Yes Tim,
I doubt if a union in the traditional sense could/would have been much help...In those two cases, I was thinking more of how top management in many cases only think of their personal gain at the expense of all others.. It was not a good example of worker exploitation. But IMO, I am guessing if Lay or Ebbers ran a sweat shop somewhere, now or in the past, they wouldn't give a tinkers damn about worker conditions.
I think of those two characters and about "Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely".. That saying does not just apply to Union Bosses.. I would guess it applies 10 to 1 the other way.. But people here seem to forget that.
But as I watched the screens today, with CNBC purring in the background, I did catch a Enron white collar worker being interviewed. She said something to the effect, that a year ago, a union wouldn't have crossed her mind, but today.....
Actually from what I heard a time or two, was that Enron was a decent place to work for the regular person.. But it was just a corrupt environment, probably at many levels.. I am guessing many at lower levels were aware of the phony operations. An organization IMO, that was infested with enough termites from the foundation to the penthouse so that it had to collapse.
I still think that it is very important to remember the contribution that unions played in workers rights and those that still belong to them, do for a reason and they should be respected for that..
And this idea that a person, alone, can achieve something on their own without organization,... get redress for a grievance is tripping down the yellow brick road IMO..
What is that old patriotic saying ?.. "United we stand, Divided we Fall" That WORKS IMO...... for WORKERS too.. <g>.
c |
