Monday, September 15, 2008

COLA

For those of you too unfortunate to have a non-union job, a "COLA" is a Cost of Living Adjustment. None of my friends who work non-union jobs get those. Instead, they get the shaft. My wife has a non-union job. She's lucky if she gets a very tiny raise of a few cents per hour once or twice per year.

Because I have a union working to negotiate contracts for the rank and file, we are treated far better than folk who work non-union jobs. Whenever I read articles about various places voting to not have a union brought in, and then see photos or video of the workers celebrating, I am always horrified. What are they celebrating? That they will continued to get shafted? It's insane.


At any rate, my pay just went up almost $1500 per year. In one quarter. All because of the inflation wrought by the morons who currently run this madhouse of a nation. None of my friends who have non-union jobs got squat. They have to pay these ever-inflating prices with no way to moderate the negative costs to them and their families. But given the chance, they'd still likely vote to discount collective bargaining in their own workplaces. I reckon the citizens of the USA won't be happy until we're all eking out poverty wages while living in toxic communities packed with fouled water and unbreathable air.

I got on the Internet to read the news this morning. I don't watch or read any mass media USA so-called "news". This nation's corporate-owned news organizations disgust me beyond description.

At any rate, the headline on BBC was this.

The headline at CNN was this.

The USA is a nation of religious morons. It sickens me more every day.

3 comments:

  1. Douche Bags is also a fair descriptive word for our media representation.

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  2. Bob, are you familiar with Eugene V. Debs? He was an early union leader and Socialist who ran for President, and all around good guy. I learned of him earlier this year when I reread all of the books of Kurt Vonnegut, more than a few of which mention Debs.
    He was arrested any number of times. At one sentencing, when asked if he had anything to say, he famously replied, "Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

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  3. Mark: You've got that right!

    Stu: Oh, yeah. Debs was a true American hero.

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