Tag Archive for labor

An Idea for Labor Day Weekend and Beyond

August 31, 2018 Comments Off on An Idea for Labor Day Weekend and Beyond

Labor Day weekend…a few days to relax as summer comes to a close. Here’s something to think about as you relax.

Labor of all types should be respected and honored on Labor Day and always. Even if it’s done so often in front of our eyes that we no longer notice or acknowledge it. Think about it. Do you really see the work your family members do in your home? In your household, who does the cooking, cleaning, laundry, lawn-mowing, car repairs, or bill-paying? Who acts as general contractor, arranging for needed repairs around the home and yard? Who shoulders most of the daily responsibility for child-rearing, including teaching the children morality, consideration for others, faith, honesty, and other attributes that will mold them into caring, productive adults? Who helps them with homework? Do the children do assigned chores–or sometimes just because they choose to help? Take a moment to notice the work being done around you daily and say thank you to the family member doing it. Your little gesture of appreciation honors labor itself as well as your loved one performing it.

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May Day! May Day!

May 1, 2018 Comments Off on May Day! May Day!

Today is May Day. When I was a child, it was so much fun!  Our school put up a May Pole, and kids held onto long colorful streamers and wound their way around it.  We didn’t have a May Queen, like in England, although my friends in Catholic School celebrated the Virgin Mary as Queen.  We sang songs and did dances and enjoyed this traditional spring festival.  We weren’t aware that May Day (called “Labour Day” by some back then) had been co-opteded by Communists and Socialists into an International Workers’ Day in the late 1800s.  And we were many years away from today, when the labor movement has claimed the day as its own, celebrating it yearly to point out injustices people face in the workplace.  When I was a child, I was blissfully unaware of prejudices and inequalities.  When I was a child, I was powerless to do anything about it.

Today, I am an adult.

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A Tip About Tips

December 13, 2017 Comments Off on A Tip About Tips

Ever been a restaurant server? If you or a loved one has, you know how hard the work is and that this is one of the worst-paid professions–often below minimum wage. You wouldn’t be able to make ends meet if you didn’t have tips.

Take  away those tips and give them to the owners. That’s what wealthy restaurant owners, represented by the National Restaurant Association, has been trying to do for many years.  And this year–in time for Christmas!–they have a good chance of success.

Why should we care if we aren’t part of that working group? Because the majority of restaurant workers are women and people of color who put up with frequent sexual harassment.  Because of where the practice of tipping started–after emancipation, it was a way to avoid paying Black workers.

Only since 2012 has it been law that tips belong to the workers themselves.  Now, though, the Dept. of Labor is pushing to give tips to the owners to keep or “pool” (meaning they dole out however much to whichever workers they choose).

Tell the Dept. of Labor that you think this is unfair and would hurt people who are struggling to make a living already.  There’s a petition at https://act.credoaction.com/sign/tiptheft?t=7&akid=26387%2E7078302%2EA0Dubn

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Cheating Employers Cost Us All Money

June 13, 2017 Comments Off on Cheating Employers Cost Us All Money

Sure, I know that  some people are underpaid, but what does that have to do with me?  Lots, according to an Economic Policy Report survey titled “Raising America’s Pay.”   The study found that low-wage workers are cheated out of $1,500,000,000 (a LOT of zeroes!) per year due to labor violations.  That’s 1/4 of a full-time worker’s weekly earnings.  The amount stolen from workers adds up to more than the total for items stolen during auto thefts, robberies, and burglaries in the U.S.

This theft impacts all of us., in terms of taxes and other factors that affect the economies of state and local governments.  Additionally, if  employers get away with underpaying some people, it affects other workers by causing wages to decrease.  Also, if these people were paid what they’re owed, the poverty level would drop by about 6%.

Read more details at “Employers Steal Billions from Workers’ Paychecks Each Year.”

 

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Mound of Plastic in the Back Yard

April 27, 2016 Comments Off on Mound of Plastic in the Back Yard

You probably recycle those plastic bottles and anything else with the recycle symbol on it.  I know I do.  It’s a little thing we can do to help our environment.  Except that there’s a problem.  That is, many U.S. “recylers” haven’t been processing it (or electronic waste) here but shipping it to China, where it’s cheaper to deal with because they toss it into a landfill.  China, drowning in our plastic, is wising up and saying NO MORE!  They now have a Green Fence Policy, which says that they won’t be importing most of that plastic any longer.

What are our recyclers going to do?  And those in Europe, Japan, and Hong Kong? They don’t know yet.  And it’s a big problem–China imports 70% of the 500 million tons of electronic waste and 12 million tons of plastic waste each year that the world creates.

This will be costly (labor, technology, environmental safety standards), but it’s past time to actually recycle  the waste rather than letting it pile up in landfills in China’s–or our–back yard.

 

 

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Work for a Quarter an Hour?

January 5, 2015 Comments Off on Work for a Quarter an Hour?

Would you work for 25 cents an hour?  You might if you’re encouraged to believe that’s all you’re worth.  But, wait–there are labor laws to prevent that.  Not true, if you’re a person with a disability.  There’s a loophole in the labor law that allows companies to enrich themselves and pay huge salaries to their CEOs by “helping” those “poor, unfortunate souls,” giving them jobs so they “can feel good about themselves, like real people“–and paying them next to nothing.

These companies know how hard it is for a disabled person to find employment, and they’re aware that fewer than 20% of people with disabilities can actually end up with jobs.

Read about this unfair situation: “Subminimum Wage” for Disabled Workers Called Exploitative.  

Then do something about it by signing the petition to the Labor Department.  Also, check into charities that hire the handicapped (e.g., Goodwill Industries) before donating to them.  Find out how much their disabled employees are paid, and how much their CEO and other officers make.

 

 

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Invisible Workers

September 1, 2014 Comments Off on Invisible Workers

IT’S MAGIC!  Mail appears and trash disappears.  Somehow the electric company knows how much power I use each month.  After club or church gatherings, the grounds become clean overnight.  Fresh vegetables are abundant at the market.  A burger just shows up at the drive-through window or a choice of goodies in the cafeteria cases.  Funny, I didn’t see anyone do a thing.  It was all done by the “invisible people”—workers we take for granted because they always do their jobs.

This year, expand Labor Day into a life-long habit.  Make it a point to watch for the person who delivers mail, reads meters, picks up trash, prepares food in the cafeteria, hands over that burger.  Be aware of grounds-keeping individuals and housekeepers at the hotels you stay at.  Notice the human being who tends the store’s vegetables.   In other words, recognize the workers.  Make a special effort to thank them.  Let them know that you appreciate the part they play in making your life easier.  Feel free to shock them with a compliment.  They deserve it.

 

 

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Apple & Child Labor

January 25, 2013 Comments Off on Apple & Child Labor

Today’s news reported that Apple found they employed only .004% children in their workforce, including none in final assembly.  Sounds good, especially for such a huge corporation.  However, this doesn’t tell the real story: what’s going on with Foxconn, their supplier, and its suppliers.  One Chinese circuit-board-parts supplier uses 74 kids under age 16. Parents forging papers to say their kids are older is a common practice.  For more details, go to http://news.yahoo.com/apples-child-labor-problem-runs-deep-141954177.

Apple is trying.  I’ll give them credit for that.  But they need to solve the problem in the 5% of their factories that they audited that use child labor and go deeper into the supply chain to ensure that children are not victimized just so we can have our i-everythings.

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