Man Selling Soup on the Mission
Made a late night run to ritual coffee and saw a guy selling Vegan soup and chocolate in the corner. You can find him on facebook as Soup to Nuts
So tonight on the IRC Chan #gear a fellow bay area guy asked me had I heard about the news surrounding fleet week. I thought it was the typical SF-Hippies hating Air Shows but it turned out no, it was CNN and other media freaking out about the United plane they had during the airshow and that it looked like it was close to the Golden Gate Bridge. You can see the video yourself at CNN: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/19/nothing-wrong-with-jets-air-show-maneuver-faa-says/
The way they talk about it makes you think its a regular plane flying that low, its only in passing they mention its part of fleet week! United actually has a open house during this week to show off its plane and they have in the past had planes do the same thing, but suddenly everyone is scared of planes so close. Maybe they should not see the following photos I took at fleet week as well


So today I had to make a trip to the Apple Store in stonestown to drop off my Macbook Pro for repairs (LCD and the Hard Drive started to die). Just as I was leaving i noticed two people standing outside. At first I though maybe they where the Defective by Design people as they where in Lab coats (see here) 
But after going up to them and getting a flier I notice it was something else and far from tech. They where from a Union, Carpenters LU 405, and were upset over the fact a contractor that apple has hired is no longer using Union contractor. A bit complicated, i know… Check out the flier


This is not a new issue for anyone that has had a business that does construction from time to time, and we have seen many company run afoul of Labor Unions, but, its a bit rare to see Apple names tied in it. Also the novel way that these guys where doing it, almost in a “Union 2.0″ type of way (yes I just made that up) caught me off guard. No pickets, no yelling, nothing. The lab coats kind of add that extra layer of geek to it that just makes it scream “silicon valley”. All they need is to make a facebook group and start posting all over Digg about this and they will be complete.
You can check out the rest of the photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/zuhaib/sets/72157606992531187/
Seriously? Have they considered that they’re not doing a good enough job – that’s why they changed contractor?
Also, you’ve got to add to the fact that… okay… if the union was hired back, wouldn’t the south bay construction people lose their jobs? It’s an endless cycle – and they’ve got to admit the fact that… if you get fired, work harder to get your next job. Reflect on mistake, don’t blame others.
Plus, everyone is have economic troubles. Not just you unions. So STFU.
Calvin, I think you’re confused about the protest. They didn’t change contractors, the contractor quit the union and now the union is upset. Personally, I’m not a fan of unions.
Unions are a pain in the ass, either always making crazy demands to employers or taking fees from employees.
The local Carpenters Union here in Dallas, TX also loves to stage these protests outside office buildings downtown, with 15 or 20 members handing out flyers. They do it everytime someone remodels an office and doesn’t do it through one of their preferred contractors. I’ve always thought that if they invested that same amount of time and energy into, you know, working, everybody would be much happier.
It is sad to read how ignorant people are about the labor movement!! Union does not fight people, Union fight greed! How fast do we forget that thanks to organized labor we work 8 hours a day, have a work day, work week, weekends, workers comp, pension, vacation and a lot more. Unions spend members’ money to protect you not only union members.
South Bay const and their non-union subs, purchase their material in the same store that union employers do, they are cheaper because the majority of non-union corp do not provide benefits to their workers, that’s what union protest! Fair wages and benefits for all workers. Unions are not perfect, but I would rather have a union protecting my rights that the government or I should say, Corp-Government.
For all of you that do not know, corporation invented a new way of exploiting workers (Salary Workers) do the math, hours worked vs. hourly wage, you will find out that thanks to union it hasn’t got any worst.
Check this site http://www.worklifewizard.org/main
Carpenter by trade, Union by choice.
Waseem 8:41 pm on November 17, 2008 Permalink
Well Local News definently is more quality news to me than blogging IMO.
I’m not sure how they prepare their news for the day but I assume there is a process and this is some kind of loophole in the system.