From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2006 - 15:55:55 EDT
ATLANTA - More than 300 Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots marched near the company's headquarters Wednesday and placed a giant inflatable rat on a street corner to symbolize what they see as corporate greed in management's effort to void their contract and impose pay cuts. (...) Union spokesman Mike Pinho said the rat is a "nationwide symbol of greed at the highest levels of corporate America." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060412/ap_on_bi_ge/delta_pilots Twelve years ago, Mike O'Connor, owner of Big Sky Balloons & Searchlights in Plainfield, Illinois, created the first rat at the request of a union member in nearby Chicago. Said the union man of O'Connor's first sketch: "It's not mean enough." O'Connor added bigger fangs and a pink belly with "festering nipples." "I love it," the man said. So did other unions. Today, Big Sky sells between 100 and 200 rats a year--even though it is a nonunion shop itself. The Rat comes in several sizes, from the squat-looking 6-footer ($2,000) to the towering 30-footer ($7,700). Because many communities have ordinances limiting the height of inflatable displays, the most popular size is the 12-footer, small enough to stand upright in the bed of a pickup truck, yet big enough to attract attention. Does the Rat work? "Usually, employers go bonkers when they see it across from their property," says Randy Mayhew, organizing director of Laborers International Union of North America, which employs about 20 rats. "It's an effective piece of street theater," says Peter Jones, executive director of the Labor Heritage Foundation. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/artifact.html You may as well Shout it from the roof Scream it from your lungs Spit it from you mouth There's a spy in the sky There's a noise on the wire There's a tap on the line And for every paranoid's desire... There's always Someone looking at you. S-s-s-s-someone looking at you... They're always looking at you. - "Someone looking at you", by the Boomtown Rats
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