The Professor's Notes

I accidently deleted the comments of my friend, Steve.  I was able to find the log in email, so I want to share with you all here:

Steve:

You forgot one important point: “Your employer, who is about to close BECAUSE YOU EXTORTED MONEY OUT OF THEM THAT YOU WERE NOT ENTITLED TO RECEIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE, was unable to meet your unreasonable and unconscionable demands for ill-gotten gains . . . ”

Yeah, I used to belong to the machinists union. The sole purpose of the union is to drive the PRICE OF LABOR ABOVE ITS MARKET VALUE.

How does the concept of “SUSTAINABLE” apply to unionism?

I was using stumble! and it took me to a website that asked us to support the Union in their fight.  Even provided the words.  I chose to go a different route.  Here is my email to them (sent using their website.)

Dear UE Local 1110 Members,

I empathize with your plight, I really do. But I wonder if you thought through all of this.

The company, your company, just didn’t have the money. They couldn’t pay you. As they say, you can’t get blood from a turnip. They were unable to secure the loan that would be necessary to keep their business going, and to pay you.

They really had no choice. They had to close.

Bank of America determined that a company that only had 3 days of reserves was not a good candidate for a loan. They chose not to “throw good money after bad” and denied the loan request.

In response, you… sat down?

As a result, BoA has now given a “loan” to your company. A loan that they will most likely use to give you what you have demanded, and then they will in all likelihood still close. Just after 60 days.

So you won. You have forced BoA to give a loan to a company that by every indication has no intention of paying it back. A company that in all likelihood will be declaring bankruptcy in less than 60 days.

Assuming that the BoA “bailout” was used to fund this, all you have done is take money from your fellow tax-payers (and presumably yourselves, once you regain employment.)

So where, again, was the victory here?

Wow–talk about game-changers.

Seth Godin has a reputation among marketing circles (new and old media types) for shaking things up and helping us see the world “different.”

He has written some amazing books that challenge our thinking (my favorite “All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World.”)  But I think this one just about takes it.  He is offering a few, select people, a chance to work with him for 6 months.  Unpaid. And I think it is worth it!

In his words:

If you’re stuck in a dead end job in publishing, or if you made a not-so-great choice in getting your career started, or if you thought Wall Street would be a different place, or if you just got laid off, or if you’re not crazy about fretting away the next six months waiting to get fired and you’re not quite ready to start your own gig… this might be the turbolift you were hoping for. Yes, it’s free.

It’s a chance to get off that track and onto a new track, faster and cheaper than most of the alternatives. And it might even be fun.

[The rest of this page has various details about the program, so I don't have to answer the same questions again and again. It also has a bit of encouragement to it, since I realize it's a very big deal for you to drop everything to do this. It's also a big deal on my end, so hopefully it'll all work out.]

Read more about it here.