firey eyes flaring nostrils

  once again the real deal
        gets a trumpet blast

cut throat  competition
is the only proven
      antedote to 
               mile high 
                        pie cardery




================================================

 
  recent op ed:


" Although today's feuding union factions 
and most friends of organized labor 
lament the competition,
history suggests 
that it is essential
 for the revitalization of American labor.

 A labor movement in
which dueling organizations
 are forced to compete for
the support of potential members
 can provide workers
with the leverage necessary 
to force union leaders 
to
be accountable to the interests
 of their members.
 In a competitive environment,
 a union leader who does not
deliver the goods -
 higher wages,
 shorter hours,
 better benefits, 
and improved working conditions
 -risks losing
out to a more responsive rival".


"A leading law firm 
that advises US employers 
on
handling labor issues 
recently published a report 
on
the labor feud here
 in which it predicted
,"For employers with unions 
from both competing factions 
at their facilities,
 competition for better wages,
benefits and other terms
 and conditions of employment
is likely."

Competition among unions 
leads not only to the creation
of better options
 for the already organized 
rank and file,
 but also
 to the organization 
of new industries as
unions animated by the rivalry
 generate enthusiasm
among the unorganized. 

Employees participating in union
representation elections 
have been far more likely 
to
vote for union representation 
over "no union" 
when the election involves 
more than one union vying 
for workers.

 Rivalry has also forced down
 initiation fees
and union dues
.When unions compete
 workers win.

The 1955 merger 
of the AFL and the CIO
 all but
eliminated competition among unions
 For nearly 50
years, 
the AFL-CIO has operated
 like a one-party state

There can be no more fitting way 
to celebrate the anniversary 
of labor's unification 
     than to end it."

---------- beautiful ----------------


and these guys are hackademics no less....

Jonathan Cutler is a professor 
of sociology at
Wesleyan University 

Thaddeus Russell is a professor 
of history
atBarnard College 


-----------
an example of russell's scholarship

" In 1935 Jimmy Hoffa 
was hired as a business agent
 by the struggling,
 rough-and-tumble Local 299
 in Detroit. 
At the time the local had only 400 members
 in good standing
 and even fewer dollars
 in its treasury
 Constantly on the verge 
of bankruptcy
 and desperate to add dues-paying members
 299's organizers operated in a world 
that was largely unaffected
 by the passage 
of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935

 Rather than devoting their time 
to signing up workers 
and petitioning for elections 
with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB),
 they preferred a far more effective,
 two-step organizing strategy.

 Working mostly within 
the local cartage and automobile transport industries
, 299's business agents 
approached the owner 
of a firm and told him 
that if he did not enroll 
his employees with the union,
 his trucks would be bombed. 

Then, if the employer refused to capitulate,
 they bombed his trucks. 
In the mid-1930s the local
 gained a reputation as the most violent,
 lawless union in an unusually violent,
 lawless city "