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From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: Unions, onions, and other things to cry about
Message-ID: <843@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Apr-84 01:21:15 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.843
Posted: Sat Apr  7 01:21:15 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Apr-84 01:31:34 EST
References: <2679@rabbit.UUCP>, <712@ihuxx.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 37

--
I hope Dave Ihnat realizes that most labor in the US is NOT
organized.  Curiously, non-union plants tend to have lower wages
and poorer working conditions than union ones.  Wonder why that
could be.  AT&T employees get a nice bit of free long-distance
telephone service.  We all get it because the CWA won it for its
members.  Not even any grudging gratitude, Dave?  Well, Dave has
clearly never worked in a factory where some dumb foreman ordered
him to do something unsafe.  Sometimes you need a union steward
to stay not fired and not dead.  Bless em!

Of course, I'm a yuppie now--make good bucks--great environment.
And I don't do it for the money anyway.  No, I can't say as a union
would do anything for me here.  But haven't any of you union-baiters
ever worked for a living?  I mean *WORKED*.  Look at this:

>>                           In Chicago, a busdriver could make better
>> than $22,000/year.  FOR DRIVING A BUS??

Driving a bus is a hell of a lot harder than hacking.  Hacking is fun,
ferchrissake.  And if you fall asleep at the terminal, the most you'll
lose is a file!  Bus drivers hold hundreds (in Chicago, thousands) of
lives in their hands every day.  Their service is vital.  And unlike
computer jocks, they have hell to pay when they're late.

Now, we computer scientists have a lot more training than bus drivers.
Anyone can be a bus driver, right?  Well, if length of training is the
key, all good musicians should be millionaires.  But that's life.
It ain't fair, and it can be real degrading.  AND THAT'S WHY THERE'S
UNIONS--for one thing above all else--DIGNITY.
-- 
                    *** ***
JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
                 ****** ******    06 Apr 84 [17 Germinal An CXCII]
ken perlow       *****   *****
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