Closing Bell: Walgreens Gets the Rat Treatment on Myrtle
Last week a rat popped up on Clinton Avenue. This week it’s Myrtle. The union boys are miffed that Walgreen’s (the store’s doing the work not the developer) is using “untrained and unskilled” workers (their words, not ours) to build out their new digs on the ground-floor of the Clermont Condominium at 375 Myrtle Avenue…
Last week a rat popped up on Clinton Avenue. This week it’s Myrtle. The union boys are miffed that Walgreen’s (the store’s doing the work not the developer) is using “untrained and unskilled” workers (their words, not ours) to build out their new digs on the ground-floor of the Clermont Condominium at 375 Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene. Just curious: What kind of permit does an organization need to get to display an inflatable animal in the middle of the street?
The Clermont Condominium Open For Business [Brownstoner] GMAP
The kind of permit needed to inflate the Rat, is the kind you need to catch all the hot air exhaled by the anti-union comments made on this web site.
I guess you have no real retort, Putnam. So sad that you can’t accept the reality of the modern American labor market.
Solidarity forever.
More champagne?
11:10: The greatness of the AOL building is due to the architects (non0union), not the people who assembled the parts. As for the steel in that building, it came from a non-union shop in China. Guess unions aren’t needed for quality work. As for your other two examples, they are rather sorry excuses for a union. Scaffolding?! Really.
Putnam: Of course people can unionize, but that does not mean they get what they want just because they ask for it. Manual laborers are a dime a dozen. It is a simple function of supply and demand. If you want to make more money to be able to raise a family or own a home, get a higher education or a unique skill set that will demand higher wages. There is nothing anywhere that states that everyone gets the right to earn a living wage or raise a family. That is harsh, I know, but it is the system we live in. You can disagree with it and people can do what they can to change it, but that is the reality on the ground.
Aviatrix: This is economics, not politics. The fact that you must resort to calling people who are commenting on the underlying economics simple-minded points to the fact that you have no valid argument agaist what is being said.
jeez.
i can’t believe the readership of brownstoner is made up of people who took econ 101 at their private university and now think they’re now pretend other than simple-minded rush limbaughs when they complain about the extra penny or two that might potentially be charged for a pack of gum at the drug store that used union labor to build it, and when they make those complaints *on a website dedicated to discussing your million dollar homes*.
8:19 says
“Manual labor is just a hired hand and its value is overstated because unions create an unjustifiable expense for something that is readily available at a much lower price and with no difference in quality”
In 8:19’s world
Unjustifiable expense = decent wages and benefits.
Readily Available = the day laborers that one can hire at the day laborers’ shack down by Cesar’s Bay Shopping Center and shamelessly exploit because they do not have papers. Try finding skilled ironworkers, steamfitters, scaffolding or master carpenters that aren’t card carrying memebers. Not so easy.
No Difference in Quality: I’ll pick the AOL Time Warner building and the scaffolding on the GW Bridge and the Washington Monument as an example of what quality union labor can produce. You can pick whatever you want, but let me point you in the direction of any of the shit shacks on 4th avenue and the scaffolding on Clinton Ave. Let’s talk quality……
Also, why would anyone need to know if someone was hiring “un-unionized labor”? Its not a crime.
No…it’s not a crime but when the rat goes up the word goes out. No self respecting union tradesperson is going to cross that picket line or shop at that store. It’s how we protect each other and promote collective bargaining. Also, the unions are usually just appealing to the public at large to call the owner and say that they should hire union or (at least) pay area standards. Apparently, from most of the responses here, they are wasting their time in the areas frequented by those that read this blog but there were a few people here that are down with us. Rock on.
You are right, 8:19, labor unions serve no purpose, and manual laborers and other workers should accept that they have no right to join together to seek higher wages, but should be satisfied with a life which is short and brutish. May I pour you some more champagne, sir/madam?
Putnam: Your post at 2:37 does not address my point. You can only make profits if you are the investor.
Manual labor is just a hired hand and its value is overstated because unions create an unjustifiable expense for something that is readily available at a much lower price and with no difference in quality.
The fact that you are unable or unwilling to address that points to the lack of a valid point in your agrument.