Worried about retirement?

So are a huge number of people...

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Now, finally,

after enough time to feel secure in power, Premier Wall's right-wing government begins its slow process of dismantling unions in Saskatchewan.

Labour law under scrutiny: Public asked for input

How much do you want to bet that the only 'public' they'll listen to is that which supports their position?

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Happy

International Worker's Day

to all my left-leaning friends. You know who you are. God bless you all!


(I used this worker image intentionally. He doesn't look too happy, does he? Perhaps he knows where the power really lies in the workplace, in business, in production and support. It isn't with the workers, alas. Even after all this time and effort. We're not part of the top percentage that controls everything. Happy celebration...)

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Good Advice

The bitter truth behind the chocolate in your Easter basket

"The average American eats around 11 pounds of chocolate each year, and the weeks leading up to Easter show the second biggest United States sales spike of the year next to Halloween - 71 million pounds according to a 2009 Neilsen report. A recent press release from Kraft claims that worldwide, more consumers purchase chocolate during Easter than any other season.

So how does a chocolate lover ensure that the treats filling their family's Easter baskets are not supporting a life of slavery for a child half a world away?"

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Nobody in management,

and very few regular workers, ever pay attention to these reports...

Sitting in Office All Day Can Cause Breast, Colon Cancer?

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The system HAS failed

Labour conference: Miliband war on 'fast buck' society

But that's really just because the system is designed to fail.

It can't work when all the power is invested in the people who have all the money, want all the money, will do anything to get the money, and their supporters are governments and justice systems that benefit from this faulty system. I firmly believe that as long as we have human beings involved in any system, it won't work. It can't. If every person were altruistic then fine, but only a few are, and the rest are out to get everything they can.

And there's the flaw...

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I was listening

to an extreme right-wing 'money over everything' entrepeneur on the radio on Monday until I could no longer stand it...
 
 

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Reading this,

and reading the comments, is making me rethink my purchasing from Amazon.

Inside Amazon's warehouse: Lehigh Valley workers tell of brutal heat, dizzying pace at online retailer.

Unfortunately, it's just one side of the story, and, as we know, the media always goes for the most sensational. So, is it as bad as they say? Is Amazon as bad as they say? I'm not sticking up for them, as I think about Karen Silkwood and Kerr-McGee, but is it as bad as they say?

I really want to know. I don't trust the employers accounts or government reports, but I've been a labour activist long enough to know that employees sometimes say things that aren't entirely accurate either. I just don't know...

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On this date

in 1898, the Virden, Ill. labour dispute began, leading to serious loss of life and injury...

Route 66 Wayside Exhibit also commemorates 1898 Battle of Virden

See Wikipedia: Battle of Virden

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Something of note

I don't usually post on Sunday, but this is something important to remember.

1835 Paterson textile strike

On this date in 1835 the textile workers in Paterson, NJ, mostly children, struck for an 11 hour day and 6 day work week!

The next time you see a Union member, say thanks. Without Unions we'd still work 13 1/2 hour days. Anyone who thinks that business people have their workers good at the center of their vision are living in a dream world...

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Part of our history

On this date, in 1919, the

Winnipeg General Strike

began.

Canadians are a very subdued lot, as a whole. Sometimes too subdued, particularly about things they should be upset about. It takes a lot to get them riled up. They were riled up, here. Could it happen again? I'm not sure. I don't think so, really. Times have changed, and now we have television and the internet to keep us all sedated...

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An American situation

that mirrors the situation in Canada well.

Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education

It's great for personal fulfillment and development, but you'd better have a good way to pay off all the student loans at the end of your struggle, because a tenured faculty position isn't very likely...

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Breaking from my usual habit

here's another post for Sunday.



Happy May Day!



or, as it is also known,

International Workers' Day!

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In 1908,

on this date, this poem was first published:

WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!
Author: Unknown
[A poem of the Industrial Workers of the World]

We have fed you all for a thousand years
And you hail us still unfed,
Though there's never a dollar of all your wealth
But marks the workers' dead.
We have yielded our best to give you rest
And you lie on crimson wool.
Then if blood be the price of all your wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in full!

There is never a mine blown skyward now
But we're buried alive for you.
There's never a wreck drifts shoreward now
But we are its ghastly crew.
Go reckon our dead by the forges red
And the factories where we spin.
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in!

We have fed you all for a thousand years-
For that was our doom, you know,
From the days when you chained us in your fields
To the strike a week ago.
You have taken our lives, and our babies and wives,
And we're told it's your legal share,
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth,
Good God! We bought it fair!

[This poem, written by an unknown writer, was patterned after a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was printed in 1908 in the Bulletin of the IWW and at the same time in the journal The International Socialist Review. It has been reprinted, and put to music and performed, many, many times since this first printing. The sentiment rings true today.]

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Calling governments to account...

Religion and Worker Justice

It's never been simple. Even the discussion of worker's rights brings into it the national budgets of nations, and so on. Mind you, when corporations are making billions of dollars in record profits one wonders why there's even a national budget problem. But I digress.

It never has been an easy issue. Are we, as Christians, called to change the government to act in a fair and just manner? Did Jesus ask us to do that? Is that part of the requirement to 'feed the hungry, clothe the naked...etc.'? Did He also not say that we are to 'render unto Caesar what is Caesar's'?

I'm not saying we are or we aren't. I'm just pointing out that it's not always so black and white. (I tend to lean to the 'working to make government fair and just' side of the issue myself) but I learned long ago to always question those who say they know what Jesus meant by something, or they know what Jesus would think about a specific situation. It is wisdom to often pray "Lord, protect us from those to whom you speak directly."

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God bless this Bishop

Finding faith with the Wisconsin's pro-worker protesters

"It is telling that the Catholic archbishop of Wisconsin has spoken out in support of trade union rights – and quoted the pope"

It's a very sad thing that so few people know the wealth of papal documents released over the decades supporting labour, as well as many other Church documents. As a church we struggle to find a way to educate our people in the pews. There's so much of importance to pass on! (I'm writing a report on education in my parish for the parish Annual General Meeting, so this is sort of on my mind right now...)

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This is all over the CBC

This started with the release of some investigative results yesterday. I've been trying to find a stat that I heard on the radio to make sure I heard it correctly, but I've been unable to.

Canadian truckers violate U.S. safety rules: data

"Canada behind U.S. in embracing electronic monitoring of drivers' hours"

As I was driving to work myself I was unable to pay enough attention to the news article (I was watching the road and the traffic, as one is required to do.) Still, I heard something about, I believe it was 18 fatigue related accident fatalities in the past 5 years, and I'm trying to find the reference to see if I'm mistaken. Don't get me wrong, 18 is a lot, but when you consider that there are likely more deaths per week in normal traffic due to alcohol, texting, cell phone use, speeding, not paying attention, failing to yield, failing to stop, etc., etc., I think it's just a matter of someone manufacturing the latest news, and being 'investigative journalists', and a bit unfair to people who are trying to make a living in a difficult industry. I'm still trying to find the reference, hoping that I'm wrong in what I thought I heard.

From their own website stats, I'd be more concerned about hospital resident doctors working 30 hours without a break than truckers driving 13 hours. But that's just me.

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Capital idea! (Pun intended)

Brown orders 48,000 cell phones confiscated

When I think how many people have company cell phones in my workplace, and how many really need them, and how many of them use them for personal use, I have to think that this is one cut that will raise a huge stink but is probably the one cut that is least harmful to the functioning of the government. Those people who have had free phone use for years will be quite upset...

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Hmmmmm.....

I wonder if Ahhh-nold was willing to work for minimum wage for his films, or if his agent (the equivalent of a Union) negotiated the best deal he could get?

Schwarzenegger orders min wage for state workers

And I wonder if Ahhh-nold would have refused to work if the producers had cut his salary to minimum wage after he had negotiated his price?

Rich people who charge great deals of $ for their talents (whatever they may be) sure behave differently when they become politiciansl. It always seems to be 'do as I say, not as I do' (And I don't care if he's not taking a salary for being governor. He doesn't need it and he's just trying to make right-wing political points.)...

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A terrifying example

of State Communism and State Capitalism...

Worker Suicides Have Electronics Maker Uneasy in China

"A series of apparent suicides has shaken the management of Foxconn, an electronics manufacturer that builds parts and assembles products for many Silicon Valley firms. Hundreds of thousands of people live and work at a Foxconn factory complex in southern China, in what critics say are sweat-shop conditions."

...which also gives me qualms about technology choices. It appears that neither platform, PC or Mac, is exempt...

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