9/4/2011
This was Labor Day weekend, which is a United States federal holiday that happens on the first Monday of September starting on September 5, 1882. The occasion was organized by Peter J. McGuire after he had visited a labor festival in Canada. The idea of Labor Day is to celebrate the efforts and acheviements of the people of our great country who, by their labor, have contributed to the advancement, or betterment, of our economic and social environment. In other words it is actually a day dedicated to the people by the people. Sound familar? For the most part my personal observation has shown me that the people don't seem to celebrate the working man's effort much any more.
I have wittnessed the decline in organized labor organization in the years that I have been a part of the work force. I remember a time when almost all professions had union representation. I mean actually representation that could accomplish some good for the workers. At that time we had the power of strike which was leveraged as a threat to enable good benifits and pay for the laborer. President R.Reagan saw the end to that when he fired 12,000 plus members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization after they walked off the job. Opinion aside, that action set president and began the downfall of the strenght of the labor unions in this country.
Much more recently, here in my home town one of the grocery store chains, VONS, had been proposing to cut back employee benifits and wages. In other words in stead of receiving a raise for time and dedication to your job this organization wanted to reduce the amount of money that employees would get on their paycheck and to add insult to injury they were planning to cut back on the quality and quanity of benifits provided also. To make a tragic story short, the union decided to strike and as the employees walked off towards the picket lines the management hired new people to take their places. In the long run the majority of the Vons employees in this town lost their jobs and those that were able to go back to work took a more radical cut than what had been proposed in the first place.
So what am I trying to say? I am saying that, you, John Q. Public have lost your vision. Mr and Mrs. Smith from Anytown U.S.A. have stopped fighting the good fight and submitted to complacency. The majority of the work force are afraid to lose their jobs yet have forgotten what was established by organized unions so long ago.
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8/27/2001 08:25
Well it seems as though another one of the technological gurus is about to act like he is taking less of a role in his chosen profession. Steve Jobs, one of the greatest contributors to today's computerized life style, has announced that he is stepping down from his spot at Apple. Jobs and co-founder Wozniak opened shop in 1976 and has remained an innovator for his entire career.
Apple sold it's first home computer for $666.66 and the IPO took off reaching what we are all familiar with today. Products such as the iPod, iPhone and the Mac,(not sure if that should be set next to the other line of products). Jobs had some disagreement with the Apple board and others which prompted him to leave Apple for greener pastures.
Steve Jobs started Pixar Inc., the creators of Toy Story(1995); Finding Nemo (2003); Monsters, Inc.(2001) and many other great fully animated full lenght feature films. Jobs founded NeXTStep which create the NeXT Computer that flopped as far as sales are concerned. But had it not been for a NeXT machine Tim Berners-Lee might not have given us the very first edition of the World Wide Web.
What effect will be felt after Jobs is gone? At this time all we can say is he has choosen to stay on at Apple as Chairman of the Board. And I believe that he still has much more to contribute to technology. This is total speculation but I imagine he will use his time now to work on any number of projects and ideas that he has stored away over the years.
Best of luck to you Mr. Steve Jobs. Enjoy.
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