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Samsung union stages its first ever strike
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- robertlagrant 2y ago[flagged]
- diggan 2y agoThanks to labor unions (and previous strikes), not having to work in the evening and on weekends is now something we take for granted. Viva la revolución indeed!
- robertlagrant 2y agoEmperor Constantine has entered the chat.
- andrepd 2y agoIronically, you can thank the very men and women you mock for the fact that you don't work on weekends and evenings.
- jddj 2y agoI remember reading that Henry Ford introduced the 5 day work week at Ford as a way of growing the middle class such that more people could afford model Ts. Is that just spin? I imagine there was some pressure from labour movements as well, but I suppose we don't know the true motivations one way or the other. He certainly represented it and the associated pay rise as an effort to grow his customer base.
- sandworm101 2y agoWorking in ford's plants was hell. This was an observation that he either had to improve treatment or risk loosing workers.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- drewcoo 2y agoLotta retconning with Henry Ford. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-hundred-and-three-years-ago-today-henry-ford-introduced-assembly-line-his-workers-hated-it-180961267/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-hundred-and-th... > In 1913 alone, Ford had to hire more than 52,000 workers for a workforce that at any one time numbered 14,000, writes Swan. In an attempt to to stem the tide of turnover, he upped the company’s wage rate to an unheard-of $5 per eight-hour workday. The norm for that time was about $2.25 for a nine-hour workday
- jddj 2y agoHa, sounds like it was indeed spin. Interesting what sticks, because I've read it twice recently, once even in a fairly left-leaning setting.
- AnthonyMouse 2y agoIt's spin from both sides though. Ford pays more and says "look what I have given you in my great benevolence." Unions say "look what we have negotiated for you through our great struggle." But really what happened is Ford needed to hire a lot of people so the price of labor went up through supply and demand.
- robertlagrant 2y ago> what happened is Ford needed to hire a lot of people so the price of labor went up through supply and demand This is the best way to drive up salaries, as it's closely tied to demand. Just as Silicon Valley salaries and benefits - some of the best in the world, from non-institutionalised sources, anyway - were produced via competition, and not via strikes.
- rqtwteye 2y agoIt’s spin. People hated assembly line work so he had to pay more money.
- robertlagrant 2y agoThis sounds like capitalism.
- simiones 2y agoThis makes no sense on the face of it. A company that pays its employees more so that they can afford its products?
- jddj 2y agoFor a pay rise sure. A cut to a 5 day work week though could just mean more people employed overall at minimal extra expense. If you have a monopoly that is demand constrained that might make sense? If people buy your cars with credit it might make even more sense?
- robertlagrant 2y ago> Ironically, you can thank the very men and women you mock Unless time travel is involved, I'm not sure that's true.
- skirge 2y agoactually we work more because 5(8+8) > 6(12 + 0)
- wesselbindt 2y agoYou can thank the unions of the past for the forty hour work week, the very concept of a weekend, paid sick leave, and the lack of child labour. They fought for these rights, often risking their lives* in doing so. Mocking them is extremely distasteful. * Yes, "lives", not just livelihoods. See for example the haymarket massacre.
- pydry 2y agoThe unions which won the forty hour work week and the weekend did not employ "polite" striking tactics. They aimed to levy as much damage as possible. Yellow unions, on the other hand...
- wesselbindt 2y agoIf this is indeed a yellow union, I stand corrected, of course. What makes you say it is?
- robertlagrant 2y ago> Mocking them is extremely distasteful. Unless time travel is involved, the people mentioned in the article did not achieve those things.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoOrganized labor did, which this is, and you can't build anything without labor (much to the chagrin of investors and anyone else making their living off of imaginary numbers in a database).
- robertlagrant 2y agoThis is a category error. The people in the article did not do this.
- wesselbindt 2y ago
- sasha89 2y ago[flagged]
- koolala 2y agoThe revolution was planned in advance... politely!
- koolala 2y agoPolitics? Needs to be more like Polititics!
- Aurornis 2y ago> The workers are members of the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) and are employing a "coordinated use of vacation" according to deputy union chief Lee Hyun-guk. > Using leave to protest working conditions is a very polite way to go about an industrial dispute. This one is made even more polite by the fact that Thursday was South Korea's Memorial Day holiday, so taking Friday off to enjoy a long weekend is not unusual. > One local media report even alleged Samsung management encouraged employees to use annual leave on this day. Everyone taking vacation on a Friday holiday with the encouragement of management is not what I expected from the headline.
- SiempreViernes 2y agoFull title is "Samsung union stages its first ever strike – very politely" but OP cut the last bit for some reason.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- otoburb 2y agoFor people lacking some background, South Korea used to have coordinated mass labour strikes across the country in the 90s[1][2] and early 00s[3], some of which turned violent. This type of 'polite' (possibly 'passive aggressive') protest is a signal that will be taken much more seriously by South Koreans across the board. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%931997_strikes_in_South_Korea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%931997_strikes_in_S... [2] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-02-mn-152-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-02-mn-152-st... [3] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/11/kore-n19.html https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/11/kore-n19.html