Tag Archives: unions

American Factory

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Watch AMERICAN FACTORY on Netflix and then take a few hours to digest its meaning. There’s a ton of material to consider.
 
China is one of the most ethnocentric (translated: racist) countries on the planet. They call Americans “donkeys” in the show and tout their superiority to us. Racial superiority. Work superiority. Whilst disregarding working conditions and most importantly: safety. Leftists, Demorats and American Media Maggots — you SURE you REALLY want to work under Communist rule? Because here’s one perfect illustration.
 
Performing the same mind-numbing job for 12 hours per day with few if any breaks, to perfection, mandatory overtime with no concomitant overtime pay, a minimum of six days a week, in perpetuity, under a rigorous and faux-“invigorated” regimen in which no one is happy and everyone is subject to job loss on a whim.
 
Then consider: regarding China and tariffs, let’s recall one very important thing. What is China’s most vast and valuable resource? Yes, megatons of people. That resource makes labor cheap and drives down wages. Tough to compete.
 
So: what does China NEVER want to see, that will minimize its importance and slaughter its power? Automation and roboticization.
 
The Chinese in AMERICAN FACTORY don’t mind automating as many work stations as possible to eliminate American jobs.
 
But what happens when you automate and roboticize jobs around the planet to the point where China no longer has the “cheap labor” advantage?
 
CHINA cannot automate or they create an unemployed workforce of millions — perhaps billions — of people that will then do what, having experienced employment and wealth? Demand some form of welfare or workfare. How does China handle a population that has been provided a “taste” of capitalism?
 
Poorly. And with devastating consequences. Loss of control. Loss of power.
 
Bloomberg writes:
 
“If US manufacturing is high-end, then China’s manufacturing, overall, is still about medium and low-end assembling.”
 
Automation can’t be the solution, Liu added, asking “if the US and Germany boost automation, why would anyone come from far away to invest in China?”
 
Because if you’re a company from another nation with boosted automation, why would you piss away cash for added energy costs and vast and extensive transportation costs from afar?
 
Do the math. Them take a breath and calm down. Namaste. Snatch the grasshopper.
 
If we play LONG BALL like President Trump is trying to do for the first time in our nation’s history, then China is no longer in the catbird seat. Their debt is high, just like ours. That is why they are rattling military sabers.
 
It’s time to use SUN TZU against CHINA.
Translated: China needs us more than we need them.
 
Start listening to and reading more of GORDON CHANG.

BZ

 

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Monday’s second SCOTUS ruling in re Union membership:

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On the heels of the Monday SCOTUS ruling involving Hobby Lobby et al:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that some corporations can hold religious objections that allow them to opt out of the new health law requirement that they cover contraceptives for women.

Leftists, Progressives and Demorats all began their unanimous bleat about a so-called “war on women.”

4.2.7It is, instead, a War on the American Taxpayer.  In terms of making the American Taxpayer responsible for funding contraception for women who still have any number of free venues available to them for contraceptive solutions, to include Planned Parenthood and various clinics open in each and every college and university across the land.

The argument was predicated upon religion, yes.  But I submit it was also foundationally (if not more so) predicated upon the mandatory payment, by businesses, of contraception for women.  Not just for religious-based businesses but for all businesses.  And: WHY should ANY business be forced to pay for contraception for any employee?

Male or female, Viagra or pill or diaphragm or condom, no business should be forced by government to pay for those contraceptive items.  According to four justices, however, you cannot even opt out.  Do they not understand that the federal government is not solving the nation’s problems?

That said, there was a second SCOTUS ruling that occurred on Monday, less revealed.

Harris v. Quinn, 5-4.

From the AP.org:

Court: Public union can’t make nonmembers pay fees

by Sam Hananel

WASHINGTON (AP)

The Supreme Court dealt a blow to public sector unions Monday, ruling that thousands of home health care workers in Illinois cannot be required to pay fees that help cover a union’s costs of collective bargaining.

In a 5-4 split along ideological lines, the justices said the practice violates the First Amendment rights of nonmembers who disagree with the positions that unions take.

This sounds like a negative SEIU ruling, as affecting Fornicalia.

The ruling is a setback for labor unions that have bolstered their ranks and their bank accounts in Illinois and other states by signing up hundreds of thousands of in-home care workers. It could lead to an exodus of members who will have little incentive to pay dues if nonmembers don’t have to share the burden of union costs.

As in: what becomes the benefit in joining a so-called “union,” in terms of my bottom-line paycheck?

Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito said home care workers “are different from full-fledged public employees” because they work primarily for their disabled or elderly customers and do not have most of the rights and benefits of state employees. The ruling does not affect private sector workers.

BZ

P.S.

If one more liberal Justice is appointed in this country, we will lose our social and political and personal freedoms in this country.  And then woe, shall we be.

Quote at Roosevelt memorial Washington DC

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Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets

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Fast Food WorkersFrom the NYTimes.com:

by Steven Greenhouse

Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

As the movement struggles to find pressure points in its quest for substantially higher wages for workers, organizers said strikes were planned for the first time in cities like Charleston, S.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Pittsburgh.

The protests have expanded greatly since November 2012, when 200 fast-food workers engaged in a one-day strike at more than 20 restaurants in New York City, the first such walkout in the history of the nation’s fast-food industry.

The movement, which includes the groups Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, is part of a growing union-backed effort by low-paid workers — including many Walmart workers and workers for federal contractors — that seeks to focus attention on what the groups say are inadequate wages.

And there you have it.  “Inadequate wages.”

Let me cut right to the core of the matter, for those persons who believe that working at WalMart, slinging burgers and pushing the CHEESEBURGER icon at McDonald’s deserves $15.00 an hour:

No, it doesn’t deserve that wage.  You aren’t worth that much.

Because with that wage you’re now competing against persons who must have actual skills, such as entry level machinists, construction workers, electricians, plumbers, mechanics.  People who must not only possess a few brain cells, but people who must possess initial and basic psychomotor abilities, spatial acuity, reasoning and problem solving expertise.

Jobs at registers for McDonald’s or Wendy’s or WalMart are called “entry level” for a reason.  These positions are for people entering the job force, primarily at a young age, and are meant to teach the entry-level worker about time management, regularity, dependability, consistency, working collaboratively in a team environment and other requisite fundamental skills.

These jobs were never meant to support a family and/or to be a final resting point of employment for anyone, unless one wished to stay at that company and then climb the individual corporate ladder, using those entry-level job skills as stepping stones towards upward mobility, supervision and then management, perhaps upper management or franchise ownership.

From worker to lead worker to shift manager to assistant store manager to store manager to regional manager and so on.

Further, fast food restaurants, a WalMart, or even grocery stores, have small profit margins.  Selling a burger at McDonald’s for $1.00 won’t make anyone “rich” in and of itself.  There is only one way that these stores can make a profit at all.  One word: volume.

A very important paragraph in the article:

Officials with the National Restaurant Association have said the one-day strikes are publicity stunts. They warn that increasing pay to $15 an hour when the federal minimum wage is $7.25 would cause restaurants to rely more on automation and hire fewer workers.

Let’s be frank: the positions at McDonald’s are entry-level jobs and require few true skills.  You, working at McDonald’s, aren’t worth that much money.  These people demanding more money have primarily inflated senses of themselves.  Again I say: you aren’t worth that much.  You are a dime a dozen and, thusly, turnover is huge in fast food restaurants.

[An aside: when was the last time you received massively cheerful, efficient, rapid, courteous service and accurate fulfillment at a fast-food restaurant?]

When people complain that many of these jobs are part-time, allow me to pull a page from the book of Captain Obvious: these jobs have historically been part-time jobs and are primarily part-time jobs now.  That they exist part-time now is not news nor oppressive.

I worked in retail at a younger age.  I was paid minimum wage.  I also worked on commission in the camera and luggage department.  If I hustled and sold more, I made more money.  I was incentivized.  If I was lazy, I languished.  I was paid what I was worth.

Captain ObviousHow about another page ripped from the play-book of Captain Obvious?

If you don’t care for your job, or if you believe you are under-paid, then go get a different job.  Go get another job.

In college, I worked at a radio station in the morning.  I was up at 5 am.  I attended classes during the day.  I worked a retail job alternate afternoons and evenings.  I also worked at that same radio station in the afternoon, Monday through Friday.  I worked at another radio station some evenings and another station on weekends.  My work/classes day ended at either 10 pm or 11 pm.  I was then up at 5 am the next day.  I was simultaneously putting myself through a non-paying law enforcement academy on specific nights and on the weekend.  I worked an additional retail job during the holidays.  That is how I put myself through college.  And how I acquired my jobs in law enforcement.

This movement is nothing more than union-building by SEIU and others.  It is representative of a nation of over-esteemed individuals whose worth in their minds is not congruent with reality.

Many people say: you should be glad people want to work.  They could be staying home and making money not working.

To that I reply: yes they could.  And I advocate closing off that tap as well, as a form of incentivization towards employment.

Keep on this tack, low-skilled workers, and you’ll find yourselves replaced with a piece of machinery.

BZ

 

 

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