[PRCo] Re: GMs

[Herb Brannon]

Thanks for elaborating on what I said in my one paragraph post. I really wish JH were back on the list.
   
  HrB.....................the guy who "was there too"
Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
  And Herb, the sad thing about that is it might be OK to strike for 
more union decision making participation. But striking for more 
wages today will just send more jobs to other countries.

In 1950 we could be a protectionist nation. We had oil. We had 
machine tooling capabilities. We could produce whatever we 
needed. We exported more than we brought in. Volkswagen was 
nothing more than a little fly that the horse's tail was swishing.

Today I doubt that we even have the machinery to build a steel 
mill. We don't have the oil. You stayed in a hotel in Washington, 
Pennsylvania owned by the French or at least franchised by Accor of 
Paris. I'll bet if I looked at the collar of your shirt, it will say 
India or China or Sumatra. We have to learn to deal in a world wide 
economy and be friends with the other people.

It's a bitter pill to swallow. My crystal ball says the idea of 35, 
37.5 and 40 hour weeks is simply going to vanish in the coming years 
in order to survive (reads compete with those in other countries who 
are working 70 hours at starvation wages). And if the Chinese and 
Indians raise their wages, Wal*Mart will find some other place where 
they will work for next to nothing.

On May 10, 2008, at 1:55 AM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> Strikes were commonplace in the 1950s all across the United States, 
> in all industries, and with all unions. It was not a Pittsburgh 
> Railways Company only thing. It was a nationwide rejection, by the 
> working class, of the flawed labor/management relations of that 
> era. Too bad we are facing that same flawed relationship now. So 
> far, though, the necessary spark needed to set the working class 
> into motion against those who keep them in that state of mind has 
> not been struck. I have a feeling that day is coming soon.
>
>
> HrB..............the guy who "was there too"
> Fred Schneider wrote:
> You are reading something in that isn't there, Herb.
>
> I didn't say I didn't like union employees. But there was an
> animosity between PRC's union people and management or they would
> have not had some of the most vitriolic strikes in the industry in
> the 1950s. They also had the second or third highest wages in the
> industry in the 1950s and still they would stay on strike for five or
> six weeks to avoid loosing that position.
>
> I also have to recognize that even though I was in management, I got
> what I had because the state unions pushed up the salaries of
> management too. So don't attempt to back me into any corners.
>
> On May 9, 2008, at 4:16 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
>> Ah, that's the problem..............you do not like union
>> employees. The only good employees were at 121 Seventh St and in
>> the Engineering Office at Homewood Shops?? I beg to differ with you.
>>
>> Again, this is Herb............the guy who "was there too".
>> Fred Schneider wrote:
>> There may have been an animosity between the unions and
>> management at
>> Pittsburgh Railways but there was an esprit de corps among the
>> management and staff. I never heard any complaints from the people
>> at 121 Seventh Street or in the engineering office at Homewood or at
>> Sandusky Street. They were good people. I never heard any of them
>> bitching about Palmer.
>>
>>
>>
>> Herb Brannon
>>
>> Greetings From America's North Coast
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> Herb Brannon
>
> Greetings From America's North Coast
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>





Herb Brannon
   
  Greetings From America's North Coast