Ho, Ho, Freaking Ho
Well, just to help bring a little Christmas cheer to the folks on the other side of the pond, and just in time for the holiday season, a British labor union is proposing bringing legal action against stores. They intend to lead the charge against the biggest, single issue in modern British labor history.
Unions and noise pollution groups are proposing to take legal action on behalf of beleaguered shop staff forced to listen to never-ending looped recordings of Christmas music. 'It's an issue that has been brought to our attention,' confirmed Paul Clarke, spokesman for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, Usdaw. 'What we're saying is that, if Christmas carols are being played on the same CD repeatedly, that could create an unhealthy working environment. It must drive people to distraction.'
The union's combative stance has been backed by the UK Noise Association, a coalition of groups that campaigns against noise pollution. 'If people are exposed to something continually, it's no different to being tortured,' said Val Weedon, the association's national coordinator. 'We are asking government to look into whether it is something that the Health and Safety Executive could take on board.'
Apparently the 'Allied Workers' referred to in the Union's name include Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of –
"God bless you, merry gentleman!
May nothing you dismay!"Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.
As in George Orwell's Animal Farm, it becomes harder and harder to tell them apart at the end…….
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
World news | Gaius Sunday, 24 December , 2006
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Maggie's Farm — Tuesday, 26 December , 2006 @ 4:20 am
By class-factotum, Tuesday, 26 December , 2006 @ 8:27 am
I’ve been working at a department store the past couple of weeks and I gotta tell you, the Usdaw has a case. If I have to hear that darn “Snow, what’s Christmas without snow” song (sounds like Anne Murray) one more time, I’m going to sue someone. I didn’t know it was an option.
The rest of the songs, however, are fine.