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"But what about my job, Mr. Warmonger, sir?" -- German unions protest U.S. redeployment
From the Davids Medienkritik 'blog. EFL, and some internal links omitted. I should be very interested in what TGA has to say about this one. The staff of ver.di, Germany's largest service-sector union and the largest independent, individual trade union in the world, is worried. Its leaders now realize that there won't be enough warmongers around to adequately support members' Socialist way-of-life. They rightfully "fear" that the planned withdrawal of tens of thousands of US military personnel and their dependents from Germany will result in thousands of lost union jobs, particularly in areas surrounding affected bases and installations. "ButâŠwarmongers?" You ask. Well sure, that is exactly how ver.di's chairman, union kingpin Frank Bsirske, described the American government and military just last year. . . . Given Mr. Bsirske's strident opposition to the Iraq war, the Bush administration and the US military, one would have thought that he and his union would have been overjoyed at the prospect of thousands of "imperial hegemons" withdrawing from Germany. In fact, the opposite is true. This apparent contradiction highlights the fact that there is indeed something more important to Germany's leftist dominated unions than exploiting anti-American sentiment for political gain. That something is ensuring that union members be able to suck at the teat of the Socialist welfare state into the indefinite future. And if that means accepting money and jobs from members of the US military, people the unions have repeatedly derided and demonized as warmongers from a heartless capitalist society, well, then Frank Bsirske and ver.di are entirely prepared to do just that. As the beautiful Lt. Uhura once said, "be careful what you wish for." Posted by: Mike 2004-08-19 |
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