Tapsearch Com EditorTell tale story about workers dignity
January 28th 2010 21:27
The Detroit Newspaper strike told the story of things to come more than ten years ago
In March of 1999, Cardinal Adam Maida spoke about the Church's ( Rerum Novarum) endorsement in the 1890s, of the rights of workers to just wages and to organize for mutual support and protection. Today the AFL CIO Union private sector production workers only represent 15 percent of the membership with public sector government workers representing 50 percent of the total members. Back in the 1970's the validity of public sector workers being part of the AFL CIO would have been questioned as to why government workers were in a labor union instead of having a government union since the people are their employers. In the media , unions are still blamed for our economic mess with it being understood these unions are made up of production workers. No one in the media seems to know that these workers have been virtually gone for years. But this does not stop the rant against labor organizing.
My artwork below is now more than ten years old and a new generation of workers are bearing their cross now.
Cardinal Maida in 1999, criticized two Detroit newspapers for using replacement workers when the workers struck the papers in July, 1995. At that time, city priests including Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbelton had been arrested at protests supporting the cause of the workers. Compare this with today with the Church evading these realities. Back then lawyer advocates call for the Church to be stronger in joining with the workers even though some priests were arrested. In recent years, the Church stood in the background as millions of workers lost their jobs due to free trade. Some Bishops even back illegal immigration which brings the value of all labor and workers down.
Back then, Robert Giles, then publisher of the Detroit News, did much of the same thing.
He amazingly got away with invoking Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" in applauding the replacement workers and praised them for defying their unions and crossing the picket lines. This is similar to those in the Church today who back up the illegal migrant workers coming to America. No one seems to ask why did all the illegal immigrants come even though the U.S. moved more than 4,000 factories to Mexico. This part of the story is left untold.
I recall this typical example after the Detroit newspapers strikes were settled . A worker had taken a part time job in order to feed his family and after the strike was settled he had to keep both the part-time job and the full-time newspaper job just to make the same amount of money as he did before the strike settlement. And this is how it goes today with many workers doing the same today.
John Carter, back then, was a 27 year veteran of the newspaper industry. He was being paid $16 an hour until the strike came. The only job he could find was a $6 an hour job aat a grocery store at $8.50 an hour. After the strike was over he was called back to his old job that paid only $12.50 an hour. To support his family, he had to work an extra 20 hours part time at the grocery store just to make the same amount of money. Other employees had their wages cut in half when they came back to the newspaper.
Today, all this is taken as a matter of fact. I worked in several factories while going to college in the 1950s. I made the equivalent of $15 to $20 an hour. At one job I even made more and enjoyed time and a half and even double time working overtime. If these jobs were available today, there would be thousands standing in line to get them including college graduates and even many with advanced degrees. President Obama bailed out the investment communities and big money while ignoring the plight of workers themselves. He is similar to President Reagan who pushed his "trickle down economy" from the top. However back then the top was in the private sector and now the top in President Obama's "trickle down economy" is big government. Workers are still vacant entities that have to wait for the "trickle" to reach down to them.
The Church's Rerum Novarum Encylical that stood the test of time for about a hundred years for human dignity in the work day seems to have been thrashed and no one seems to care or notice this event happening in our times. Many churches in our region are closing down. We now have both vacant churches and vacant workers. We wonder about this as we review Pope Benedict's new economic encyclical
About ten years ago I drew the illustration above of workers being locked out of their jobs after replacement workers took over their jobs and the employer hired company policemen to keep order. Is this the wave of the future in th Clinton-Bush-Obama world. They all still act as one in the scam of the century -free trade!
In March of 1999, Cardinal Adam Maida spoke about the Church's ( Rerum Novarum) endorsement in the 1890s, of the rights of workers to just wages and to organize for mutual support and protection. Today the AFL CIO Union private sector production workers only represent 15 percent of the membership with public sector government workers representing 50 percent of the total members. Back in the 1970's the validity of public sector workers being part of the AFL CIO would have been questioned as to why government workers were in a labor union instead of having a government union since the people are their employers. In the media , unions are still blamed for our economic mess with it being understood these unions are made up of production workers. No one in the media seems to know that these workers have been virtually gone for years. But this does not stop the rant against labor organizing.
My artwork below is now more than ten years old and a new generation of workers are bearing their cross now.
Workers still bearing their cross with a new lost generation of workers growing
Cardinal Maida in 1999, criticized two Detroit newspapers for using replacement workers when the workers struck the papers in July, 1995. At that time, city priests including Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbelton had been arrested at protests supporting the cause of the workers. Compare this with today with the Church evading these realities. Back then lawyer advocates call for the Church to be stronger in joining with the workers even though some priests were arrested. In recent years, the Church stood in the background as millions of workers lost their jobs due to free trade. Some Bishops even back illegal immigration which brings the value of all labor and workers down.
Back then, Robert Giles, then publisher of the Detroit News, did much of the same thing.
He amazingly got away with invoking Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" in applauding the replacement workers and praised them for defying their unions and crossing the picket lines. This is similar to those in the Church today who back up the illegal migrant workers coming to America. No one seems to ask why did all the illegal immigrants come even though the U.S. moved more than 4,000 factories to Mexico. This part of the story is left untold.
I recall this typical example after the Detroit newspapers strikes were settled . A worker had taken a part time job in order to feed his family and after the strike was settled he had to keep both the part-time job and the full-time newspaper job just to make the same amount of money as he did before the strike settlement. And this is how it goes today with many workers doing the same today.
John Carter, back then, was a 27 year veteran of the newspaper industry. He was being paid $16 an hour until the strike came. The only job he could find was a $6 an hour job aat a grocery store at $8.50 an hour. After the strike was over he was called back to his old job that paid only $12.50 an hour. To support his family, he had to work an extra 20 hours part time at the grocery store just to make the same amount of money. Other employees had their wages cut in half when they came back to the newspaper.
Today, all this is taken as a matter of fact. I worked in several factories while going to college in the 1950s. I made the equivalent of $15 to $20 an hour. At one job I even made more and enjoyed time and a half and even double time working overtime. If these jobs were available today, there would be thousands standing in line to get them including college graduates and even many with advanced degrees. President Obama bailed out the investment communities and big money while ignoring the plight of workers themselves. He is similar to President Reagan who pushed his "trickle down economy" from the top. However back then the top was in the private sector and now the top in President Obama's "trickle down economy" is big government. Workers are still vacant entities that have to wait for the "trickle" to reach down to them.
The Church's Rerum Novarum Encylical that stood the test of time for about a hundred years for human dignity in the work day seems to have been thrashed and no one seems to care or notice this event happening in our times. Many churches in our region are closing down. We now have both vacant churches and vacant workers. We wonder about this as we review Pope Benedict's new economic encyclical
About ten years ago I drew the illustration above of workers being locked out of their jobs after replacement workers took over their jobs and the employer hired company policemen to keep order. Is this the wave of the future in th Clinton-Bush-Obama world. They all still act as one in the scam of the century -free trade!
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