🚀 go-pugleaf

There is a very perceptive car sticker I've seen doing the rounds,
probably put out by the TLC: "United we bargain, divided we beg". This
just about sums up the situation facing a lot of workers these days.
As much as they might whinge and moan about having to belong to
unions, and how 'the union does nothing for me' etc. etc. few workers
are aware just how much worse off they will be when they are on their
own in what the Liberals call 'the labour market'. 

As another poster to this thread has pointed out, employers will
always pay big money to keep their most important and crucial workers
on, and to prevent them from selling their skills for a higher price
elsewhere. At the same time, they are striving to create a buyers'
market for labour, to be in a situation where no employee cannot be
forced to accept diminished wages and conditions in order to keep
his/her job. 

A very shabby miyth being put about by proponents of the 'de-regulated
labour market' is that once wages and conditions decline, employment
levels will beging to rise, as employers can afford to employ more
workers. Employers are business people, not philanthropists, and they
will employ no more, nor no fewer workers than are required to
generate the level of profit they desire, and they will want to pay
them as little as possible. They will not hire extra workers just
because they are cheap, if they have no need for them. What has
happened recently is that many firms 'downsized' (ie sacked workers)
during the recession, and have now discovered that, as things pick up,
they can make do with fewer workers, by making their remaining staff
work harder, and putting them on overtime, rather than re-hiring the
workers they dispensed with. So, even while output and profits rise
back to pre-recession levels, unemployment remains high.

All workers should be wary of entering into work-place 'agreement',
without the support of a union or association, which enables them to
negotiate from a position of equality. As it is, employers want the
advantage all on their own side, with the worker being given one
option: "Take itr or leave it."

Bryce.


Bryce Moore, PO Box 277 
South Fremantle WA 6162 Australia
Ph (+61) 09 3146042 Fax (+61) 9 3375736
Email bryce@anythink.iinet.net.au
http://www.iinet.net.au/~bryce