Reports and opinions on the top political news and events in the United States and around the world. Presidential Politics, national and local issues are all commented on with sharp viewpoints.
The United States is a long way from the power and destruction of the 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Japan. We all send the Japanese people good wishes and prayers for a full recovery. Even with thousands of miles of ocean to cross the power of the tsunami still made an impact on the United States.
Initial reports said that the tsunami wave went around the Hawaii Islands, but video evidence show that a glancing blow was struck on the big island of Hawaii in the town of Kona over 3,850 miles from Japan. Unbelievably, cities in California were affected over 5,478 miles away.
Although the scale of damage in the United States can’t begin to compare with that in Japan, the tsunami managed to claim a life over 5,000 miles away from where it started. An article titled “NorCal man drowns trying to photograph tsunami” by the Fox 5 San Diego Staff and CNN Wire March 11, 2011 and published on the Fox 5 San Diego website tells of a California man that was swept out to sea and drowned while trying to photograph the incoming tsunami waves.
Although the magnitude of suffering was vastly different from Japan to the United States, they were both touched by death and destruction from the same event that demonstrated the awesome power of nature. Man still lives with forces greater than himself.
Many are too young to remember sweatshops. Sweatshops were largely in the garment industry and small groups of desperate workers worked long hours for low pay, in isolation and without any bargaining power.
The classic definition of a sweat shop was connected with industrialized America and included the following traits:
•Prevalent in the garment industry origin between 1830s and 1850s
•Desperate Workforce
•Long Hours for low pay
•Child labor may have been employed
•Dangerous working conditions
•Sweater/Subcontractor – had a workforce that did work for client, kept workers isolated and unsure of who the ultimate employer was, quickly replace workers for any reason
•Workers Inability To Organize – due to isolation
•Unions and labor laws largely ended sweatshops in the United States
•Most garment related firms outsourced production to other countries that employ sweatshop practices
Labor laws and unions effected changes that largely did away with the practices and conditions that created an environment that was friendly for sweatshop formation. Now in the 21st century are we set for the formation of a new type of sweatshop environment, not in sewing factories, but in corporate America, schools and government facilities? The reality is we may be already there. This is the current situation:
•Desperate Workforce – millions of unemployed workers – Some with benefits exhausted
•Sweater/Subcontractor – staffing firms – outsourcing – temp to perm – 6 month contract jobs etc.
•Workers Inability To Organize – union membership low and unions being busted as in Wisconsin and elsewhere
•This new sweatshop environment is invading all classes of work from public education, business professionals, health professionals and trade workers
What we are currently experiencing is a situation of surplus high-end workers that are becoming increasingly desperate after prolonged joblessness. The unemployment rate fluctuates as much from those giving up on searching for jobs as from new job placements. Many salaried workers have higher workloads and work longer hours than ever. Those trying to get back into the workplace often find themselves signed up with staffing firms and outsourcing companies that are the new age sweaters. Some find themselves working for companies on a temporary basis with hopes to move into a permanent position. Others find themselves getting back into the workforce on 6 to 12 month contracts that are often are not renewed because companies don’t want to take them onto their permanent payroll.
As for unions and collective bargaining, union membership is at an all time low. Unions are under attack and some are having their bargaining rights stripped like in Wisconsin. An article titled “WISCONSIN BUSTS THE UNIONS” by the Associated Press March 10, 2011 and published in The Huffington Post describes the move to strip public union bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. The key words are higher workloads, lower job security and little to no worker negotiating leverage, it sounds eerily similar to a sweatshop environment.
