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From: steven@qubix.UUCP (Steven Maurer)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: Unions, onions, and other things to cry about
Message-ID: <990@qubix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Apr-84 03:59:20 EST
Article-I.D.: qubix.990
Posted: Fri Apr 13 03:59:20 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Apr-84 06:14:09 EST
References: <2679@rabbit.UUCP>, <712@ihuxx.UUCP>, <843@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: Qubix Graphic Systems, Saratoga, CA
Lines: 64

I am responding to a somewhat old article, so bear with me....


>                                                      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!

	There are laws that fully protect workers against this sort
    of abuse.   However, the laws do not force unreasonable demands
    upon employers, like some unions do (and like some of our democratic
    socialist allies do).


>   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:

	I *WORKED* my way all through summers during college: Bus Boy,
    odd jobs, gradeschool TA'ing (by no means easy), etc.   And I don't
    think that the job that I currently hold is any easier:  it is certainly
    easier on the mussles, but not on the mind.   Have YOU ever heard of
    Garbage Men getting ulcers from work related stress???


>  >>                           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.

	No, the reason why Bus drivers should not be getting 22K a year,
    is not because of their lack of training, it is because so many people
    would take the job if given it for a lower wage.   What you don't seem
    to understand, is that many present day Unions take a whole lot of
    poor, and make just a few of them wealthy (or at least middle class).
    This raises unemployment, raises costs, and is entirely inefficient
    for the society as a whole.

	Consider BART ({San Francisco} Bay Area Rapid Transit) as an example.   
    At the level of wages that those union workers are getting, when they
    actually did have 3 new job openings, there were over 500 applicants.
    (This was during Jimmy Carter's incumbency, and there wasn't much
    unemployment.)  The plain fact of the matter was that BART could have
    saved the taxpayers (who main body includes people who need that kind
    of money), quite a bundle.

	By the way, the right wing makes the same mistake by saying that
    Defense Jobs are good for the economy.   They are wrong, because the
    money is taken from the taxpayers, and companies, which {although we
    don't see it at the low levels}. This puts a tremendous drain on the
    economy.  In other words, paying engineers to build fancy equipment,
    and then dig holes and bury the stuff, is about as productive as paying
    them to be on a chain gang (considerably less so in fact).


						-- Steven Maurer