9/11 has nothing to do with it. If there are no witnesses, management is free to do what they like, including making up false charges (like “insubordination”) or denying they said something they actually said. If it’s just a single employee’s word against several managers, who’s going to be believed?

Having witnesses would put a crimp in management’s ability to engage in these quite common practices. I’ve been both management and union (including serving as shop steward) so I’ve seen it happen.

Creeping Truth @
37

Great post, Jordan! 9/11 is close enough to Labor Day to make it important to connect these dots. So good to see you do it.

Could this be the Bush administration whose one carryover from the Saddam regime was its antilabor law? That included, by the way, a ban on public unions Saddam announced under this decree:

“From now on, the title ‘worker’ is abolished and all workers shall become official employees by the State…. As everybody is now a government employee, there is no more need for trade unions.”

See http://www.uslaboragainstwar.o…..hp?id=9673

Sounds like our Homeland Security Department. What exactly was it that Bush didn’t like about this guy? Their faces are beginning to merge in my mind, in a Cleland/bin Laden visual effect.

I imagine that under some rock there’s a John Yoo legal memo arguing that Bush’s Commander-in-chief authority trumps the 13th amendment, the one that abolished slavery. That’s the drift of the argument, isn’t it?

Shhhh!! Some of us have been waiting for that very thing. Excellent tie-ins indeed, Jordan. I had forgot about those early federal worker wage cuts, which were just one of a large gaggle of reasons these guys never got a post-9/11 honeymoon from me.

prostragedragon – I understand your reaction, but the idea’s already in the air, and I seriously doubt John Yoo needs me to connect the dots for him.

But your reaction raises another question: Are we better off not seeing the trend Yoo and his ilk reflect? Jordan and others such as Naomi Klein have shown it at work, how Bush’s “long war” has become a pretext for curbing working class rights.

Here’s my precedent for opening our eyes. Before there was a Civil War there was a legal argument for putting the 13th amendment on the books. It began when Lincoln pointed out how the Constitution’s framers meant to put slavery on an “ultimate course of extinction.” Slavery just didn’t fit into the scheme. That’s why eg the Northwest Territories were made free.

Now that we have the 13th amendment, let’s ask what its implications are. Lincoln spoke to that subject too. Throughout his political career he likened employment of labor by capital to slavery. He supported the right to strike, and he spoke of labor directed by another as inferior to self-directed labor.

Not accidentally, corporations gained tremendous power during the Civil War. That led Lincoln to worry about the rise of the firm, which he saw as a looming threat in place of the very institution the war was abolishing.

We’re back to that fork in the road. More turns on empowering the working class than I could possibly list here. But it’s pretty plain that Jordan points to a quiver in the Repugs’ long-term strategy, a plan of attack on labor that is fairly explicit. IMO, we do best to call it out and get working people to see another reaon why, if they don’t take power into their own hands, they’ll end up living out Lincoln’s nightmare. I don’t know how many still qualify as “Reagan Democrats,” but this group has to be set on a course of extinction, too.

So I beg your indulgence to let me continue to call these connections out.

he won’t survive the primary. he’ll be pointing to his actions on one day and every other repub candidate can attack him with the rest of his life. he’s a goner.

Great post, Jordan! 9/11 is close enough to Labor Day to make it important to connect these dots. So good to see you do it.

Could this be the Bush administration whose one carryover from the Saddam regime was its antilabor law? That included, by the way, a ban on public unions Saddam announced under this decree:

“From now on, the title ‘worker’ is abolished and all workers shall become official employees by the State…. As everybody is now a government employee, there is no more need for trade unions.”

See http://www.uslaboragainstwar.o…..hp?id=9673

Sounds like our Homeland Security Department. What exactly was it that Bush didn’t like about this guy? Their faces are beginning to merge in my mind, in a Cleland/bin Laden visual effect.

I imagine that under some rock there’s a John Yoo legal memo arguing that Bush’s Commander-in-chief authority trumps the 13th amendment, the one that abolished slavery. That’s the drift of the argument, isn’t it?

Shhhh!! Some of us have been waiting for that very thing. Excellent tie-ins indeed, Jordan. I had forgot about those early federal worker wage cuts, which were just one of a large gaggle of reasons these guys never got a post-9/11 honeymoon from me.

UptownNYChick@123

“It’s just funny to see how in line all the dems are here. They are mentioning the entire Dem ticket in their speeches.”

I am so envious. We’ve got some great Dems running for office down ticket – Diane Farrell against Chris Shays, Chris Murphy against Nancy Johnson. How Dodd et al who head the state Dem party can tolerate this extended temper tantrum is beyond comprehension. Clearly the Dems are going to sweep New York state.

I know. I am pissed for you.

meta @
34

Great article, Jordan. I’m assuming Giuliani was complicit in all this. The tragedy compounds with each passing year because of the lack of compassion and protection of big business by these criminals.

How is Giulani escaping accountability in all this and still being treated as a hero? He was the outgoing mayor but was still mayor for several months after 9/11. In fact he tried to extend his term on the pretext he was needed for the recovery.

One of the memos, from the New York City health department, dated Oct. 6, 2001, noted: “The mayor’s office is under pressure from building owners … in the Red Zone to open more of the city.” The memo said the Department of Environmental Protection was “uncomfortable” with opening the areas but, “The mayor’s office was directing the Office of Emergency Management to open the target areas next week.”

I don’t think people will begin to question the resolve of Rudy Giuliani in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center… Nevertheless, if it is true that Rudy Giuliani knowingly sent not only countless aid workers but also thousands, nay millions of New Yorkers into a “toxic soup” without warning them of the clear danger to their health — and these documents appear to indicate that it is true — then his record on 9/11, which form the basis of his candidacy for the White House, will be seriously undermined.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/9/7/22421/87517

I think Ghouliani will get clobbered soon. The shine is off him.

“It’s just funny to see how in line all the dems are here. They are mentioning the entire Dem ticket in their speeches.”

I am so envious. We’ve got some great Dems running for office down ticket – Diane Farrell against Chris Shays, Chris Murphy against Nancy Johnson. How Dodd et al who head the state Dem party can tolerate this extended temper tantrum is beyond comprehension. Clearly the Dems are going to sweep New York state.

Great article, Jordan. I’m assuming Giuliani was complicit in all this. The tragedy compounds with each passing year because of the lack of compassion and protection of big business by these criminals.

How is Giulani escaping accountability in all this and still being treated as a hero? He was the outgoing mayor but was still mayor for several months after 9/11. In fact he tried to extend his term on the pretext he was needed for the recovery.

One of the memos, from the New York City health department, dated Oct. 6, 2001, noted: “The mayor’s office is under pressure from building owners … in the Red Zone to open more of the city.” The memo said the Department of Environmental Protection was “uncomfortable” with opening the areas but, “The mayor’s office was directing the Office of Emergency Management to open the target areas next week.”

I don’t think people will begin to question the resolve of Rudy Giuliani in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center… Nevertheless, if it is true that Rudy Giuliani knowingly sent not only countless aid workers but also thousands, nay millions of New Yorkers into a “toxic soup” without warning them of the clear danger to their health — and these documents appear to indicate that it is true — then his record on 9/11, which form the basis of his candidacy for the White House, will be seriously undermined.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/9/7/22421/87517