The Lansing-Beijing connection

[TruthOut10]

China has a problem: rising inequality. The gap between profits and wages is soaring. Although elements of the government have sought to boost workers’ incomes, they have been thwarted by major companies and banks “that don’t want to give more profit to the country and let the government distribute it,” Qi Jingmei, a research fellow for a government think tank, told the Wall Street Journal.

Of course, if China permitted the establishment of unions, wages would rise. But for fundamentally political reasons — independent unions would undermine the Communist Party’s authority — unions are out of the question.


Meanwhile, the United States also has a problem of a rising gap between profits and wages. The stagnation of wages has become an accepted fact across the political spectrum; conservative columnists such as Michael Gerson and David Brooks have acknowledged that workers’ incomes seem to be stuck.

What conservatives haven’t acknowledged, and what even most liberal commentators fail to appreciate, is how central the collapse of collective bargaining is to American workers’ inability to win themselves a raise. Yes, globalizing and mechanizing jobs has cut into the livelihoods of millions of U.S. workers, but that is far from the whole story. Roughly 100 million of the nation’s 143 million employed workers have jobs that can’t be shipped abroad, that aren’t in competition with steel workers in Sao Paolo or iPod assemblers in Shenzhen. Sales clerks, waiters, librarians and carpenters all utilize technology in their jobs, but not to the point that they’ve become dispensable.

Harold Meyerson: Unions still matter, in Michigan just as in China - The Washington Post

 

[Katzndogz]

After seeing what unions have done in the US, China will never permit unions and I don't blame them.

 

[blastoff]

Meyerson is quick to hang the new MI law on Republicans, but the legislation stemmed from the state's voters turning down the ballot proposal in the November election. Its losing margin was by 16 points, but Barry carried the state by a 9 point margin.

 

[TruthOut10]

After seeing what unions have done in the US, China will never permit unions and I don't blame them.

What have unions done in the U.S.?


REPORT: Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans

1. Unions Gave Us The Weekend: Even the ultra-conservative Mises Institute notes that the relatively labor-free 1870, the average workweek for most Americans was 61 hours — almost double what most Americans work now. Yet in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, labor unions engaged in massive strikes in order to demand shorter workweeks so that Americans could be home with their loved ones instead of constantly toiling for their employers with no leisure time. By 1937, these labor actions created enough political momentum to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped create a federal framework for a shorter workweek that included room for leisure time.

REPORT: Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans | ThinkProgress

What have unions done for us?


(CNN) -- What have unions done for us lately? Other than give us Labor Day, and a three-day weekend to start football season.
The answers may surprise you.
Unions have long been part of our nation's history, fighting for better pay, safer working conditions, health care and retirement benefits, education and civic participation. Unions have brought diverse voices together, and their struggles have elevated the working conditions, the standard of living and the recognition of not just their members, but of all who labor.
Unions played a major role in ending the sweatshops and child labor so common at the beginning of the 20th century. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, or ILGWU, was one of the first unions to have a primarily female membership. And in the aftermath of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, in which more than 100 mostly young immigrant women were killed, the ILGWU was at the forefront of reforming working conditions and pushing for comprehensive safety and workers' compensation laws.

What have unions done for us? - CNN.com


How about educating yourself about the "Labor Movement" for starters, secondly try reading the article posted to the end.

Then you won't seem so stupid when replying with a unnecessary question.

 

[Katzndogz]

The unions have done some very good things in the past. Thinking that unions are still beneficial is where the thinking goes wrong. It's like medication. Pain pills may take away they pain when you have it, but when it's gone and you are still popping, you aren't taking medication, you are an addict.

 

[TruthOut10]

Meyerson is quick to hang the new MI law on Republicans, but the legislation stemmed from the state's voters turning down the ballot proposal in the November election. Its losing margin was by 16 points, but Barry carried the state by a 9 point margin.

Lets be real here, no Democrats in either house voted for this, you even had a few Republicans who didn't vote for this.

The Governor straight up LIED about this not being on his agenda and didn't run on this issue either. Then cowardly fast tracked this during their "Lame Duck" session and didn't allow any debates on this issue by the public or legislators on top of breaking a few rules to do what he did.

Yes I blame all of those voters in his state who sat on their asses during the 2010 mid terms and didn't vote, which allowed this jack ass to win the election.

 

[Si modo]

China has a problem: rising inequality. The gap between profits and wages is soaring. Although elements of the government have sought to boost workers’ incomes, they have been thwarted by major companies and banks “that don’t want to give more profit to the country and let the government distribute it,” Qi Jingmei, a research fellow for a government think tank, told the Wall Street Journal.

Of course, if China permitted the establishment of unions, wages would rise. But for fundamentally political reasons — independent unions would undermine the Communist Party’s authority — unions are out of the question.


Meanwhile, the United States also has a problem of a rising gap between profits and wages. The stagnation of wages has become an accepted fact across the political spectrum; conservative columnists such as Michael Gerson and David Brooks have acknowledged that workers’ incomes seem to be stuck.

What conservatives haven’t acknowledged, and what even most liberal commentators fail to appreciate, is how central the collapse of collective bargaining is to American workers’ inability to win themselves a raise. Yes, globalizing and mechanizing jobs has cut into the livelihoods of millions of U.S. workers, but that is far from the whole story. Roughly 100 million of the nation’s 143 million employed workers have jobs that can’t be shipped abroad, that aren’t in competition with steel workers in Sao Paolo or iPod assemblers in Shenzhen. Sales clerks, waiters, librarians and carpenters all utilize technology in their jobs, but not to the point that they’ve become dispensable.

Harold Meyerson: Unions still matter, in Michigan just as in China - The Washington Post

Win a high wage but lose the job.


Yup, that makes perfect sense.

 

[TruthOut10]

The unions have done some very good things in the past. Thinking that unions are still beneficial is where the thinking goes wrong. It's like medication. Pain pills may take away they pain when you have it, but when it's gone and you are still popping, you aren't taking medication, you are an addict.

Do you understand this move was strictly political?

Did you know that 8 out 10 Right To Work States have the highest level of poverty in this Country?

Did you know that Alec along with billionaires spearheaded this law for no other reason to drive wages down?

Do you know there is no study by any economist to support their claim on how a State does better after becoming an RTW State?

But did you know their are countless studies that prove how this drastically affects that State's economy in a negative way after implementation of this law?

 

[TruthOut10]

All this is and has been proven time and time again is transferring wealth from the employees to the top!

 

[Si modo]

The unions have done some very good things in the past. Thinking that unions are still beneficial is where the thinking goes wrong. It's like medication. Pain pills may take away they pain when you have it, but when it's gone and you are still popping, you aren't taking medication, you are an addict.

Do you understand this move was strictly political?

Did you know that 8 out 10 Right To Work States have the highest level of poverty in this Country?

Did you know that Alec along with billionaires spearheaded this law for no other reason to drive wages down?

Do you know there is no study by any economist to support their claim on how a State does better after becoming an RTW State?

But did you know their are countless studies that prove how this drastically affects that State's economy in a negative way after implementation of this law?

Ummm, there are now 23 right to work states.

And, union membership keeps declining, regardless of the state.

Unions are beyond useless dinosaurs, they are anti-productive.

 

[Katzndogz]

Texas is a right to work state. Unemployment is 6.6%, lower than the national average. California is a union state. Unemployment is 10.2%, higher than the national average.

The fact is that enterprise will move to right to work states and out of union states. The incentive to attracting employers is to become a right to work state.

 

[TruthOut10]

Texas is a right to work state. Unemployment is 6.6%, lower than the national average. California is a union state. Unemployment is 10.2%, higher than the national average.

The fact is that enterprise will move to right to work states and out of union states. The incentive to attracting employers is to become a right to work state.

Between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than they did in Texas, and “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.” But as it turns out, Texas is leading the nation in one employment metric — the number and percentage of minimum wage jobs:
Additionally, Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour in 2010) compared to any state, according to a BLS report. In 2010, about 550,000 Texans were working at or below minimum wage, or about 9.5 percent of all workers paid by the hour in the state. Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers…From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent.
The Texas Independent added, “the median hourly earnings for all Texas workers was $11.20 per hour in 2010, compared to the national median of $12.50 per hour.”
In addition to these facts that Perry would surely prefer stay under the radar, he relied more on the 2009 Recovery Act than any other governor and faced a $27 billion budget deficit for the 2012-2013 budget, after assuring everyone for months that Texas had its fiscal house in order.

Perry's Texas Has Highest Percentage Of Minimum Wage Jobs In The Nation | ThinkProgress.

Comparing the two States was a good one, except when you're trying to compare unemployment rates when California has almost 12 million more people than Texas and has an higher minimum wage rate than Texas.

It's about the wages and you lost your argument on this one, Point, set and match

 

[TruthOut10]

What I find sad is how the average person such as yourself, who doesn't know your history fights so hard against your own best interests.

While corporations belong to unions of their own like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who has been very political and anti-worker for decades. ALEC group is responsible for a lot of bad laws across the board who represents a lot of companies (union shop) General Motors And Walgreens' Leave ALEC | ThinkProgress

That's why I can say you don't know your history and that is the problem and both of the above mentioned organizations operate and function as a union and both donate almost solely o Republican candidates 10 to 100 times more money than a union organization that actually for the workers and not corporations

 

[TruthOut10]

Jon Stewart Knocks 'Right To Work' In Michigan: 'It's Really A Right To Work AROUND The Unions' (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart Knocks 'Right To Work' In Michigan: 'It's Really A Right To Work AROUND The Unions' (VIDEO)

 

[GoneBezerk]

Well Obamination only gave away PORKULUS kickback money to his "green friends" making car batteries, even giving them $1M the day they filed for bankruptcy....which should be a crime.

Now the Chinese are buying that company paid for by our tax money borrowed from China....fucking insane.

 

[TruthOut10]

Well Obamination only gave away PORKULUS kickback money to his "green friends" making car batteries, even giving them $1M the day they filed for bankruptcy....which should be a crime.

Now the Chinese are buying that company paid for by our tax money borrowed from China....fucking insane.

And what does your statement have to o with this thread?

Not a damn thing!

 

[GoneBezerk]

Uh idiot....the green car battery scam plant was in Michigan and the Chinese are buying it.

Let's see....Obamination wasted taxpayer money on the scam with Chinese money, now the Chinese are buying the plant and its technology.....but go on about how great unions in Michigan have been in destroying their economy to where Federal tax money has to be wasted to give some of them short term jobs in this scam.

Well Obamination only gave away PORKULUS kickback money to his "green friends" making car batteries, even giving them $1M the day they filed for bankruptcy....which should be a crime.

Now the Chinese are buying that company paid for by our tax money borrowed from China....fucking insane.

And what does your statement have to o with this thread?

Not a damn thing!

 

[TruthOut10]

Uh idiot....the green car battery scam plant was in Michigan and the Chinese are buying it.

Let's see....Obamination wasted taxpayer money on the scam with Chinese money, now the Chinese are buying the plant and its technology.....but go on about how great unions in Michigan have been in destroying their economy to where Federal tax money has to be wasted to give some of them short term jobs in this scam.

Well Obamination only gave away PORKULUS kickback money to his "green friends" making car batteries, even giving them $1M the day they filed for bankruptcy....which should be a crime.

Now the Chinese are buying that company paid for by our tax money borrowed from China....fucking insane.

And what does your statement have to o with this thread?

Not a damn thing!

So let's get this straight, you're referencing this story about "Green Job Technology" and in your small tightly wound peanut shaped brain, is somehow related to this story? Not exactly sure where you're getting your information from, but then again I do from people who have been playing on the people like you who are under informed, miss informed and just plain dumb.

I'll now attempt to give the story without the spin...Hold on to your tin foil hat, because the truth makes peeps like you go absolutely nuts:

A123 Electric Car Battery Plants Saved From Bankruptcy By Auto-Parts Maker

Despite filing for bankruptcy protection yesterday, lithium-ion battery firm A123 Systems has said the factories where it makes electric car battery cells will be saved, thanks to a $125 million deal with automotive parts maker Johnson Controls.

Already a huge Tier One global automotive parts supplier, Johnson Controls sells around 120 million lead-acid starter batteries a year to the automotive industry, as well as everything from instrument panels and information displays to headliners and floor consoles.

In addition to the $125 million acquisition, Johnson Controls will provide A123 Systems with $72.5 million to continue its operations at those two battery facilities, ensuring production of electric car batteries can continue.

Back in 2009, A123 Systems was awarded a $249 Million grant by the U.S. Government under the Recovery Act of 2009.

A123 Systems Employees Perform Quality Check on a Lithium-Ion Battery Pack [source: A123 Systems]
The money--which had to be matched dollar for dollar by private A123 investment--was granted to A123 Systems to help create jobs, support the economy, and bring large-scale automotive lithium ion battery pack manufacturing to the U.S. for the first time.

Up to the moment of its bankruptcy filing, A123 Systems had used just $123 million of the available grant money.

Just to be clear, unlike the low-interest loans made available to automakers like Ford, Nissan, General Motors and Tesla Motors under the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, the money made available to A123 Systems was a grant, not a loan.

This means the $123 million used by the firm so far--plus $6 million granted to it by the Bush Administration--has, and never will, require repayment.

“Today’s news means that A123’s manufacturing facilities and technology will continue to be a vital part of America’s advanced battery industry,” he continued.

Perhaps most importantly, however, Johnson Controls’ acquisition of A123 Systems’ automotive arm means that A123’s clients--including Fisker Automotive, BMW, and General Motors--will be able to continue planned production without delays.

This means GM’s all-electric car project, the all-electric Chevrolet Spark, will not be delayed.

A123 Electric Car Battery Plants Saved From Bankruptcy By Auto-Parts Maker

So idiot boy, explain to me how this story is relevant to this thread, this topic besides being in Michigan?