If you don't like the wages that mining coal pays then, quit your job, move away, and find a job that pays better. Whne enough people quit and move away them the company will be forced to pay more for wages.
See how easy it is?
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beep off?
This film was nothing but endless stupidity on the part of a bunch of coal miners who want to have it both ways. They want to be paid more than what the job is worth yet refuse to quit and move away when the mine owner says, "No way."
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Paid more than the job is worth? Did you even watch the film? These people's work enabled the company to nearly triple profits in a single year, while their own wages lagged behind the increased cost of living.
Let's be clear. Without these people and others like them, the lights would not have been on in many homes and businesses across the state.
Of course, you may say the job is not complex, and these people are interchangeable with any other people. But that has no bearing on how essential the job actually is, or how it should be paid. The disparity between valued services and disposable workers is one of the great failures of US-style capitalism. By valuing only replacement and not work, the true value of work is not measured.
Frankly, middle-to-large companies' employees should be required by law to form or join a union. Like capitalism itself, it isn't perfect, but it's the best way to ensure that the business isn't ripping off the employees, and that co-workers aren't ripping off each other.
But this issue isn't just about scabs and strikers. On a larger scale, it is business's irrational hunger for cheap disposable employees which has brought the US to its knees. Whether it's free trade, the hiring of illegal immigrants, outsourcing/offshoring/rightsizing/nearshoring, or "globalization", the end result is US jobs lost forever, or at least until the American Dream matches the Haitian Dream. It's simple math.
I really don't think the OP did watch the film because during the conversation between the miner and the NYC cop he states they aren't really striking about money but dangerous working conditions. Also, the only point of contention between the miners and management was the management wanted a no strike clause.
I'm a Libertarian myself but I think that if capitalists can increase there power by collective cooperation via corporations then workers should be able to via unions. Having said that I think both need to be fixed corporations have too much power resulting from the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and the corruption endemic in unions is troubling as well but as my dad who's a Teamster working for UPS says the mafia gives a much better return on his pension than UPS would
@Altaire
You're an idiot---if it wasn't for unions, there would be NO such things as safe working conditions, health benefits, or even fair wages. S***, people died, and got killed trying to start unions barely a hundred years ago,especially in Detroit, which was literally a battleground for the birth of today's unions. And,hell no, the age of unions is not over--at least here in Michigan, where our govenor claimed he wasn't going to pass a right-to-work law, but turned around and did it anyway, making damn sure that no one had a chance to vote on it. Hell,the only job I ever had with full medical benefits WAS a union job. I damn sure never got that from any minimum wage job, I can tell you that.
Also, packing up and going someplace to find another job is not the *beep* point---the point is if the company or corporation are making HUGE profits in millions of dollars BECAUSE of the workers, then THEY damn well can afford to give their workers some decent benefits and working conditions. Just like Walmart makes a billion dollars per year, yet they act as if they can't pay their workers above minimum wage, and from what I hear,have actually encouraged them to go on food stamps when they can't get full-time work hours, and they don't get unemployment if they get laid off, or something like that. Packing up and moving someplace else dosen't change a damn thing,plus NOT everyone can actually afford to just pack up and move at a moment's notice--it's not THAT damn simple for everybody. Sometimes people end up doing just that, but it dosen't solve the core problem---companies/corporations getting away with paying their employees on the cheap while they make profits hand over first. That's the only reason companies pack the hell up and move overseas, so that they can get away with paying the workers in other countries 38 cents a damn hour (if they even get that) with, of course, NO benefits whatsoever.
it wasnt just about wages, it also had to do with the working conditions in the mine, while no coal mine will ever be completely safe the conditions were horrible back then, besides that was the 1970's...the age of unions are over.
shareObviously Altaire has never had to actually work for a living. And compared to the people in this film -- who among us has?
--If they move, kill 'em!
Bry-2 I'm a coal miner, its not a bad job, you just have to deal with low coal which where I work is 4 feet although there is some mines that has 12 foot top.
i like it, pays good and the insurance is top notch, this is the first job I have had that I can say that I like....Wal mart would be the worst job I ever had with Hardee's a 2nd
I thought Harland County USA was an excellent, very well-done documentary film. The conditions were unsafe back then, which is what the workers were striking and protesting about, not just the wages. The conditions were horrific and dangerous back then. Moreover, if the coal mine fire down in West Virginia that killed a bunch of miners and seriously injured others occurred just afew years ago is any indication, the conditions that coal miners have to work under nowadays aren't any safer than they were back then, or during the Springhill Mining disaster that happened up in Nova Scotia, Canada, that occurred back in 1958.
shareThe unions line their pockets as well as the mine owners. The unions get half of the raise you get. Union corruption was rampant back then.
shareI'll grant you one point - no one made these people work for the coal mines. It was their choice. Also, some of the tactics they chose, such as blocking the roads, were illegal.
However, had they left and other workers simply filed in to fill their positions, concerns regarding safe and humane working conditions would have continued to go unaddressed. Mines could continue to conduct business as usual, with little regard for safety, and little oversight or regulation.
Let me ask you this - let's say, for argument's sake, that you have to be a coal miner. Would you want to mine coal today, or 50 years ago? Think about it. I'll wait.
Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say!
The OP is a troll.
Watching the film right now on one of the Encore Channels, it has more to do with safety.
The "communists" also tried to unionize(and did) the movie studios in the early 50s. Prior to that if a crew member was injured on a movie set they were SOL.
The strike was about working conditions, NOT salary. The workers CORRECTLY believed that it should not be acceptable for a massive and massively profitable corporation to simply treat labor like so many machines. They were fine with working for market wages as long as they didn't have to risk life and limb to earn that salary. Sorry that is NOT communist at all. It is human nature.
shareOP is worse than a troll. It's a hypocrite.
First,I suppose all the people in the former USSR simply had to pick up and move to a better area with better pay and wages. Same with everyone in Africa, India, China, well, everywhere that sucks.
Op, you're living off the avails of communism and you're too stupid to realize it. You have socialized roads, schools, LEO, garbage collection and most importantly, municipal water and sewer services.
Go move into the sticks. Sh*t in a slit trench you've dug with your own hands. Then wash your a$$ off in some muddy water from a stream.
Then come back here and preach about how communism is such an evil thing. A$$hole. I only wish America had Gulags to inter morons like you. You're too stupid for the common good but not dumb enough to make a decent jack booted thug.
Well, you tell him!
In particular, regarding labor issues, I'll bet the OP has a safe work environment, has taken a paid vacation day or two, has taken paid sick leave, and has a retirement fund and health insurance to which his employer contributes. And will never have the first clue that those things were bought and paid for by the sacrifices of union pioneers.
Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say!
Strike. Ok.
Riot. Ok.
Menancing, hitting, breaking the cars and calling names against the workers that disagrees with this and goes to work normally. Not ok.
It's kind of ironic one woman complaining that she was being denied the constitutional right to go and do whatever she wants, while she herself was also denying this other workers right to go and do whatever they wanted.
Good point, talikennj. Thanks.
shareTroll time.
I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP! - Daniel Plainview - There Will Be Blood
Sure...
share