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 point of unionized labor is to reduce the ability of capital to pick and choose between different workers, to reduce the amount of available labor, to present a united front against the far greater power of capital. They do this to gain higher wages, better work conditions, better benefits, etc. Once they get strong enough unions also may seek governmental help in setting minimum wages, occupational safety, family leave policies, etc. To demand that any discussion of labor unions be limited to “the present – we are not alking about the elimiantion of child labor” is like saying a discussion of childhood immunization be limited to the present because we are not talking about polio. While one might argue that childhood labor is a thing of the past here, how can we really know when employers hire undocumented. let alone un-unionized labor. You think 14 year olds don’t cross the border looking for good jobs? The decline of unions has had the same effect on the labor market that public heatlht advocates fear a decline of universal child immunization will. While in the past the strenght of unions had the effect of keeping general wages high and work conditions acceptable, they no longer are stong enough to have that effect in non-unionized work environments. Just like the outbreaks of measles which happen when too many parents forgo immunizing their children (in the past the number of unimmunized children was too small to allow a sufficiently large pool for the an epidemic to grow).
uh and this too: “providing public education for children”?
Please explain to me how this works today:
“raising everyone’s standard of living”
And please limit the discussion to the present. We are not talking about the elimination of child labor. Thanks.
Who cares, Union or Non-Union? It should be a choice by whoever wants to hire the labor whether or not they are Union.
If they feel the product they get is worth the extra $ they will hire Union. IF they feel the cost outweighs the benefit they will hire non-union.
I never see non-union guys picketing on a job site because they are using Union labor. Seriously, these guys toting around the stupid rat are trying to take work away from the people actually working on the job. Who are they to decide for us?
but how the non union workers die on the job and get paid less with no benefits has everything to do with the overall crappassed, greedy mentality of those who wish to squeeze every last nickel of profit
Those crappy condos are designed that way. How the non-union workers put it together has nothing to do with the underlying crappy design.
The rats are made in a non-union shop.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/artifact.html
then when there’s non union workers on the same site with union guys, the non union guys are not allowed to use power tools but can lug cinder blocks all day. how foul is that?
Well, some of these Masters of the Universe see everyone as beneath them, and unworthy. For such an over educated group, many seem to have not attended any of the history, sociology, psychology and business classes that would have taught them not to judge everyone in a group by the actions of a few.