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Pastimes : 5spl -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (1072)	6/23/2003 7:30:08 PM
From: LPS5	Respond to of 2534

If the building you work in now develops a toxic air conditioning problem and management refuses to fix it, will you just quit and find another job? In today's job market? Well, no. What will happen is, I'll complain to my boss, as likely will other people. The boss, who pays the rent, will complain to the landlord, who'll have the option of fixing the problem or having a rent-paying tenant leave. Surely, there would have been negotiated some termination clauses in the lease agreement among which a 'material change of circumstances' clause could be invoked. Is the landlord inclined to let a paying client go in an economy this bad? Is the landlord willing to face the court of public opinion whereby he'd be known as the guy who wouldn't fix the toxic AC system? Is the landlord ready for a landslide of lawsuits if, years from now, former tenants get sick? Is the landlord willing to risk his own health, assuming he spends some time each day or week on the premises? I doubt it. Alternately, if the ("my") boss wouldn't confront the landlord, perhaps yes, I would leave. More likely, though, I'd organize my co-workers to strike until, or unless, the AC system was fixed; certainly, even providing for the amount of smoking that some of these guys do, I'm not the only individual concerned about my lungs. Does my employer want to lose that revenue, give his competitors a chance to grab employees, or otherwise gain a reputation as a spineless businessman with little regard for his charges? Does he want to risk lawsuits, distracting him from the business of business? Again, I doubt it. Now; would it work exactly like that? It's doubtful - real life is messier. However, it's simply foolish - indeed, underrating the power of human conviction, organization, and gregariousness - to believe that without the heavy, paternal hand of unelected bureaucrats, things would simply fall apart economically, socially, or politically. That's the very thinking that got them there, and keeps them there. LPS5