| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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A lot more are looking to not go to work tomorrow. So our major grocery stores are being picketed and now the Metro Transit Authority is to shut down. The second time in 3 years. quoting one passerby cited in an article regarding the striking checkers "the gravy train is over" Im mixed. My healthcare has increased in recent years. So has many others. Why should these workers be any different? The market is what the market is. Those who dislike change will dislike irrelavence even less. Part of me says the workers need to get a grip on reality. Part of me also says, the huge grocers need to adapt to the changing market forces. Part of me wants picket with them. Part of me wants them all to get their asses back to work. Bottom line, hundreds of thousands if not millions of Californians are going to be with public transportation and affordable groceries without having to be harrassed by picketing workers. Im really mixed about this. I knew checkers made good money. But upwards of $17+/hour? Plus mad benefits? Shit. Im in the wrong fucking business. |
At the rate things are going out there, I will probably never go back there for more than a visit! |
They are a union store. In order to pay those wages, prices are always at least 50% higher then even an IGA. Couple that with Food 4 Less, Super Walmart, and Price Choppers, and forget it. Consumers gets shut down, and all the cashiers loose their jobs because nobody wants to pay their prices. There is a CLEAR link between wages a company pays and the price of their products. |
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Apparently it's all about sunflowers nowadays. It's only about a 3 hour drive to Denver and the mountains, so that's a plus, but it's still KANSAS and FLAT AS HELL. One of my nightmares is that Kazu will get a professorship somewhere in the flatlands. *ShUdDeR* |
I have never heard of the town, but would venture to say your Cost of Living will be significantly lower in Goodland. |
fucking brilliant. i mean, who would have thought. thats why i said what I said about change and irrelavence. there's been a shift in workforce benefits and wages in the last 5 years. i can easily see the unions driving their employeers out of business and subsequently their memebers into unemployment. the thing is, they know that. the Unions arent stupid. so, in the end, striking and pushing to get the most out of its contracts, while keeping in mind the coporations arent about to shoot themselves in the foot either by offering a contract they can't handle.... its like this fuckign song and dance that at the end of the day WE pay for. I know this. which is why they all suck. they all auto-fellate their hairy flaming cocks. |
so pretty soon they are striking again and demanding more. and on and on. unions are bad because they only benefit a subset of society. left wing hypocracy. see, spunk? patty isn't so left wing. |
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didnt you see the part about flaming hair cocks? thats where i stand motherfucker. |
Until the wind blows in another direction. |
"unions are bad because they only benefit a subset of society" same argument could be applied to republicans. |
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The constitution makes no provisions for the federal government to have any oversite what so ever on what is bought or sold in the US. |
spunk, of course, and you're still changing your view on it. |
So where did all these drug laws come from? Must've come out of the Gray Area. Of course, another term for "gray area" would be "the active shared reality of the world" |
I have always been against fed gov interference. At first, I applied it only towards guns and corporations and SUV's and health care and crap like that. Then I realized that I must apply it towards abortions, followed by, only recently, drugs. There are still areas I am working on, but for the most part, I want the fed out of my life as much as possible. |
or that after decades of bashing Unions, the WORLD BANK, of all places, now supports unions as good for equity and the economy, not just in the US, but anywhere? link: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20091655~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html come on boys, lets have some balance. Unions have been bad and unions have been good. Just as governments can be bad or good. Its all about who's in control... I should know, in 2000 a corrupt union cost me over 10,000 dollars, cost my dad over 40,000 dollars... oh, and my job. In the US, the unions could be the only hope in preventing Bushs' removal of overtime pay, and the only hope in preventing the privitization of Medicare. But thats me. Mr. Ice Socialist. |
Rudolph the Red Reindeer? Santa Trotsky? |
where's your endnote, rowlf? ancedotal evidence is to the contrary, but, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. i lost my job because of a lack of unions. i got paid ridiculous amounts of money for years because of a lack of unions. |
the picketers are handing out leaflets to potential customers offering suggestions on other non-union places to shop? whut? whut? |
like most economists, he's not your typical liberal think-tanker either. He's against public policies favoring small business. he's got stuff everywhere if you like boring economy shit. I don't. what i said specifically, taken from "Unions and Economic Competitiveness" |
I honestly think this: some places desperately need unions. some don't. Maybe at your job you get paid more because of a lack of union. Don't mean it happens everywhere. Teachers. Airline workers. Man, ESPECIALLY pilots, ESPECIALLY new pilots, they're absolutely totally fucked and I'm scared just thinking of getting on a plane knowing what new pilots make. If they had a proper union the price gap would be taken care of, and they wouldnt be at or below the poverty line. This is anecdotal and I'm going to have to find the reference (give me a day or two), but I've read that where theres unions, workers have been shown to stay with a company longer. And considering the way health care is handled in your country, it makes sense that a union should stick in there and fight for these benefits, because damn if I haven't learned that most companies will try to dodge benefits if they can, even though having them will attract better workers. While people there are desperate for health plans, here dental plans are hard to come by from workplaces, and when you do get them, theres always something fishy about what it covers and doesnt cover, and for how long. I don't trust it one bit. |
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And bringing up Communist China seems to be a good trick for liberals and conservatives alike. the anti-union crowd by bill costine comp admin ibm Why don't companies want union workers? Companies always want cheaper labor and trans-national companies are doing everything they can to get it, exporting jobs, importing h1-b and a variety of other temporary virtual slave labor (don't want to work 60-90 hours a week? we got a boat ready to take you home, no need for whips and chains). It's about using wealth, power and influence to keep people hungry and controlled. If a balance isn't in place, America will continue to move towards becoming like those billions of poor, living on a few dollars per day. Where is cheap labor's favorite investment site, the fascist police state and largest source of 'cheap labor' in the world, communist China. Cheap labor has a lot more to do with the China trade than bringing anything like democracy to that police state. For those undecided about union, remember: Communists hate and murder union organizers, Fascists hate and murder union organizers, and even in this 21st century many corporations still hate and actively murder union organizers. Don't believe that corporations still murder workers searching for fair treatment, read it yourself. http://henningcenter.berkeley.edu/gateway/colombia.html Why do those in business fear a balance of power that a democratic alliance of workers provides? "Aristocrats... fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society." --Thomas Jefferson Could Ken Lay have gotten away with locking employees 401k stock holdings while he was selling his if the employees had a union? Which is why any thinking man understands: "To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.'" --Thomas Jefferson Unions are simply a balance of power for working people increasingly dominated by multi billion dollar corporations. Anyone who thinks they can get justice on their own against multi hundred million or billion dollar entities is a fool and anyone that suggests ordinary people should try is a deceiver, or a thief, or both. |
meanwhile, wal-mart, a non-union company that is already able to undercut the prices of the major grocery chains, is moving in and taking over. so how do unions benefit these workers? they are fighting for shit that is going to either raise cost-of-living or cost them their jobs due to the inability of their employers to compete with non-union shops. according to salary.com the low end of co-pilots is about $70K. pity them. |
Simple. More money. They also want the county to cover the increase in health coverage. Average salary for an LA Sheriff? 70k. Thats well above the state and national average. As everyone knows, our budgets from the top on down are so strapped its ridiculous. Everything is being cut. Hospitals closed, school classes cancelled. Now those mother fuckers want more money? The leader of the Sheriffs unions said 'These guys are living paycheck to paycheck" in an LA Times article. Motherfucker if someone make an average of 70k a year is living paycheck to paycheck then there is something else going on. Fucking Unions. Motherfucking fuckhole unions. The LAPD has had to establish a special task force center to cover the public safety that is being overlooked by these semi-striking officers. The biggest impact is being felt on courts. Courts are working later, longer and in the end costing US more money! Thats what fucking pissing me off. I hope this shit backfires on the unions...all they're doing is fucking the rest of the public with these protests. its bullshit bullshit bullshit. |
http://icpac.indiana.edu/careers/career_profiles/100234.xml/wages obviously, for the AVERAGE wage to be between 38-51,000, a lot of people are making less than that. I'm trying to figure out why the national avg there is different... perhaps the documentary I saw was from a smaller state where the pilots make less. until then, i reiterate my idealism: "Anyone who thinks they can get justice on their own against multi hundred million or billion dollar entities is a fool and anyone that suggests ordinary people should try is a deceiver, or a thief, or both. " |
but thats the way it is with unions vs. corporations. sometimes the public gets fucked because they're caught in the middle... but you know, whaddyagonnado? why is it always the unions fault? no matter what, they're supposed to keep working? you've never had enough at work and you knew the rest of the staff didnt either, and wondered about how good it would actually be for all of you to walk out? well that fucks over other people in the company, people you might like, when you do that too... its always going to fuck someone else over. |
that article is a bit absurd man and you know, im a card carrying commie most of the time, but then again, that might explain my angst against unions right now. i think for these unions, specifically the MTA and now the Sheriff's strike becauwe they have such a vital and sweeping impact on the public that for them to strike, now, after our Gubernatorial debacle.....i say "fuck you". Its a slap in the face to the state and its people. |
the problem with unions is that they are not universal. they are large entities on their own right and behave as such. they benefit a small group of people to the deteriment of the rest. supposedly those are things you would rally against, being a lefty. but the truth is that the left and the right are two different groups with the same goal: getting their whatfor at the expense of the other. |
I've been playing devils advocate. its fun. *wink* play along. I know exactly how it feels right now. I understand your anger entirely. During college, the bus drivers were threatening to strike, because they were asked to work on Sundays. GASP! SUNDAYS! BUT THE LORD SAYS... anways, i was going to roll some heads, due to the threat of walking 60 minutes each way, in mid-winter, at 6am, with a 40 pound portfolio case around my shoulder and a 20 pound lunchbox full of paints. no good. I'm getting pissed off just thinking about it YOU ASSHOLE!!! hahahaha |
so do corporations. and what i'm really talking about is unions vs. corporations. thats the point. the public is caught in the crossfire. and if you're going to bring up taxes going to unions, dont forget about taxes going to corporations. same deal. if you hate on one, you gotta hate on both. and if you're gonna love on one, you gotta love on both. I sincerely believe that a balance of power within companies is tremendously important, with or without unions. |
Starting salary sounds crappy, but something that little faggy survey from Indiana neglects is overtime. First year pilots average 40k. I read somewhere recently thatNorthwest Airline's *average* salary for their pilots is $130,000. A 14-year captain makes 95k according to this dinky site. http://www.geocities.com/sandman_kmr3/NetJets6_Pilot_Info.html |
But really, I did see a documentary before about new pilots making like 14 grand a year. seriously. when I'm on the computer too long I start arguing for fun. ask wisper. |
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we won though! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3148929177&category=348 |
the left, the right, tools. a load of tools. and i'm pointing at them. i could give a shit about corporations. but there is a difference. corporations have a goal: to create wealth. they create wealth for their owners. and anyone can own a corporation. or part of one. i do, and i don't even have a job. the goal of unions is a little different. and both use their political leverage in underhanded ways. both have bought the political process. both rely on presenting their case in a way that their pawns can stomach well. so, if you lean left you side with labor. you lean right you side with corporations. i cut off my hands. but don't listen to me. listen to dave.. he's been right all along. i'm just following his lead. dave. the insighted one. the cult of dave.. hail dave.. kill the rest. |
I think they both think what they're doing is right, and because of that they'll look past the awful things they do. ends justify the means. |
In missouri, union dues are deducted from your paycheck regardless of if you belong to it or not. Yes, I got a $1,000 bonus when they signed the contract (no different then the old contract, but they still came close to striking), but I still resented them. Regardless if you were a schmuck with really bad stats or a pro with super high stats, everyone got the exact same raise. These guys were completely worthless. Eri still got a letter of warning because HER WATER BROKE while she was at work and had to leave. The president and vice president got arrested for stealing union funds and having gay parties with the dues...... |
i'm assuming one thing, but hoping the other. so i can accuse spunk of talking like a dandy. |
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10 mil. 200+ Sheriff's deputies called in sick this morning. i want a big big stick because i feel like swinging. |
Union dues used to pay for a private party. |
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its as simple as this: Power corrupts |
Unions are needed in some places and not others. . Did I ever tell you guys about the teacher's strike back home last year? My mom is a high school counselor, and the Union called a strike. I remember from going through that school system that it's rife with corruption. Millions of dollars would disappear and the school board would just shrug. It started to catch up with them, so they gutted the pay schedule for newer teachers and blasted the benefits. . It was really interesting to follow. The school district played dirty. They did things during the strike like publish a list of all the teachers and their salaries... except there were a bunch of teachers on the list that had retired years ago, and the salries listed for many of the teachers were much higher than what they really made. Some of the teachers got kinda out of control. My little half brother got to hear some teacher shouting obscenities at a strikebreaker at his elementary school. . Then it was really awkward when the school district accidentally paid all the teachers who had direct deposit. They forgot to stop the paychecks while they were on strike. |
weird, one draws him as Hitler. The other, as a Jew. WEEIRD... |
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I am debating making another pot of coffee. My coffee pot is four cups. Four cups is two cups. Two mugs. If I drink another two mugs of coffee I won’t sleep tonight. I sleep when the morning light starts to assault the pulled drapes of my bedroom. The useless morning light. Only operates to make me feel like I’ve done something wrong. Somehow you should never see the night begin and end within the bounds of a single stretch of consciousness. Right now the night is beginning. The sky has gone steel grey through the slits of cheap metal blinds behind sheer sage green curtains. A single candle burns with a light greater than the remains of the sun. I imagine the sky full of fog and the air cold and still. The ocean crashes near by but I wouldn’t know. I’ve put my entire digital music collection on random. About 3500 tracks. Roughly 15,500 minutes of music. Approximately 250 hours. A little over ten days. Too much for a single sitting, regardless of how much coffee I drink. The Nirvana->Dave Matthews->Cheap Trick->Hank Williams Jr. movement has been enjoyable. Life is full of variables, I do not feel the need to control the music at this stage. I do not feel the need to control much of anything. It isn’t that I am skating through life. Not exactly. I’m just avoiding situations where I have a choice to make. I have no control over when the house sells. I have no control over the job market. I have no control over any person other than myself, and even then I have very limited control. Less than you might expect. My mother worries about me. She worries I am sad, I am lonely, I am full of despair. Today, none of those, Mom. I worry that she worries about me. She doesn’t need to, but she will anyway. In the last year I ended a longer relationship, I lost my job, I got engaged, I got un-engaged, I moved. I fought demons; bad women, alcohol and my own mind. I’ve failed to get out of bed. I’ve failed to go to bed. I’ve not had an alcoholic beverage in 37 days. I’ve not been laid in 60 days. I’ve not worked in 222 days. It’s been a good year. Not in the sense that Denali Moose Tracks ice cream on a warm brownie (with banana slices baked into it) is good. Not at all. But good in the way a strenuous trip through hell and back can be good. Informative. An accomplishment. Character building. I’ve been building character. I’ve been constructing my person. I’ve been realizing what I want from life, who I want to be, who I want to spend my time with. It’s a tear down project. Demolish everything and replace the foundation. Ha! I can laugh at anything. I wanted to be warm hearted, kind, generous. I’m not. Sorry Mom. I’m selfish, cold hearted. Full of cognitive dissonance. I don’t trust anyone because I am untrustworthy. I am evil. If you believe otherwise, I’ve deceived you. I’m good at that. I am a manipulator. I don’t care about anyone but myself. God has abandoned me. Strike that, I’ve abandoned God. But really, I don’t believe any of that. Except the cognitive dissonance part. Other than that, I’m nothing and everything. Hank Williams Jr.->Talib Kweli->Mr. Bungle->The Prodigy->Steely Dan How can I know the world if I close my heart? How can I know the world if I don’t buffer my heart? What is more important, the “I” or the “know”? I want to touch a woman. But not a psycho woman. Is there such a thing? The moment things go irrational I stop taking them seriously. It used to be that I would work against the inconsistencies. I’d push hard to fix everything, fold myself around any issue and form a solution by compromising who I am. I can’t do that anymore. I won’t do that anymore. I might do that anymore. I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want no psycho woman. But I have no right to expect anything but. And I have no reason to believe that a non-psycho woman exists. And I only say woman because I don’t fuck men. I don’t put myself in situations where a man’s inconsistencies will affect me. Or I don’t put myself in situations where a man’s irrational behavior will necessitate my action. Necessitate my action. Is this something that is actual or just perceived? If I don’t work to fix, smooth over, provide acrobatic solution to, an issue will everything implode? I think, perhaps, I am more important than any relationship. I am more important than anyone. I am more important than anything I encounter. I am not about to make sacrifices for anyone. How limiting. But, I can still get laid. I live in a goddamn college town. All I need to do is unfold my laptop in a coffee shop and get into a conversation about God. I know what to say. Or perhaps Politics. Go to a Dean meet-up. Criticize globalism or the war on Iraq. Pussies will drip. Take your pick. Fuck a bunch of soulless innocents. Soulless in my perception, because have no need for their souls. I have no need to know them, only to use their orifices. To feel their asses pressed hot against me. To cry silently into their hair after they’ve fallen asleep. When I was a young man I fucked this little, chubby jewish chick. She had enormous tits and a little mop of curly hair and a beautiful mouth and barely cleared five feet. When I fucked her from behind she’d throw the blanket up to cover her ass. I hated that. She had a wonderful round ass, but she didn’t want me to see it. She thought it was awful. I loved her for two months and then it disappeared. We were making macaroni and cheese one day and she said something about how when we were sixty we’d be making macaroni and cheese just the same. My stomach took a dive. It was over shortly after that. Steely Dan->Talib Kweli->Metalica->Erik’s Animal->Tenacious D I play bass for Erik’s Animal. We practiced last night. The drummer called our leader to tell him that he couldn’t make it. He tried to explain why but our leader didn’t want to hear it and hung up on him. The drummer called the rhythm guitar guy and tried to explain why he wouldn’t be there. The rhythm guitar guy didn’t want to hear it. The drummer didn’t bother calling me. I actually wanted to know why he couldn’t make it. No one could tell me. It doesn’t matter. He’s not being invited back. Our practice went so much better than ever before. Nothing is worse than a bad drummer. We’re going to be superstars. I just know it. I’m going to make that next pot of coffee now. I’m going to drink coffee and eat a PB&J and turn on the heater and take a piss. In reverse order. |
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I know, I'm a little late. What else is new? |
It doesn’t matter. He’s not being invited back. Our practice went so much better than ever before. Nothing is worse than a bad drummer. " Boy I KNOW how that goes! I haven't picked up my guitar in weeks. I just don't know what happened, but my desire to paly and create music disappeared sometime in the last few years. I still love music and love new music, but to play and create it, whatever I could put into it seems to have been sapped. I think it could be the 8:30-5 job. That's the only thing that's changed since I stopped playing regularly. ALthough I have noticed that in the last few years, the guitar magazines have really stopped publishing any songs I want to play. It used to be in the 80s and 90s that there would be at least one song I wanted to know how to play each month, and usually another in the magazine that I didn't know but was really challenging to play (anything by Steve Morse, for example). But in the last 5 years or so, it's all been crappy hard rock like 3 Doors Down and stupid nu-metal that is just not challenging to play. When I do pick up the guitar, invariably the only thing I feel like playing that I enjoy are old Iron Maiden songs. It just seems like I have too much on my plate these days to do anything with music. I listened to an old tape of a band Skooter and I were in, back in about 1998, and I really don't know why I stopped playing or never tried to find people to play with here. I wish I knew why so I could figure out the appropriate course of action. It could be time. What with work, exercise and all the chores that comes with being an adult living on your own, it may be that I just don't have the time to fart around with six strings. Maybe it's just that I don't have a good chair to sit in while I play. |
That's it? |
Really irrational, or a little irrational? |
"consider that in a perfect world, there would be no unions because there would be no NEED for unions." . This is true for many things. Troops. Lawyers. Police. Jails... lots more. . As you were. . Oh, and sem... It's the chair. These things matter. . And Nate, weren't you the one who said that irrationality wasn't a bad thing? |
i pulled my kit out into the garage once, while drunk and adventurous. i dont have carpet down and i dont want to piss my neighbors off just yet, so i only played for a few minutes. time has created a sucky drummer. gotta go get some reminents, proof my darkroom and get my ket set up...cause i do have soul and I am superbad, when i practice. |
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Simon Jose Thompson, 33, and Charles Matthew Olvera, 27, both of Chula Vista, remained in jail yesterday on suspicion of assault and conspiracy, California Highway Patrol spokesman Mark Gregg said. A prosecutor said a formal decision on charges is expected today. The 27-year-old replacement worker had just left the Ralphs supermarket on East Palomar Street in Chula Vista early Friday morning when his car was followed by the two pickets "apparently attempting to run it off the road," Gregg said. The two used their car to block his vehicle at the Main Street on-ramp to northbound Interstate 805, and everyone got out of their cars, he said. One of the men then struck the replacement worker in the face and chest with a baseball bat. The other man punched the replacement worker, Gregg said. The two men also knocked out the back windows of the replacement worker's car. Gregg did not identify the injured worker. The man told officers he didn't need medical help, but later went to a hospital on his own and was told that surgeons will have to rebuild his face for it to heal correctly, Gregg said. The two union members were arrested Friday afternoon after an investigation by CHP investigators, he said. Calls to Ralphs and union officials were not returned. The incident is the first in which labor violence has led to felony charges locally since union members struck Vons and were locked out by management at Ralphs and Albertson's supermarkets Oct. 11, said a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office. Elsewhere, reported arrests include a 17-year-old Riverside girl accused of shooting a pellet gun at pickets, and a locked-out worker in Fullerton accused of hitting a truck with his picket sign, threatening the driver, and then closing a truck door on the driver's hand. Source |