freediver wrote on Aug 15
th, 2020 at 12:59pm:
Bam wrote"But if it wasnt for unions we would be working 16 hours a day 7 days a week FOR EVER with no holiday pay or sick pay or any other benefits. like supper etc.
Freediver's inciteful commet : Crap.
The overwhelming historical and current evidence has shown this to be true.Where's your evidence? Unions arose precisely because of these excessive employer practices that saw Workers underpaid and overworked in appalling conditions that often resulted in maimings and death and just as often for children. The only reason things improved is because Workers formed Unions and we see now in the 3rd world the same employer abuses occurring including the appalling abuse of children. And here's the clincher. Big name brands from the 1st world (eg Nike, Apple) are flocking to underdeveloped countries to get their piece of the Slave Labour action and they would do the same in Aust and the rest of the developed world if given half the chance.
freediver wrote on Aug 15
th, 2020 at 12:59pm:
Farmers are not asking anyone to make a sacrifice here. Everyone benefits.
Of course they are. Australia has created a specific category of visa for them and at the behest of the Farmer's Union to accommodate their wish for a ready group of people to overwork for poverty wages. And clearly the Unions dont think everyone benefits and nor do a huge proportion of Australians, if not the majority. Australian workers are missing out on jobs because farmers are being allowed to pay substandard wages for long grueling hours. And thats only what we see. Scratch under the surface and most the foreign workers get no money in the hand after food and the excessive cost of a bed is deducted. Indeed most those foreign students wouldn't accept that treatment in their own country. Its only because they're here for a lark that they do. But what they do is destroy jobs for Australians and drive down the pay fore those jobs. All because farmers have pulled out their begging bowl again asking for special exemptions for themselves.
freediver wrote on Aug 15
th, 2020 at 12:59pm:
The reality of cheap foreign labour is not a result of the farmers actions. Lower trade barriers are a good thing.
If "Wages" have fallen (which I doubt) it is a consequence of reality, not argument
Everyone suffers from trade barriers. You are trying to punish farmers for destroying your ignorant conception of economic reality.
Again, tell the rest of the developed world that so called "free trade" is a good thing. Good for who? Just for starters, this country lost its manufacturing industries and all the jobs that went with it because of cuts to the trade barriers. And that's just one of a whole raft of downsides Working families have had to bear so that Farmer's profits could saw with access to foreign markets etc
And no, falling wages is a consequence of the deliberate policy pursued by Farmers, the Business Class and their Farmer/Business Unions (who are all invited to the trade agreement talks) to give themselves access to foreign markets, cheap foreign slave labour (including child labour) and to put downward pressure on domestic wages. And it worked a treat for them. Pity about the rest of the country who, as always, had to pay the price for the Farmer's increased fortunes.
freediver wrote on Aug 15
th, 2020 at 12:59pm:
Everyone suffers from trade barriers. You are trying to punish farmers for destroying your ignorant conception of economic reality.
No, Im saying that farmer through their Farmers Union deliberately brought about this situation because it overall benefited them. And history has proved that to be true. But of course farmers being farmers are now pulling out their begging bowls because they want to be insulated from even that small bit of disadvantage to them and again they want everyone else to pay the price for them.