8 ms·
It's the unions. On my way to work, I pass by a giant inflatable rat inflated by a gas motor that's hauled around by a truck. It's rather annoying when its tai
by Zach_the_Lizard 10y ago
It's the unions.
On my way to work, I pass by a giant inflatable rat inflated by a gas motor that's hauled around by a truck. It's rather annoying when its tail gets loose and covers the sidewalk, as can happen on windy days when it's not tied down appropriately. It's probably 10 or 12 feet tall, at least, and the tail is maybe 12 feet long or longer. (3 feet is about one meter for those in metric land).
It's parked there because one of the buildings under construction here didn't use the right amount of union labor, so there's always a rat present. Walk around and you'll see this same rat in different places; they've got a number of them. They've also got some rather impressive pigs and fat cats.
This is the city that couldn't get rid of two operators per train on the L, even though technically they could more or less get by with zero (the trains mostly drive themselves on that line; the operator, to my understanding, just has to keep acknowledging that the train should proceed).
Why?
The unions protested and won, citing hitherto unknown safety reasons that should be plaguing cities like Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris, Washington D.C., etc. due to their lack of two people. Doubly so for those lines (including the AirTrain to JFK in NYC) that do not have operators at all...
- ChristianBundy 10y agoHere's what Scabby The Rat looks like, for those who are unfamiliar: http://www.bigskyballoons.com/ratpack.html http://www.bigskyballoons.com/ratpack.html
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ezequiel-garzon 10y agoThank you! It's late where I live, English is not my native language and I was certain I was misreading all the nouns... but I wasn't! Amazing stuff.
- CPLX 10y agoThough it's possible that you're correct on this specific issue, you've offered absolutely no support for your argument. Consider the possibility that the strong streak of instinctive union bashing that you see in typical professional class culture in the U.S. is very much the creation of decades of aggressive PR effort by those who consider unions threatening.
- unethical_ban 10y agoConsider that unions are great in theory and in many circumstances have proven themselves corrupt to the core in practice.
- Frondo 10y agoI mentally swapped "corporations" out for "unions" in your sentence and it reads just as well. I consider it a credit to the anti-union propagandists that we're all so quick to discard one of the very few tools we laborers have to better our lot in life.
- Dylan16807 10y agoCriticizing is not discarding. I will happily criticize both unions and corporations, and I don't think we should get rid of either concept.
- tombone12 10y agoNo parent comment criticizing unions does it without the implication that they shouldn't exist. This is most easily seen by the total absence of any mention of a specific union, thus direction the objections towards the concept itself rather than any specific version of it.
- Dylan16807 10y agoAll unions, as a general concept, tend toward corruption. Just like corporations do. The concept itself is flawed. But flawed does not mean it shouldn't exist.
- CPLX 10y agoUnions are a way of concentrating the power of labor. All power corrupts. The observation proves nothing about unions specifically. If you take away power from unions it just goes and does its corrupting somewhere else.
- Shivetya 10y agothis is not confined to NYC or cities. My cousins have run a successful commercial roofing business in a Mid Western state for decades. It is common that on any public building they work on to have an OSHA inspector come out on day if not each day, to have a local sheriff be called, and even once INS. All because this family owned business is non union and has always been. the sad part, this is a business which has never had more than two dozen employees. It isn't just them. If non union electricians are on site for isolating air conditioning systems if not building main power they too are subject to the same. The joke is, that for much of the state they know every OSHA inspector and even the inspectors joke about it. Still they have to stop work and dance the dance. and this is only for the legal means to intimidate. unions aren't just about protecting employees, they are big money for both those who run them and the politicians they support.
- smogcutter 10y agoBut in this case the union's job is specifically to make your cousins' life more difficult. If you don't want pressure from the unions... unionize your shop.
- mcguire 10y agoSeems like someone could do the same thing to the union jobs.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- DalaiObama 10y agoIt's pretty fantastic in these hyper sensitive times that unions get away with calling poor working people rats!
- Tempest1981 10y agoPics/article on the inflatable rat: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/giant-inflatable-union-rat-promotion-n-y-article-1.2955717 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/giant-inflatable-un...
- ZeroGravitas 10y ago"Competition Is for Losers". "If you want to create and capture lasting value, look to build a monopoly, writes Peter Thiel" But when unions do it, that's bad. Try to convince someone to intervene in abuse of monopoly by Microsoft, and you'll hear arguments that any kind of intervention would be worse that just leaving them to do what they will. Some more efficient competitor will take care of the problem for you eventually. But when unions do it, that's bad.
- zackbloom 10y agoMonopolies are great for the people who run them, that is who Thiel is addressing. No one said they are good for consumers.