"Telus cuts subscriber access to pro-union website"
"Last Updated Sun, 24 Jul 2005 22:45:13 EDT CBC News"
"The B.C.-based communications company that's in a bitter fight with unionized employees has blocked its internet subscribers from accessing a website supporting striking union members.
"Telus subscribers can't get into Voices for Change, which says it's 'a community website run by and for Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) members ...
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- and... if you check the Verizon FIOS Terms of Service, they (VZ) could do the same thing.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And in case you did not read the newspaper over the weekend or this morning, the international labor organization AFL-CIO is in the midst of a _major schism_ with its member organizations. Two or three of the major union organizations which make up the AFL-CIO pulled out to go with a new rival bunch, taking their several million dollars in union dues with them. The AFL-CIO had already laid off about 25 percent of its own internal worker force. This latest thing will really just about do them in for good. The (A)merican (F)ederation of (L)abor and the (C)ongress of (I)ndustrial (O)rganizations had merged (they were two separate and competing labor organizations) in 1958 largely because the ranks for each of them were thinning greatly. Originally (like the 1930's and 1940's) both AFL and CIO were very strong, vibrant organizations. AFL tended to represent more 'white and blue collar' workers; CIO represented more manual labor type situations. Employees at Standard Oil refineries in the 1950 era were represented by CIO usually, while office workers and technicians tended to be represented by AFL. As times got tough in the 1950's the two blanket organizations decided to merge. A long, very difficult over the years has been 'are labor unions important and needed?' Like the old which came first, chicken or egg argument, there were good reasons for all sides to this. I would suggest that one reason working conditions in general have gotten much better (in the 1920's one worked normally six days per week, 10-12 hours per day, no medical insurance, for _much_ (disproportionaly) wages, and 'at the will' of the employer) was because unions were started to protect the guys. Now, I know that now-days all that sounds silly, but US Steel, Andrew Carnegie and Mr. Ford and Mr. Pullman did not make their millions of dollars by giving vacation time and sick pay. But now, most large companies, (Walmart and Sprint are two notable exceptions) know they had better 'behave themselves' or the unions will return with a vengeance. The unions served a _very_ important function; do they still? Its a question I doubt we could ever answer here. Regards 'ISP as Censor', well it is just the big bosses playing games, throwing their weight around a little, to 'show who is boss'. PAT]