Occupy Sothebys
#1
http://www.alternet.org/story/153033/opu...f_touch_1/

Opulent Sothebys' Appalling Treatment of Its Workers Is a Perfect Symbol of the Out of Touch 1%
What better symbol of the 1 percent's treatment of the 99 then one of the world's most opulent institutions refusing to bargain with its workers?
November 10, 2011 |
A sign brought to the Sotheby's picket line on November 9th, 2011
Photo Credit: Sarah Seltzer


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When I arrived at Sotheby's on New York's Upper East Side before a massive art auction on Wednesday night, the three-month-old picket line outside the institution was peopled by a couple dozen Teamsters and supporters there on behalf of locked-out workers. They were using whistles, carrying signs and standing beneath one of those giant inflated rats, getting revved up for the evening ahead.

I turned to one guy at the end of the block, asking, "Has the Occupy Wall Street contingent come yet?"

His eyes widened: "They're coming?"

Yes, they were coming, as were legions of the world's wealthiest, for an auction that would mark the end of the "fall auction season"--a busy period of multimillion-dollar purchases that is one reason Sotheby's claims it won't negotiate with workers.

Some of the new arrivals pulling up to the curb were about to make a record number of bids on $315 million worth of modern art. A few works went for over $60 million a piece that night.

The other new arrivals were there to shame them for doing just that, while middle-class workers were locked out.

At 6pm, a loud contingent of Hunter students poured into the barricaded area, freshly psyched up from their own meeting at their nearby school, bolstering the energy and noise. Then another contingent from NYU and Occupy Wall Street arrived. The sidewalk whistles and drums grew deafening. That was the idea.

Shouts went out as supporters came off buses and out of cabs, chanting, "New York is a union town!"

The signs held aloft multiplied, with huge paintings of workers, angry Mona Lisas and photos of Sotheby's head honchos and their $80,000-a-week salaries. "No Matter How You Frame It, Union-Busting is Bad Taste," read one sign inside a picture frame.

A giant inflatable "fat cat" with a worker in its hand was blown up to accompany the rat, and the chant of "shame" began growing, as did more specific ones:

"Art for the masses, not the upper classes!" "All day, all week, occupy Sotheby's!" "What's disgusting? Union busting!"

Then there were the individual exhortations as patrons began arriving. "Please don't cross this picket line!" or the less-friendly "Go back to the Vineyard!" "Greed is not good!" and my personal favorite, "These artists would have hated you!" (So true, at least most artists.)
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Whoever got the idea to target this bastion of wealth and privilege is a genius. Thumbs UpThumbs UpThumbs Up
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#2
Are you so jealous of anyone who has something, that you wish them harm just for being successful?
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#3
(11-11-2011, 03:16 PM)Larry Wrote: Are you so jealous of anyone who has something, that you wish them harm just for being successful?

Are you so uncaring about working people and so ignorant of the real issues or are you just pretending?

This piece only mentioned the unfathomable wealth being exhibited versus the art house's refusal to negotiate with the union, despite RECORD profits.

The Teamsters-affiliated art handlers at Sotheby's have been locked out for several months, ever since their contract went up for renegotiation.

ThirteenNY's Sam Lewis went down to the picket line to interview the workers there, and explained the background of the dispute:


On Aug. 1, after contract negotiations stalled, Sotheby’s sent letters to the art handlers telling them not to return for work. Their dispute involves shortened work weeks and also the collective bargaining rights of new hires. Sotheby’s initiated the lockout a month after the art handlers’ contract expired. Then they hired temporary employees to replace the union art handlers. The lockout comes after the company announced record profits for the first half of 2011.

Those record profits are really remarkable. From the WSJ in August: "Sotheby's said it sold $3.4 billion of fine and decorative art in the first half of this year, up 55% from a year earlier, as the art market continues to recover from recession."
$3.4 billion!

One of the handlers Thirteen interviewed had this message:

I just want the people to know that we’re out here everyday for a purpose, we’re not just making noise. The clients seem to be so focused on the auction and people from the community don’t always come inside the building, but they wake up to our whistles. I want them to know that they’re actually waking up to our struggle. Now that we’ve been out here for three months, people from the community have started coming by and asking us questions.

Eyes Opening

It seems as though people in New York are finally opening their eyes to this perfect encapsulation of our nation's gross disparity. As the Wednesday night protest and auction went on, the jeering escalated. It was hard not to feel frustrated by the endless parade of buyers into the Sotheby's entrance.

There were a few arrests, and the temporary-hire security guards lined up with their backs to the picket line to actually shield the attendees (many of whom were flashing jewels and or fancy haircuts) from having to look at the young people and workers shouting "shame."

The cops tried to keep us, even those just taking photos, in designated pens so the sidewalks could be clear, but protesters bristled at this and ran out onto the public space to confront patrons. One young woman danced and skipped up and down the line of security guards.

Some well-heeled auction-goers turned their camera phones at us or laughed, while others hurried in, heads down, to mingle with each other and to break some art-buying records with their millions.

The WSJ reported on the Wednesday auction, describing the night's big sales and naming the attendees:


...competitive energy in Sotheby's York Avenue saleroom, which included everyone from Miami collectors Don and Mera Rubell to tabloid favorite and oil heir Brandon Davis. The atmosphere was also lively outside the auction house's doors, as art handlers involved in a labor dispute with Sotheby's protested by bleating air horns.

The protests didn't seem to deter bidders, though. In all, Sotheby's sold $315.8 million worth of art—well over its $270 million high estimate and the third-highest sale total ever achieved by its contemporary art department. (Its peak remains a $362 million evening sale in May 2008.)

http://www.alternet.org/story/153033/opu...h_1?page=2
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#4
Sotheby's enjoys no real respect. It'solutely foolish to use their services.
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#5
I'm jealous of union wagesLaughingLaughing
Why should they make the big money?Big Grin
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#6
Crone, here is the most salient point of all:

"The protests didn't seem to deter bidders, though. In all, Sotheby's sold $315.8 million worth of art—well over its $270 million high estimate and the third-highest sale total ever achieved by its contemporary art department. (Its peak remains a $362 million evening sale in May 2008.)"

Larry, these are the people who were rewarded by the GWB tax cuts. The GOP forced their extension this past January. The premise was that these are the people who provide jobs. O RLY?
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#7
Damn people who earned their own money being able to spend it how they want. They should just give it all away, or better yet, have it taken from them by the government and given to the unmotivated or the unemployable or the just plain lazy. Because it is fair that they shouldn't have as much as others.

Am I part of the 1%? No, not anywhere near it. Not by a long shot. Nor do I think that I should be entitled to something that someone else has WORKED for. Would it be nice to have that kind of money? Hell yes. I could do a lot with it. But I don't begrudge those that do.

The corporate execs that get the 'Golden Parachutes', those are crap. But the people who have put their work in and are successful and earn their scratch, more power to em.
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#8
(11-12-2011, 12:58 PM)BeerMe Wrote: But the people who have put their work in and are successful and earn their scratch, more power to em.

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder how many of the 1%'ers actually got their money that way?
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#9
(11-12-2011, 01:03 PM)PonderThis Wrote:
(11-12-2011, 12:58 PM)BeerMe Wrote: But the people who have put their work in and are successful and earn their scratch, more power to em.

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder how many of the 1%'ers actually got their money that way?

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder why folks who want fair treatment for the workers are somehow resenting the 1% and are wanting to take bread from their children's mouths. There is NOTHING WRONG with workers getting fair wages and fair treatment...why can't this be understood????
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#10
This is "Money" running from money. I have always done the same. I can't figure the worth of money, with any real faith in my answer. But, I can examine an old Martin, or a vintage Bernina. I can pick the gems. Todays gems were six nice glass pie pans (Mine in time for The Holidays, and fifty cents each!) and a nice seventies Pyrex casserole, in the desirable avocado green with a gleaming chrome stand, (Mine too). All mine now, unless I get charityish. But, If I do jump back into the real world, I'm gonna' buy it. And, I think that's what I'm going to do. If Andy Rooney can do it, so can I. I can work for sport. Maybe, buy my own politician? Maybe a brace of 'em? See if one could be made honest.....Or maybe, buy a private eye? Or maybe, offer rewards? I was gonna' fish more, but
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#11
(11-12-2011, 01:21 PM)Crone Wrote:
(11-12-2011, 01:03 PM)PonderThis Wrote:
(11-12-2011, 12:58 PM)BeerMe Wrote: But the people who have put their work in and are successful and earn their scratch, more power to em.

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder how many of the 1%'ers actually got their money that way?

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder why folks who want fair treatment for the workers are somehow resenting the 1% and are wanting to take bread from their children's mouths. There is NOTHING WRONG with workers getting fair wages and fair treatment...why can't this be understood????

WTF does that mean? Who said workers aren't being paid fair wages? Should foodservers be paid $20 an hour? I wonder what we would have to pay for a burger? How about the guy pumping gas? Pay him $20 an hour, to be FAIR? Yes please, I want to pay $10 a gallon.

FUCK!! If a person is not happy with their situation they need to fucking improve themselves!! All of this, "it's not fair" is bullshit. Life isn't fair. Some people get cancer, some don't. Some people are born into wealthy families and some are born into poor families. Some people that are born into poor families turn their situation around.

Absolutely fucking myopic thinking that the wealthy people should HAVE to pay more or have some of their wealth TAKEN from them is insane.
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#12
(11-13-2011, 10:35 AM)BeerMe Wrote: WTF does that mean? Who said workers aren't being paid fair wages? Should foodservers be paid $20 an hour? I wonder what we would have to pay for a burger? How about the guy pumping gas? Pay him $20 an hour, to be FAIR? Yes please, I want to pay $10 a gallon.

FUCK!! If a person is not happy with their situation they need to fucking improve themselves!! All of this, "it's not fair" is bullshit. Life isn't fair. Some people get cancer, some don't. Some people are born into wealthy families and some are born into poor families. Some people that are born into poor families turn their situation around.

Absolutely fucking myopic thinking that the wealthy people should HAVE to pay more or have some of their wealth TAKEN from them is insane.

"The rich will do anything for the poor except get off their backs."
~Karl Marx
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#13
I have long followed the happy career of a family of the most "Improved" among us. And, they don't appear to have changed. Their situation has changed. From nice, to sumptuous. And, that's only occurred because they have easy access to the political channels of Oregon, and thereby, our forest and money.
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#14
(11-13-2011, 10:35 AM)BeerMe Wrote:
(11-12-2011, 01:21 PM)Crone Wrote:
(11-12-2011, 01:03 PM)PonderThis Wrote:
(11-12-2011, 12:58 PM)BeerMe Wrote: But the people who have put their work in and are successful and earn their scratch, more power to em.

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder how many of the 1%'ers actually got their money that way?

Just for curiosities sake, I wonder why folks who want fair treatment for the workers are somehow resenting the 1% and are wanting to take bread from their children's mouths. There is NOTHING WRONG with workers getting fair wages and fair treatment...why can't this be understood????

WTF does that mean? Who said workers aren't being paid fair wages? Should foodservers be paid $20 an hour? I wonder what we would have to pay for a burger? How about the guy pumping gas? Pay him $20 an hour, to be FAIR? Yes please, I want to pay $10 a gallon.

FUCK!! If a person is not happy with their situation they need to fucking improve themselves!! All of this, "it's not fair" is bullshit. Life isn't fair. Some people get cancer, some don't. Some people are born into wealthy families and some are born into poor families. Some people that are born into poor families turn their situation around.

Absolutely fucking myopic thinking that the wealthy people should HAVE to pay more or have some of their wealth TAKEN from them is insane.

It's been said before, and I want to repeat it here, this place needs a "like" button.
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#15
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#16
(11-13-2011, 10:35 AM)BeerMe Wrote: Absolutely fucking myopic thinking that the wealthy people should HAVE to pay more or have some of their wealth TAKEN from them is insane.

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