Thursday, April 24, 2008

Internet Strike

Oh those urge to splurge:

I think that at the very least the only punishment the people who comply with the call for a strike will get is a verbal counseling or warning from their supervisors for not calling their employers to inform them about their absence and not showing up for work, and at the very most a letter of warning placed in their personal file for failing to come to work. They may even end up losing the wages allotted for that same day. This applies only to people that have occupations which doesn’t endanger the lives of other people. On the flip side of the coin, if the striking employees occupy jobs that may endanger the lives of other people such as police men, fire men, doctors, and air traffic controllers, the consequences may become much more severe, particularly if lives were lost as a result of work stoppage. For instance: if the striking employee is an air traffic controller and his presence on the job is absolutely necessary on that day, and then suddenly and without a notice he doesn’t call or show up for work, and God forbid as a result of his absence to accommodate the strike an air crash occurred and 250 people lost their lives. In this hypothetical scenario we would be looking at a whole new set of rules governing the situation. The same would apply for other critical occupation; some jobs may even have a clause in the employment rules prohibiting the employee from ever participating in a strike or work stoppage under any circumstances. As far as I can remember from monitoring the news the duration of most strikes in Jordan range from thirty minutes to two hours. The most recent one was the doctors at Hamza hospital protesting the detention of their colleague emergency room doctor by the government personnel. My guess is that some people may get severely punished for their compliance with the strike while other people may only get a slap on their rest. It all depends on the type of occupation one is performing.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you follow the history of labor unions. You will know that they have been effective in the face of massive corporations. (at least in the past before outsourcing kicked in)
These Unions rise to power was usually through making the corporations suffer financially due to work stoppage. Simply by the workers sticking together

Imagine, if 10% of the population of Jordan stuck together and did actually strike! Would that send seismic shocks up the governmental food chain? I am sure it will, and I'm sure it will help instigate legislation that might aid in fighting corruption and provide better life conditions for the people in Jordan.

Although, it's not very clear from your article if you're with or against such displays .. so that was me blabbering :)

Hatem Abunimeh said...

qwaider,

thanks for stopping by, I was presenting my view strictly from a managerial and not political point of view. I think that the listed demands are too broad and ought to be shortened. If the protest was about price increase, then it shouldn't have all of that other long list of nonsense items attached to it. I think that the goal need to be much more focused. I think that they should do trial runs prior to the real ones, they need to start with something benign like may be an hour then steadily increase it to two and so on and so forth. To call for a general strike all at once could have some serious repercussions

Anonymous said...

But these repercussions are actually by design
I think the whole endeavour lacks focus but that might also be deliberate to make sure that at least some of the demands are met

The whole idea of the strike is to make people in your position suffer to the point that you will use your influence to talk to people higher up in the food chain to get them to listen to at least some

I understand that many regimes don't want to set precedents in budging under pressure, but if people are practicing thier democratic right in civil protest and disobedience for few hours (the strike lasts only until 11AM by the way) that means that they're really suffering and that thier representatives have failed miserably in getting thier voices heard.

Funny, they elected the same people who didn't do anything for them! Maybe the next election would be a little bit more interesting! After people get frustrated from thier "cousin" not doing anything or even understanding what to do to alleviate thier suffering!

Hatem Abunimeh said...

We both know Jordan well enough to understand that the regime will not yield to any added extra ordinary pressure by the general public or by any other special interest groups. In Jordan all problems and issues must be resolved over a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, or over mansaf. What works in other parts of the world may or may not work in Jordan. Do we need to continue on working toward refining and eliminating some or all of the existing deficiencies?? The answer is a definite YES. Do we have a practical strategy to pursue in order for us to a chieve any meaningful change?? The answer is a definite NO. Do I have one? No I don't but whatever it is it needs to be planned well, organized well, impemented well, followed up well. As you can see I'm more into the managerial part of the equation rather than the political one. I love management and organization and I hate chaos and disorganization.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough, and a good argument. But consider this
You're not doing anything but pointing out the obvious (we have a problem, we need a solution)
What these folks are doing is "trying" something!
It might not work, it might be a total failure, but with the total absence of any other viable option, it's better than nothing

Anonymous said...

gwaider, Iagree- absence,i 2 feel bad.

Hatem Abunimeh said...

hamede,

Are you still living in Jordan? And thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

Hi, hatem,no i am back in the us.

Hatem Abunimeh said...

hamede,
Viva USA