Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/25/michael-moore-has-a-message-to.html
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Michael Moore has a message to federal employees: "Don't go to work!"
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Seriously. Is it just the cold weather? Why are we not organizing large scale protests right now?
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It could not happen here, Michael Moore, it could not happen here.
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Seriously
A) go on strike
B) Call to impeach Mitch McConnel (down with Yertle and his running interference. Send Mario and Luigi after him)
C) Call for impeaching Trump
We all knew Trump would be stealing wages from his contractors. He’s just sticking with the pattern
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I have no idea… For many of the millennial generation, it’s simply not done…
I think it’s partly because of a decades-long effort to demonize labor organization and reinforce a dog-eat-dog individualism… Strikes are often portrayed in the media as perpetrated by greedy, lazy government workers… Most people in the “middle class” have never been in a union or even know anyone who is. They’re now salary employees who are often openly hostile to wage laborers’ demands for overtime or other benefits that were bargained away in the white-collar world long ago. These employees are pitted against each other in the workplace to the point that they wont even reveal their compensation to each other (oh the embarrassment)… I’ve have conversations with people who would otherwise be considered liberal who have no sense of worker solidarity; they have been force-fed the neoliberal fantasy of pure competition and meritocracy. We’re now “brand ambassadors” or “team members” all.
Anyway, the unpaid government workers should strike.
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At some point, someone is going to suggest a federal employee wildcat strike and it is going to take.
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Same for Gen X. We’re a small generation, born in a much briefer time segment (about 15 years). We’ve been outnumbered, out-voted, and out-shouted from the beginning. Aside from that, there’s the generational defeatism: the Gen Xers I know all remember being told in grade school that we were basically doomed. There would be no social security when we retired, the bombs were going to fall any day now, the environment would be trashed beyond comprehension. Just accept it, kid.
This is what the future looked like in 1983. This commercial aired on Saturday mornings, along with Bugs Bunny and Fat Albert. It was for kids:
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This PSA is insane.
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Oh jeebs! The Day After! We were totally told we were doomed!
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Admittedly I’m glad that Robert Mueller and team are still at work this week, even if they’d be forgiven for choosing to stay home until they get paid.
I’m all in favor of everyone else refusing to go to work though.
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You know how you dismantle manufactured generational divides? The first step is to stop feeding into them.
People are people… and if they are disenfranchised enough, if they are fed up enough, if they are hungry enough they will take to the streets.
‘Bread and circuses’ can only distract the masses for so long… especially once the bread runs out.
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In embarrassment? In what American workplace nowadays is discussing compensation with other employees not a firing offense?
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On the other hand…
you’re looking at a policy of undermining the work of the government, putting the worst possible person in charge of each agency etc. You don’t think that 800 000 government workers not doing their jobs isn’t a wet dream for this administration?
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Yeah that’s even more insidious. I’ve never had it in a contract, but maybe I’m lucky.
ETA: Looks like it’s actually illegal to forbid sharing info about your compensation:
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I would not blame the federal workers for walking off one single bit.
Meanwhile, thanks to the FBI agents for getting up so early in the middle of a shutdown to go knock on Stone’s door this morning.
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Ah! It’s NLRA that covers it, not FLSA!. Good to know!
(I had thought it was a provision of FLSA, which would mean that most techies are exempt.)
In any case, few people know about the provision, and it has few teeth, so employers ignore it.
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That PSA was nightmare fuel. And you’re absolutely right, this isn’t only an issue with Millenials.
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Well they’ve been told it’s illegal for them to strike, but isn’t disobedience the whole point of civil disobedience?
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I, for one, welcome our new feline leaders.
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