Cue the three guys laughing their asses off.
Posted on 05/14/2019 5:19:31 PM PDT by SJackson
Workers at a "socialist paradise" food co-op in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope say they're tired of being oppressed by their bourgeoisie management and are demanding that they be allowed to unionize, per the New York Post.
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The Park Slope Food Co-op is supposed to be a safe haven from capitalist grocery stores, where member-volunteers can put in a few hours of work a month in exchange for 20% to 40% off the price of "low-cost, environmentally friendly fare." But the co-op also has around 75 employees, who say the realities of the socialist system are a far cry from Marx's utopia.
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"Employees of the Brooklyn food collective recently alleged unfair labor practices by the co-op in a filing with the US National Labor Relations Board," the Post reports, adding that, in response, the company's "iron-fisted management" "threatened and punished those who support the effort" and suggested that workers looking to form a union could look elsewhere for employment.
"Most of the employees were afraid to provide details of their union battle, telling The Post that they feared their bosses would crack down on them. But one source said the overworked employees are demanding more staffing, better scheduling practices and more transparency from co-op brass," says the Post.
Management, which consists of six individuals who are also part of the co-op's roster of 75 employees, reportedly wants to bust efforts to create a union in order to preserve the image that the socialist co-op is a worker's paradise. Management says they support the effort to organizse, but are fighting to make sure that the socialist principle of collective decision-making is preserved.
"Following Coop principles, we would like to see that any decision by our staff will be made democratically," the group of six said in a statement, according to Patch.com. That means management would prefer to see all employees, customers, and members of the co-op participate in a vote to unionize.
The co-op dates back to 1973, and is considered one of the oldest, continuously operating food co-ops in the country. A former member described the shop to the Post as “something between an earthy-crunchy health food haven and a Soviet-style reeducation camp." 00:07 / 00:14 SKIP AD
In the past, ironically, the co-op's management has announced boycotts against American companies who they claim employ unfair labor practices. At times, they've resisted selling Coca-Cola, Domino sugar, and products from a local Kosher bakery. And in 2008, management began an effort to rid the store of all Israeli-produced products in solidarity with those fighting against the "occupation of Palestine."
Both the Post and Patch report that this isn't the first time the co-op's bourgeoisie management and customer base have been exposed. In 2017, two of the six managers were accused of dipping into the store's coffers to fund expensive flights to Europe, and in 2011, an internal investigation revealed that some of the co-op's "members" were actually household staff of Brooklyn's wealthier families, who were being shuttled to the co-op to work shifts so that their employers could recieve the grocery savings without having to get their hands dirty.
The employees' claims will have to go in front of the National Labor Relations Board. They are being represented by the Retail, Wholesale Department Store Workers Union.
Welcome to reality.
If Marx had perfect people, his system may have worked.
He didn't and it doesn't.
“the realities of the socialist system are a far cry from Marx’s utopia.”
Looks like someone forgot to sprinkle the magic pixie dust... again.
Whoa, bummer dude
Cue the three guys laughing their asses off.
ping
Will the union organizers be jailed like typical in communist countries?
Bolshevics and Menshevics fighing it out.
In a realistic socialism, the government IS the union. They tell you what’s good for you and you’d better do it.
Even then it would not have worked.
Trying to deal with all the "ifs, ands or buts" that make life so complicated is beyond the ability of anyone outside of God Almighty.
With the best will in the world it just would not work.
“Actually I think unions, when politically connected, are a component of socialism.”
That’s disagreeable on some levels. My memory tells me the Soviet style of socialism did not like unions, which was why Polish Lech Walesa was somewhat of a hero. And a properly functioning union will not tolerate the unfairness of socialism as the with the clowns in the article.
Good commies will employ anything to bring down their opponent. I’m suspecting US unions are just temporary tools, when full fascism, socialism or whatever we wind up having brings us down, the union leaders will be led out of town and shot.
If I am not mistaken, many of the original revolutionaries of Russia were disposed of. And I am certain that many VC in Vietnam were disposed of after the North took over.
The problem with union members that help support the dems via dues is they are paying for their own demise.
And you can bet the farm that all these "Brooklyn's wealthier families" absolutely hate Trump, and dumped big bucks on Obama.
“the realities of the socialist system are a far cry from Marx’s utopia.”
“Utopia” was a book, satire, showing how attempt to create a perfect society would result in an unbearable absurdity
The fact that so many took Karl Marx’s writings so seriously is one of the great tragedies of mankind.
Millennials think the spirit of Socialism is a group of friends hanging out at Starbucks sharing music downloads. The idea of even meaner bosses than capitalism has coupled with no rights to complain about them doesn’t sink in until it’s too late.
Socialism sounds great...until you realize that you’re still going to have a boss.
When I worked in China 42 years ago, my interpreter was a magnificent concert violinist. He was incredibly talented. But the symphony already had it’s full of violinists and told him “You are now an interpreter.” He dutifully became an interpreter.
There are hundreds of millions of pricing decisions made every day in the US that balance supply and demand. There is no computer in the world powerful enough to model a large economy and set optimal prices. Why would you want to centralize that when you can decentralize all that decision making to 300 million people and 4.5 million companies who do it for free and do a fantastic job.
Even with “perfect people,” the system simply cannot work.
Then, of course, you have the complete destruction of any incentive to work harder, faster, or smarter than the guy sitting next to you. When I worked in China in the mid 70s, I shopped in a big department store in Beijing. Those “workers” behind the counter didn’t care one whit for you as a customer and whether you were satisfied or not. Their attitude put Parisian waiters to shame and made the staff down at your local DMV seem like paragons of helpfulness.
Park Slope is one of the places on my short list to place a refugee center. Filled with insufferable lily-white upper middle-class lefties. Berkeley’s probably more conservative than Park Slope.
The beatings will continue until moral improves.
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