Strike! Strike!

This is terrifying.

When things got bad for workers in the past, we unionized. Labor conditions changed, and things got better.

Now, as inequalities are growing and the fatcats are getting fatter, what are we going to do? Unions have been gutted. Even if they weren’t growing more powerless, American people have been trained to fear them. Maybe even rightly so; how much power do unions have in a global economy? Where’s the union for professional consultants that work 80+ hours a week out of fear that that their firm will fire them for not having enough billable hours?

We need to collectively remember that businesses will operate the way businesses are supposed to: utilizing the least amount of resources, for the greatest amount of gain. That’s a logical thing, actually. They will almost always choose the miserable sap working himself to death over the healthy, happy, 40-hrs-a-week worker (even if studies show happy workers are harder workers).

But what’s the answer? If you do suddenly try to point out these inequalities, and stand up for yourself, your worst fears will come true; they probably will fire you and grab the next hungry fool in line. If the US tries to regulate, smaller companies will be forced to comply, but more and more companies will start moving the line to 3rd world countries.

Seriously, what’s the answer? This is not a proselytizing blog post. This a frustrated, clueless rant. It’s not goons and ginks and company finks that we need to be afraid of anymore; it’s the very real threat that a ‘strike’ of any kind will only exacerbate the divide between the top 1% and the rest of the cash-strapped masses. Yep, they can scare me.

What’s a poor union maid to do in the 21st century?