Reply #10: Your last line is just the way employers like it.

[Occulus]

They know that, today, they have the upper hand, and it's a royal flush. They treat us workers like shit, in the main, because of that.

I'm a member of the APWU- the one of the largest and most ineffective unions in the country. We bargained away our right to strike. They gave us a no-layoff clause in return- and now, today, they're using temps which were a violation of the previous contract (the APWU caved, IMO because the practice was so rampant they couldn't stop it short of a strike) in record numbers. That mail you got late? Google "postal casuals" and go from there.

I live your last line every day, and my job is one of the vanishingly few that is protected in some way. I pity every last poor bastard out there under the gun, because I'm not- yet.

The economy is bad in the US, and in a bad economy, workers get treated like shit. We're headed for a repeat of the 1920s, and I don't see any pro-labor forces in place willing to fix it. They might lose their jobs if they try, which again is exactly the way employers like it.

Keep 'em quiet and subdued and feeling like they're lucky to have a job, and they'll be good little sheep. I could go on and on.....