Just because your nametag says manager doesn't make you better then me

Presidential candidate and general asshole (in my opinion) Newt Gingrich recently said that child labor laws were 'stupid' and that children in urban schools should help out and replace the Unionized janitors. Although Newt's statements are obviously moronic and callous they reflect a growing but perhaps veiled criticism aired by many of his colleagues in the Republican party. China is killing us, they say. A recent Wall Street Journal article touted that fact that when a few thousand factory jobs come up the Chinese can fill them easily. Its easy to find spots for jobs when you don't have to worry about paying people a decent wage or worry about things like working conditions. In this book I was reading recently about the labor Unions by Philip Dray 'There is power in a union' I have learned that none of this was given away easily. The heads of the major capitalists and manufacturers did not get together one day and decide they were working there people too hard. A campaign went on for a long time in the late 19th century for a 10-hour day which was vehemently opposed by business leaders. One CEO of a Pennsylvania railroad organization on strike suggesting that if the strikers had nothing to eat perhaps they would prefer a diets of rifles instead. Indeed the power of capital often won out leading to the summoning of the National Guard to quell strikes. What strikes me most is how the things that we enjoy as working people, overtime, holiday pay, weekends, had to be fought for so much by working people. Even things like unemployment insurance had to be lobbied by the people. Alfred Sloan of General Motors even once suggested that it took 14 years to repeal prohibition and it would take the same time to repeal the new deal. So despite the negative image the Unions have gotten as of late anyone who has ever worked any kind of menial job of any kind or most jobs owes a debt of gratitude to the Unions.