Tag: labor

iopele:

queerspeculativefiction:

heidiblack:

pillowswithboners:

luchagcaileag:

This isn’t because Burger King is nicer in Denmark. It’s the law, and the US is actually the only so-called “developed” country that doesn’t mandate jobs provide a minimum amount of paid vacation, sick leave, or both.

kinda debunks that claim that they can’t afford to pay their workers those sort of wages and still make a profit

Its corporate greed, plain and simple.

It is the same in Sweden. It is so funny every time an american company opens up offices here and then tries to do it the american way and all the unions go “I don’t think so”.

Like when Toys ‘r Us opened in sweden 1995.

They refused to sign on to the union deals that govern such things as pay/pension and vacation in Sweden. Most of our rights are not mandated by law (we don’t have a minimum wage for example) but are made in voluntary agreements between the unions and the companies.

But they refused, saying that they had never negotiated with any unions anywhere else in the world and weren’t planning to do it in Sweden either. 

Of course a lot of people thought it was useless fighting against an international giant, but Handels (the store worker’s union) said that they could not budge, because that might mean that the whole Swedish model might crumble. So they went on strike in the three stores that the company had opened so far.

Cue a shitstorm from the press, and from right wing politicians. But the members were all for it, and other unions started doing sympathy actions. The teamsters refused to deliver goods to their stores, the financial unions blockaded all economical transactions regarding Toys ‘r Us and the strike got strong international support as well, especially in the US.

In the end, Toys ‘r Us caved in, signed the union deal, and thus their employees got the same treatment as Swedish store workers everywhere.

The right to be treated as bloody human beings and not disposable cogs in a machine.

and that story right there? is exactly why Republicans in the US work so hard to bust unions. it’s because unionizing WORKS and they’re terrified of workers actually having some power.

ohnoagremlin:

kaylapocalypse:

blackzelda:

Do companies realize that they’ll eventually run out of people who can realistically fill their demands if they keep demanding you have 3-5+ years experience at 25 and refuse to hire anything less

actually, I think what they are doing is hiring 25 year olds with 1 year of experience and using that as a way to coerce the 25 year old to accept less pay.

They post 3-5 years experience at 45,000 on the job boards. Which is the market value of the position.But not for someone who has worked in the field for 5 years who at that point in their career might demand 50,000 instead.

then when people come in with 1 year of experience *(which is really secretly all the experience that is needed for the job) they go “oohhhh so. we really like you but based on your experience level we’re going to start you at 35k? is that okay? You know, cause we could be getting someone with 5 years experience, but we really like you.”

And then the 25 year old feels lucky to get ahead and get the job in the first place so they say yes

there’s also been a surge of companies complaining they “have to” relax their hiring standards (and, yeop, lower pay) bc otherwise they can’t find candidates, so yea you’re not wrong

JOANN stores could be hit by tariffs, discouraging American-made clothing, home items

bigmouthlass:

dollsahoy:

cosmomoore:

artikgato:

cosmomoore:

waiting-for-never:

cosmomoore:

waiting-for-never:

cosmomoore:

dollsahoy:

as if trnmp cares about small businesses and charities in this country

Nooooo, ugh, it probably will happen, but I surely hope it doesn’t.

I HAVE VERY STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.

The tarriffs part sucks— but the “woe is us, it’s not our fault” tone of the email really pissed me off. JoAnn’s prices have gone up each of the 3 years I’ve worked there, and the employees (of course!) aren’t getting paid more.

The company is actively shutting out their older client base– customers who may not spend much, but who come in regularly for supplies. The VIP discount program has been discontinued (shutting out the older generation of quilters/crafters en masse), and I’ve had many elderly women say that they’re going to have to give up their hobbies because it’s just too expensive.

So, all of this is to say that the way JoAnn has prioritized profits over people has led to this. The wanted reps who would lower taxes and loosen regulations for businesses while pushing their employees to the wayside. They got that. Now that their wish has backfired??? Awww, it’s a MADE IN AMERICA TAX THAT WILL HURT SMALL BUSINESSES.

No, it’s the fact that their customers can’t afford a blanket 25% increase in already ridiculous prices, and the tarriffs will cut into their profits.

I wholeheartedly agree that we should be calling our reps over these tarriffs, but it’s also the culmination of profit over people. Everything is made overseas because those workers are paid so little. Minimum wage workers (hello, all of JoAnn’s retail employees) can’t afford to buy anything, just as most retirees on social security can’t afford anything other than the essentials. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BUSINESSES ARE ALLOWED TO DO WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT.

Ahem.

On a more personal note, I was at a brand new store when Jill Soltau did a walk-through. The store was full of employees who had put everything together to get ready for the grand opening.

She came through without saying a word to any of us.

So, this email that’s attempting to make us believe that JoAnn and its CEO really care about people?

Ha.

For the love of all that is holy, get out and vote in the midterms. Not to make sure that businesses don’t see a change in profits, but to change the government’s focus back to the people.

Reblogging for commentary, it is such a shame how many American companies are prioritizing profits over people.

Corporate greed is a terrible part of the American Way. From a quick Google search I gathered that JoAnn’s is no longer a public company (it was privatized in 2011) so they can’t even use the excuse of shareholders to blame the rise in prices over the last few years.

Here’s to hoping this doesn’t increase them further, but shame on JoAnn’s for doing it previously.

If the prices on Halloween decor are any indication, they’re already doing it. Yarn and fabric are going up as well.

I definitely noticed it on fabric, I had to double take when ¼ yard of fabric was $3.00!!

This is basically the reason that Hancock Fabrics went out of business (I mean, I know there were a lot of reasons that Hancock Fabrics went out of business, but this is a big one at least). They froze wages, cut hours, had their stores being run by basically a skeleton crew – and tried to claim that they were failing as a business because “nobody would buy anything without using a coupon”, shoving the burden of their business failing onto the customers, when really the company was being run terribly, workers had no loyalty because we were being paid minimum wage with no hope of any kind of raise, managers were extremely overworked…

Unfortunately corporate greed seems to be the downfall of many American companies. That is basically what happened to Toys R Us as well. No one has any loyalty anymore because the basic principles of a living wage and decent benefits no longer exist. As long as the people at the top can maintain a hefty salary and get a yearly increase, the people who work the hardest get the short end of the stick. It is shameful how larger American businesses have become.

Don’t forget how the internet means people have options they didn’t have in the past, but the corporate greedsters aren’t willing to let their companies change, because change = risk, which = potential bad things happening very fast, while ~sticking to the old ways~ means the company death will be slow and able to be milked for years.

And the ones that do change and thrive?  Get bought by Amazon or Walmart, so it’s a different kind of death.

(of course I’m being a bit facetious here.  a bit.)

This is a common theme, as retail continues to eat itself to death. Ames, Circut City, Radio Shack, JC Penney’s, Sears …

When times are bad and resources are overstretched, customer service is where bad leadership makes the deepest cuts. Fast-forward and the staff is crap (you don’t get good employees by paying them crap and treating them like shit) and your customers are gone and your company is bleeding cash–

Online shopping didn’t kill retail. Retail killed itself and Amazon is feasting on the corpse.

JOANN stores could be hit by tariffs, discouraging American-made clothing, home items

161.  Missouri defeats anti-union ballot measure; 8/7/18

reckoningofjoy:

“Tuesday’s election marks the first time voters have overturned a
right-to-work law through a ballot referendum since Ohio did something
similar in 2011. No other state has even tried to in recent years. It’s
also a major victory for the US labor movement at a time when Republican
leaders, big businesses, and the courts have doubled down on their
attempts to weaken the influence of labor unions and the workers they
represent.”

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/7/17655690/missouri-election-proposition-a-right-to-work

sapphicrevan:

Disability is a labor issue!

[Transcript of Twitter thread by nor @alljustletters:

being chronically ill with a full time job actually means having two full time jobs.

# Not Your Inspiration: i’m 25, multiply disabled with a 40hr job. this means sacrificing my social life, hobbies, interests. using the weekends to recuperate and sleep. being stressed and in pain and overwhelmed constantly. that’s not inspiring, that’s fucking sad.
i haven’t “overcome my disability” or am “succeeding despite my disability”, i’m continuously forcing myself to endure further damage to my health in a desperate attempt to survive under capitalism & be allowed to contribute to/partake in society.
i actually wanna work cause it gives me structure and purpose, and i enjoy my job. what i want is for my job to not require me to hurt myself day after day & to pay me a living wage regardless. it shouldn’t be either back-breaking work or poverty.
# cripple punk

End of thread]

Source: https://twitter.com/i/moments/1020402513420447745

Source: sapphicrevan

UPS Teamsters ready to stage America’s biggest strike since 1997, with solidarity as the main sticking point

grison-in-labs:

mostlysignssomeportents:

Unionized UPS Teamsters – 260,000 of them – are set to strike in the
biggest American strike since UPS’s unionized drivers walked out in
1997.

Superficially, the issue is about the company moving to seven-day
delivery, but the issue that’s forcing the strike is the sizable cohort
of union members who are unwilling to accept a two-tier workplace where
established workers get the full protection of the union and younger
hires are given a worse deal. This has been a traditional way that
employers have split, weakened and ultimately killed their workers’
unions – by buying off the long-established employees with better deals
that make the workers who’ll replace them feel that unions have nothing
to offer them, which establishes divisions that can be exploited later
to lay off those higher-paid workers, leaving only the lowest-paid
employees and no union they can use to press for better pay.

It seems like some of UPS’s Teamsters have figured out that solidarity pays.

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/06/divide-and-rule-2.html

Yo, if they do strike, don’t listen to the media bitching about those workers being uppity or what the fuck ever. Transit and shipping is a increasingly huge industry in the US, and the Teamsters should be cheered on and congratulated for demanding solidarity and support for junior workers–formal union members or not.

If you’re waiting longer on Amazon packages or whatever, of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t complain–but frame your complaints to aim at UPS management for failing to treat its workers well and negotiate, not at the workers themselves. In this Second Gilded Age, that’s the only way we’re ever going to see any kind of improvement from the exploitation of the nation by the uber-wealthy–and UPS certainly qualifies.

Solidarity, motherfuckers.

[Essay] | Punching the Clock, by David Graeber | Harper’s Magazine

antoine-roquentin:

Historically, human work patterns have
taken the form of intense bursts of energy followed by rest. Farming,
for instance, is generally an all-hands-on-deck mobilization around
planting and harvest, with the off-seasons occupied by minor projects.
Large projects such as building a house or preparing for a feast tend to
take the same form. This is typical of how human beings have always
worked. There is no reason to believe that acting otherwise would result
in greater efficiency or productivity. Often it has precisely the
opposite effect.

One reason that work was historically irregular is because it was
largely unsupervised. This is true of medieval feudalism and of most
labor arrangements until relatively recent times, even if the
relationship between worker and boss was strikingly unequal. If those at
the bottom produced what was required of them, those at the top
couldn’t be bothered to know how the time was spent.

Most societies throughout history would never have imagined that a
person’s time could belong to his employer. But today it is considered
perfectly natural for free citizens of democratic countries to rent out a
third or more of their day. “I’m not paying you to lounge around,”
reprimands the modern boss, with the outrage of a man who feels he’s
being robbed. How did we get here?

By the fourteenth century, the common understanding of what time was
had changed; it became a grid against which work was measured, rather
than the work itself being the measure. Clock towers funded by local
merchant guilds were erected throughout Europe. These same merchants
placed human skulls on their desks as memento mori, to remind themselves
that they should make quick use of their time. The proliferation of
domestic clocks and pocket watches that coincided with the advent of the
Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century allowed for a
similar attitude toward time to spread among the middle class. Time came
to be widely seen as a finite property to be budgeted and spent, much
like money. And these new time-telling devices allowed a worker’s time
to be chopped up into uniform units that could be bought and sold.
Factories started to require workers to punch the time clock upon
entering and leaving.

The change was moral as well as technological. One began to speak of
spending time rather than just passing it, and also of wasting time,
killing time, saving time, losing time, racing against time, and so
forth. Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an
episodic style of working was increasingly treated as a social problem.
Methodist preachers exhorted “the husbandry of time”; time management
became the essence of morality. The poor were blamed for spending their
time recklessly, for being as irresponsible with their time as they were
with their money.

Workers protesting oppressive conditions, meanwhile, adopted the same
notions of time. Many of the first factories didn’t allow workers to
bring in their own timepieces, because the owner played fast and loose
with the factory clock. Labor activists negotiated higher hourly rates,
demanded fixed-hour contracts, overtime, time and a half, twelve- and
then eight-hour work shifts. The act of demanding “free time,” though
understandable, reinforced the notion that a worker’s time really did belong to the person who had bought it.

[Essay] | Punching the Clock, by David Graeber | Harper’s Magazine