I haven't been able to blog much the past few days because I'm working 10-11 hour days! My company has "acquired" several other companies and with the consolidation some workers were laid off--leaving fewer workers to do more work.
Question: Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It is good that I still have a job and am not unemployed like millions of people. But what about the "eight hour" work day workers fought and died for a century ago? What about leisure and family time?
Over the past few decades, worker productivity has INCREASED, along with corporate profits, while wages have remained steady or declined.
In the current recession, companies are laying off workers, but trying to increase the "productivity" of the workers left.
So should we just be lucky we have a job? What can workers, especially those who do not have a union to represent them do?
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6 years ago
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2 comments:
This is exactly what happened to me at my state job at Probation and Parole. I was lucky that I could afford to quit, even though I liked the job. All the (unpaid) overtime was stressing me out, giving me a fever about every month, and making me tired all the time even though I am a very healthy person. I still worry about my former coworkers who have health problems and how this extra stress is affecting them. Sometimes I would think, only halfway sarcasticly, "The career criminals are the smart ones! They don't have to deal with having their lives stolen by their jobs!"
We definitely need unions to keep fighting for better working conditions, and today that includes going back to the 8 hour work week!! And paying people for overtime but without forcing them to do it!!
I agree, some say the need for unions is gone but I strongly disagree. I say we need more unions for the companies and bussinesses that are not providing their workers the benefits they need.
The only counter argument against all of this is that bussinesses cannot afford for more wages, benefits, etc. I understand this for some small bussinesses but I think most bussinesses can do something.
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