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Subject:Re: What Happens When Temps Organize From:bbatorsk -at- nj -dot- devry -dot- edu To:To: Date:Sun, 02 Jul 2000 11:13:30 -0400
I don't get it. It doesn't sound like a dilemma. I don't know a lot about
this, but it seems on the face of it if MS didn't want to do this before,
then it must be to the advantage of the workers. I'm rather simple, but if
the temp worker had to work for MS anyway, how can it be bad (or
antiworker) to force MS to provide benefits, etc. Are the taxbreaks so
good? Is the freedom that secure? In my personal experience an organized
workforce is always better off. This decision seems to encourage worker
unity and strength. It might, however, eliminate some temp agencies, and
the drain on workers' income that such agencies would seem to represent.
Maybe some oxen are being gored, but I'm not sure whose. Perhaps some of
the "frothing idiots" who were the plaintiffs, or the "orangutans" at NWU,
can respond to this, here. But perhaps they consider the members of this
list a bunch of mindless, self-interested, short-sighted drones. (An odd
juxtaposition, I admit, since the orangutan is a solitary creature, and the
drone a mindless, social automaton, whereas the argument seems to be that
the "orangutans" favor wage-slavery over independence) I don't believe
anything I read, but I know I will check out the plaintiffs' or NWU's
version. Do they have a website? Can anyone give us a lowdown on the
value of worker organization that doesn't come from the L.A. Times?
Barry
At 05:34 PM 7/1/00 -0700, you wrote:
>
>>If the frothing idiots who brought this suit didn't belong to the NWU, they
>>should have, because they have produced exactly the same kind of results
>>one could expect from that organization of orangutans.
>
>The frothing idiots in question were caught between a rock and a hard
>place. IRS rulings that decided they were "really" employees made them
>ineligible to work as independent contractors - they were required to
>become W2 employees of an agency - and so they figured if they had to be W2
>serfs, with all the disadvantages of that status (lower rate, loss of
>freedom, loss of tax advantages), they might as well be W2 serfs of
>Microsoft and get the benefits thereof [pun intended]. I'm not happy about
>the fallout from that decision either, it's very anti-worker, but the
>plaintiffs didn't create the initial problem.
>
>--
>jeanne a. e. devoto ~ jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com
