Nathan Newman wrote:
>But formal regulation is irrelevent if the actual maintenance is being done
>in countries where US inspectors don't operate.
-If the maintenance work can't be properly supervised then the planes -shouldn't fly. That's true whether the work is done in the US, -Canada, or El Salvador.
Nice words. I suggest you stop eating any meat then, since no one thinks inspections in that area are thorough at all these days.
>If workers rights are weak, formal
>regulation has little effect.
-Workers' rights are weak in the US. Whistleblowers are often demoted -or fired. We have some of the worst labor law in the world. -Complaining about foreigners is a distraction.
Doug-- this is just a plain ignorant statement. In non-union companies, such rights are weak. In heavily unionized industries, workplace rights are still quite strong and whistleblowers are quite well protected, partly because we have a system of union arbitration that protects most union grievances from being effected by the vagaries of rightwing judges.
Airlines are heavily unionized and workers are well protected when they blow the whistle on bad maintenance. Unions in the industry regularly do so.
And no, the US does not have the worst labor law in the world. It's worse than most European countries -- although has a few strengths that are underdiscussed -- but is far better than labor law in many developing natitons. That's a reality and yelling racism at the empirical fact is ridiculous.
Union leaders are murdered in the streets in countries like Columbia and El Salvador. That only happens to US union leaders when they physically go to El Salvador. See: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1221-08.htm
To ignore the distinction between labor rights in the US and El Salvador is frankly insane.
Nathan Newman