Posts Tagged ‘union’

Banks Losing Billions in Customer Accounts

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Tired of being gouged by those ridiculous transaction fees? Sick of seeing the big banks getting bailed out while you get sold out? Feel it’s time to shake up the establishment a bit?

Well, if you answered yes to these questions, then you should do what tens of thousands of others have already done and move all of your savings out of your bank and into a local credit union.

In fact, considering how today (November 5th)  is Bank Transfer Day, there’s no better time than right now to be the change our world needs.

Over 4.5 Billion dollars has already been moved into credit unions since September, which is nothing to scoff at. But, with the movement against big banks in its infancy, the real abandonment of Corporate Financial is still to come.

Once again, we see the real power of social media and the Internet. Here is one person with one idea who found a medium to share it with others. The idea resonated so well that it sparked a movement with billion dollar implications.

This adds further support to my belief that we are on the brink of a drastically improved planet. Now that we have proven means to coordinate the undercurrents of discontent into practical and positive real-world results, it’s only a matter of time.

Just imagine, in a few years when engaged and empowered minds answer the call to action, not in the hundreds of thousands, but in hundreds of millions – the world’s system will have no choice but to bend to the will of the people.

And what we want is a more just, more equal civilization where the powerful cannot freely exploit the powerless and people take priority over profits.

US Losing Unions, China Gaining Them

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

(No, no, no… you can’t wear white after a labor day protest!)

As union busting legislation creeps into American politics, the world’s soon-to-be superpower – China – has seen increasing trends towards unionization. The Independent’s Johann Hari describes China’s atrocious working conditions:

Deaths from overwork are so common in Chinese factories that they have a word for it: guolaosi. China Daily estimates that 600,000 people are killed this way every year, mostly making goods for us.

In 2009 the US National Labour Committee sent Chinese investigators undercover there. On the first day a teenage worker whispered to them: “We are like prisoners here.” The staff work and live in giant factory-cities that they almost never leave. Each room sleeps 10 workers, and each dorm houses 5,000. There are no showers; they are given a sponge to clean themselves with.

A typical shift begins at 7.45am and ends at 10.55pm. Workers must report to their stations 15 minutes ahead of schedule for a military-style drill: “Everybody, attention! Face left! Face right!” Once they begin, they are strictly forbidden from talking, listening to music, or going to the lavatory. Anybody who breaks this rule is screamed at and made to clean the lavatories as punishment. Then it’s back to the dorm.

It’s the human equivalent of battery farming.

Fortunately, the indomitable human spirit refuses to be caged like cogs in a machine. Collectivist action has been growing across the Sleeping Dragon. Hari:

Across 126,000 Chinese factories, workers have refused to live like this any more. Wildcat unions have sprung up, organised by text message, demanding higher wages, a humane work environment, and the right to organise freely. Millions of young workers across the country are blockading their factories and chanting, “There are no human rights here!” and, “We want freedom!”

Last year, the Chinese dictatorship was so panicked by the widespread uprisings that it prepared an extraordinary step forward. It drafted a new labour law that would allow workers to form and elect their own trade unions. It would plant seeds of democracy across China’s workplaces.

This year Chinese workers have risen even harder to demand a fair share of the prosperity they create. Now company after company is making massive concessions: pay rises of over 60 per cent are being conceded. Even more crucially, officials in Guandong province, the manufacturing heartland of the country, have announced that they are seriously considering allowing workers to elect their own representatives to carry out collective bargaining after all.

A positive sign indeed. More power to our fellow freedom fighters in China.