Fear and Trembling in the Workplace

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/19/fear-and-trembling-in-the-workplace/
Date Written:  2017-07-19
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21057

Organized labour is desperately in need of a major facelift. The AFL-CIO needs to hire the best public relations firm in the land, pay them what they ask, do exactly as they say, and get busy educating the American public.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Whenever this union official was asked at social functions what he did for a living he had a perfect answer. He said he "helped working people with any problems they had on the job, such as making sure they weren't bullied, harassed or treated unfairly, making sure they received any overtime compensation due them, and seeing to it that they got all the health insurance and pension benefits to which they were entitled."

According to him, people were blown away by this answer. They were astounded by it. They responded by gushing and praising him, blurting out things like, "Wow, man, what a cool job." Or: "I had no idea there were people who had jobs like that." Or: "That's really great! I wish there more people who did that sort of thing, because Lord knows, we could sure use it." Etc.

But when he finished his explanation by casually noting that he was the president of a labor union, those same people- -- the same men and women who moments earlier had praised him -- almost recoiled in horror. They appeared stricken. He said they looked at him as if he had just confessed to being a pedophile or Jihadist.