I'm kind of confused about what to say here again. It seems like I go through cycles; impersonal, personal stuff but I'm comfortable talking about it, impersonal, personal but it feels like a 14 year-old-diary and I feel pretty uncomfortable with what I write. My dad's still striking, but they just reduced the number of allowable striking hours from 40 to 24. It's probably to save money; after almost three months I'm sure the union is running out of funds. So my dad started looking for extra work, in the paper. It's disconcerting to see someone who has always been a provider for you have to go in search of income in places you never would have expected. He applied to a railroad company for a conductor position, but I think that's more of a need for him to get away from here and be alone. The whole grocery strike situation has him pretty disgusted and it's not too pretty around here. There's tension like when I was fifteen again. His disgust with the corporation and the union negotiators has a tendency to come home with him. I suppose it would come home with me too. It's interesting because I've been reading No Logo, a book by Naomi Klein written about four years ago, which is about the corporate climate of branding and the resistance that has been growing against the branding. It took me a while to get into it, but now I can't put it down. It goes from the idea of selling product to selling brand and how that has changed what manufacturing means to a corporation. Outsourcing thousands and thousands of manufacturing jobs outside of the U.S. And then reading how corporations have basically done the same thing domestically in the retail industry - cutting full time jobs, benefits, CAREERS. That's been my dad's point for the past few months. Albertsons/Vons/Ralphs are holding out for much more than just healthcare costs. They're bankrupting the union. Whether or not they concede to the union's demands now, when the next contract is to be negotiated three years from now, the union will have no funds to back up a strike - they will have no bargaining power. They're probably looking to get rid of employees like my dad, who although has only been a part-time worker, has made his job a career; he will collect retirement and has received the health and pay benefits of a loyal employee. They don't want people to work there for thirty years - that costs them too much. They see how profitable a young, transient, and low-skilled workforce is to companies like McDonalds. I think they pay my dad something like $18/hour, and they want to pay someone much much less to do the same job. What I keep wondering (and I'm not sure if this will be addressed in the book) is that if companies are so hell-bent after profits in the short-run that they will cut as many jobs as possible, and devalue the few left to the point that the wages are hardly livable...who are they planning on buying their products in the long run? Advertising makes everything look great on TV, but if you think about it, cars cost more, houses cost more, and food costs more, but we're making less money. And to top it off, I know I'm not going to rely on any kind of Social Security after I turn 65. I'm not going to be spending my money on high-dollar name brands, I'm going to be saving it. But I guess that's what credit cards and bankruptcy are for, right? Listening: Majority Rule |