Thursday, January 20, 2005

Inauguration Day Protests

So today is the big day and I've been hearing about various protests for months now. The one's that I am most interested in seeing if they have any impact at all are the "Blue Flu" and the "Not One Damn Dime" protests.

The Blue Flu is basically asking anyone who doesn't support the president to take a sick day today. Last time I heard about a massive amount of people taking a sick day, it was by baggage handlers at U.S. Airways over Christmas. They were trying to make a point to the powers that be that they felt they deserved better benefits. However, all that I feel that happened is that they aggravated and alienated so many customers, U.S. Airways will not be able to recover and most likely will have to downsize if they have any hopes of remaining competitive. So the people who had the Sick In will most likely lose their jobs. So much for better benefits.

This Not One Damn Dime protest sounds like it will have a similar effect. The thing that I think is funny is that they are urging people to do all their spending before or after January 20. To me that defeats the purpose of the protest. They want to make a a statement by showing that they can affect big companies bottom lines. But the problem is, whatever the companies don't make today, they will have made yesterday or will make up tomorrow. Plus the little guys who do their jobs and rely on tips for income are going to be more negatively impacted than the big bosses. So again, it seems like this could miss the actual target.

But I am all for non-violent protest and the right to carry them out. I am just curious to see if there is any major impact by these or any other protests. We shall see...

1 comment:

Editor in Chief said...

No one sick at my company today, in big blue New York City. Of course we are engineers, who would work if the sky was falling.