "right's" ... but the other motivation behind alot of this is to make union's weaker and/ or fail, and until I see proof of otherwise, I know what those at the top level's are trying to do, and IF you let them run this show without a fight and your voice, what in Hell will they want next whenever they have another bad hair day, or their panties are in a bind over some other BS or crisis? There is alot of goddamn over staffing, waste galore, etc, etc, in our government ... YES ... but folk's like "teacher's" is NOT where I would start to muscle on any of this. I see no problemo with some pay cut's, it's not asking much ... I mean, if I'm making $48K for instance and they want me to sacrifice a $3K cut annually ... I'm game ... I will pay a higher tax if I need to, or anything else in reason to get result's and on a recovery track. But when you start pushing on issue's like bargaining right's ... that is not so much a "right to work" issue, as much as a "right to have no right's/ voice" issue. And this shouldnt have even come up in the bloody talk's in my opinion .... what in Hell does that have to do with the issue of simply some salary trimming? Not a damn thing, so I know good and well, this is deeper than just tightening the budget. Even Terry thought I had a point there, that he didnt think of. Actually as I told Terry ... I feel union's and especially right's are an importante thing now, just like the time following the "Great Depression", were again at another point in American history where we need to focus on supporting the right's and voice of worker's too, and the world is different too, as far as business/ trade, etc., than such as the 1970's ... so you must constantly change with the change's.

So many folk's may see this like Terry did, of just more government control, more attack's on the right to work, and taking away independent choice's ... I simply dont see it this way. Having the right to bargain is also as American as freedom of choice, and trying to take that away from worker's is anti- American in my opinion, it doesnt matter if their union or non- union. You can trim, cut, rearrange or any other damn thing without going into that. So this issue is NOT just about "slacker's", but those "jacker's" behind the scene's that's trying to do everything they can to jack with what right's employee's do have. As far as what this has to do with the privatization of America?, it's all part of what I addressed in the other two posting's, same folk's with same goal's, just a different avenue. These financial icon's want anything and everything that is organized by large government or people as far as labour and union's to fail, so they can rule over all, bottom line, which is not truely "privatizing" a goddamn thing, but more of creating a type of monopoly, or what I think of as "Corporate Neo- Communism" .

Also notice how these group's that oppose union's and individual's in this show, are all trying to say it's about "fairness" to non- union worker's, such as Seton Motley of www.lessgovernment.org talk's about with Thom Hartmann in the video of the last posting, part two ... where he start's pulling out the pie chart's and pointing to figure's, graph's, etc ... talking about how low paid non- union worker's are compared to union, that is such a twisted arguement ... so what is he/ they saying? ... basically their saying that they even want union people to be cut down to those bargain basement wage's and federal minimum wage's, that state's like Texas still go by ... it's about the worker's? BS, ... the list of what this is about is so long, and about everything but "worker's", that I cant even list them all here cause of the length I could come up with. They dont give a shit about the worker's any more than I give a shit about the Easter Bunny.

Word Out ....



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