September 02, 2005

The Machinists and the Job Cut Fairy

Looks like The Job Cut Fairy has been dealt a kick in the crotch by the Boeing Machinists. Tonight, the Machinists Union backed a strike by an 86 percent vote. Which makes it a pretty good majority.

I have always wondered where is the backbone of the labor movement in this country? And why has it developed such a bad name? Seems that the unions have done a certain amount of damage to themselves, by associating with all kinds of unsavory characters and focusing on lobbying rather than on the priorities of the constituents. But what are you gonna do? You get some power, you get elected, you represent a whole bunch of people and you discover you like the power and want to get more of it. So you figure out different ways to maintain the chokehold. And if that comes at the expense of the people that put you where you are at, so be it. Because you know what's best, right?

Wrong.
Dead wrong.

This is what caused the labor movement to fall into the deep, deep toilet that it is in today. This toilet needs a periodical lively flushing, which is exactly what's happening now. By the way, you can apply the same pattern to the world of politics and you'll get the system we got, where you get less attrition than what you had in the old Soviet Communist Party. Pretty pathetic all around. Ultimately what it comes down to, is completely ignoring the needs of the people once they put you in charge.

Good for the machinists. And good for International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Service Employees International Union for splitting from the AFL-CIO. Keep at it!