[lbo-talk] Getting Fired for Not Making Trouble (An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement)

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

> Getting fired for industrial and other political actions is a real 
> possibility, and union and other organizers should frankly discuss 
> it, presenting people with available data, but if workers can't 
> overcome that very real fear, they can't even protect their own lives 
> and limbs.  Getting killed, disabled, and injured at work -- or 
> getting your loved ones' lives as well as your lives shortened 
> because of low wages, no benefits, toxic working conditions, and so 
> on -- is worse than getting fired.  While jobs come and go (the 
> median job tenure of US workers in January 2004 was four years 
> ["Employee Tenure in 2004," 
> <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm>, 21 Sept. 2004]), 
> you have only one life to live.
> 
> Union and other organizers should never exaggerate the possibility of 
> getting fired for industrial and other political actions -- striking 
> fear more than facts warrant is the boss's job.
> My hypothesis is that, excepting periods of serious Red 
> purges, those who have enough moxie to get fired for union organizing 
> and the like are more likely to find other jobs sooner than those who 
> are meek and mild and do nothing until bosses fire them.
> -- 
> Yoshie

How many workers get fired shortly after they begin approaching their 
co-workers and asking about possible union support? Those numbers 
do not show up anywhere so no one has any idea how often that 
happens. When I was fired for this years ago my number was never 
added to any official stats of people fired for organizing. Neither were 
the other three dismissed shortly after me. Unless we were a statistical 
aberation it is probably more common than is realized. Certainly no one 
is tracking this data but I'm not certain how you could.

Why should workers overcome the real fear of being fired any more than 
the real fear of getting their hand cut off? They are far more likely to lose 
their job for agitating than they are to lose a limb so that suggests the 
smart strategy is shut-up and get to work.

How is having your life shortened by low wages worse than being fired? 
Being fired is tangible TODAY. A shortened life is not. Doesn't getting 
fired and losing your home shorten your life expectency? I would think 
so.

My hypothesis is that in spite of my attempts at unionizing activities I 
would be unemployed and homeless TODAY of it weren't for the fact 
that I inherited some money at exactly the right time to avoid losing my 
home to the bank. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.

John Thornton