6018: Re: 5988: Re 5880: Manufacturing (Dorce, Knowles) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 11/27/2000 8:46:32 AM Pacific Standard Time, Phil Knowles 
<Phildk@prodigy.net> writes:


<<  It is clear that workers must not be exploited, and of course, we all
agree - except..........  >>

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
.....except nothing.  Workers must not be exploited, period.  The only people 
who benefit from exploitive practices are the exploiters.  What money stays 
in Haiti?  None of it, the goods and the dough are sent back to the states or 
whatever other country is using slave labor to get their profits.  
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
<<I've revisited the issue, in my mind, many times.  Here's a different, but
terrible question:  If I'm General Eisenhower, and have to order the
invasion of Europe, I know thousands will die. I am a general, this is my
business. But I really do know about battlefields, and war, and dying.
Somehow, I can order the invasion.  Should I not have?>>
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Phil.......I know you don't really want to make this analogy fit the assembly 
line worker in Haiti situation.  And Bob will gag me if I go on about whether 
old men should send young men to die.....where a certain number of casualties 
(that means men and women with loved ones who may disagree that they were 
expendable) are acceptable.  The answer is, if we had taken care of the 
problem at the beginning stage (like we do today in peacekeeping efforts) 
then World Wars wouldn't have taken our young men away from us.  You know, I 
met an old retired general at the Oloffson in Prt-au-Prince one time, and he 
told me of the hell that was his life now.  He had been in the pentagon 
during the Vietnam war, sitting around a table and deciding with other 
generals how many we could lose that day......and the next day and the day 
after that.  He is a broken man now, living with the guilt of what he did.  
Let's not go there.

If I thought that manufacturing companies cared about improving their working 
conditions, including decent pay, decent hours, breaks, sanitary bathrooms 
and places to clean up, along with safety measures to keep workers from 
getting hurt or killed, I would say let's go!  But I have little faith in 
companies who abandon US cities to come to third world countries with the 
idea of paying employees next to nothing, and working people into the ground, 
literally.  If you tell them they must improve conditions and pay, they go 
elsewhere.  Me?  I say, "Don't let the door hit you on your way out!" 

Haiti is weary of being used and abused by foreigners and their own 
elite.....decent treatment or go somewhere else.  I know it is harsh, but 
right is right.  And Haiti deserves better.  

Dorce~