Define the rule of the employers during the Industrial revolution

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, employers were in virtually complete control of their employees and employees lives’. Government intervention to make the work place safe would not occur for several decades and factories were little more than slave shops under a different term. Typically, employees would have no rights at all regarding their employment and were forced to work in deplorable conditions: factories with insufficient light and unsafe work conditions. Many had no ventilation and were fire hazards because of the combustible materials that were used. Employees were forced to work long hours based on production needs and no thought was given to employee health or well-being. In many instances, the employer would create company towns in the region near their factories. The company would own all houses, markets and goods in the community. The company would then charge exorbitant rates for rent, food and goods making it virtually impossible for employees to get ahead. In many cases, the employee would work for a year only to owe the company money at the end of the year. This was done as a means to keep people from moving to other factories or other communities.   In addition, the law allowed people to be sent to prison for their debts and the debts of the parents to be passed on to the children, so often several generations of a family would be virtually enslaved by their employer. Wages that were paid were insufficient for a family to be fed and often parents and children worked in these sweatshops as a method of maintaining the family life. Children did not attend school or have any hope of a better life as they were sent in to the factories at very young ages. Women were often forced to leave children at home with an older sibling while they worked or were unable to work at all because of an infant or toddler in the home. Very young children placed a severe burden on the family because of the loss of wages and many children were abandoned to state-run orphanages in hopes that they would end up in a better life or to simply prevent a drag on the family’s income. This was not a benevolent dictatorship. The employer often ruled with an iron-fist and lived in the lap of luxury while his employees died of disease and malnutrition brought on by his greed. Employers were also allowed without repercussion to discipline employees as they saw fit and often took great liberties with female employees who were afraid of losing their jobs if they did not comply. Employers profited greatly during this time because labor was plentiful and they could make it cheap. Employers did not provide health care or disability for employees hurt or killed on the job.   Instead, the financial burden on their families was increased by the lack of income. And, people were hurt or maimed regularly by substandard equipment and poor conditions. Another favorite tactic on employers early in the Industrial Revolution was to pay people according to the number of pieces that they could produce.   This was yet another manner of ruling with an iron fist. Employers could assign employees to good machines, which produced fast and accurate pieces, or old and worn out machines at their discretion. Young people had an advantage of being able to work faster and often would have made better wages, except that employers seized on the idea that children had fewer responsibilities and used this as an excuse to pay children less even though they were expected to carry the workload of an adult. Children who failed were often beaten. During the American Civil War, proponents of slavery pointed out the inequities in the system and argued that Southern landowners often treated their slaves better than many employers treated their employees. They argued that a slave owner saw his slave as an investment and valued its contribution to his success and a business owner viewed his employees as an endless, replaceable commodity and took no personal responsibility for their safety, health or well-being. What is and was the right of existence for the unions? The UK was not initially a good place for unions to be. In 1799 and 1800, British Prime Minister William Pitt had a pair of acts passed called the combination acts which made it illegal for people to band together to try to get shorter working hours or more pay. Then, in 1817 Parliament against acted, this time making it illegal for a group of more than 50 people to meet together and order the arrest of anyone accused of spreading seditious libel, any untoward remarks regarding the Parliament or the Crown.   This severely hampered efforts for parliamentary reform as people were afraid to speak out. Two years later, nearly 50,000 people gathered at St. Peter’s Field to hear subversive, pro-union newspaper editors and other union leaders talk about the need for reform and the local magistrate, backed by the British Army, attacked, purportedly in an effort to arrest one of the speaks. Several accounts say many of the soldiers were drunk when they attacked the crowd with their sabres. As a result, Parliament instituted the Six Acts, which expanded the definitions of seditious libel and allowed permanent ceasing of a publication as means of punishment. It also changed the newspaper and stamp act so that even publications of purely opinion were subjected to the tax and provided local authorities with the right to seize people and arms accused of participating in a union gathering. In 1824, the combination acts were repealed and met with a national outbreak of strikes, resulting in Parliment's decision to pass a new combination act in 1835. This was the first significant legislation o legalize trade unions, though it made their scope very narrow. Trade unions could meet and discuss working conditions and pay only. Any other activities were considered a criminal conspiracy to restrict trade. The law also forbade unions from doing anything to obstruct or intimidate others. This was viewed as problematic as it gave the judiciary an unprecedented leeway in determining what activities violated the law. The act remained the law of the land until 1867 when Benjamin Disraeli and others banded together to have the law changed so that a striking union could be charged only with breach of contract and the government in power created the Trade Union Congress. Though calls to allow a union member into the Congress were rejected, the move proved to be an advancement in the cause of unionism. Four years later, the government finally made trade unions legal. In 1875 when Disraeli was named Prime Minister, as promised, he passed legislation making it legal for a union to do anything that an individual could do. This began the age of unionism and in 1880, Parliament passed legislation making management and employers responsible for the safety and well-being of the employees as long as their injury was not the result of actions by fellow workers. In 1906, legislation as passed to prevent employers from suing unions when they had a loss of income as a result of a strike and in 1913 legislation made it clearly legal for the labor unions to contribute to the political party of their choice as determined by union leadership. In 1927, legislation was passed to prevent civil servants from joining unions affiliated with the Trade Union Congress and outlawed the use of sympathetic strikes and general strikes. That is, with minor revision, the state of the trade labor union today. On which roles does the Globalization of the economy depend? Globalization of the economy is a tricky business and highly dependent on the ability of workers and employers to adapt to the changing international labor market and the changing role of the industrialized world in the age of technology. There has been some effort made within the last two years to update the trade union system and encourage union modernization so that the workers can quickly be retrained with skills more appropriate to the emerging labor market. As with other parts of the world, the concern among trade unions is that jobs traditionally left to them are now being outsourced to cheaper labor environments worldwide. If we are to adjust to this availability of cheap labor elsewhere, we must do so by changing the way we look at labor unions and evaluating the new markets that could be the modern labor frontiers. One example of this might be to examine computer workers and administrative positions traditionally viewed as white collar work. These areas are the new growth industries and in recent years, the site of the most abuse of employees. In addition, these more advanced positions have traditionally had to negotiate salaries for themselves resulting in huge disparities person to person and based on gender, age, and other discriminatory factors. For globalization to work the economy must be revitalizes and the United Kingdom must adjust its perceptions at home and abroad about the things that it will produce. No longer will mining and textiles be a major portion of the economy. Instead, if we are to accept our part in a global economy, we must identify new areas in which we can develop an unrivaled expertise and global reliance. In a 2005 report, HM Treasury argued that the UK is in an unrivaled position worldwide to make the most of globalization in that we have the economic and trading ties to the entire world. In addition, we have a strong business, technology and macroeconomic base from which to begin our quest. Not only must we train employees in the fast-growing areas of technology which will present the best opportunity for our people, but we must also reward innovation and creativity. The report calls for the support of workers who need to be retrained to join the global economy and the wise and efficient use of energy and resources as a means to prevent reliance on other countries for our energy needs. Most importantly, we must rely on the well-established international trade that helped build and strengthen the economy in the first place. It is vitally important that the country not turn to isolationism as a manner of dealing with the threat of international competition. The problem is that many people promote the idea of protectionism as a way to avoid the international competition, but we know that this approach will only lead to a need to rejoin the world economy at a later date when we are less strong and able to do so. We must move forward now and implement change instead of hiding from it. What is mundialism or anti globalization? Mundialism is the process of building interconnected word governing bodies rather than integrating the existing nation-states into an interdependent global world. Proponents of mundialism argue that entities such as the International Court and a one-world government should be created rather than relying on the concept of nation-states. Mundalism promoted the concept that what is right for the world as a whole is right for the individual citizens and the individual nations of the world. It argues that by working together for the common good, we can overcome economic, social and ideological differences for the betterment of all humankinds. Anti-globalization can encompass a number of different policies, but largely it is the idea that the governments, economies and societies of the world should not be interdependent and that they should remain separate by distinct barriers including borders and cultural boundaries. Anti-globalization proponents are perhaps the most extreme opponents of mundialism. They believe that the world is already too interconnected and that it would be better if we could simply draw the curtains up around our countries and keep the rest of the world argue. Many argue that the world can never be as interdependent as promoted by mundialism and that it will always be divided by was and ideology. The idea, they say, is that human nature is competitive and that we cannot make all faiths and all political viewpoints get along. Some would even argue that the only way that mundialism could work would be with a strong world ruler, that someone would have to get the final deciding vote on right and wrong. Mundialism supporters argue that if the nation’s of the world all expressed a true desire to work together in harmony the major strife points of the world could be eliminated and wars and border disputes could end. Anti-globalization proponents call that pie in the sky nonsense. There will always be a competition for resources and for power. Those without it will strive for it via any means necessary and those who have it will seek to retain it. Somewhere in there middle is where we actually are. There are some world organizations, like the International Criminal Court and there are some opponents to those organizations, like the United States. There are growing disputes worldwide over everything from economic gain to religion to claiming the land that sits beneath the polar icecaps. And, neither theory adequately addresses what should be done about global problem areas like Rwanda and Darfur, places where the massacres keep happening, the land is destroyed and the people are unable to subsist, much less contribute to a world economy. Describe the Trade union s structure and state why the unions are losing members. Trade unions are designed to be very specific in their membership and then are loosely affiliated with the Trade union Congress. However, this specialization is contributing to the decline of the unions and the loss of members nationally. Unions are supposed to be local, with members choosing a regional representative to speak to the specific concerns of their company or community. Then, the locals are affiliated with a national organization which is in turn affiliated with the national congress. But in recent years, with declining employment in regions once covered by the trade unions, even the largest of the unions are beginning to shrink or disappear entirely.   This is a factor of the changing work environment within the UK, as more and more people are working in quasi-professional positions not covered by the trade unions. Furthermore, even locally, unions do not represent the universal political opinions that they once did. Neighbors now may agree on matters of union employment, but have vastly different opinions with regards to national politics and how the union should be influencing them. This diversity in the union has caused a loss of political power and a loss of interest within the membership. In addition, the major concern facing trades people in 2007 is not something the union can do much to change.   Unions have had little impact in corporate decisions to close factories or move operations to other nations where the labor costs are more favorable. The days of the union being able to protect its workers and provide for a safer work environment, better benefits and a happier way of life are gone, Instead, the unions continue to take dues from members, reducing their overall take home pay, but add no benefits. The days of the sweatshop are long gone and virtually every worked is provided the same protections under the law that a union worker can get in a union shop.   That is not to say that the union has outlived its usefulness, but rather that unions have accomplished their original goals of workplace safety and equal treatment for workers. If unions seriously want to reverse the trend of losing membership, they must realize that they play an important role in the globalization process and update themselves to meet that need. Unions must be actively involved in retraining workers and helping them to find new means of gainful employment.   Unions must work in conjunction with business to find better ways to improve global competitiveness and to make employers understand the value of well-educated, highly-trained workers over cheap labor in an unregulated state.

Informing ourselves to death by Neil Postman Personal Statement

Informing ourselves to death by Neil Postman - Personal Statement Example As long as we were Neanderthals, planet earth was a cleaner, greener and a safer place to live in. The environment was void of hazards, disease, danger and pollution and the world was free from poverty, hunger, homelessness and crime. All these are our gifts to ourselves, which come in a package deal with the technological zenith that we have achieved. We perceive the present scenario as the best of all possible worlds because this the farthest we have come in terms of advancement. There is no dearth of anything in this rose colored world of ours. (The "children of the lesser God " might not think so but have we ever given them a care!). We are so busy wallowing in this shallow, materialistic and cushioned lifestyle of ours that it has never occurred to us that we have lost a very precious part of us along the ages- we have lost our humanity! We might have attained knowledge but we are still far far away from wisdom. That is the reason why our world has become a "either -mine-or- yours" place. What if we never knew that the earth was such a vast planet with so much land and so much water, would we have then cared to split it up into blocks we call "countries"' Had there been no "mine and yours" territories" would the word "WAR" even exist in or dictionaries' What is it about our knowledge that instills in us the greed to simply possess apiece of land even if that means killing all our fellow beings living on it' From here started our dividing spree and we have never stopped ever since. In our attempt to systematically organize the human existence we bred complexities that we have never been able to come out of. First we made countries, divided them into states, broke the states down to cities, towns and districts, built huge walls around ourselves thus physically isolating ourselves from the rest of the world. . In the process and without our awareness, the mental and spiritual component of our being got entangled deeper and deeper into the web of "worldly wisdom". When we were done with physical divisions and the pieces of earth could not get any smaller, we never let ourselves give up. Our knowledge never let us deter and inspired us to go on. Then, we came up with this concept of religions (I call them "mass gangs") and for obvious reasons we had gang wars although they were at a much smaller scale than the nuclear or biological wars of today. First we fought over" mine- and- yours" and then we fought over " mine-is-better -than-yours" and the vicious cycle went on. Our intelligence (or rather the lack of it) has blown the light of knowledge into an satanic fire which is eating into the heart of humankind and emptying the core of our existence. Spiritually we have turned into weak, in secure, greedy, selfish and conceited individuals. Our conditioned psyche does not allow us to think beyond possessing and climbing up the ladder of success irrespective of whose face we step on in the process. I don't cal this living life; I consider it just a spiritually worthless existence. Imagine, our present day generation needs special classes and seminars on "soul searching". Isn't that ridiculous' Does it mean that we are so disconnected with out souls that we need to search them all over again'We are not to be entirely blamed for our plight.

Government Administration in the Political System Essay

Government Administration in the Political System - Essay Example This is also applicable to all strata in the society; the rich and the poor; to all ethnic demarcations in the society as well. Every one of them has to send their children to the school. The promotion that the federal government has to carry out needs to reach every one of the ethnic minorities in the country, as well as, make sure that the government has a public school in every corner of the country. The number of students in the school may not be deciding factor but the presence of a school in every locality will be. This program was found to be the one that should be cleverly planned, closed executed and also should be followed up strongly. Otherwise, all the good work done will become a wasteful expenditure to the society. In addition to this, the impact on the society by such a program will be tremendous and awe inspiring. Therefore, this program was chosen for the analysis. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed by President Bush On Jan 8, 2002. The basic principle of this Act was made brief by the President in his bill introduction speech in the Congress. This bill, according to him, was to make sure that "all the students will have a better chance to learn, to excel and to live out their dreams". The responsibility of doing this would of course lie with the states and the accountability will stem from the schools. Of course, the federal government will help by increasing the resource allocation for education. This, the federal government, hopes would ensure that the overall performance of the students will go up. In the current situation, as Joel Klein, New York City Schools Chancellor, says, with this law "we can no longer mask the deficiencies of some students with outsized gains of the others". The law aims at putting the children's need for education as the top priority. It also recognizes that there will be multiple performance levels among the schools. And therefore, any school that does not produce appropriate results will lose its students to other good performing schools. Teachers are to be highly qualified and the methodology of teaching should be in line with the latest researches that abound in the sphere of education. Appropriate research based instructional methods will be adopted by the schools to ensure that the best results are obtained. The relationship with the parent will be to pass information to the parent at the right time so that he or she can help in improving the performance of the student. Again, this centers on the performance of the student and not of anything els e. The proposed plan of the Act and the scheme was that: There should be a steady and ongoing performance improvement of the students. The target being every student should be able to read and do math at or above grade level. The Planning Phase Since this was a follow up act on the original 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the plan from the outset was towards building the right kind of processes to ensure that the growth in performance of the students really happen. The following major actions were identified during the commencement of the project (US Dept of Education, Fact Sheet). The same was implemented subsequently. 1. There will be a stronger accountability. This accountability would be more to the

Amazons Business Model and the Operational Strategies Coursework - 1

Amazons Business Model and the Operational Strategies - Coursework Example Amazon has been able to pull of its business model through the use of three operational strategies to enhance its competitive advantage: low-cost leadership and customer differentiation. However, when we evaluate Amazon’s business model and the operational strategies that underlie it they greatly resemble those of its key competitor Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble also used its economies of scale to support low-cost leadership, it broke new ground by developing software that would enable its customers to personalize their web pages and also enjoy the results of collaborative filtering (Ghemawat 13). The difference in one organization’s choice to use a pure play system while the other uses a brick-and-click system is too simplistic to explain the relative success of Amazon.com over Barnes & Noble. This would be best explained through the dynamic capability. Dynamic capability refers to the ability of the firm to purposefully create, extend or modify its resource base so as to achieve congruence with the changing business environment (Menon and Mohanty 3). Of importance to note is the use of the word â€Å"purposefully† which negates the element of accident or luck. Dynamic capability involves intent and the emergent stream of activities within an organization that is taken with a certain implicit aim. Although dynamic capabilities are equifinal and exhibit commonalities across firms, performance differences arise between firms due to both cost and differential timing with which the dynamic capabilities are used (Menon and Mohanty 5). They are path dependent processes thus are idiosyncratic and difficult to imitate. Dynamic capabilities can be a source of competitive advantage. That is why even though Barnes & Noble seem to be following similar operational strategies to Amazon.com, the results are different for each firm.

Petroleum off shore and refineries occupational safety and health Essay

Petroleum off shore and refineries occupational safety and health hazards - Essay Example netheless, numerous provisions pertaining to occupational safety and health hazards are formulated and implemented with the intention of protecting the workers from fatal injuries and reducing exposure to health hazards substances. Petroleum off shore and refineries involves various activities which include drilling, exploration, processing, pipeline operations and extraction. Petroleum off shore and refinery operations is conducted on a global context. In this regard, the main locations that are used for petroleum as well as refineries operations are the Gulf of Mexico, the Caspian Sea, the North Sea and the South China Sea. There are other locations used for the same activities that include India, Western Canada, West Africa and Brazil to a large extent. The operations associated with petroleum along with refineries are identified to pose different types of threats and hazards in the area of biological, physical, chemical and ergonomic factors. The hazards that are associated with the offshore petroleum and refineries operations are recognized to adversely influence flora as well as fauna... In this regard, the different hazards that are associated with petroleum off shore and refineries are identified to ha rmfully affect the health of workers, communities and environment in an immense manner (Niven & McLeod, 2009). The petroleum off shore industry is identified to be operating on a global context. The petroleum off shore operations are conducted in environment ranging from the Arctic regions to the tropical regions. The operations associated with petroleum off shore pose different threats to human and natural environment in an immense manner. The off shore operations mainly pose health hazards in the field of chemical, ergonomics, physical and biological hazards (Niven & McLeod, 2009). The off shore working environment comprises different health hazards that are common for petroleum drilling and extraction industry. In this context, the workers of off shore

VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER - Essay Example Thesis statement: The stylistic features in the artwork named as Fox Games, by the renowned artist named as Sandy Skoglund, prove that the artist combined different elements of art (composition), provided importance to the usage of contrasting colors (color), the decision to use light/shadow determines the artwork’s visual beauty, perspective provides depth to the theme, figures help the viewers to evaluate the differences among different figures, pose elevates the artwork from predictability to originality, and gestures provide charm to the work as a whole. One can see that unity is the basic element of composition within visual art. As this term (composition) is superimposed into the scenario of the artwork-Fox Games (see appendix-1), is evident that the artwork can be easily detached as animate objects (fox and human beings) and inanimate objects (chairs, tables, chandelier, table cloth, food etc) and enjoyed differently. Still, there is a symmetrical connection among these visual elements in general. Similarly, the sense of movement is visible in the artwork because the foxes dominate the artwork as a whole. For instance, the presence of foxes is symbolic of fast movement, and the human images/figures in the artwork are symbolic of slow movement. On the other side, the chandelier is the focal point of the artwork and this is symbolic of the division between two worlds in general. The basic pattern within the artwork proves that the artist is obsessed with curved and straight lines. For instance, the basic proportion of the room is s ymbolic of straight lines and the table cloth (curved lines) and other elements are symbolic of the wise usage of pattern within the artwork. Similarly, Skoglund provides ample importance to proportion and the same is evident in the proportionate alignment of objects in the artwork. So, it is evident that the artist provides ample importance to composition, and the

Yahoo Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Yahoo Inc - Essay Example It stands in the category of Google.com and You tube as the other two websites that attract more number of customers and attraction. With its headquarter placed in Sunnyvale, California the company has its market spread across a total of twenty five countries where it has its outlets expanded across the world in multiple continents namely Europe, Asia and America itself. What started off as a hobby of the two PHD students has turned into an enterprise and global entity in the era of a fierce competitive digital world where all the major businesses are subject to online activities and resources functions. Objectives of the paper: The paper looks into the early days of Yahoo Inc in the brief background section, followed by the overall structure of the company, its working, its scope and domain of operations, the financial standings, the recent hurdles faced, the internal state of the company, the reason for the changing of three top management officers in no time, along with the declin e trends in the financial sector. A major part of the paper entails a SWOT analysis of Yahoo Inc, that would allow understanding the overall standing and potential future prospects in a better way. Products and services: Few of the services provided by Yahoo Inc are its search engine, Yahoo mailing service that attracts billions of clients from across the world, Yahoo finance that gives an insight into the financial aspects. Other notable features and functions of Yahoo Inc include the Horoscope service, Yahoo Answers and numerous other similarly associated services. Yahoo’s website is amongst the very few world’s websites that attract over a hundred million online customers and users onto its website on daily basis. As the company would proclaim in its recently released annual report of revenue a grand of around 700 million people are associated with the Yahoo Inc services in one way or the other from all parts of the world. The services so provided are in more than 3 0 languages and across 30 nations. Mission Statement: â€Å"The mission statement entails the aim of becoming the world’s online industry’s most reliable and integral business and service provider†. This mission statement is enacted in due regard of the customers as well as the business partners and aims at keeping up with both. The company is not just a service provider rather it enjoys a repute and name in terms of the partnership with the various notables of the business industry from the same field. Other business terms and agendas include the core value definition. The core value of the company is defined in terms of the achievement of excellence and top notch performance. It aims at providing the best services around. With little need for recall and replacement of the items, products and services provided by the company. Other focuses and objectives of the company include the enactment of team work and extending the partnership with the investors. Creating products and opportunities for the workers to work on new and innovative grounds makes up for the policy in terms of innovation and creation of new ideas. Customer fixation, customers trust and reliable services delivery makes up for the overall outer strategy of the company based on the true spirit of the company’s manifesto and working agenda. Brief History: Yahoo Inc came into existence in the mid 1990s when the usage and spread of internet was on the boom and people formally started using internet for commercial and personal reasons. The yahoo search engine is amongst the first few search engines that were operational in the starting days of