mynameis
15-06-2007, 07:28 PM
CNN: Americans ‘Work More Than Medieval Peasants’
Posted by Dan Gainor on June 11, 2007 - 19:10.
In the You-Can’t-Make-This-Up Department, ‘In the Money’ show reporter Polly Labarre complained employees don’t get enough time off. We’ve got it so darn bad, according to the folks at CNN, “we work more than medieval peasants used to work.”
Ordinarily, I’d debunk that June 9 report, pointing out that peasants had to work dawn to dusk eking out a living little better than slaves. But it’s so ridiculous, why bother?
Like so much in the media, this little nugget comes from another goofy group that the media miraculously fail to ignore. It’s called the “Take Back Your Time” movement. The group has a long list of demands of more time off for Americans and Canadians.
The group’s site complains that “On average, we work nearly nine full weeks (350 hours) LONGER per year than our peers in Western Europe do.”
Good. Great even. No wonder America kicks butt instead of groveling like a bunch of medieval peasants.
And if that image doesn’t invoke enough Monty Python for you, then this might. The June 11 CNN “American Morning” crowd was amused by Burger King plans to include Spam in breakfast meals in Hawaii. Anchor John Roberts even burst into song, singing: “Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam.”
[Recommend story on Digg.com] [Recommend story on Fark.com] [Recommend story on Reddit.com] [Recommend story on Tailrank.com] [Share this story with your Facebook friends] [Add to Google bookmarks] [Recommend story on Netscape.com] [Sphere this!] [Post story on Stumbleupon] [Add to your Delicious bookmarks] [Find related posts on Technorati.com]
http://newsbusters.org/node/13373
Let's pass the word and do what the elite want us to do and stop working, evidently money rules everything around them. Global Peace Strike Days with no end in sight.
Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilise the rule of a particular political party. A notable example is the Gdańsk Shipyard strike led by Lech Wałęsa. This strike was significant in the struggle for political change in Poland, and was an important mobilised effort that contributed to the fall of governments in communist East Europe.
The strike tactic has a very long history. Towards the end of the 20th dynasty, under Pharaoh Ramses III in ancient Egypt in the 12th century BCE, the workers of the royal necropolis organized the first known strike or workers' uprising in history. The event was reported in detail on a papyrus at the time, which has been preserved, and is currently located in Turin. In the modern era, sailors in 1768, in support of demonstrations in London, "struck" or removed the top-gallant sails of merchant ships at port, thus crippling the ships.
Strike - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of strikes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. While a general strike can be initiated based on political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, and tends to involve entire communities. The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.
The term "general strike" is sometimes also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textile workers strike (1934). Those "general" strikes, however massive they might be, only involve workers in a particular workplace. The classic general strike, by contrast, also involves workers (and members of the working-class) who have no direct stake in the outcome of the strike; as an example, in the San Francisco General Strike of 1934, both union and non-union workers struck for four days in protest of the police and employers' tactics that had killed two picketers and in support of the longshoremen's and seamen's demands.
The distinction is not always that clearcut. In the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, as an example, many building trades unions and organizations of unemployed workers in federal work projects struck in sympathy with striking truckdrivers and in protest against the police violence directed against picketers; thousands of others participated in demonstrations in support of the strikers. Those sympathy strikes, while sizeable, never acquired the duration or scope necessary to amount to a "general strike", however, and the organizers of the Teamsters' strike did not describe it as such.
General strike - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Strikes
Main article: Strike action
Strike action is the weapon of the workers most associated with industrial disputes, and certainly among the most powerful. In most countries, strikes are legal under a circumscribed set of conditions. Among them may be that:
* The strike is decided on by a prescribed democratic process. (Wildcat strikes are illegal).
* Sympathy strikes, against a company by which workers are not directly employed, may be prohibited.
* General strikes may be forbidden by a public order.
* Certain categories of person may be forbidden to strike (airport personnel, health personnel, police or firemen, etc.)
* Strikes may be pursued by people continuing to work, as in Japanese strike actions which increase productivity to disrupt schedules, or in hospitals.
A boycott is a refusal to buy, sell, or otherwise trade with an individual or business who is generally believed by the participants in the boycott to be doing something morally wrong. Throughout history, workers have used tactics such as the go-slow, sabotage or just not turning up en-masse in order to gain more control over the workplace environment, or simply have to work less. Some labour law explicitly bans such activity, none explicitly allows it.
Labour law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted by Dan Gainor on June 11, 2007 - 19:10.
In the You-Can’t-Make-This-Up Department, ‘In the Money’ show reporter Polly Labarre complained employees don’t get enough time off. We’ve got it so darn bad, according to the folks at CNN, “we work more than medieval peasants used to work.”
Ordinarily, I’d debunk that June 9 report, pointing out that peasants had to work dawn to dusk eking out a living little better than slaves. But it’s so ridiculous, why bother?
Like so much in the media, this little nugget comes from another goofy group that the media miraculously fail to ignore. It’s called the “Take Back Your Time” movement. The group has a long list of demands of more time off for Americans and Canadians.
The group’s site complains that “On average, we work nearly nine full weeks (350 hours) LONGER per year than our peers in Western Europe do.”
Good. Great even. No wonder America kicks butt instead of groveling like a bunch of medieval peasants.
And if that image doesn’t invoke enough Monty Python for you, then this might. The June 11 CNN “American Morning” crowd was amused by Burger King plans to include Spam in breakfast meals in Hawaii. Anchor John Roberts even burst into song, singing: “Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam.”
[Recommend story on Digg.com] [Recommend story on Fark.com] [Recommend story on Reddit.com] [Recommend story on Tailrank.com] [Share this story with your Facebook friends] [Add to Google bookmarks] [Recommend story on Netscape.com] [Sphere this!] [Post story on Stumbleupon] [Add to your Delicious bookmarks] [Find related posts on Technorati.com]
http://newsbusters.org/node/13373
Let's pass the word and do what the elite want us to do and stop working, evidently money rules everything around them. Global Peace Strike Days with no end in sight.
Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilise the rule of a particular political party. A notable example is the Gdańsk Shipyard strike led by Lech Wałęsa. This strike was significant in the struggle for political change in Poland, and was an important mobilised effort that contributed to the fall of governments in communist East Europe.
The strike tactic has a very long history. Towards the end of the 20th dynasty, under Pharaoh Ramses III in ancient Egypt in the 12th century BCE, the workers of the royal necropolis organized the first known strike or workers' uprising in history. The event was reported in detail on a papyrus at the time, which has been preserved, and is currently located in Turin. In the modern era, sailors in 1768, in support of demonstrations in London, "struck" or removed the top-gallant sails of merchant ships at port, thus crippling the ships.
Strike - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of strikes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. While a general strike can be initiated based on political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, and tends to involve entire communities. The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.
The term "general strike" is sometimes also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textile workers strike (1934). Those "general" strikes, however massive they might be, only involve workers in a particular workplace. The classic general strike, by contrast, also involves workers (and members of the working-class) who have no direct stake in the outcome of the strike; as an example, in the San Francisco General Strike of 1934, both union and non-union workers struck for four days in protest of the police and employers' tactics that had killed two picketers and in support of the longshoremen's and seamen's demands.
The distinction is not always that clearcut. In the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, as an example, many building trades unions and organizations of unemployed workers in federal work projects struck in sympathy with striking truckdrivers and in protest against the police violence directed against picketers; thousands of others participated in demonstrations in support of the strikers. Those sympathy strikes, while sizeable, never acquired the duration or scope necessary to amount to a "general strike", however, and the organizers of the Teamsters' strike did not describe it as such.
General strike - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Strikes
Main article: Strike action
Strike action is the weapon of the workers most associated with industrial disputes, and certainly among the most powerful. In most countries, strikes are legal under a circumscribed set of conditions. Among them may be that:
* The strike is decided on by a prescribed democratic process. (Wildcat strikes are illegal).
* Sympathy strikes, against a company by which workers are not directly employed, may be prohibited.
* General strikes may be forbidden by a public order.
* Certain categories of person may be forbidden to strike (airport personnel, health personnel, police or firemen, etc.)
* Strikes may be pursued by people continuing to work, as in Japanese strike actions which increase productivity to disrupt schedules, or in hospitals.
A boycott is a refusal to buy, sell, or otherwise trade with an individual or business who is generally believed by the participants in the boycott to be doing something morally wrong. Throughout history, workers have used tactics such as the go-slow, sabotage or just not turning up en-masse in order to gain more control over the workplace environment, or simply have to work less. Some labour law explicitly bans such activity, none explicitly allows it.
Labour law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia