Dehumanising social relations

by hakmao, 8 May 2008

Contrary to the assertion on the advertisement, we–humans–are not ‘99% monkey’, but we are 100% ape. Of course if you are feeling like a baboon, you might be interested in Paulville–a cursory scan of the website forums turns up yet more ‘libertarians’ in favour of the free movement of capital without corresponding free movement of labour–or in fact free movement of pedestrians … shut that gate! Do they really enjoy it when their waking hours are spent staked out on the porch with a loaded shotgun trained down the street? Perhaps someone should build Paulieville next door–just to piss them off.

Remaining on the topic of feudalist filth, according to the Times, ‘help is at hand for organisations that fear disruption if their workforces are unionised’–those bastards, refusing to send their children up chimneys!

Burke Group […] is a new sort of HR consultancy that arrived in Britain eight years ago. [I]t describes itself as the largest American management consultancy that specialises “in union avoidance and preventative industrial labour relations”. It employs more than 60 consultants, including a representative in Britain.

Most of the companies seeking Burke Group’s help want to swing an employee ballot against union recognition. If 40% vote in favour of recognition, their union gains legal rights, including the right to negotiate on pay, hours and holidays.

The next time you ask what trade unions have ever done for you, think about the 40 hour week, award wages, holiday and sick leave, the fact that your employer is supposed to provide a safe and secure working environment and that your kids aren’t working 16 hours a day in a factory–rights which were won after years of hard class struggle by working men and women, for which some laid down their lives. Anyone who takes these rights for granted is deluded–they are not guaranteed.

Fight the power!

End slavery!

Comments

  1. neil

    How can any manager make the comment that “a union would undermine our staff association” and not die a thousand deaths inside? As the man sang “there is power in a union” when it pays attention to its members and kicks out when required.

    It’s all part of the infantilisation of working life: “We are here to help you. Unions are a bad thing. Your nice cuddly boss does not like unions. If you vote, and waste your money, your nice cuddly boss, will pack up his company and move it somewhere where he does not have to face unions protecting his employees interests”.
    Bastards.

  2. graeme

    A: He already died a thousand deaths inside when he took the job as a manager.

  3. hakmao

    Just who is it who dies a thousand deaths?

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