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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!rabbit!jj
From: jj@rabbit.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame
Subject: Re: Enforced socialism?!?!?!?
Message-ID: <2702@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Apr-84 10:45:29 EST
Article-I.D.: rabbit.2702
Posted: Thu Apr 12 10:45:29 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Apr-84 20:14:49 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 53

Ken, I lived in Niles, Ohio (where?  never mind) for most of
my childhood and adolescent years.  That town has (or had, I should say)
two industries, steel and autos.  

In Niles, the control the union has was enormous.  At the mills
the control was also enormous, to the point where people
couldn't even be fired for cause unless they were also bucking
the union at the same time.  (Bucking the union either got you
fired or injured at work, when a wrench would accidentally fall
on you.)

Certainly all of the union members that I knew weren't like that,
but a good percentage were convinced that they only had to keep
the union happy, never mind production, etc.  <The stories
about the Lordstown Vega plant are amazing, but I like being
alive myself. (yeah, I exagerate, but not much...) >

From my viewpoint, the reason that the auto industry and the
steel industry are dying is clear, and the cause is mostly
<not all, naturally> labor.  The management of the various companies
is hardly without blame, but certainly shares a much lesser part,
sometimes even almost none (thanks, JFK).

Talking about the suppression of labor by management is fine and
dandy, and gets lots of votes and lots of sympathy, most of
it from the DAMN WELL NOT ILLITERATE union members who you
affect. <I suggest that you NEVER make that comment in a steel
town, unless you have police protection!>  Talking about
the responsibility of labor is, needless to say, almost as
unpopular as calling the union members functionally illiterate.
It certainly won't get you elected, and passing up the
subject just might, so...  <of course, you better vote right, too,
or else...>

Ken, please get off your pedestal and go to an old heavy industrial
town, and look around you.  Look past the breadlines and the
lines of (literate) unemployed. (If you see a line, talk to the
people in it.  See if they are literate, and if they
read anything.  Might just be the sports section, yes, but at least
they READ.)    Talk to them and find out what their attitude is while
working.  Listen to them, they know which side the bread has always
been buttered on.  Look for yourself.  <Dare I suggest this?>
Talk to management.  Listen to THEM for a while, too, if you
are willing to allow equal time.

Reality isn't always nice, Ken, nor is it black and white.

Have a nice (unionized) day.
-- 
TEDDY BEARS ARE NICER THAN PEOPLE--HUG YOURS TODAY!
(If you go out in the woods today ... )
 
(allegra,harpo,ulysses)!rabbit!jj