Worker Freedoms Declining

My first full-time job was in a trailer factory, Highway Trailers, of Edgerton, Wisconsin. Pay was low, and the foremen frequently verbally whipped us to work harder. The meaning of the word, "dignity", didn't really make it much past groupleader level on the management food chain. We went on strike for nine weeks, management looted the company into bankruptcy, and we ended up on unemployment during the recession of 1971. Through the years, respect for worker rights really never was honored much, unless a strong union presence was there.

The fact is that the erosion of worker rights has occurred at the middle class range. What we are witnessing is more chickens coming home to roost in the middle class communities- the same communities that abandoned support of worker rights long ago. People ascribing third world status for the US are only looking at the data coming in daily about the makeup of the country.

Back in October, 2004, Truthout's headline shouted: 39 Million Americans in Working Poor Families. What most workers are oblivious to is that while they are putting their noses to the grindstone, the people crying for an end to social security are destroying the economy out from under them by profiteering at taxpayer expense. The economy is looking good only because of monstrous deficits.

Workers used to fight this kind of crap.