While I am sympathetic to labor and think that those whacky anarcho-syndicalists have contributed mightily and well to the doomed but necessary endeavor of freeing humanity from authority, I think it's also fair to note that labor unions as actually constituted in these United States run a narrow gamut between toadyism and gomerism. Long since defeated by their own callowness in the face of anti-Communism, they exist today as metastasized tumors on the rickety bones of America's dying industries, ever seeking a little more calcium, mindlessly contributing to the death of their hosts even as they self-delude themselves into believing they possess some autonomous life of their own. So, as Pittsburgh fails to dig out of a snow storm that my good friends in Buffalo and my own memories of the wintry Colorado vacations of my youth assure me to be No Big Deal, I feel it only right and proper to commend to yinz this minor hilarity:
Tweeting motorists weren't the only ones complaining. Pittsburgh Parking Authority meter readers who were told to shovel snow around public garages weren't happy about that, either.There weren't any shots . . . It was a heart attack . . . Call the medics, Dude . . . I'd go myself but I'm pumpin blood. Might pass out.
"They are doing jobs that are to be done by facility operators from the Teamsters union," said Shawn Beck, union steward for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2719.
"They're not getting the training that they need to be shown how to properly shovel snow. ... They're not getting trained in how to lift 50-pound bags of salt.
"One's already down ... with an injury," he said, "and I've got more wounded people coming in."
Rest easy good buddy. You're doing fine. We got help chopperin in.
59 comments:
Having been an actual card-carrying anarcho-syndicalist for some years, as a member of the well-depleted Wobblies, I have to point out that the anarcho-syndicalists and today's unions are far from being one and the same. I would also suggest that "callowness in the face of anti-Communism" is not properly descriptive of the role of the trade union leadership's role in driving out the radical sections of their unions and that rather it should be described as complicity in the communist scares in pursuit of their own self-aggrandizement and at the expense of, and in reaction to, uppity union members.
Other than that, I don't find much to disagree with here.
Oh and, Dude. Tomorrow's already the 10th. Just slip the rent under my door.
Rojo, I think that I was trying to say exactly that "the anarcho-syndicalists and today's unions are far from being one and the same." If that wasn't clear, that's my fault.
Lovely post and all, but I got stuck on the phrase "the doomed but necessary endeavor of freeing humanity from authority." Coupled with last week's near endorsement of the anti-DADTers, am I right to sense a subtle shift in Iozian policy? Or, did I miss all the other posts that, however briefly, speak favorably of action?
Don't run away from this, Dude! Goddamnit, this affects all of us!
they brought us the weekend!
@TeeDub
Inaction is, sometimes, the best action. Like now.
The Christians
dooomed, IOZ!? Based on what? That ignores quite a bit of human history where similar efforts were not doomed. Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax! YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I'M LIVING IN THE FUCKING PAST
A steaming pile with with a point buried somewhere underneath. The so-called "labor movement" did screw itself over anti-communism and get fat by collaborating with liberal assholes. No argument there. But some unions have played an important role organizing e.g. service workers. You think nursing home attendants shouldn't have collective bargaining rights? Up yours.
As for the little satire of occupational health and safety advocacy - it stinks. Ordering a meter maid to carry fifty pound bags damn well ought to be cause for OSHA litigation. Call for volunteers, sure; orders from above completely inappropriate. If the union rep didn't have their back ont hat so to speak they wouldn't be doing their job.
This kind of union bashing really annoys me.
"Ordering a meter maid to carry fifty pound bags damn well ought to be cause for OSHA litigation."
The City of Pittsburgh made government employees work -- it's a crime, I tells ya!
I have to tell you, buddies. The fact that I am a Teamster is probably the main reason why I am a Wobbly.
So giggling at things like "Not trained to shovel snow", and "Not trained to carry 50lb bags of salt" constitutes union bashing and minimizing the importance of collective bargaining?
Damn. Who knew?
Land of the free, home of the brave.
I think Kevin Carson would trace the decline well back before anti-communism, but to Samuel Gomper's opportunistic embrace of the state.
Public sector labor unions used to be illegal. I don't see the rationale for allowing them, the government is hardly a capable bargainer. But I also don't see the rationale for having most of those jobs in the public sector in the first place.
What are you, a fucking park ranger?
Best use of Lebowski lines in a while, Monsieur. Prezzy called this shit Snowmageddon, and that means war (we're now entrenched, dug in, etc.). I mean, Christ, don't yinz read the Bible?
Let me tell you something else.I've seen a lot of spinals, Dude,and this guy is a fake. A fucking goldbricker.
That reminds me of something. Steve Pinker writes in the Blank Slate how he used to be a Bakuninist. Then the police went on strike and he found out how shit things are when there's no police. But to me that story had a different effect: it showed that public sector policing was vulnerable to a strike. If something like Bruce Benson's model was in effect there could be multiple competing agencies, and if one was temporarily out of action others could pick up the slack. But our police claim a monopoly and so no such agencies were around to do so during the strike, and since they were expected to be back in not too long there was little point in trying to set up such an agency.
"I'm gonna lie to ya, boys -- some of us ain't gonna make it back, today. But America's countin' on us, and I'm not gonna be the one what lets 'em down. Now who's with me!?!? All right, then -- grab your snow shovels! OVER THE TOP, BOYS!!! Aaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!"
"Cold...so cold...MOMMA!"
Let's just say I give a shit about the fucking marmot.
Yeah...I can see a city full of "competing" police forces being real effective. Especially when the civillians are caught in the crossfire.
Speaking of crossfire, this is hilarious.
"You think nursing home attendants shouldn't have collective bargaining rights?"
Oh, not at all. They should. The employers should also be free to fire them all. Freedom of association and such.
"Ordering a meter maid to carry fifty pound bags damn well ought to be cause for OSHA litigation."
yes, i am sure they were ordering a 105 pound meter maid to pick up 50 pound bags or else...
also, since the roads aren't really passable and there therefore can't really be any cars parking, there is not really any need for meter maids. the meter maids can stay home and not get paid, or they can pick up a shovel and keep their pay. who knew such a thing was so controversial in some parts.
Right. And when a sewage pipe at the office overflows, they should get to order the secretaries to squeeze shit from the carpet. Of course, they can always go home without pay.
You people is ugly, and IOZ gets no style points for genuflecting in your direction.
Shoveling snow is like squeezing shit? My wife grew up on the east coast -- she talks about shoveling snow as a child. But clearly she was being BRUTALLY TORTURED by her parents, because that's just like being forced to wallow in sewage.
How stupid and lazy are you looking to be, here?
lol @ "snow shoveling experts"
what are you, some kind of chicken-shit, sticks to job description only?
@ Moloch-Agonistes
But, but, something good came out of all that genuflecting to Molech, didn't it?
No. From my limited understanding of USofA labor relations I can come up with two ways in which unions are key to the corporatist Molech:
1) Deliver to corporations a standardized workforce - Mr. Ford can rely on the fact that 10,000 workers WILL show up every morning to man his confectioneries.
2) Force up-and coming industrialists to compete according to rules drawn between large corporations and large unions - which "just so happen" to price the small fry out of market.
Republicans-Democrats-Government
Big Business-Big Labor-Economy
Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis
"But I also don't see the rationale for having most of those jobs in the public sector in the first place." Yes, having Kellogg-Brown & Root run the bus system is definitely a good idea.
Boss = parent. Right. No point in continuing, but yes, this is clearly about power relations in the workplace. Not about snow.
Argument: When the city gets buried in snow, it's not a bad idea for everybody to grab a shovel and help to dig out.
Response: That's like covering clerical employees in human shit!
It's silly no matter how you argue it. After a snowstorm, I don't mind shoveling some snow. And this but what if you had to shovel snow in the face of a POWER DIFFERENTIAL!?!? thing -- well, whatever. It's like Matewan!
Okay, this is funny. Either Pittsburgh Parking authority has been furiously revising its job descriptions or the union rep has a reading comprehension problem. Either way, my daily chum is done.
This reminds me that IOZ and his quasi-libertoonian ilk are really fucking nasty people, well-off turds with office jobs who post comments here when they should be working, and then castigate people who actually do stuff for not taking whatever shit white-collar weenies like themselves seek to inflict.
Mostly like it around here, but the man was right. You folks ugly.
"When the city gets buried in snow, it's not a bad idea for everybody to grab a shovel and help to dig out."
Vicious. The ugliness.
Wait - it's coming to me - through the mists of time - moloch as Rousseau and IOZ as Voltaire ...
Hey, Bray, you asshole. Seriously, say that to someone who fucking works you pusbag. I'm fucking sick of you. Haven't seen you on any other threads around here, until your tender fucking sensibilities got pricked by workin' folks tryin' to makes a dollah without they hoein' de patch all day. Fuck off, die, and look bad doing it. I'm sick of people like you, and I ain't debating. Just die so the world is a little better.
Whatcha doin for a living, nony?
I've had worse fucking jobs than you, and I'm sure as shit not afraid to tell tough union fuckers to pick up a snow shovel in a storm. Well, until there's about four of them.
"workin' folks tryin' to makes a dollah without they hoein' de patch all day"
Ha, you're a poser. Jesus, at least choose a name before going all "havent seen you on any threads 'round heah, mmmm hmmm"
I resent the implication that I work.
Statement: "When the city gets buried in snow, it's not a bad idea for everybody to grab a shovel and help to dig out."
Reaction: "Fuck off, die, and look bad doing it. I'm sick of people like you, and I ain't debating. Just die so the world is a little better."
Do you live under a freeway bridge?
That former libertarian is a better laborist than all you fucks. IOZ, you're right and you know it.
In fairness, I would be willing to shovel snow -- I just can't reach down to the sidewalk from my position atop this pile of laborers. They seem to have bulked up during the bubble years.
We are talking about municipal employee unions, right? Where I live they have a MUCH better deal (Good salaries + OT, benefits, guaranteed pensions, etc.) than the rest of us proles. They're certainly not in the same "Just trying to make a living" category as people working a fry-o-lator or stockings shelves.
lol this is so retarded
I am sort of attached to the idea that some jobs are real jobs and some jobs are fake jobs, as opposed to my more general theory that all jobs are fake jobs but some jobs are faker jobs than other jobs.
I thought the entire economy was fake anyway.
AS IF WE WOULD EVER DREAM OF TAKING YOUR BULLSHIT MONEY!
I can never tell if all jobs are fake jobs or if it's just most. I know all the ones I've had are fake.
there are real jobs. they're usually done by fake people. i mean illegals.
So "Get a real job" means "get a fake one or one that's even more fake that what you do now".
My advice is, do what your parents did! Get a job, sir!
Something that sucks about having a job in the United States is that you have [to] go to it. This is probably the number one pet peeve of people with jobs. On top of that, there are many responsibilities which are placed on you with the expectation that you will care about them. Why anyone believes you will care about them is a very funny thing to discover, particularly if you don't care about them so passionately that you forget what they are. I have seen this happen so many times it makes me proud to be an American -- normally I am not a very patriotic person -- because the reason is always that you don't have any choice. Not having any choice is a very good reason to care about something, and this logic forms the basis of our very economy.
I approve.
The police we have right now spend their time enforcing drug laws (begetting more violence on the part of drug distributors), raping prostitutes, driving drunk with no penalties and arresting anyone who fails to RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH for "contempt of cop". Yes, I think if they had to compete for the patronage of the public they'd be more apt "to serve and protect". Laugh at rent-a-cops if you will, but I can guarantee you they don't go on paid leave after pulling the kind of shit America's Finest do regularly.
Yes, having Kellogg-Brown & Root run the bus system is definitely a good idea.
From my perspective, if you're working a government contract you're working for the government, so it's public sector. For the bus system, just stop hassling gypsie cab operators. Santiago Chile used to have that kind of system, but recently got rid of it and since then things are fucked. For the opposite transition, just mutualize.
I'm a leftie and a fan of (this) Enron's thoughts, but KBR was a problem of cronyism and distribution of contracts, not a problem with private business as such.
Girl, you really got them goin'
You got them so they don't know what they're doin'
Yeah, you really got them now
You got them so theycan't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got them now
You got them so they don't know what they're doin' now
Oh yeah, you really got them now
You got them so they can't sleep at night
You Really Got them
You Really Got them
You Really Got them
See, don't ever set them free
They always wanna be by your side
Girl, you really got them now
You got them so they can't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got them now
You got them so they don't know what they're doin', now
Oh yeah, you really got them now
You got them so they can't sleep at night
Yes, damn you reality, for imposing NEEDS upon my person! My hunger for food, my thirst, even my very need to breathe are but SHACKLES OF AUTHORITY!! Where is the choice I ask you? The JUSTICE?? How dare you, reality, SIR.
I for one, SIR, am awaiting an economy that is not based on some phony logic of "scarcity." GOOD DAY TO YOU
What the fuck did that even mean?
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