233 Comments

You should be including all the important work for unionizing doctors, PAs, MA, nurses etc in response to corporate takeover of healthcare. Doctors have long been considered owners despite 70% being employees, with little to no say in hospital or corporate policies. They are finally realizing the only voice they may have left to protect their patients is unionization.

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I was a union RN once (now retired). It was an adversarial relationship between supervisors/administration and the nurses, but it was the best representation. If they even attempted to make us take an assignment against union rules, we just picked up the phone and called our union steward...and that was the end of that. About 4 weeks after I left, the nurse went on strike. Pt. care is foremost for us, but when they unsafely push staff to assume more than they should, unions save the day.

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I too am a retired INA union RN. After many years of faithful negotiations and good relationships, they brought in a DOA. and her team to try and bust the union, and force unsafe practices for patients. We did go on strike, we prevailed and protected safe practices for patients and nurses. Without the union we would have had no voice and no power. The US has the worst healthcare of any industrialized country and costs the most. Healthcare is very broken and is now controlled by insurance companies and Hospital/medical center corporations, Profits over people now rules. I will be so glad if Doctors realize their employee status and unionize to protect themselves, but also to protect the needs and safety of patients. The suicide rate for Doctors is higher than the general population, is worse for nurses, and is the worst for MA’s. How can this country justify pay outrages salaries in some athletes, some actors, entertainers and most CEO’s, but the people who keep life running like undocumented workers, nurses, MA’s, social workers, teachers, those that kept us going during covid supplying food, pharmacy help, transportation, cleaning, etc. at such low wages? You judge a society by how it treats it’s most vulnerable. We are at a turning point and I am backing workers, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation, country of origin, culture , religion uniting and realizing that the oligarchy is raging about false hatred’s to divide us, but we can unite and decrease their power just like in the Gilded Age.

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It’s the accountants they monetize people without caring one bit about cause and effect of decisions based on the math. Cut costs after materials it’s patients per nurse or LPN the higher ratio the more revenue (money)💰per patient…

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Blaming accountants for oppressing and dehumanizing workers is like blaming engineers when an airplane crashes. Accountants, like engineers, are workers, too. They are doing what they have been tasked to do by their managers. We must keep our focus on the real culprits: the "people" at the top. Greedy owners and massively- overpaid CEOs are the source of worker abuse, and unions are part of the solution to that problem.

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True but you can’t inspect quality into a manufactured product you design and have to build Quality into a product.

In some cases Quality and Quantity are enemy’s . In My Humble Opinion Boeing has tried to push Quanity without observing Quality . If the manufacturing process is not designed to support quality while creating a product or Service pushing the process to produce quantity will negate the issue of Quality.

Patients dying unnecessarily; and planes falling out of the sky are the result…

Cost accounting is designed to maximize the output with a limited set of inputs therefor efficiency increases. Managers decide what is acceptable output which effects price and profits …

All managers are well versed in accounting almost as a requirement of employment…

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Quality is expensive in the short term....but as Boeing is finding out (FAFO), if you cut Quality for Quantity and Profit, the longer term consequences are MUCH more expensive.

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I also think that Boeing has alienated the workforce and they are in a nonparticipating relationship with management. I’m guessing Boeing’s push for production has short circuited quality…

Can t force partnerships increased production should increase wages and make people happy to work at Boeing.

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I agree with you to an extent, but you still don't understand who is the root cause of the problem. Engineers, accountants, doctors, inspectors, electricians, plumbers, etc. are all employees, who are proud of the work they do. These people are frustrated because their top management will not let them do what they know is proper, because it costs too much and cuts too deeply into the profit margin of the product/service. It's the business school graduates in the boardrooms and ivory towers who call the shots that shape the culture of the company. If they decide that the best operating methods to satisfy their shareholders is to cut corners and dance and spin when something goes wrong, that is what they do, and they are handsomely rewarded for it if they are successful at pulling it off. It is top management who controls the level of quality of a product; the employees have little impact on the result.

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My mom was a nurse

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I could 'not' agree more with you Dawne; the time for that movement is most definitely long 'overdue.' Both of our adult children chose 'healthcare' as a calling and profession, specifically they are both ER professionals and in debt over their ears for the choice to serve, which I'm going to guess that you would know with certainty that aside from financial debt that will alter all their life choices like starting their own families, owning a home, there is the daily cost and toll on them as 'humans'. I am astounded that they made it through the ER demands of the active phases of covid, which you would also know, that although most of us are still in PTSD and psychologically 'done' with even hearing about it, the virus is not done with us, nor those who toil away for all of our benefit.

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In NSW Australia the paramedics are unionized and late 2023 around 60% threatened to not reregister by December 31, which would have caused a collapse of our emergency services. All was based on their claim to make up for loss of real wages caused by the past Liberal government policy. If not for their collective power they would have not have got their 20% pay claim. The alternative being a collapse of our emergency services when they move interstate to get the pay increase requested.

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That is a hell uv a way to respond to Roberts article, by saying you should is acccusatory and puts him on his back foot.

Why not just come out and say.

There is important unionizing work going on all over the country, and then cite examples.

Sheesh.

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Hell, there are only 4 states that have laws on the books outlawing bestiality, what's so wrong with unionized college sports programs, think of it as a way of assisting the animals.

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I am all for unionized college sports, so long as they are profit centers for universities.

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Lee--You and me makes three.

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My southern, hometown non profit hospital got sold out by its board of directors(it’s believed)to HCA of all things. People were furious! Services were cut as was staff. Docs left and then Covid hit. Nurses had been protesting all the changes and staff cuts before Covid but when the pandemic hit and everyone was pushed to the max trying to get enough PPD and some help on the floors the nurses went into overdrive. They stood on the streets with signs on the few off hours they had. They pushed and wrote letters to the editor and the Attorney General who had ok’d the sale with stipulations. They pushed to unionize. Of course HCA anted no part of that and did everything in the book to stop them but when the vote was held and the smoke had cleared, the nurses had pulled it off and had voted in the union! I don’t know when I’ve been more proud of a dedicated bunch of women in my life. So it can be done in the south. It just takes dedication and hard work and people being sick and tired of being grateful for the little bit the big dogs have always been willing to dole out. People have got to know that without their hard work, there would be no successful company. Life is too short to work for a pittance any more. Now, if restaurant workers could break the restaurant owners lobby maybe they could make more than $2.35/hr which is what it’s been at least 1979 when I was just starting out as a bartender.

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Be careful what you wish for…

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Why? Explain yourself.

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We could wait a while.

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Your not Michael.

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Clarification: we could wait a while for Michael to respond.

My money’s on Godot.

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That I understand. I wonder how many are familiar with Waiting for Godot.

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I think doctors wished for a third party payment system in the first place so many decades ago, right?

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They have Lynn, Doctors are tired of having to call Insurance companies for visits, tests and procedures

My local medical center is a non profit, owned by the Nuns of St Joseph, it was absolutely excellent. I could sit down with my PCP and have a conversation about my health concerns, now it is managed by a private equity firm (Black Rock), and the doctors are on the clock, only allowed 15 minutes per patient for outpatient visit.

This once great medical center, is now a profit center, and I have had conversations with nurses and my PCP that I am very unhappy with the situation. I have their attention now.. squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Privatized medicine is not health care.

Everyone should have a semi annual, at least an annual full work up including blood, and a CT Scan.

I get a semi annual CT Scan because I am in remission from lung cancer, but the last scan showed possible problems unrelated to my lungs, as they scan all internal organs and email me a copy of the results. Saturday I get an MRI, also semi annual, because the cancer had metastasized to the brain and had been removed by surgery and radiation follow up.

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In Europe if you want to play sports you don’t do it at your local High School or school district funded Football teams .

In Europe if you want to Swim You join an non school SWIM CLUB. Want to play high school level Soccer You join A SOCCER CLUB etc…

The school system has no financial responsibility at all for sport activities they are self funded.

We should adopt the European Model of Sport activities in the USA from primary School to the College Level…

Sports are sports , Academic education is academic education…

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In America school sports are a profitable business.

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Not for the Tax Payers. Winning coaches get pay raises second jobs if they want them, etc.

Taxpayers are paying for some parents to relive their teenage years through their kids…

We had a kid who was a high school quarterback, star of the team, etc. couldn’t get anywhere after a while after you graduated so he self terminated himself, no academics to fall back on.

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Exactly and that is why the players are unionizing Citizen

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@ Lee. Usually only football and basketball at major colleges All are losers unless they are loss leaders for contributions by alums.

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Not at Dartmouth

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PSU At the time of the pedophile scandal was pulling down 50 million each year.

Yo Po, the head coach is making a pretty hefty salary which then donate it back so many millions of it to the library and help the library maybe but it definitely helped Joe Paterno tax returns.

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A few years ago, a map of the USA circulated on the internet that showed all 50 states’ highest-paid state employee. Universally the highest paid was either the football coach or the basketball coach. This is a travesty.

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Why is that?

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Did you read the article? Dartmouth is not a major conference or competitor. The athletes aren't given athletic scholarships. If you know anything about college sports you know Dartmouth doesn't make money off of sports.

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Has nothing to do with reading the article. When you pop in with a comment like "Not at Dartmouth" you need to explain yourself, which you finally did.

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You said American school sports are profitable. I replied not a Dartmouth. What's to explain?

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No fanbase. Geographically remote. Low TV other ancillary revenue.

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No, college sports are profitable businesses, and high school football and basketball might break even.

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Agree wholeheartedly!

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Many kids only stay in school because of sports.

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Then they are gypping their self. Schools keeps kids out of the labor force and are supposed to to educate the children into society. Many parents view the schools as a babysitting service.

Others view school like a beer hall where you bring your child to be a passive receptacle like an empty mug to be filled up with knowledge. Teachers pour knowledge into empty vessels.

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👍

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Now all you have to do is convince the colleges, it's a cash cow for them.

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Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, in America we value entertainment far more than we value education.

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Sure, after most of the states and school districts cut back on funding for all gym classes and sports except football and basketball when there's a money crunch. You really think state governments will pick up the slack for swimming and tennis?

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Education institutions should concentrate on being just that. The massive "business" of Sports as younger athletes are funneled into professional sports should be abandoned to the B Leagues and such. I expect to hear some howling.

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About 23 years ago, I perused the NCAA Rulebook, which stated that student athletes could spend only 20 hours a week practicing their sport. Not bad, I thought, much like a part-time job working for the food-service contractor at the Student Union cafeteria. Later, I discovered that what that 20-hour restriction didn’t include were early morning runs of five miles and daily workouts at the gym, which adds at least 10 hours to overall athletic activity, resulting in 30+ hours per week for NCAA athletes. Conclusion: NCAA rules are a travesty.

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👍

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Admittedly, I am not a big sports fan but I went to a University of Texas football game more than several years ago. It was an unseasonably hot winter day and my bargain ticket was in the end zone area in brutal sunshine. There was no shade. I was puzzled as I watched the teams stop playing and just stand waiting for a few minutes until I realized that that is when the commercials were playing for the TV audience. Then I went in search of some water. To my dismay, all the water fountains had been removed so they could sell vastly overpriced bottled water. By the way, Colorado won.

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In my day at PSU Before they expanded to a massive size students with ID could by student Standing Room Only (SRO) and stand to watch the game immediately behind the teams on the running Track ( resembled most high schools track setups ) .

It was great with a little effort you could be on the Line of Scrimmage for almost every play. The Groans, cries of Pain and noises of helmets smashing helmets and bodies was truly amazing those guys were really putting their all into the Game...

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Should have been reading books.

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I would love to see Tesla unionized.

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The NCAA is anti Union period. They want all the money for themselves and some to the members schools.

At Penn State University PSU the money takes in by the Football Program Funded the coaches staff travel etc Of All the otheSports that didn’t Make Money or cover expenses.

The Players got nothing except food shelter and an education PSU was big on education if they couldn’t give you money they they tutored you so that you education was not a fraud.

Student Work Programs gave the players cash money to survive.

I learned a lot about Football and had great time at games.

But Players Should Be Paid Because College Sports are making money off the Sweat and injuries of the Student athletes .And the football program is a feeder system for the NFL.

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Colleges not only tutor their cash cows, but they ensure that they pass and graduate.

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Some schools are more dedicated to that more than others.

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I live close to the VW plant. And I’m glad to see that we are at least moving in the right direction again. I have two working age grandsons, and I’d like to believe they, as we all, should have a fair chance to the American dream.

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As I've written before, I lived and worked in Germany for 30 years and the key to getting income equality back for the American worker is "Strong Unions" that will force companies to negotiate. As examples. All German employees have 30 days vacation time/year with full pay and you don't have to use vacation for being sick, a pregnant women gets 3 months off with full pay prior to the delivery date and 3 months off with full pay after the delivery date.

I could go on and on with the benefits but you get the idea.

Collective bargaining by Unions with the employers is key because the individual employee doesn't have the power to get the changes that are needed. The recent UAW successes is proof.

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Amazing the American is in the Slums of worker rights. We work harder longer for less overall pay and benefits…

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My son works for DanoneAmerica, known as Dannon in the US. The company extends its French policies to its American workers, which meant that my son got FOUR MONTHS of PAID paternity leave after the births of his two children. That extends to adoption, and there are also generous leave times for family emergencies or time to care for a sick family member. It was amazing to me, and wonderful for his family.

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I've been a member of two different unions over the years, and at one point I voted NOT to continue, as I felt the cost of membership was more than it was worth. I know now how wrong I was. Since that time, wages have stagnated or FALLEN in this right-to-work state (ID), and it now looks like it's really right-to-work-for-almost-nothing! It's become painfully clear that without collective bargaining, corporate management will take everything from their workers and give back as little as possible.

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👍👍👍

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I really hope the UAW crams unionization up Elon Musk's a$$ so far it comes out his mouth.

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unionization of college sports sounds like an excellent way of getting minor sports like tennis and golf dropped from athletics programs. By the way, as a chemist, I tend to pronounce it 'un-ionization'

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If a majority of athletes playing a minor college sport at a particular school are feeling so mistreated or exploited that they are driven to unionize, and college management is unwilling to sit down and listen and negotiate with them, then the system is broken and dropping the program is a good idea for all concerned!

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Why not just pay them ?

For us the involved spectators it’s a sport; believe me the schools look at it as a business…

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My college dropped tennis anyway following

some budget problems at the state level.

They finally decided to reinstate tennis a few years ago and the team is very strong now .

The athletic department has always been primarily funded by football and basketball revenue for most colleges. Larger universities

want a well rounded program to compete in

almost all sports in their conference so they

keep the “ minor” sports afloat.

Unionized college athletic programs would

be a drop in the bucket for the overall budget

in the minor sports and the major sports

would still bring in boat loads of $ $ so

I doubt it would result in cancellation of

programs for that reason . If they do cancel

sports teams they will have some other excuse

but will try to pin it on the union the same way

private businesses squeal about how unions

force them to raise prices . It’s a spurious argument- but it fools too many people too

often .

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Stupid is difficult to fix.

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See Citizen J's comment above, not immediately above, but the commentabout Europe and sports. If there is a way to make money out of defacting and urinating be sure there is someone to do the job. Reminds me to call my local septic tank company to inspect my drain field.

Everything in America is monetized, and privatized where it can. Calvin Coolidge said the business of America is business.

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Proctor and Gamble make toilet paper ?

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Huh? I never mentioned P&G much less toilet paper.

Since you brought up the subject Koch's companies make Angel Soft and Brawny

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Love a chemist joke with my morning coffee👍

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founding

May the sea change just keep coming!

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My wife being an alum of the University of Oregon would take exception to the idea that Dartmouth gave us Animal House. It was filmed at the U of O and she was a student during that time and a few of her friends have small back ground spots. And every football game has an homage to the film in the 3rd Q. So good try.

On the unionization front. All good news but lets spend less time trying to unionize crap jobs and more time trying to fill the good jobs that are screaming for workers. Young hip people trilled to unionize S Buck or Amazon while our local mass transit has to stop trains because of a lack of drivers. $25 an hour to start and a $7500 signing bonus was the last offer I remember. Not as cool as making someones moka but pays a lot better and has the added benefit of already being unionized. With a good retirement system and healthcare.

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Correct and a Portland Blues musician named Carlos something was the inspiration for John Belushi character in the blues brothers. Carlos characteristically pay attention to each of the bands musicians one at a time as he looks at them up close and puts his hands on his hips. The vocalist showing his appreciation for the efforts of his bandmates.

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I remember a Curtis Salgado (I think) who was a local bluesman in Pdx when I was a kid and he really was awesome. Wonder if that was the guy.

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Bingo You named him the way Jiohn Belushi acts in the stage towards the other musicians is a dead on copy of Carlos Salgado .

I had the pleasure of meeting him in Reading Pa And Later that same Year In York Pa he is talented and the blues brothers lifted his repertoire of moves on the stage not the silly ones, but the serious ones definitely a skilled blues man… might’ve been the inspiration for John Belushi to make the blues Brothers movies with Dan Ackroyd

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He would play in my hometown of Oregon City sometimes in the small clubs and make it to the blues festival every year at July 4 period

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Look him up on Wikipedia interesting story about him.

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The role of the Biden NRLB in enforcing the law and allowing those who wish to unionize to do so is important in improving Americans' lives. If any Republican becomes president, all this progress will be reversed.

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Keep the slaves in the fields.

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👍👍👍

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The Repubs in the House may already be trying to defund antitrust activity. Some populist Party.

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Without Unions the Eight hour work day would have never happened ; coffee breaks , vacations etc were fought for by people in unions. Also 40 hour work weeks… Health and Safety measures are Union creations.

There are good unions and there are bad unions ; sunlight doesn’t fly out of all their bottoms…

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Actually it was Henry Ford (i.e. management) who started the 40-hour work week; not to diminish the good efforts of unions.

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Then I stand corrected but I though union strikes brought about many work place improvements.

Henry Ford the original started to pay his workers ex exorbitant wages so that his workers could afford to buy his cars which I think at the time we’re about $300 each. I’m hot sure what that wage was but for generations Detroit was the workers Mecca of good wages and benefits…

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Henry Ford was a "NAZI" in more ways than one, he had spies to keep tabs on the lives of his employees (so did Hershey for that fact), and of course he was a big fan of Hitler and a notorious Jew hater.

Come to think of it, almost all of these early monopolists, like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford were Calvinists.

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Mostly true, President Theodore Roosevelt was a big fan of eugenics until it was proved to be a not reliable measure of fitness or IQ.

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Sadly, many people thought that the Nazis were doing good for Germany in the 1930s. They were either ignorant of, or chose not to recognize the repressions that were going on. Germany was thought of as a wonderful tourist destination. My grandfather was a physician (in Minneapolis) who spoke German and traveled with my grandmother to Germany as vacation. Because he understood German, and becasue Germans thought of him as an American tourist, he was able to overhear conversations that indicated what was going on and how much the Germans hated Americans and western europeans.

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Check your facts more carefully. Henry Ford should get credit as one of, if not the earliest, adopters of the 40 hour week. He did not start it.

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He was the first, which raises the question, what does "start" mean. ;)

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Look at the discussion on PolitiFact about Henry Ford and the 40-hour week.

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Meh. would you say that DaVinci invented the airplane because he thought of it before the Wright Brothers? Sure unions wanted the 40-hour week in the 19th century, but Ford actually made it happen. Heck, I'm sure fudal peasants wanted a 40-hour week too, long before there were unions.

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I meant to say "major industrial adopters".

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The real issue here is why institutions of higher learning spend so much time and money on intercollegiate sports. The answer is, of course, more money, which relegates them to being minor league league teams for the various professional sports. The shallowness of American culture is absolutely daunting.

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Follow the Money 💰

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A key word for 2024 is EQUITY, often misconstrued as EQUAL. Not the same, look it up. Equity as in DEI is an attempt to level the playing field. Unions try to level the playing field through negotiations with management. White collar vs blue collar, showers before work vs showers after work, management vs labor, we get it. The ratio of pay for CEOs vs lower hourly workers in the 60s was around 50 to 1, now its about 340 to 1. Certainly not an opportunity for equality, but how about equity? How come the national minimum hourly wage is still stick at $7.25/hour? The pendulum is now at long last starting to swing back from management to unionization. Hopefully resulting in more EQUITY. As it should be in Diversity, EQUITY and Inclusion.

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A Living Wage is a bottom Like for all of society…

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Bottom line

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