Guardian Op-Ed Urges UAW To Unionize Tesla

Hamilton Nolan purports to be a author whose matters are labor, politics, and energy. In line with his web site, he has over 8,000 subscribers. Frankly, I’ve by no means heard of him and I’m fairly certain he has by no means heard of me both. In an op-ed for The Guardian on September 21, 2023, he says that Tesla “is now US labor’s most necessary goal. If Musk doesn’t like that, he’s welcome to settle it with an auto employee by cage match.”

Shawn Fain vs. Elon Musk. Now, there’s a picture you may’t unsee! To your personal consideration and common amusement, go forward and skim the total story earlier than shifting on to my takeaway on it.

The Takeaway

I’ve made my very own pro-union proclivities abundantly clear (the evils of Jimmie Hoffa however). Then again, I’m additionally a type of “cult-like buyers” Hamilton speaks of, so I’m of two minds about his screed op-ed. To me, it comes right down to this: Ought to American staff be capable to lead a solidly middle-class life-style or are they wage slaves who should work two or generally three jobs whereas dwelling of their mom’s storage?

The weaponized capitalist system has given us a category of rich plutocrats who, because of the ignorance of John Roberts, can plow infinite quantities of cash into supporting political candidates who will promise to chop taxes on the wealthy. It has additionally given us globalization, a system that outsources jobs to the bottom wage areas of the world the place folks labor in slave-like circumstances to fill the cabinets at Walmart with low-cost imported items.

There are such a lot of shifting items to globalization, not the least of that are the big carbon emissions created when hundreds of thousands of containers are despatched throughout oceans to be distributed by hundreds of thousands of tractor trailers. Since there isn’t any worldwide value on carbon, that price by no means will get added to the gross sales value of these items, which is a gross distortion of the financial system and creates a “Heads we win, tails you lose” state of affairs.

In reality, these foreign-made items must be marked up by 20% or extra to compensate for the environmental hurt related to their manufacture and distribution. As soon as all the prices of manufacture get taken under consideration, these foreign-made items aren’t practically as low-cost as they’re claimed to be.

As well as, what made America nice was a strong and thriving center class. Till that comes again, America can by no means reclaim its self-proclaimed mantle of greatness. The nation is nicely on its method to changing into a feudal society based mostly on a plantation mentality that robs staff of their dignity.

So, carry on the cage match between the UAW and Tesla. Simply let me know when it’s going to occur so I can promote my Tesla shares first!

Put up Script

As I used to be penning this, I used to be listening to Pandora when Johnny Money’s Man In Black got here on. I hadn’t heard it for some time, however I used to be struck by how his phrases spoke so eloquently to the troubled instances we discover ourselves in. There’s a lot knowledge in his music, and so I assumed that, since this text is partly about social justice, this may be an excellent time to share it with you all. Take pleasure in!