Morning Ed: Labor {2018.06.20.W}

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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13 Responses

  1. fillyjonk says:

    Lb2: Anecdote is not the singular of data, but I know when I become really busy at teaching, my ability to creatively problem-solve, my ability to come up with new research avenues, and even my desire to do stuff like work on quilts, totally tanks.

    And also, the “decline in community choirs” – every group of which I am a part is worried about membership and is fearful they will be folding in the next five years. In many cases I am the youngest member (and I am nearly 50). I don’t know what it is. I suspect part of it is the increase in “kid centered” activities, so people in their 30s and 40s really only do stuff like go to soccer meets or ballet class. I suspect part of it is the fact that work, for a lot of people, has extended its tentacles so far into people’s lives that either (a) people have no energy to go to meetings after work, or sing in a choir, or do volunteer work or (b) people feel like “If I’m not getting paid for it I’m not interested.”

    And it seems that feeling persists once people retire: I know five or six people who took early retirement and dropped all their group memberships/responsibilities.

    But I do worry. For one thing, as someone who never married, these groups are my socialization and my family. I can’t just show up (if I even wanted to) at some soccer meet and be accepted. And on the other end: when there are no volunteers to staff the food bank, the food bank closes, and that stopgap help to people goes away.Report

  2. LeeEsq says:

    Lb8: I have a very hard time getting g worked up about this. Longshoremen are doing dangerous and necessary work. That they have an effective union that can deliver six figure salaries is no big deal. There are plenty of wealthy CEOs that get paid more money for being destructive fish-ups.

    Lb9: Trump is destroying institutional memory in government. The people who are willing to work under him are those that will exasperate his most evil tendencies.Report

  3. Marchmaine says:

    [Lb5] A little something for everyone…

    When workers have the option to not pay any dues, a union has to constantly engage its members and prove its value to the people it represents. For the Culinary, that has meant cultivating leaders inside the casinos; getting rank-and-file members involved in political causes and organizing drives; and, above all, mobilizing to win solid contracts with strong pay and benefits that show members the advantages of being in a union.

    When Richard Blair, 63, was working in a kitchen at the Dunes in the 1980s, he didn’t even know he had a shop steward. But as the union transformed into a more bottom-up operation over the years ? much of that under Taylor’s leadership ? members like Blair have become the driving force. He is now a shop steward at the MGM Grand…

    I wish the article talked a bit more about the key labor issues they had successfully defended/implemented but at least its the beginnings of an interesting story to think on.Report

  4. Marchmaine says:

    [Lb0] Not to run against the grain of the article, but “Turns out, this isn’t typical. Politico spoke to an Obama administration official who said that they didn’t even bother to list jobs when they opened up in the White House.

    …is symptomatic of something else.Report

  5. North says:

    Canada just legalized pot nationally. I am pleased; good on Justin and good on sensible liberalism.Report

    • dragonfrog in reply to North says:

      And it looks like they’ll only miss their target date for having the first legal pot shops open on July 1 by a couple months. That’s early in politician years.

      I will probably buy some pot when one opens near me, as a sort of celebration – not that I am likely to have any need at that point, as my rate of consumption is quite low and my supply plentiful…Report

    • Jaybird in reply to North says:

      Good for Canada. I am interested in seeing what happens and whether it’s particularly healthier (or unhealthier) than happened in Colorado.Report

  6. Mark Van H says:

    LB2: As someone with a manual labor job I am doubtful. Creativity requires energy. Manual labor (in my experience) uses up that energy pretty effectively.Report

  7. dragonfrog says:

    Posted on boinboing today – a fellow was fired by a machine, and it took some serious doing to unfire himReport

  8. Jaybird says:

    Leon White, also known as Vader, has passed away. He was 63.Report

  9. Jaybird says:

    Lb7: I wonder if this can be explained by regression to the mean.

    (I also wonder if inflation/hassle explains it. One of my former-co-workers had 4 kids and they did the numbers and found that after car and childcare and whatnot, his wife would have to make some pretty hefty money just to break even… let alone get money above and beyond what the intangibles of staying home provides.)Report

  10. Brandon Berg says:

    Lb6: I don’t think there’s ever been any real evidence for the assumption that tech is particularly bad about sexism and sexual harassment. Feminists just took it as axiomatic that there could be no other possible explanation for women’s underrepresentation in a lucrative career path.Report