I never died says he.

When i was young, 7 or 8, my best friend and i went to the local grocery to get a treat. We did not understand the line of workers outside with their signs, or why they looked at us with so much disparagement. We bought our treat and went home. We told my buddy's dad about our adventure. He had not graduated high school and spent two tours in Vietnam as a door gunner in the first air cavalry division. When he came home, after meeting his older son and battling the booze habit he picked up in 'Nam, he got a job working on the line for Ford. He provided a comfortable middle class home for his family this way.

And when he found out what we had done, we got one of the worst dressing downs i can remember. I've never crossed a picket line since. That man was one of the smartest people i've ever known, and now that i'm old enough to understand the issues, i know that he was right. while unions may have succumbed to greed, they are still the people who brought us the weekend and health insurance.

Note that when America turned against unions the middle class began to disappear. They are not necessary everywhere all the time, but they are necessary. Solidarity has done more than produce a living wage, weekends, and health insurance...the very idea has liberated at least one country by the work of unions. Bless them and their struggle to squeeze some blood from the stone of corporate America.

Will someone educate me?

I am all for striking if for any one of various reasons workers are treated or paid unfairly.

What I don't understand is 'residuals'.

Should I be required to pay a plumber if my water and sewer still work after a year or two, or my electrician if the lights still come on when I flip the switch?

I worked as a computer programmer for major banks. Am I entitled to residuals if they are still using the programs I wrote?

Why should those in the entertainment industry be entitled to residuals?

ronhohn @ 6:

Will someone educate me?

I am all for striking if for any one of various reasons workers are treated or paid unfairly.

What I don't understand is 'residuals'.

Should I be required to pay a plumber if my water and sewer still work after a year or two, or my electrician if the lights still come on when I flip the switch?

I worked as a computer programmer for major banks. Am I entitled to residuals if they are still using the programs I wrote?

Why should those in the entertainment industry be entitled to residuals?

You're right. Disney has made plenty of money off it. Why should they be entitled to an eternal money-printing machine from some artist's hard work? Why shouldn't it go into the public domain as soon as it's been aired?

I'll worry about grasping artists after executives at entertainment companies go back to being the upper-middle-class bureaucrats they once were.

FYI I am a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. I was at a conference last week and we were chatting over a coffee and the subject og walmart came up. I am trying to start a movement in Canada to get people to stop shopping at walmart. It is interesting to see some peoples responses when I talk to them and I can back up what I say

ronhohn @ 6:

Will someone educate me?

I am all for striking if for any one of various reasons workers are treated or paid unfairly.

What I don't understand is 'residuals'.

Should I be required to pay a plumber if my water and sewer still work after a year or two, or my electrician if the lights still come on when I flip the switch?

I worked as a computer programmer for major banks. Am I entitled to residuals if they are still using the programs I wrote?

Why should those in the entertainment industry be entitled to residuals?

Writers write books, and continue to get paid for each copy sold. This is the same thing. The publisher makes money each time a copy of a book is sold. Television networks and studios make money each time an episode or film is aired again. It makes sense to pay the author of this sort of material that continues to make money for its co-owner (authors retain shared ownership of their work). A plumber fixes a pipe, gets well paid for doing the work, but he or she also hasn't spent months preparing for that single unclogged toilet the way a writer spends months (or years) working on a script.

Once again, from Matewan (1987) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEMIvDEFy4

"There ain't but two sorts of people in this world . Them that work and them that don't . You work . They don't ."

No unions = no middle class .

Frybread...well said.

It would be a shame if we started thinking that our common interests may not be Bank Of America's bottom line, or whether or not "Survivor" is good this season.

If we don't have TV we may start noticing our neighbor's sons are not going to college, because they can't afford it, and are instead, being deployed to Iraq.(in this case it is my son.)

We may have to think about why our 30 year old, college graduate kids, are still living at home, or sharing apartments with friends, even though they make the median income.

Worst of all, we may have to think about the lives of those "Illegal immigrants" that we see cutting the grass at our office park, supermarket lot, or healthcare facility. Or wonder about the life of the young man or woman, who looks older than college age, and gives us our "Big Burger and Fries" from the window of the local Burger Biggie.

I am in solidarity with the writers on their strike. But something in me says that if this goes on for a few weeks, it could be a good thing. Probably by no help from the media, but who knows, maybe they will get so desperate for "interesting television" that they may start showing what's really going on in this country, by accident.

I TOTALLY support unions. They should have 10X more members!!!!!!

Mike the Canuck @ 10:

FYI I am a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. I was at a conference last week and we were chatting over a coffee and the subject og walmart came up. I am trying to start a movement in Canada to get people to stop shopping at walmart. It is interesting to see some peoples responses when I talk to them and I can back up what I say

I'm on board. I have never shopped there and never will. I'm overseas now, but tell my family and friends (back in Canada) not to shop there. All the time.

Edwin @ 20:

Mike the Canuck @ 10:

FYI I am a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. I was at a conference last week and we were chatting over a coffee and the subject og walmart came up. I am trying to start a movement in Canada to get people to stop shopping at walmart. It is interesting to see some peoples responses when I talk to them and I can back up what I say

I'm on board. I have never shopped there and never will. I'm overseas now, but tell my family and friends (back in Canada) not to shop there. All the time.

I shop there all the time. Why? Because it saves me money. Bottom line. AND Walmart in Canada being a sharkish corporate monster is a fallacy, pure and simple. If they really wanted to kill the competition, they could in a heartbeat. But they don't. They also pay more than other stores in my area, so why wouldn't people work there, and shop there? They provide more hours and more job security than Zellers, McD's, Tim Hortons, etc.....People should really get realistic. Want to see cut throat corporate "bastards"? Then walk into a McD's or some other franchise fatty McJob employer. Walmart is a smaller evil here.

Let´s not forget that unions are also big business...just like the corporations they fight. I am all for people organizing and striking for their rights, but the heads of these unions are scumbags, just like the heads of the corporations they fight...

iraqconcilable @ 25:

ConcernedCanuck @ 23:

Edwin @ 21:

It's interesting to note the decline in American union membership, and the rise in the number of American billionaires. What a coincidence that is, eh?

It is because people are tired of unions stealing their money in the form of "dues" and doing nothing for their people. I was a union rep and unions look after unions, and not workers now. As long as the fatcat union presidents can ride around in their limos, and Hummers and Caddys, they don't give a damn about their members. They have become just like the governments and corporations they pretend to fight. How much money does the head of the Canadian AutoWorker's Union make? What has he done for them? NOTHING.

Oh puh-leese ! Union membership started declining in the Reagan and Mulroney era when these two shamrock shysters pushed NAFTA through with the promise of cheaper goods if we all bought into the global marketplace con game . Very quickly unions were being broken everywhere as corporations were given the green light to threaten or proceed with closure and shipment of jobs to China . (Not Mexico as Ross Perot had warned ). You think union presidents are the problem ? Have you even grasped how much CEO's salaries and perks have skyrocketed ? And if you're still in a unionized job, look around and compare it to the same type of work in the private sector. If you can do better, then why aren't you working there ?

Oh give me a break. Do you realize how much money unions bring into themselves in a year? Do you know how many people work for unions? I know CEO and corporate management's salaries have skyrocketed. That doesn't mean shit to the workers. That has to do with profits. NAFTA has done nothing. You are worrying about Mexico? Why? Cheap labour? It isn't Mexico my friend, where the jobs are going. It's Asia, and unions won't stop that. See, it's like this. Businesses (small and corporate) are in business to make money. The more profit, the better. You cannot force a business owner to pay you huge wages, guarantee you work, guarantee you endless concessions, etc. You can't. If I owned a business and an employee wanted that, I'd say goodbye, next. Look at the big automakers. In my area some of the highest paid workers, work for the automakers. These people work, sure, but they do jackshit to deserve double the pay of the guy down the street that works his ass off. AND they have made the price of the product so damn high people can't afford them. Yet still their union demands from the company. Well, guess what, it isn't gonna happen. I no longer work for a unionized company, and make higher wages than I ever did with a union "helping" me. Not all companies are asshole owned. If your boss is like that, quit. Go somewhere else.

Concerned Canuck :
First off, I SAID the jobs were being shipped to China but I guess that didn't register . Secondly, it sounds like you've been mis-represented by your former union in some way. If that's the case, sue them but don't give me this crap that all unions are bloodsuckers. In 1987 , I could buy a new GMC truck for under $10,000 . That same style today costs well over $30,000 . Have unionized wages more than tripled in 20 years ? Not even close . But as you said, businesses are in business to make a profit . Do you think getting rid of a union will translate into reduced prices for the public ? No, the business will put it into their pocket . Businesses only reduce prices to hurt the competition. When the damage is done, prices go back up or higher. If your business one day tells you they have to slash your wage in order to compete, then hey, you can always quit and go work someplace else .