[Peace-discuss] Florida tomato pickers kick double butt

[Ricky Baldwin]

Not meaning to sound so snippy, by the way, folks ... I can only plead
a bit of jetlag ...

Anyway, thanks for clarifying that, John.  I also mean the capitalists
do care about OUR principles, in the senses that they can sometimes be
shamed - only sometimes, of course, ,ostly when there's some kind of
production or distribution bottleneck that amounts to a weak spot (for
them, that is, same as a strong spot for the rest of humanity...) 
Anyway, I do go on, don't I?

Keep it up, folks -  
Ricky

--- "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Jenifer Cartwright
> <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
> Ricky,
> > Didn't realize this was going to the whole list, sorry. News to me
> > about machines picking tomatoes for sauce, ketchup, etc... Also
> specifics re
> > how many lbs (tons) of tomatoes the extremely hard-working workers
> actually
> > pick... But nothing new about anti-union mentality and behavior of
> > companies, corporations, and school systems (which I have lifetime
> personal
> > knowledge concerning). That's why I said, it was the "uh,
> principle" of the
> > thing (meaning that companies, corporations, school boards are
> > UNprincipled).
> >  --Jenifer
> >
> 
> And Ricky is asserting that the companies/corporations DO have
> principles,
> which is why they fought the wage increase to the tomato pickers even
> though
> it amounted to a relatively minuscule amount of money.  Their
> principle is
> to keep the workers weak and subjugated in the interests of greater
> profits
> to be reaped by capital (i.e., management and stockholders).
> 
> John
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > *Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>* wrote:
> >
> > They DO work their butts off - that's really been part of the
> message,
> > folks! Each tomato picker has to pick about 2-1/2 TONS of tomatoes
> BY
> > HAND each day to make the poverty line ...
> >
> > But this campaign isn't just about these particular workers, of
> course.
> > And 30k bucks isn't the reason BK fought it so hard - any more than
> > the $150,000 is the reason Taco Bell fought so hard, etc - it's the
> > PRINCIPLE. Yes, the principle. We cynics on the left sometimes
> forget
> > that they matter at all in the nasty dog-eat-dog world of
> capitalism.
> > We forget, that is, that principles matter to capitalists. They
> don't
> > often show it, you might say. But in fact, thi kind of thing is
> > EXACTLY where they show that it principles DO matter to them. How
> many
> > union campaigns face bosses willing to spend twice or ten times as
> much
> > money fighting against the union than they would have spent just
> > agreeing to all the union's demands? Almost every one I've ever
> seen.
> >
> > And, just because you asked, Jenifer, tomatoes for tomato sauce and
> > such aren't generally picked by hand in Florida, as the slicing
> > tomatoes are. They usually come from California (for the time
> being)
> > and machines pick them (not requiring the human touch, as they'll
> only
> > get squashed up anyway).
> >
> > Thanks for your interest!
> > Ricky
> >
> >
> 
> > --- "John W." wrote:
> >
> > > On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Jenifer Cartwrigh wrote:
> > >
> > > How many tomatoes does BK actually use? It's not like they're
> making
> > pizza
> > > > sauce or chili, right? Does CU even have any BKs these days,
> even one??
> > So
> > > > fewer places overall. Yeah, 35 workers could do it. (It was
> probably
> > the,
> > > > uh, principle of the thing.)
> > > > --Jenifer
> > >
> > > Well, they put a tomato slice on every Whopper, and probably on
> most of
> > > their other burgers. And they sell literally millions of
> Whoppers.  Those
> > > 35 workers must really be working their butts off.
> >
> >
>