Monday, March 30, 2020
History Of Unions And Their Relevance In Todays Society Essays
History of Unions and Their Relevance in Today's Society $115 Designer Cosmetic Collection From Cosmetique -- Only $1! History of Unions and Their Relevance in Today's Society Following the lead of Britain from where many of the original settlers came, workers in various occupations banded together to form unions. Ship writers, boat builders, tailors, bakers and carpenters were among the first craft unions form in Australia before 1848. By forming an association workers could obtain better wages and working conditions. However the employers wanted the highest profit margins so wished to keep wages low and spend little money on the working environment. The law of supply and demand in the labour market often determined which group was dominant. A third factor in the balance in Australia was the government. A successful strike by newspaper workers in 1829 for better wages and conditions resulted in the Masters and Servants Act being implemented which discriminated against the workers, who could be gaoled for minor revolts. Early in the colony, skilled labours were in short supply but in the 1840's after active promotion of emigrants by Britain this improved and a depression forced wages down and jobs were lost. With the discovery of gold, prices and wages rose, labour was scare and licenses imposed on miners and the Eureka incident occurred. Bust and boom economic conditions paroled surges recessions for unionism over the next few decades. The industrial union formed in the 1880's as a grouping of workers within an industry and across colonial and the Shearer's Union and small bush workers unions became the Australian Workers Union. Unions then looked to represent workers in Governments and the 1890's major strikes were held and the Labour Party was formed. With coming of Federation compulsory arbitration - settling of disputes between employer and employee by a third party - encouraged unionism, with unions representing the workers. The labour market and demand for goods has been influenced by world wars, depressions and recessions. In the 1980's 'national reconciliation' initiated by the Government, aimed at resolving some of the conflict between workers and employers. Strong leaders among workers of various occupations over the last two centuries, have been gaoled, sometimes killed, starved, abused, seen their families suffer for better working conditions. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, employers knew their workers and felt responsible for them. After the industrial revolution gained momentum they employed more people and lost empathy for their staff. Working conditions were 12 - 14 hours, without breaks, child labour was employed, accidents were rife and wages were low. Overcrowding in unsanitary conditions resulted in epidemics of disease. Workers were not allowed to vote and the employers were represented in Parliament. Unions mobilize the full industrial strength of workers and as history has shown conditions of workers have greatly improved due to unionism. Unions have earned workers minimal wages forty hour working week, an eight hour day, annual leave, long service leave, accident and illness benefits, and workers compensation. Voting rights have assisted better legislation to protect workers which decrease the relevance of unions in today's society. Compulsory unionism has a contention issue as has non secret voting or ballots. Compulsory unionism has been negated to some degree but after employment clauses state that preference will be given to union members. In today's workplace the same worker may be eligible to belong to various unions. Sometimes these unions are in conflict and may vie with each other for members. Some workers feel the benefits do not justify the cost of union membership. Harassment of no union workers can be intimidating even violent, as in the example in Canberra a few years ago when union members trashed property. Pickets to prevent no union workers from fulfilling contracts has been a part of strikes. The use of 'scab' labour has caused violence in strikes and the conflict has disrupted companies and industries. State and Federal governments have been involved in labour reforms and during the last few decades industrial unrest has been lessened as the arbitration and negotiation machinery had become more sophisticated. Fines imposed on unions and more accountability for unrest and strikes on union leadership has tended to moderate demands made by workers. Workplace reform has improved safety conditions for workers and accountability of directors and employers. As the change from external inspectors to 'duty of care' of employers and co-workers increase the role of the unions in improving working conditions tend to decrease. In the 1990's enterprise bargaining is part of the Workplace Reform process. In the past unions were the bodies which were involved in negotiating conditions for workers. Today although the unions have fought to keep that role, many employees are
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Essay on Food
Essay on Food Essay on Food Essay on FoodLike other survival substances, food is really crucial for surviving. From a semiotic point of view, taking food is not only for surviving, but is the part of various culture. When experiencing a Korean Barbeque place which located in Downtown Toronto, names Korean Grill house, it is quite inspiring to do the semiotics analysis about the food experience there. The idea surrounding the dinner experience of Korean Barbeque focuses better on emphasizing the customer’s involvement in preparing the cuisine rather than the concept of pre-prepared restaurant cuisine.           Basically, you are in charged of your own food is the rule for Korean Barbeque. It means that the customer only would get the raw meat from the restaurant and they have to cook their food by using the grill in the centre of the dining table. At this point, the grill, which should be settled in the kitchen but sitting on the dining table, becomes a signifier that si gnified the customer’s involvement in preparing the cuisine.           Based on the scholar article â€Å"Food†written by Marcel Danesi: â€Å"The term that is often used to designate the system of connotation that food evokes is cuisine. Cuisine informs us as to what certain people eat, how they make it, and what it reveals about them.(Danesi, p 194)†By getting involved in the process of cuisine, the customer is interrupting the raw meat with their modality judgments. â€Å"It is interesting to note that when people accept the cuisine of others as not only tasty but as a delicacy, the culture of the food-makers concomitantly takes on greater importance†(Danesi, 2012, p 199) Since customers are in charged of making their own food, they are putting their individual perceive narrative into the food during the progress of roasting the raw meat. The progress that the raw meat is being roasted, in the mean time, it is the t ransformation from natural to cultural. The grill, the raw meat and the idea of letting the customer getting involved into preparing food encode the sign of â€Å"Korean Barbeque†.           Even though customers are in charged of making their own food in Korean Barbeque, it still has differences with buffet restaurant because waiters would help the customer set the grill and bring some small dishes of appetizers, rice as well. During the dining period, waiters also come over to change backing tray for several times. However, compare to what the consumers need to make, waiters don’t get much involved with the dining process. This setting is a code for signifying the status of the costumer that having food in Korean Barbeque. The social language of the whole dining idea is: you won’t get the ready-made food and you need to make your own food. Those signs are sending people a message of Korean Barbeque would not be a luxury food e xperience.           Close association towards Semiotics of Korean Barbeque can be related to sense of smell. Some smoke would be produced during the process of roasting raw meat and the customer would carry the smoke on their clothes or hairs around. According to this specific smell of Korean Barbeque, the customer would build the connotation that could be linked with this particular dining experience. â€Å"No sign make sense on its own but only in relation to other signs. Both signifier and signified are purely relational entities. (Chandler, 2014)†In this case, the smoke turns into a signifier of Korean Barbeque and it signified the dining experience. Both of them are unable to be isolated. Accordingly, the cognition that attached with Korean Barbeque is established in customer’s mind. Whenever the customer smells the smoke, they are able to recall the memory of this food experience from their mind.           The semiotic investigation of the Korean Barbeque place: Korean Grill house makes the idea of how customers getting involvement in preparing cuisine stand out. In conclusion, the grill which sitting in the centre of the dining table; the raw meat which suppose to be cooked in the kitchen but be in charged by consumers; the smoke that be carried around by customers and the different involvements between waiters and consumers are all the components of establishing the sign, which is: Korean Barbeque. In other words, those are codes that encode the Korean Barbeque. Meanwhile, all those different codes have different signifier and signified that are related to each other.
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