The vanishing vacation and the docile American worker

[Karmadillo]

If we can't even hold on to our right to decent vacation time, I'm guessing universal healthcare and an increase in the minimum wage are pretty much out of the question. The only solution I can think of is a revitalized union movement, but we probably won't agree to fight for that unless our employers tell us in advance it's OK to do so.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0307190199jul20,0,7720223.story?coll=chi-travel-hed

<edit>

This year 87 percent of employers are providing paid vacations, down from 95 percent in 1999, according to an annual survey released last month by the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional association of more than 175,000 members based in Alexandria, Va.

Americans plan to take 10 percent less vacation time this year than last, according to a survey released in May by online travel seller Expedia Inc. Twelve percent of 1,000 randomly selected U.S. respondents don't plan to take any vacation.

On average, Americans get 16 days of vacation a year but take only 14 days, the survey showed. By contrast, workers in Italy average 42 annual days of vacation, the French get 37, Germans get 35 and Britons get 28, according to 2001 statistics from the World Tourism Organization.

Even the famously industrious Japanese get 25 annual paid vacation days and, according to the International Labour Organization, work about 100 fewer hours per year than Americans do.

Only a handful of nationals in the labor organization's 50-country survey, including Czechs and South Koreans, work more hours than Americans.

more...

[Iverson]

1. Who will oppose losing ground?

When "the economy" needs to do well, it's a bipartisan dance.

[wildmanj]

2. American Worker

The American worker's are getting exactally what they deserve---they almost always do---my advice keep voting for the very people who will take it all away from you or stand up and fight back---after all is said and done we get what we deserve---BLOOD SUCKERS---SUPER CHEAP LABOR PARASITES---and since 1973 we have been voting them in office year after year to take away what had been won by other generations

[revcarol]

3. Kucinich would repeal the Taft-Hartley Act,

giving labor at least a chance at equal footing with big multi-nationals.
Vacations, health care, working conditions such as having too much to do in the time allotted, safety conditions including stress injuries SHOULD ALL BE NEGOTIATED.

Wonder how many reservists and National Guardsmen will come home to find out their jobs are no longer there after their "vacation" in Iraq or Afghanistan, huh?

[Karmadillo]

4. Repeal the "slave-labor bill"? Outrageous! Thank heavens mainstream

Democrats can be counted on not to embrace such extremism.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Hartley_Act

The Taft-Hartley Act, passed over the veto of President Harry Truman in 1947, severely restricted the activities and power of unions in the United States. President Truman described the act as a "slave-labor bill". The act, officially known as the Labor-Management Relations Act, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred Hartley.

It outlawed closed shops, where only labor union members could be hired. Union shops, where non-union workers hired must join the union within a certain amount of time, are permitted only if the majority of workers approve. The act provides for a 60-day cooling-off period after a contract expires before a strike may be called. Jurisdictional strikes, where two unions attempt to gain control of a particular group of workers, and secondary boycotts and picketing, where unions boycott or picket businesses associated with a target business, are forbidden. Unions are forbidden from contacting workers at the workplace. All union leaders must file affadavits with the US Department of Labor declaring that they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

more...

http://www.gpnj.net/tafthartley2.html

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

· Re-instituted court injunctions against strikes

· Gave the government the ability to break strikes by declaring 80 day cooling off periods

· Outlawed organizational picketing

· Gave employers the right to hire scabs as permanent replacements for striking workers

· Banned election campaign contributions from union dues and union treasuries (but not from corporations)

· Banned “secondary boycotts” making it illegal for workers to refuse to cross a picket line when they themselves were not directly party to a labor dispute and illegal to refuse to handle so-called “hot cargo” -- goods coming from or going to a struck enterprise. (This essentially made what Staughton Lynd has characterized as “solidarity unionism” illegal).

more...

[Redleg]

5. Vacations are negotiated in labor contracts

Wages, hours, and working conditions are "mandatory" subjects for bargaining.

I do agree that some of the Taft-Hartley provisions are definitely pro-management and anti-labor. I do agree that all workers, union and non-union need more vacation time.

[Karmadillo]

7. Press release detailing Kucinich's proposal for partial repeal of T-H Act

http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/pr-021016-tafthartley.htm

Kucinich Introduces Bill To Protect Collective Bargaining; Repeal Sections of Taft-Hartley

Bill Introduced Wednesday Would Strike Provisions Which Allow For Presidential Intervention In Strikes And Lockouts

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), today, introduced HR 5644 to repeal sections of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which allow for Presidential interventions in strikes and lockouts.

The bill, introduced in the House, would strike Sections 206-210 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, commonly know as the Taft-Hartley Act. These sections permit the President to intervene in strikes and lockouts via the establishment of a board on inquiry and allow the President to direct the Attorney General to petition a district court to end a strike or lockout for an 80 day 'cooling off period'.

"These sections of Taft-Hartley are an aggressively anti-union weapon undermining the collective bargaining rights of working people," stated Kucinich. "Today is an important step forward for the rights of the working men and women of this nation. Worker's rights are human rights."

Joining Kucinich as co-sponsors of HR 5644 are Rep. George Miller (CA), Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee; Rep. Major R. Owens (NY), Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections; Rep. Robert E. Andrews (NJ), Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations; and Reps. Bernard Sanders (VT), Donald M. Payne (NJ), and Fortney 'Pete' Stark (CA).

end

[TreasonousBastard]

6. This, of course, is the secret behind American "productivity."

It's been going on for a long time, now, and the "official" vacation time is only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone's putting in longer days, and not getting paid for it. "Comp time" is a dirty joke.

Besides the number of companies, I wonder about the total number of workers involved. The 8% fewer companies that are offering paid vacations only speaks for salaried employees, I would assume. Contract and commissioned employees and free-lancers rarely, if ever, got paid vacations, and there are a lot more of them now, even in companies that offer vacations to salaried staff. Myself, I haven't had a paid vacation since 1984.

[Iris]

8. but Bush gets 1 month, so all is well

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=123447&mesg_id=12344