What Have American Unions Ever Done For Us?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Run time: 03:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iObqguaNDdA   Posted on YouTube: July 08, 2011 By YouTube Member: karinmoveon Views on YouTube: 13091   Posted on DU: July 09, 2011 By DU Member: proud2BlibKansan Views on DU: 4435

 
What have American Unions ever done for us?? Turns out: quite a bit!

Produced by MoveOn Creative

Props to the original Monty Python and to Manic Times's Aussie version of this sketch

[Monkwan]

1. No job..?

I work for a fairly large company with a canadian, a chinese, and an austrian location.

The company has been open for about 20 years and hasn't made a penny. The owner has dumped in 200 million or so, all the revenue, plus some government loans.

There have been 3-4 layoffs & rehires in its time. It's been tough.




If employees demanded a union, the owner just couldn't afford it and it would close up.

In my case, I'm lucky to have this job. It's a good thing people haven'y insisted on unionising. Or I'd be a bum.



Just some food for thought. Some businesses may have thrived if not for unions. Does a GM assembly worker, with no education, really deserve $35 an hour?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. GM assembly workers do not make $35 an hour

Lucky for you, I happen to have a good friend who just retired from GM. Their assembly line workers are now making $14 an hour to start. My friend made $25 an hour.

[juxtaposed]

3. yes they do, why would you use one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Do you feel pay should be based only on education? Why didn't you just say, "Do you think an assembly worker should be getting $75hr" like Fox Does.

Play classes against each other.
If your company had a union would you be the first to cross a picket, would you be the first to stab one of your brothers or sisters in the back to save your ass, would you be one of those rats that refuses to pay their dues?

What should an assembly worker for GM be making an hour?, It would have to be much less than what you make. $7hr sound fare, they are uneducated as you stated.

[mikeburetta]

4. unions

And the cry goes out..buisiness cant afford unions after all working us wages are not competitive with third world labor so wages have to come down. Third world countries don't pay benefits so they gotta go too. To be competitive on the world market we cant have safety standards in the work place. child labor laws..naw cant have them because sweat shops abroad will steal our thunder. And all this to what end? So we in america can have a lower standard of living? Remember this its not just staying even its losing even what we have, Time to think forward and not back. If productivity in a company goes up shouldn't workers get a raise rather than just stock holders getting a bigger dividend?
Unions are what evened the playing field. Think about what made a middle class in the us it wasn't workers getting poorer and owners getting richer..Ford had the right idea building things that the workers could afford to buy on there wages.

[Enthusiast]

17. Thank you and welcome to DU.

Your post is quite a contrast with post number one.

I'm sick of reading Republican talking points on the DU.

[chervilant]

5. Gosh...

A company that's been 'open for twenty years,' yet 'hasn't made a penny'? -- not a savvy business person, huh?

Good thing he has people like you to carry his water...

[chervilant]

6. OIC...

You just joined Democratic Underground TODAY, so you could post a response slamming unions?!

The stench of desperation hangs in the air...

[canuckledragger]

8. no desperation..

Just another troll or sock puppet..( or repub or teabagger in disguise)

Ain't it obvious?

I'd LOVE to see more unions in general in Canada...& force out the more exploitative international corps that take advantage of our weaker laws in that regards (like a few amercian based call centers I've worked for)

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Good call

:thumbsup:

[HankyDubs]

7. obviously a right wing plant

telling lies as he was paid to do.

[DWinNJ]

12. Two things

1) Everyone seems to be piling on Post 1 so I guess I’ll join in.

The post doesn’t pass the smell test
If you are saying that after 20 years and about $200 million, the company isn’t making money there is something basically wrong.

On the one hand, the company is poorly run and will flounder along with or without a union.
It makes a poor example to back the argument of the harm unionizing would do.
On the other hand, the company could be using accounting trickery and offshore banks to show a “lack of profits” to keep wages and taxes to a minimum while the owners are raking it in.

2) While the ad makes all good points, I think it is a bit convoluted and drawn out to have an impact on anyone but the already converted.

[olegramps]

13. Take your Freeper bullshit back to the right-wing idiots posting board.

[guitar man]

14. If you're going to talk about "what people deserve"

Let's start at the top ;)

what is the CEO and other top execs getting paid? It's their job to make the company profitable, yet in 20 years, without a union, they still haven't been able to do it? What do they deserve for their dismal performance? How are they living?

[Enthusiast]

15. Oh, just get fucked..........nt

[Plucketeer]

16. LOL!

Enjoy your brief time at DU! :rofl: Very convincing argument, BTW! :rofl:

[lunasun]

19. It's a good thing people haven'y insisted on unionising. Or I'd be a bum

UNIONIZING
WHEN you make your stupid tea bagger anti union sign please spell it UNIONIZING

These people are such poor spellers among the many skills lacking.......one of the reasons they despise the educated as much as those with no education.

"GM assembly work" often requires technical knowledge and computer skills.

and it is haven't........ not haven'y............

I will agree with you that you are lucky to have a job !

[livingonearth]

20. Thank you "No Job.."

You have just made the point that unions should not always be looked at as the reason companies do poorly. You claim your company hasn't made a penny in 20 years...that's just bad management, pure and simple. Maybe you should get a union job at a company that isn't failing.

[liberation]

21. So what you're trying to say is that unions aren't the deciding factor when it comes to productivity

and profitability being affected negatively. Since your "company" employs unionized trolls like you, and yet you guys haven't managed to turn a profit.

So we can turn your question around, since you guys it that mythical company are sucking up government loans and yet no profit in sight. What makes you feel you deserve that job? Apparently, you have a track record as poor (or poorer) as that mythical "uneducated" assembly worker at GM.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

23. You're right, it's all the union's fault that GM had to be bailed out

It had nothing to do with poor mamnagement or sinking all that money into building Hummers...

[kenfrequed]

24. Uhm BS

You work for a business that hasn't made a penny in twenty years? I call BS. I don't know if your lying or if your merely unaware of what the business you are working for pulls in, in either case you are completely uncredible.

[EnviroBat]

25. Have you ever worked an assembly line job for an automotive manufacture?

They deserve $35 an hour! That fucking job SUCKS! It's strenuous, repetitive, endless labor. Your breaks are timed TO THE SECOND in most positions. But I guess a worker, "with no education" isn't worth a squirt of piss in your perfect little fascist world. I think you've come to the wrong site.

[Bucky]

27. Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the Koolaid this morning

[awoke_in_2003]

9. nice play on "The Life of Brian" skit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso

we owe a lot to unions.

[RoccoRyg]

10. Nice

Life of Brian- still a masterpiece.

Hard to look on the bright side of life sometimes.

[Enthusiast]

18. K&R!

I love it!

[Populist_Prole]

22. Great video but RW-ers would never admit to it,

Hell, they'd say good riddance to all the positive points those in that "meeting" made anyway.

[Bucky]

26. They need to cut a 30 second version of this. Only pro-union people will see this online.

Needs more punch.