Post by Judge Sam on Jun 11, 2009 5:55:49 GMT -5
The theme of this game came from the modern practice of Union Busting, in which employers fight against unions. To do so they hire a company composed of industrial psychologists, security guards, intelligence-gathering operatives, and lots of lawyers to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy any union activities. These companies' activities are highly successful - today only about 20% of the workforce in the US is unionized, down drastically since earlier in the 20th century.
So why do these companies go to great lengths (and great expense) to stop employees from unionizing? Because it costs them a lot of money when employees unionize.
Union busting activities have been going on since unions were created but only recently has the technique gotten more elaborate and high-tech. In the late 1800s and early 1900s employers had a different way of getting rid of unions. It sounds absurd, but when reading through wikipedia I found like 20 pages of these faceoffs. Basically the story is these workers, say coal miners who spent 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in deep, dangerous mines, they decided maybe they should all come together and try and get that knocked down to 10 hours a day. So they formed a union which disrupted profits so what did they employers do?
They just hired a bunch of men with guns and started shooting at them! No joke, through out US history there have been constant gunfights between armies and strikers. A lot of times the local police force would join the battle - shooting at the strikers of course - since the sheriff usually had friendships with the coal owners. "Order needed to be restored" of course. These massive battles, sometimes numbering in the thousands, would engulf the town in a civil war of sorts.
Of course nowadays the union busters can't quite be so brazen so they've developed a number of other effective techniques. There are tons of ways companies work to destroy unions, many of which will be demonstrated as the game continues. We're not talking about just harassment at the workplace these people hire specialists to create decade-long gameplans to demoralize and discredit unions.
You can see their wide-reaching efforts today. For example in the Spies 6 Opening Video you saw a commercial - one shown in 2006 - spreading lies about the Employee Free Choice Act that has come up in Congress. This site Union Facts.com is a modern day propaganda website and secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. That site is a pretty scary example of the lengths companies will go to to spread lies about simple legislation expanding the ways workers can go about forming a union.
You can also see this in the ever-present fear some companies have that their workers will organize. Dare to even mutter the word "union" inside a Wal-Mart and you may have the eyes of a whole command center of cameras and computers pointed at you looking for signs of trouble. Yes, Wal-Mart has a 'command center' round the clock where they monitor for the seeds of union activity, and maintain a hotline that employers can call at the first signs of trouble.
Right here is a 'confidential' 49 page handbook entitled 'A Managers Toolbox to Remaining Union-Free'. You can see the whole thing at the link but here are some excerpts:
So why do these companies go to great lengths (and great expense) to stop employees from unionizing? Because it costs them a lot of money when employees unionize.
Union busting activities have been going on since unions were created but only recently has the technique gotten more elaborate and high-tech. In the late 1800s and early 1900s employers had a different way of getting rid of unions. It sounds absurd, but when reading through wikipedia I found like 20 pages of these faceoffs. Basically the story is these workers, say coal miners who spent 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in deep, dangerous mines, they decided maybe they should all come together and try and get that knocked down to 10 hours a day. So they formed a union which disrupted profits so what did they employers do?
They just hired a bunch of men with guns and started shooting at them! No joke, through out US history there have been constant gunfights between armies and strikers. A lot of times the local police force would join the battle - shooting at the strikers of course - since the sheriff usually had friendships with the coal owners. "Order needed to be restored" of course. These massive battles, sometimes numbering in the thousands, would engulf the town in a civil war of sorts.
Of course nowadays the union busters can't quite be so brazen so they've developed a number of other effective techniques. There are tons of ways companies work to destroy unions, many of which will be demonstrated as the game continues. We're not talking about just harassment at the workplace these people hire specialists to create decade-long gameplans to demoralize and discredit unions.
You can see their wide-reaching efforts today. For example in the Spies 6 Opening Video you saw a commercial - one shown in 2006 - spreading lies about the Employee Free Choice Act that has come up in Congress. This site Union Facts.com is a modern day propaganda website and secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. That site is a pretty scary example of the lengths companies will go to to spread lies about simple legislation expanding the ways workers can go about forming a union.
You can also see this in the ever-present fear some companies have that their workers will organize. Dare to even mutter the word "union" inside a Wal-Mart and you may have the eyes of a whole command center of cameras and computers pointed at you looking for signs of trouble. Yes, Wal-Mart has a 'command center' round the clock where they monitor for the seeds of union activity, and maintain a hotline that employers can call at the first signs of trouble.
Right here is a 'confidential' 49 page handbook entitled 'A Managers Toolbox to Remaining Union-Free'. You can see the whole thing at the link but here are some excerpts: