Procrastination and Perfection

 

I was running some errands today.  As I started my car, it was tuned to WBEZ, the local National Public Radio Station.  There was a lady speaking with a host.  What show was it?  Who was the host and the guest, I had no clue.  I did surmise that the lady was an author, and she was speaking about the large number of years between the publication of her first book and her second, which I guessed was recently published.  The author attributed the long gap to two of her personality traits: “procrastination and perfectionism.”

Well, any reader of this blog knows that I can relate to procrastination.  I have written about this topic often.

• Procrastination or JIT?
• On Writing about Nothing and Procrastinating About It
• Procrastination Revisited

I wish this was bloggy bit was to report that I have found a magic formula or secret way of conquering procrastination.  Sadly, that is not the case.  It is still something I deal with on a constant basis though it does ebb and flow.

As author on the radio was talking about the large number of years between her first and second book, my thoughts drifted to how I have always wanted to write a book, but as yet, have not.  I have the body of writing in this blog.  I have a lot of poetry, Mark Gavoor’s Poetry, which I have subdivided into four “books” by name only.  Beyond, the desire, I have done practically nothing about publishing any of these.  I have looked into self-publishing but have not acted mostly because the templates don’t seem intuitive, and I am too cheap to pay for any of the third party options.  We can attribute this to procrastination for sure.

The author on the radio also confessed to being a perfectionist as a reason for her delayed second book.  Well, thankfully, I cannot claim that as an affliction in vocation or any of my avocations.  While I strive for perfection, I have no issues with posting and submitting writing that is not perfect.  I will perform songs or musical offerings that I know aren’t perfect.  I know sometimes that they are kind of good, but there are other times, well, I am OK with good enough. 

So, what am I if I am not a perfectionist?  A perfectionist is a very exact trait.  It is not allowing or being comfortable anything less than flawless and the absolute best.  What is the opposite of being a perfectionist?  I googled “antonym of perfectionist” and got unsatisfactory, less than perfect, results.  The words given were flexible, imperfect, inaccurate, and many others that didn’t fit the bill for me.  Maybe imperfectionist would work or perhaps mediocratist (a follower of Mediocrates).  But, neither of these words work for me.  I am not striving for mediocrity or for just good enough, though sometimes, good enough is indeed good enough.  I do try to do my best and and try to improve, over time, on what my best is.

There is certainly a relationship between procrastination and perfectionism.  I agonized about starting my e-letter in February of 2004.  I wanted whatever I wrote to be perfect.  Perfectionism, and of course procrastination, was probably the reason I didn’t write more for public consumption before that.  Basically, I just decided to not worry about it and do the best I could which has been my approach to music performance since my first public gig.

I publish bloggy bits with spelling errors, usually homonyms, bad grammar, or awkard syntax.  Sometimes, my writing is muddled and not precise enough.  Most of this is attributable to one thing:  I am a horrible proofreader of my own writing (The Proofreading Conundrum).  Yesterday, my wife pointed out that there were a number of errors in my piece on my departed friend Gianfranco.  I read it again and fixed several errors.  I should probably read it again and will probably find more errors.  Moving forward, maybe I should wait and proofread the piece the next day and then post it.  If I ever win the lottery, I think I would rather hire an editor and assistant before buying an extravagant car, boat, or house.

Lastly, I did make a resolution to try to overcome my procrastination via continuous improvement (dang I teach this afterall).  Given a short month, I am encouraged but a long way off from where I want to be.

Gianfranco Farruggia (1953-2023)

 

Sicily, December 2022

My good friend and colleague at North Park University, Gianfranco Farruggia, passed away suddenly on January 15.

Gian and I both taught in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management at North Park.  He joined the University in 2003 after earning his PhD from The Union Institute in 2001.  We first met when I joined the School of Business and Nonprofit Management in 2014.  We instantly became friends.  I was assigned a faculty mentor who did not really have the time for me that Fall Semester of 2014.  Gianfranco took me under his wing and was my de facto mentor teaching me the ropes of the administrative responsibilities, the ins and outs of student advising, and basically being a great buddy just providing guidance and great advice on all the nuances of my new career. 

Over the ensuing years, that friendship grew.  He was among my select few best friends at North Park.  Whenever we were on Campus, we would meet in his office or mine and chat.  We would go to lunch and chat.  We talked about anything and everything from politics, University issues and news, our families, his Italian heritage, and my Armenian, and just about anything else that was in the news or came to our minds.  We could be serious, thoughtful, academic, philosophical, nostalgic, and, of course, humorous in our talks and time spent together.  I loved that we could talk about anything.  We could disagree and still discuss without the kind of polarization that is so prevalent these days.

We would do this over espresso, as we both had machines in our offices, or over lunch.  We last talked on Thursday, January 12.  We planned to meet on our first day of classes on Wednesday, January 18 for coffee before my 8 am class and then again for lunch before attending the University Martin Luther King commemoration.  That did not happen.  I don’t think I will ever have a morning coffee without thinking of Gian.

Gianfranco was as true and as good and genuine a people person as I have ever known.  He knew and kept in touch with faculty, staff, administration, former colleagues, and associates.  I have heard many pleasant and similar stories in this regard since his passing.  Each one has warmed my heart.  He was engaging with everyone the same way he was with me.  People loved and admired him.  If he got excited about something or upset about a something political at the university or in local, national, or international politics, he would emphatically make his points and use the hand gestures in a way I can only describe as Italian.  He might disagree with folks on campus and get aggravated, but he was quick to forgive and for the most part forget.

We were the same age.  We were both turning 70 this year.  It was very likely that we would have had low key celebrations spanning the entire year.  Sadly, that is not to be. 

Here are some examples of our buddy banter.  Being just one month older than me, I took to calling him my elder.  We were both on the Faculty Senate.  He was elected as a School of Business and Nonprofit Management in the last year of my three-year term.  I took to calling him the junior senator.  He pointed out that he served in the Senate well before I joined North Park.  After that I referred to him as the elder statesman which he liked.  When he would come to my office for espresso, I would always ask him if he wanted a corto (short or normal shot) or lungo (long or double shot) knowing he always took a short.  He read every one of my blog posts and loved to ask me, “Where do you come up with this stuff?”  or “One day, I am going to figure out how your mind works.”  I admired his easy-going professorial chic wardrobe.  I always told him I wanted him to take me shopping.  We had a lot of laughs.  Sometimes, I thought of ourselves as the grumpy old Muppet guys, Statler and Waldorf.

Gian was born in Sicily and came to the US as a young lad.  He loved his Sicilian roots, Italian cars, Italian cuisine, and, of course, the language.  He has family in Sicily.  Over the years he had gone and visited several times.  He always talked about how wonderful life was there.  This past summer, after all the Covid restrictions, he spent almost a month there.  He came back a rejuvenated man.  He enjoyed it so much he was set on moving there upon retirement.  He, also, went back during the Christmas break.  He would send me several photos a day of where he was and what he was doing.  He was planning to go again in September for a family wedding.  To celebrate his returnm, I had found what I thought was an excellent Italian restaurant and café in Wilmette I wanted to take him there and get his expert opinion on their quality and authenticity.  He was planning on taking a few of us to Calo Ristorante in Chicago which met his high standards.

Many folks on campus reached out to me to express their condolences on Gian’s passing.  All of them said they knew how close we were and commented on how often the saw us together on campus.  I never really thought about how much time we were together on campus.  It was that kind of very natural and comfortable friendship. 

Gian was an excellent professor.  I could write about this but it is better coming from two of his former students.

Lydia Vander Stelt (2019, 2022) wrote this about Gian on a LinkedIn post: “He brought incredible amounts of passion and insight both in and outside the classroom. He was intentional about making local nonprofit connections and highlighting their work. He even had us sit in on board meetings which was an important opportunity - all things I have taken with me upon graduating!”

Another student of his, Jomarie Gonzales (2018), commented on Lydia’s post: “Farruggia and I had a quick connect here on LinkedIn just a few weeks ago. He was always a genuine supporter and had an eye for spotting talent in the classroom. So glad he knew the likes of you, and vice versa. He is a very missed professor indeed.”

Both Lydia and Jomarie perfectly captured the essence of the beloved Professor.

I will miss my colleague and good friend.

Late Fall or Early Winter?

 

Science Photo Library

In the past year, I have lost several friends and acquaintances.  It has brought me to the realization that it is the beginning of time for my generation to pass on.  It was not a sudden revelation but more like a gradual realization. 

I am not sure how to react.  It is certainly a bit sobering.  No matter how I react, the frequency of folks about my age passing away will increase in the coming years.  I will have to come to terms with losing close friends and moving forward without them.  Of course, this is assuming it is not my demise others will be coping with.  We are entering that season.

I remember when I first learned about death and that everyone will die.  I was not pleased to have this knowledge.  I was just a kid and I remember wondering “who invented this?”  It seemed like a bad design, a huge quality defect in the system.  Soon, like we all do, I just accepted that this is just a part of life.  It is inevitable. 

I played at a wedding in Detroit, maybe 10 years ago.  I was playing with my first band, the Johnites, it was a lovely reunion.  The parents of the bride wanted the same band that played at their wedding.  It was a pretty cool experience.  Midway through the evening, I realized there only a few people at the wedding my parents’ age.  They didn't even fill an entire table.  It was the first time I realized we were quickly becoming the elder generation.

I recall how my grandmother, who lived to 101, outlived all of her peers.  My mother expressed a bit of exasperation at seeing the same happen to her.

In December of 2018, my good friend Angel passed away.  It had a great impact on me and it took me a year to get my head around it and eulogize him in a blog.  As mentioned above, there have been four friends that passed away this past year that I want to eulogize and remember in this blog.  I have yet to do one of them.  Basically, it is the same reason as with Angel’s passing.  I start to write a remembrance, a eulogy, and basically don’t like what I am writing.  I believe my thoughts are clouded with sadness and emotion and I cannot capture the essence of the person and what the meant to me in exactly the right way.  So, I wait.  As the sadness dissipates with time and I reflect on my friend, I can write the right portrayal. 

I have several topics on which I have categories and a tagline.  I write about the music I play, For the Love of the Music, I write about Armenian themes and issues, Chidem Inch, about Quality, Annals of Quality, and now obituaries or eulogies.  I expect to write for or five of these in the next few weeks.  I would prefer never to have to write another, but that will not be the case.  My 50^th high school reunion was last Spring.   I was surprised how many of my classmates had passed on including about a third of the people I would have loved to see again.

This probably reads somewhat glum.  Oddly, I don’t really feel that glum and I am not sure why.  I guess it is more sobering than glum.  I look forward to posting the eulogies of my friends who passed away this past year.

Chidem Inch: Reading, Writing, Calling, Tweeting and Retweeting

 

The blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the effective siege of Artsakh, by the Azeris is over a month old. There is no sign that things will get better for the Armenians. There are a few sad realities we are dealing with. Beyond some words, no one who is poised to help the Armenians is doing so. We Armenians in Artsakh, Armenia or the Diaspora do not have any option but to surrender more land, rights and freedoms to stop this siege.     

In the diaspora, we can advocate. What does that mean?

It means we can write and call our political leaders in whatever countries we live in and try to persuade them to take action that will end this nightmare. It is exactly what I have been doing. Per the ANCA, I have called and written to my representative, my senators, the President, the Vice-President and the Secretary of State beseeching them to do the right thing. I have tweeted and retweeted articles I find with the hopes that the next sharing or retweet will be the one that unleashes the political power of the US or another capable world power. Sadly, this is not much of a game plan.

On January 12, there was a segment on National Public Radio: Condoleezza Rice calls for ‘urgency’ in sending weapons and money to Ukraine

. Everything she said in this interview on why the US must support Ukraine could apply to why the US needs to support Armenia and Artsakh.

Yes, it’s a heavy burden, but we are the only power that shares the values and the interest of an international system that protects freedom, that protects the weaker from the stronger and we are not this time being asked to spill American blood to do that. We’re simply being asked to give the Ukrainians the tools. They’re more than willing to make this their fight. To tell them we’ll leave them to the tender mercies of the Russians because we can’t get military equipment to them, because we can’t spend the money to get military equipment to them, I think that would be an abdication of who we are, what we’ve been — and an abdication of the possibility of defending ourselves.

But no one is speaking in such a passionate way about supporting the Armenians. Why? Who influences US policy more? Armenians or Turks/Azeris? What are the consequences to US or global interests if Armenia and Artsakh become Azerbaijan? Sadly, the answers to these questions are not favorable to the Armenians.

We have no military option. We cannot do anything about that in the short term. Furthermore, we are getting no coverage. Do an internet search of the blockade. The overwhelming articles and reports are written by Armenians. There are articles in Time and news reports on CNN and a local Detroit ABC affiliate. Why don’t other news outlets deem this crisis newsworthy? Do the Turks and Azeris have more influence on their news judgment? Is the rest of the world passively telling us to just concede? Sadly, if we ponder these questions, the answers are not favorable to our cause either.

On January 13, the Wall Street Journal published “Biden administration to ask Congress to approve F-16 sale to Turkey.” Let no one try to say that Turkey is inactive behind the scenes helping Azerbaijan. Erdogan has been quoted as wanting to finish Enver Pasha’s mission. This means pan-Turkism, and it also means completing the eradication and Turkification of the remaining Armenians in the region. The Armenians might well have won the 2020 war if Turkey had not supplied drones, mercenaries, reconnaissance and command and control to the Azeris.

In the process of writing to government leaders and tweeting and retweeting articles and postings, we should all be reading what is being written. While most of the writing is by Armenians, there are some excellent examples of non-Armenians shining the light of truth on this matter. A case in point is “Cancel the National Guards’ Azerbaijan Military Partnership” by Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute—a conservative think tank in DC. After the end of the Cold War, the State Department held a joint training program for State National Guards to solidify our foreign policy. Oklahoma was paired with Azerbaijan. Rubin takes exception to this 20-year partnership by stating:

As Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pursues a campaign of ethnic cleansing if not genocide against ethnic Armenians, any military partnership with his regime is tone deaf.

In fact, there was a dinner to commemorate this partnership in early December of last year. Rubin went on to say:

Just ten days later, Azerbaijani forces blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh and launched a campaign of starvation against a population Aliyev claims as Azerbaijan’s own. Starvation, genocide, and efforts to eradicate Christianity in the region are not family values.

On January 5, the Los Angeles Times reported on a letter Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and City Council president Paul Krekorian sent to President Biden.

Bass and Krekorian sent a letter to President Biden on Wednesday condemning the blockade as an “unfolding humanitarian catastrophe” and calling on the US to “clearly demonstrate its commitment to democracy and global stability by coming to the aid of the people of Artsakh.”

On January 13, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed titled “The cruel blockade against Armenians shows the world order has collapsed” by Salpi Ghazarian, director of Special Projects at the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies. Ghazarian pointed out the recent military alliance between Russia and Azerbaijan, which clearly explains why the Russian “peacekeepers” in the Lachin Corridor are not helping the Armenians at all. Ghazarian went on to point out:

Instead, Russia has made clear to Armenians that their “Western ways” — democracy and an open, free society — are not only undesirable but punishable. Azerbaijan is pursuing control of the territory without its people, who want a continuation of the democracy they have experienced for nearly 30 years. Speaking of Armenians in Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s insistence that they live under its flag, President Aliyev cynically claimed that “just like all the other citizens of Azerbaijan, their rights and security will be provided.” It would be laughable if it weren’t so chilling. Azerbaijan’s dictator is unaccountable to his people, and his country has a track record of repressing its own citizens.

Another touching piece that I have tweeted and retweeted is “Armenian Christians Face a Humanitarian Crisis” by Jack Baghumian and Lara Setrakian. 

The region remains officially within the borders of Azerbaijan. How to reconcile Azerbaijan’s national sovereignty with the self-determination of Armenians has been an unresolved question since the fall of the Soviet Union. The genocide of Armenians by Turkey in 1915 and subsequent massacres at the hands of Azeris have left a deep fear of ethnic cleansing in the hearts of Armenians.

The saddest piece I read was Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Christmas and New Year message: “We will bring the Republic of Armenia to a peaceful harbor.” It truly underscored what a dire situation we are in and our few options. We can negotiate with our enemies who hold the upper hand militarily, which means we have a very weak position to negotiate from. Or we can ask other powers to intervene and bring about an equitable peace. Beyond lip service, no one seems to really want to step up in this regard.

So, I will continue to read, write, tweet, call and retweet trying to bring this new Armenian case to the forefront. We should all be doing the same, though it seems like nothing is enough. I believe we are all open to other options.

===

Originally published in the Armenian Weekly

Sunday Morning Drifts

 

January 8: It is a good cloudy almost cold January day.  It is the perfect sort of day to read a novel but more likely to watch some football of the NFL variety.  I am comfortably dressed for either option with a cup of coffee within reach.  It is also a perfect day to write a meandering museful post like this one.

That is not what I will be doing.

Today is the first concert of the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble of the 2022-23 season.  This first concert, the Turkish Concert, is usually around Thanksgiving.  This year it was scheduled for January 8 because of scheduling conflicts in the Performance Hall of the Logan Center for the Performing Arts.  So, I will soon have to end this moment of tranquility and get ready to depart.

Other thoughts drifted into my mind.  Should I be playing in a Turkish Concert while Artsakh is under siege?  I have debated that.  I debated that back in October when practices began for this concert.  At that time, there were serious border incursions by the Azeris.  It looked like war was imminent.  Things settled down which I attributed to Pelosi’s visit to Armenia.  In retrospect, the Azeris were planning their next move. 

The issue is do we go about our normal business while our brothers and sisters in Artsakh are in peril.  But we are, I am, halfway around the world and essentially unable to do anything more than write emails and phone our representatives and senators beseeching the Armenian case.  We still lead our social lives and our community activities.  There were dances this past weekend.  Communities are planning their Poon Pari Gentan (Mardi Gras) celebrations as I write.  We will be playing at such a party at our church.  Life moves on, while our people in Artsakh are being strangled by this blockade.  This is a sad reality.

The dichotomy is how to be supportive politically active and still live a normal life both as individuals and communities.  Can we just get up and go there?  Sure, we could.  But to do what?  Other than behind the scenes diplomatic efforts which involve beseeching other countries to pressure Azerbaijan, there seem to be nothing else volunteers would be able to do there.  There is a real feeling of impotency permeating the Armenians, I imagine everywhere, that is sad to see and who knows what the long-term consequences of this will be. 

We do have two art songs, şarkıler, by Armenian composers:  Gamzedeyim Deva Bulman by Kemani Tatyos Ekserciyan (1858-1913) and Kimseye etmem şikayet by Kemani Sarkis Sucuyan (1865-1944).  We always have music by a few Armenian composers.  It speaks to our substantial role in the musical heritage of classical Turkish music.  The two songs we performed are true classics of the genre.  While Kemani Sarkis is really known for this one beautiful şarkı, Kemani Tatyos is one of the great composers and each of his compositions is a classic.  It feels good to play these two songs especially.

Beyond that music, for me, is a great release.  It is therapeutic and I value the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble which these days seems to be my primary gig.  So, I will play. 

No one else in the Ensemble seems to know or care unless because the Artsakh blockade is, truly, only covered in the Armenian Press.  Unless I make a big deal of it, no one else in the ensemble would know.  I guess I am making some kind of deal of it here.

January 15:  Fast forward a week.  It is another Sunday.  I am drifting still on this topic.

I am glad to have the Turkish Concert behind me for the reasons written above.  At times like these, it is harder to separate politics and culture.  All in all, I was glad to have participated.  I enjoyed the music.  It was a brief respite from the horrible political reality facing the Republics of Armenia and Arsakh.  Here is a link to a video of The Middle Eastern Ensemble of the University of Chicago performing Tatyos’s GamzedeyimDeva Bulman.

We started practicing for the Persian Concerts this past Thursday.  Given all protests for change happening there, it would not surprise me at all if we were to play selections in support of the protests.  I wish we would include an Armenian song in support of the isolated people of Artsakh.  I will advocate for such.

 

 

The Whole Harbaugh Thing

The University of Michigan Football team has done well the past two seasons.  In the 2021-22 Season we went 12-2.  This season, we were even better with a record of 13-1.  In these two years, we beat Ohio State two times, were back-to-back Big Ten Champs, and went to the College Championship Playoffs losing in the first round both times.  We did not beat Michigan State in 2021 but did so this year.

Coach Harbaugh was named Head Football Coach on December 30, 2014.  There was a lot of hype as Harbaugh was a quarterback under Bo Schembechler in the 1980s and was thus a “Michigan Man” taking over the program.  The expectations were high, after the dismal Rich Rod and Brady Hoke eras, that Harbaugh would lead us quickly to national prominence again.  In his first two season, 2015 and 2016, he had 10-3 records.  He won a bowl game in his first year and then lost in the second.  Yes.  We were feeling good.  We thought we were back.

In 2017, he went 8-5.  In 2018 and 2019, 8-5 (ugh) and then 10-3 again.  In 2019, the team was 9-14.  He had yet to beat Ohio State where Urban Meyer seemed to have his number.  He also only won one bowl game which was in his first year.  In the 2020 Covid season, he posted a dismal 2-4 record and had his contract negotiated down.  In 2019 and 2020, the fan base became impatient with Harbaugh.  They wanted that return to glory and they were tired of waiting.  They desperately wanted a win against Ohio State.  While we won a few games against Michigan State, we were not dominating that series the way the fan base wanted.   The 2020 game against them was a horror show.  A Covid outbreak on the team saved us from having to play, and presumably lose to Ohio State in 2020.

So, after the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the social media buzz on the fan pages was for a coaching change.  There were all kinds of absurd head coach suggestions including Urban Meyer (as if that were ever going to happen).  The more football, and business savvy, argued against knee jerk coaching changes.  There is always circumstances where a coaching change might be in order.  But there are two parts to this.  Part one is, of course, dismissing the current coach.  This is easy to do both Nebraska and Wisconsin did that mid-season this year.  You can always fire someone.  It is the easy part.  The hard part is the part two, hiring a new coach.  You want to secure someone who will not only do better than the previous coach but can build a winning program that the university and fan base can be proud of for many years.

As soon as this season ended, there was the usual end of the season talk about our coach, Jim Harbaugh, and his possible going back to the NFL.  The Denver Broncos seemed to be a real possibility.  Again, the fickle fan base chimed in with all kinds of ideas from Tom Brady to Charles Woodson.   Really?  Can a program with a heritage like Michigan’s take a chance on hiring a head coach with no coaching experience let alone no head coaching experience?  No, I think not.  I remember Notre Dame taken a major gamble in 1981 when they hired Gerry Faust, a successful high school coach at Cincinnati Moeller.  He lasted five seasons amassing an unimpressive, from Notre Dame standards, record of 30-26-1.

I hope Michigan retains Harbaugh.  His past two seasons have been spectacular.  Maintaining that level and building off that kind of success is what we need.  To keep him we have to pay him what he is worth.   The fan base has complained in a couple of different ways.  First, they claim he cannot win bowl games.  Sure he is like 1-8 in bowl games.   Two years ago they were complaining that he couldn’t win any big games and included Michigan State, Ohio State, and bowl games as big games.  Me?  Give me a 12-2 or 13-1 season every year and I am a pretty happy fan.  Second, they complain he is not really dedicated to the University with the reasoning that he shouldn’t be looking if he were a real Michigan Man.  While that makes sense to a passionate fan, like many of us are, that live and die with each win and loss of our beloved team.  But coaches can have two loyalties.  Of course, Harbaugh is dedicated to Michigan.  He was a quarterback here and now a coach.  He is a Michigan Man without a doubt.   Coaches also know there is a huge business component to all of this, especially when millions of dollars a year are involved in their salaries are involved.  I love where I teach but double my salary and I would move to another university in a heartbeat.  If Harbaugh is offered millions more, why wouldn’t he take it?    

I hope Michigan gives Jim Harbaugh the raise he has earned.  I hope he stays and continues to build the program and continues to win especially against our biggest rivals in state and in that state down south.

The Rising Popularity of Labor Unions

 

The Battle of the Overpass

I was driving from Detroit to Chicago and listening to music.  When I got closer to Chicago, I dialed into my go to FM station WBEZ, Chicago’s Public Radio Station.   They were airing a story:  Support for labor unions in the U.S. is at a 57-year high. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that as of 2021, the number of workers belonging to unions is at 14 million — or 10.3%. That is down from 10.8% in 2020. In 1983, the earliest year with comparable membership data, around 20% of workers were in unions, BLS said.

 I have to imagine the union membership might have been higher in the 1960s or 70s.  But it seems 1983 is the earliest year with sound data.  I believe the “right to work” movement was already underway by then.  Employers with unionized workforces were closing factories with unions up north and opening factories in right to work states in the south.  Foreign companies setting up factories in the US for the first time were also open their plants in the right to work states.  The employers were paying the workers a good wage and treating them well so they wouldn’t want to unionize.

The current move to unionize is from workers at Chipotle, Starbucks, and, of course, Amazon.  The workers at Chipotle and Starbucks feel underpaid and cannot make ends meet no matter how many hours they put in.  At Amazon, the wages were a factor but more so, I believe, workers were motivated to organize because of the working conditions.  Amazon is an innovative company in terms of systems that have enabled a major disruption and Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce.  For all the high tech that gets the glowing headlines, Amazon has a reputation for working their distribution workers pretty hard.  Either people love and thrive as associates at Amazon, or they hate it and quit. 

The power of unions is the ability to withhold labor to get workers higher wages and better working conditions.  In the early days of the industrial revolutions worker conditions and pay were awful.  The rise of the unions, the AFL, CIO, UAW, and Teamsters filled a void and brought some power to the workforce.  They withheld labor, they went on strike, management tried to bust the unions with scabs, and eventually the workers prevailed and got better salaries.  In the 1930s, the union battles with management were physical and dangerous.  Seminal events in the history  of the UAW was the Ford Massacre on March 7, 1932 and The Battle of the Overpass which took place on May 26, 1937.  In the 1932 event, Ford Security opened fire on a demonstration resulting in dozens of injuries and four deaths.  In 1937, the Union members led by Walter Reuther were passing out leaflets on an overpass leading to Gate 4 at Ford’s Rouge Complex in Dearborn.  They were confronted Ford Security who beat and injured several union members.  The photos of this later event from James Kilpatrick of The Detroit News swung support from Ford to the UAW leading to Ford recognizing the union in 1941… when the war effort needed stable production from Ford.

After World War II, the US had a near monopoly on manufactured goods.  The rest of the industrial infrastructure of the major European countries was destroyed during the war.  While the US was in the war, the war in terms of combat, never came to our shores.  Our industrial infrastructure was not only intact but churning out munitions, Jeeps, trucks, tanks, and airplanes that helped turn the tide of war was the Allies bombed the Axis’s ability to do the same.  Production in the US was full blast and labor was able to get tremendous gains in salaries and benefits because there was little to no competition except domestically.  It was in the best interest of management and labor to keep the party going.  Concessions were, while negotiated, were given.  As a result, our cost of production was increasing as the rest of the world scraped and fought to achieve productivity and efficiency as they built up their industrial infrastructure from the rubble of the war.  In automotive, my frame of reference for all of this, Japan set the standard with the likes of Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, and Kaoru Ishikawa, with Toyota leading the way.  By the times the 1970s came, the US had a disadvantage in terms of cost and quality.  I believe it was David Kearns, the CEO of Xerox who said something like, and I paraphrase, that it was cheaper to buy a Japanese copier and slap a Xerox nameplate on and make a profit selling it for Xerox’s standard manufacturing cost.  US cars carried an average burden just on retiree benefits was $1400 more per car than the Japanese. 

Serious international competition made it much harder for labor to withhold labor any longer and further fueled the right to work movement.  The power of Unions waned and so did their ranks.  The supply and demand of our industrial labor costs were no longer limited to our borders, our wages faced the downward pressure of the global labor markets.  Companies were also outsourcing to cheaper labor markets.  Unions, their power, and value, seemed to be a historic relic.  The Great Recession of 2008-2012 was thought to be the last nail in this coffin.

That changed with the Covid Pandemic which gave rise to the Great Resignation.  Baby boomers, people my age, left the workforce in great numbers.  Truck drivers, airline workers, teachers, and medical professionals retired in great numbers because while they were wanting to work longer, into their 70s, the pressures and burdens of the Pandemic made them call it quits.  The population demographics were such that the population entering the workforce were less than the population retiring. 

There was, suddenly, more demand for labor than the supply.  There was upward pressure on labor rates.  Workers for the Amazons and Starbucks in this country, were feeling unhappy with both their wages and working conditions.  As their power to withhold labor was again possible to achieve better working conditions, there was an uptick in unionization efforts in these service industries.

There has been an uptick in interest, but the unionization has been tough road.  The companies are fighting as hard as they can to keep the unions out hoping the labor market will flip to the demand for labor to become less than the supply. 

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in the next few years.

 

CNBC

 

Chidem Inch: New Year’s Resolution

 

     It is the first day of 2023. As I drove around today, I saw Christmas trees at the curbsides of homes and several people outside taking down their decorations. From when I was a schoolboy, this always made me a bit sad. The warmth and glow of Christmas abruptly ends with the New Year and is hammered home with the return to work and school shortly thereafter. As Armenians, we do get to stretch things a bit through Armenian Christmas on January 6, but that only delays the inevitable a few days.

      Amid all the festivities and the various gatherings with family and friends, the Christmas season was clouded this year by our worries about the ongoing blockade of Artsakh by the Azeris. While enjoying the holidays here, the dire situation of our 120,000 brothers and sisters in Artsakh weighed on our hearts. We found ourselves including them in our prayers before our Christmas dinners and in our hopeful expressions for the New Year. With the holidays here coming to a close, the grimness of the blockade that began on December 12th has set in even deeper.

      I just googled the news on Artsakh. All the news is more than three days old. There are no updates. In the Diaspora, all we can do is lobby. In the US, that means we can and must write letters to the President, Secretary of State, our US Representatives and Senators. Around the world, the legislatures are on vacation, yet the blockade continues. With the return to work, we must begin anew to advocate for Artsakh and the 120,000 Armenians there.

      There really is no other choice.

      There is no military option. Our leaders in Armenia and the Diaspora are trying to solicit the powers of the world to intercede. As far as we know, there is very little progress being made.

      We cannot just give money. There is no “Feed a Family” or “Bnag muh Geragur” fundraising program because there is no way to get food or medicines into Artsakh… because of the blockade. I would love to adopt a family if we had a way to circumvent the blockade.

       Sure, this is a colossal failure in leadership. But what can we do about the past? We are in this situation now. We should be writing our leaders with ideas for strategies and plans once the blockade ends. We should push them with the same letter writing grassroot campaigns we are advocating for the US government. We have to stop the gamesmanship amongst ourselves

      There is an iconoclast on social media who posted “Dear Sheep, How can it be merry when Armenia and Artsakh are in danger of being eliminated?” It’s a good thought which has not escaped many of us. But what is the point of attacking ourselves and calling everyone sheep? This is not helpful to anyone or anything. Are we supposed to forgo celebrating Christmas for our children and grandchildren? Guilting and insulting people will simply diminish the size and power of the Diaspora.

      Someone asked the iconoclast if he was going to go to Armenia and to the border. And do what? With what? Will the common folk Armenians around the world venturing to Armenia with shovels and pitchforks end the blockade? Is this an idea we should consider? How many of his so-called “sheep” would go?

     Our situation is quite concerning. We need our leaders to speak out in unison and dynamically with action plans to keep our people from falling into a pit of despair and giving up. We should all resolve to do more in whatever way we can to bring peace and stability to Armenia and Artsakh.

First Published in the Armenian Weekly on 1-3-23.

Bowl Games

 

It is January 2^nd, it is the observed New Year’s Holiday.  It was not until 3:30 pm that I remembered that there were Bowl Games today.  The New Year’s Day bowl games are, of course, normally on January 1.  Being a Sunday, all the football games yesterday were NFL games.  By the time I realized there were college games on today, the Cotton and Citrus Bowls were already in the 3^rd Quarter.  Mississippi State had already beaten Illinois 19-10.   LSU was trouncing Purdue 42-7 and Southern Cal and Tulane were in a closely contested game with USC leading 35-30.  Later this evening Penn State and Utah square off in the Rose Bowl.

Besides it being January 2^nd, large part of the reason I was oblivious to the bowl games today was because my team, the University of Michigan, played on New Year’s Eve in the College Championship Semi-Final Game.  Ranked #2, the 13-0 Wolverines faced the 3^rd ranked Horned Frogs of TCU in the Fiesta Bowl.  Following Fiesta Bowl, the Peach Bowl featured #1 Georgia vs #4 Ohio State.

It was impressive that two Big Ten teams were in the National Championship Semi-Finals.  If both Michigan and Ohio State won they would face each other in the National Championship Game on January 9.  It would have been a rematch of The Game.  It would have been the first time Ohio State and Michigan played each other twice in the same season.  It would have been unprecedented.  It would have been pretty cool.  Imagine beating Ohio State twice in one season.

It would have been…

Both Michigan and Ohio State lost.  Michigan lost 51-45.  Ohio State lost 42-41.  Both games were exciting.  TCU and Georgia will play for the National Championship on January 9th. 

Let’s start with the Ohio State - Georgia game.  After losing to Michigan, there were five teams more likely to make the Championship Playoffs than Ohio State.  Georgia and Michigan won their conference championships and were shoe-ins as the only undefeated teams.  Clemson, TCU, and USC lost in theirs.  USC, Clemson, and Alabama all had two losses.  TCU and Ohio State only had one loss.  The committee rounded out the four teams with TCU and Ohio State.  Ohio State upset with their loss to Michigan looked at this a “second chance.”  The coach and players all said they wanted this challenge to show everyone they were tough, hard nosed, and not only belonged in the play-offs but were intent on winning it. 

They did just that.  They looked tougher and harder hitting than any other game I saw them play in all season.  Ohio State led or the score was tied all but 1:49 of the entire game.  Sadly for them, it was the last 1:49 of the game.  Ohio State QB Stroud drove them into field goal range with 51 seconds left.  Their kicker Noah Ruggles shanked the kick and Georgia won the game.  Ohio State played very well.  Ohio State and Georgia were very closely matched in yards passing, yards rushing, and time of possession.  As a Michigan fan, I was almost sorry they lost.  Almost. 

The Michigan game was more of an upset.  Michigan threw two pick six interceptions and two 1^st and goal opportunities that resulted in only a field goal.  That is a 25 point differential which is hard for any team to overcome.  We didn’t.  Yet, in our last possession, we had a chance to for a miraculous drive from our own 30 with just 51 seconds left.  We turned it over on downs.  We had more first downs then TCU, we 342 yards in passing to their 225, they led in rushing 263 to 185, and time of possession was about average.  The pick six interceptions killed us.

Was I upset?

Well, I wanted them to win out and become National Champions.  I was sorry they lost a game they could have won.  But woulda, shoulda, coulda aside, they did lose, and the season ended.  It was a magnificent season.  13-1 and ranked third in the country.  They have beat Ohio State twice in a row, are back-to-back Big Ten Champions, have gone to the National Championship round two years in a row. I would take these kinds of results any time!  It is a complete turnaround from the Rich Rod and Brady Hoke years.  It was an exciting year a great team on both sides of the ball.  It was a breakout year for J.J. McCarthy and Blake Corum.  The offensive line was superb anchored by the fifth-year transfer center Olusegun Oluwatimi.  The defense was kind of a no name crew that was very good.  I loved the conditioning of the team and the attitude of the entire team. 

Looking forward to next season. Go Blue!