A chicken in every pot --- except for the working class.

[The Lone Liberal]

NEW YORK - Employers are dispensing notably smaller pay raises this year — well below the 4 percent-plus increases routine before the economy lost its footing — and workers should not expect much improvement in 2004. ------------

Employers "are saying I can't raise prices. Well, I've got to raise productivity," said Steven Gross, a compensation consultant for Mercer. "People are flogging their workers to get more out of them as a means to increase profits, coupled with the fact that there's more supply than demand for labor today."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=12&u=/ap/20030729/ap_on_bi_ge/pay_raises


Welcome to the Brave New World of Republicanism. The fat salaries and bloated bonus to CEOs have not slowed any. Only the working class is being beaten into the ground. This is what the Republicans are after to break the working class. They are hammering the chains of our bondage at this moment. They are packing the courts with judges that will see that there is no working class justice in the courthouse. They have passed laws that allow the employers to steal our pensions. We either band together and fight or we shall hang alone.

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Raise productivity =

more work for employee for the same amount of money. The CEOs rule! Yet there are more of us working stiffs out there. We need a revolution to make any headway these days.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. I'm right behind you.

[quilp]

2. Many don't have a pot, let alone a chicken.

We must have just about the poorest and most subjugated working class in the Western World. The only way to change this is with a union movement. But even the Democratic Party gives luke warm support to unions. Isn't it odd that the word "union" is missing from the vocabulary of the Democratic candidates. Frankly, things will have to get far worse before there is any hope of change.

[Euphen]

3. Trade unions

are the reason the American working-class is in the state it's in. The past twenty-years have shown that the narrow outlook of trade-unionism is unable to make any serious gains for workers. The working-class will only be able to defend against attacks on it's rights and working conditions with an international outlook that unions don't provide.

[raising2moredems]

4. Best way to fight back is to vote,

keep yourself debt-free as much as possible, and be tighter than a right-wing-religious nut with your hard earned dollars. Living below ones' means is a foreign concept to repukes. I've been spending as little as possible since the Chimp was appointed and installed in the oval office.

I've survived:

job moving 75 miles away, I refused to commute and found another job
job outsourced
merger then job outsourced
office closed
a job that provides the all important health and dental insurance but with a dead end company.

[quilp]

5. Go back to the Sixties when George Meany was around.

The decline of unions and the decline of worker compensation track each other almost exactly. Who are the best protected and paid workers today? Federal workers, teachers, policemen. What do they have in common? Who are the worst paid? Garment workers, shop assistants, day care workers. What do they have in common? Do you think that CEOs would be paying themselves in the millions while laying off workers with no compensation if there were effective unions in this country? Do you think Corporations would be able to so easily ship jobs abroad?

[gardenista]

6. More like a chicken HAWK in every spot

in the Executive Branch

[whoYaCallinAlib]

8. Any worker who votes repuke deserves what he gets.

If workers don't unite behind the democratic candidate, I'm afraid we'll lose even more ground in the coming four years.