(no subject)
My particular feminist ideology is tied up in issues of class and race as well as sex and gender, so I thought I would pass along this repugnant detail, with a tip of the hat to this post of the ever-eloquent springheel_jack 's:
Discussing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow a shop to join a union if a majority of the workers sign union cards (hey, I bet you didn't even know that wasn't already the law), Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus said: “This is the demise of a civilization ... This is how a civilization disappears. I’m sitting here as an elder statesman, and I’m watching this happen, and I don’t believe it.”
“If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys [who oppose the Free Choice Act] ...[they] should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs.”
So the CEO of Home Depot not only opposes the right of the worker to unionize - a right that came from the work of women like Mary Harris Jones, a right that is has at its roots in American history things like the deaths of mostly young, mostly immigrant women in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In a very real way, to me, the history of women's rights in America is tied up inextricably with the worker's rights movement's history.
For Bernie Marcus to say that any retailer that did not oppose this legislation deserves to be shot is deeply troubling to me. It appears that Mr. Marcus wishes to punish dissent when dissent might make him change the way he does business without his approval. It seems to me that if the thought of employees being able to unionize by the simple expedient of, you know, getting a majority of workers to agree to join a union and sign their names to that effect, has such a stroke-level-rage-inducing effect on Mr. Marcus, that he might not be the kind of guy whose business I want to support. To quote my hat-tipper, "Ruling class ideology, ladies and gentleman! Let's give him a big hand!"
Someone who thinks that workers being able to unionize without protracted delays and difficulties and/or the interference of management is the end of civilization - wow. To me that sounds completely insane. Furthermore, the position he espouses appears to be "If you support, or failed to sufficiently oppose, this legislation I vigorously opposed, you ought to be shot or fired from your company." Even in hyperbole, that's...a lot of rage, there, buddy. For all my hell-raising ways, I don't think I've ever been that specifically venemous in my position on any legislation, including abortion rights and gay marriage. I always thought part of the good thing about America was that, at least in theory, no one got shot or fired from their job for how they voted.
What say you, shangy_feminists?
Discussing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow a shop to join a union if a majority of the workers sign union cards (hey, I bet you didn't even know that wasn't already the law), Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus said: “This is the demise of a civilization ... This is how a civilization disappears. I’m sitting here as an elder statesman, and I’m watching this happen, and I don’t believe it.”
“If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys [who oppose the Free Choice Act] ...[they] should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs.”
So the CEO of Home Depot not only opposes the right of the worker to unionize - a right that came from the work of women like Mary Harris Jones, a right that is has at its roots in American history things like the deaths of mostly young, mostly immigrant women in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In a very real way, to me, the history of women's rights in America is tied up inextricably with the worker's rights movement's history.
For Bernie Marcus to say that any retailer that did not oppose this legislation deserves to be shot is deeply troubling to me. It appears that Mr. Marcus wishes to punish dissent when dissent might make him change the way he does business without his approval. It seems to me that if the thought of employees being able to unionize by the simple expedient of, you know, getting a majority of workers to agree to join a union and sign their names to that effect, has such a stroke-level-rage-inducing effect on Mr. Marcus, that he might not be the kind of guy whose business I want to support. To quote my hat-tipper, "Ruling class ideology, ladies and gentleman! Let's give him a big hand!"
Someone who thinks that workers being able to unionize without protracted delays and difficulties and/or the interference of management is the end of civilization - wow. To me that sounds completely insane. Furthermore, the position he espouses appears to be "If you support, or failed to sufficiently oppose, this legislation I vigorously opposed, you ought to be shot or fired from your company." Even in hyperbole, that's...a lot of rage, there, buddy. For all my hell-raising ways, I don't think I've ever been that specifically venemous in my position on any legislation, including abortion rights and gay marriage. I always thought part of the good thing about America was that, at least in theory, no one got shot or fired from their job for how they voted.
What say you, shangy_feminists?