Our nation and democracy has been in decline for some time now. The Bush administration however seems intent to give democracy the coup de grace, and institute a more efficient empire that will continue to boost GDP.
I have a radical proposal to remedy the systemic problems facing our nation. First, please know the meaning of the word "radical". Radical comes from the Latin, "to the root" (think of radius). Radical does not mean extreme or a fringe element. In my life in high tech, I studied Systems Engineering and Root-Cause analysis. Our corporation adopted a practice known as Six Sigma, a process to analyze all failures to their underlying root cause to eliminate the error rate and improve our techniques. Six Sigma is a discipline that ranks practitioners in degrees adopted from the martial arts, from white belt to black belt. In other words, we were encouraged to be militant radicals.
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Everyone at the company had the authority to shut down the production line if they saw a severe quality issue. We took quality seriously.
We have a quality issue today in the United States.
The root cause is that the government of the people, for the people, and by the people has been hijacked by non-people. Corporations, while a power for good and progress in many regards, are no longer representing the best interests of the United States and it's people. Corporations are now multinational companies, and their directors and executives mandated to maximize shareholder values. This means that if it costs less to design weapons systems software in foreign nations, then the otherwise patriotic executives are obligated to offshore that work. If U.S. export regulations are interfering with the sales of surveillance systems to other nations, then the company is obligated to offshore the division to a nation with less regulations. Even though moving high tech jobs to other nations deteriorates America's ability to develop new engineers the company must ignore any patriotic impulses and maximize profits. Our best engineers typically started at our company as assemblers before they realized their latent abilities and skills in technology. Many had only had worked for our company when they retired. While our company had been well known for its high standards, meritocracy, ethics, and fair treatment of employees, it is now best known for "pretexting."
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, were legends in high-tech. They brought in many innovations that showed how important their employees were to them and the company. They were highly patriotic, and Dave even served as Secretary of Defense for several years. (yes Virginia, there were good Secretaries of Defense at one time) http://www.hp.com/... Things at HP and HP's industrial products spinoff, Agilent Technologies were always good when Bill and Dave were at the helm, however they made the fatal error of being mortal and passed away a few years ago. Sadly much of their values, known as the HP Way died with them.
Corporations are designed to live beyond humans. It is a way for many individuals to invest together to build something that would be unaffordable on their own. The corporation allows a business to continue without any one individual being critical to its success (contrary to what current CEO salaries might lead you to believe). Bill and Dave had control of a large block of stock, but more importantly had the respect and ears of the employees. The HP Way instilled loyalty above any other value, and people would work to exhaustion if the company's success counted on it. They knew the company was with them. Employees were given a copy of their book http://www.amazon.com/... and we all absorbed their values by working with lifelong HP employees who had known Bill and Dave.
Then came the Carly Fiorina era, the most noted HP CEO. Her book due out in October, was ironically bundled with The Five Jerks you meet on Earth for me at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/...
Carly is most known for her statement that "no American has a God-given right to a job." She is absolutely correct. She proceeded to massively layoff employees to maximize profits and acquired Compaq in a move intended to create redundancies and opportunities for cost reductions (translation: your neighbor losing his job). HP board member Walter Hewlett, Bill's son, opposed the move bitterly saying it violated the values of the founders, but was ultimately defeated. Here is a quote from Carly that I like much better
...America's leadership in the world has never been about Manifest Destiny. It has never been inevitable. It has always been about people's hard work and commitment, the result of decision, investment, and choice. Success has never been guaranteed, even when it's been around for so long we take it for granted. As in all great undertakings, failure is a real possibility. But we have so much we need to succeed. What we need now is the heart, the determination and the will to invest what is necessary and sacrifice what is required. We need the courage to take risks, to make choices, and to stand behind them together. We need the imagination and creativity to picture our world in a future that is changing fundamentally. And we need to trust in the genius and the ability of the American people.
http://www.washingtonspeakers.com/...
I trust the American people, but will you take risks? Will you stand behind them together? Do you have the heart, the determination and will to invest in what is necessary and sacrifice what is required. Do you have the faith in yourself and your neighbors?
No American has the God-given right to a job, but we were endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Among those is the right of association. And despite my loyalty to my employer and faith in capitalism, I have resorted to a socialist cause: Labor Rights. The root cause of our problems in American is our eroding right to form a union. And though I believe the big unions are greatly to blame for the state they find themselves in today, their failure has impacted all of us. No longer can unions be counted on to rally the people to vote for Democratic candidates that represent the interests of the majority. No longer do corporations feel the need to match union scale wages to discourage organizing campaigns. Corporations are able to supply funds to their chosen candidates and lobby extensively for causes that support their own non-human special interests. I believe in corporations as a force for good and progress, but union and the labor movement was the check and balance to corporate strength. Without the ability to form new unions, companies like Ford are forced to pay buyouts to their unionized workers while foreign owned auto factories in the South no longer match wages of the big 3. Walmart is able to bully employees into working for less wages and benefits than they would negotiate if they had the opportunity. And Walmart unfairly competes against small competitors that are exempt from the National Labor Relations Act. The Bush appointed National Labor Relations Board is the most hostile to unions ever.
We must act together, as Carly said. Set aside your prejudices and take a fresh look at our Labor Rights. Allowing them to atrophy and die harms all of us. Please sign the two petitions below, and take a look at a new way to organize at the third link.
Please support the bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act!
Protest Kentucky River decision at NLRB
Learn about our rights as individuals to discuss collective action. Microunions is a website for employees considering forming employee associations, or joining together for mutual aid. Microunions is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO, or other national unions.