Capitalism creates socioeconomic inequality by concentrating wealth and power among a select few, perpetuates systemic oppression, inherently exploits labor which leads to alienation and a lack of worker autonomy, prioritizes profit over social needs, and exacerbates environmental degradation and resource depletion. We aren't the problem. Capitalism is the problem. #capitalism#inequality#exploitation#anticapitalism
"UPS announced this week that they will be laying off 12,000 people, approximately 2.4 percent of their global workforce...
As you may recall, UPS drivers won a hard fought battle earlier this year for higher wages and less batshit working conditions so they don’t die of heat stroke.
Is the company truly suffering? Well, no. It still had an adjusted operating profit of $9.9 billion... they “returned $7.6 billion of cash to shareowners through dividends and share buybacks".
At the same time the company is laying off workers, the board of directors approved — for the 15th year in a row — an increase to the company’s quarterly dividend. This means that people are getting laid off, but shareholders are getting a raise."
To those who say "capitalism doesn't force people to do anything. They have free will", if someone put a gun to the head of someone, would that not be a use of force? And how would you feel if the gunman said "I'm not forcing you to do anything. You have the freewill not to give me your money." But if you don't then you'll die, just like the worker will die if they don't do what the capitalist says.
Silicon Valley has just one service they sell, available to the highest bidder: exploitation.
It might look like a phone, a laptop, a social network, or even a car but it’s always just the same thing, decorated differently: a mechanism by which to addict you, extract value from you, and exploit you for profit.
Federally Sanctioned Exploitation Of Workers with Disabilities – Happy Labor Day:
On this Labor Day, Out Of Exile – Invisible Disability Rights gives thanks and honor to workers and the unions that protect them. Without unions, the experience of many workers may be similar to that of the disabled. This piece will focus on the exploitation and abuse of disabled workers by employers , and how it's perfectly legal under federal and state laws in the US. Section 14(c) of the US Department of Labor's "Fair Standards And Labor Act" (FSLA), has been virtually unchanged since it was enacted in 1938. Under the almost century old regulation, employers can apply for a certificate which allows them to pay workers with disabilities, an unspecified subminimum wage.
The average sub wage and the number of disabled people seemingly exploited by this legislation, seems to vary among the sources linked below. By any account, even one person with disabilities being preyed upon in this way, is far too many. The wages are inhumane. A 2021 Forbes article claims over 320,000 people with disabilities, the majority with invisible disabilities, earn an average of $3.34 an hour. A previous Forbes article put the figures in excess of 420,000 people being paid as little as $2.15, while others cite drastically lower wages. Some organizations like Goodwill, form their own "sheltered workshops", determining their own limits on sub wages for their disabled workers. There seems to be no bottom limit on how little individuals with invisible disabilities can be paid.
"The non-profits use “time studies” to calculate the salaries of Section 14 (c) workers. With a stopwatch, staff members time how long it takes a disabled worker to complete a task. That time is compared with how long it would take a person without a disability to do the same task. The non-profit then applies a formula to calculate a rate of pay, which may be equal to or less than minimum wage".
A decade ago, NBC reported that Goodwill industries, presumably by authority of their DOL "Section 14(c) certificate", paid disabled workers twenty-two cents an hour. The report claims that some were paid as little as three or four cents an hour. Think about paying your bills 10 years ago on a wage like this. Some nonprofits, even place Section 14(c) workers in outside, for-profit endeavors in restaurants, stores and even, "IRS centers". That sounds more like calculated exploitation, rather than accommodation and equality. Though the "NBC-Goodwill" article and figures are old, the problem is older and still continues today.
The theory of sheltered workshops is to prepare individuals with disabilities to transition to outside employment. In Missouri, disabled workers packaging T-shirts or sorting and counting dog treats to be sold for profit on Amazon, rarely "graduate" these workshops into regular paying jobs. Pay for sorting the $15 Amazon dog treats? $1.50 an hour while Jeff Bezos builds rocket ships. The title of the recent ProPublica article linked below, says it all. "Missouri Allows Some Disabled Workers to Earn Less Than a Dollar an Hour. The State Says It's Fine If That Never Changes". I say, show me change in the Show-Me state and across the country.
In a follow-up to that story by ProPublica, some participants of sheltered workshops said they approved, saying the alternative is to sit at home and do nothing. Are these opinion formed as a result of gas lighting or years of oppression accepted as "just the way it is"? It's time for new attitudes and alternatives for the disabled community when it comes to wages and employment. In some states, now there are.
About 16 states have changed or passed laws regarding disability subminimum wage exploitation but, nothing to speak of federally. A three year old press release from the National Council on Disability that "Applauded the US commission on civil rights call to repeal section 14(c)", seems to be the sum of that effort. Other states have actions in progress including: Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York. If you live in any of these states, now's the time for activism and to let your representatives know how you feel. Follow the ""legislation watch" APSE link to track progress. The Alternative? Similar actions introduced in Kentucky and West Virginia died in committee allowing this despicable injustice against disabled people in those states to continue. Change is up to everyone. What will you do to help stop the exploitation and abuse?
In capitalism, workers create value through their labor, but capitalists exploit this by paying workers less than the value they produce, resulting in an unjust distribution of wealth where workers are systematically undercompensated for their contributions while capitalists accumulate disproportionate profits. Abolish Capitalism!
« Rien ne nous aliène à nous-mêmes et ne nous aliène le monde plus désastreusement que de passer notre vie, désormais presque constamment, en compagnie de ces être faussement intimes, de ces esclaves fantômes que nous faisons entrer dans notre salon d’une main engourdie par le sommeil – car l’alternance du sommeil et de la veille a cédé la place à l’alternance du sommeil et de la radio – pour écouter les émissions au cours desquelles, premiers fragments du monde que nous rencontrons, ils nous parlent, nous regardent, nous chantent des chansons, nous encouragent, nous consolent et, ne nous détendant ou nous stimulant, nous donnent le la d’une journée qui ne sera pas la nôtre. Rien ne rend l’auto-aliénation plus définitive que de continuer la journée sous l’égide de ces apparents amis : car ensuite, même si l’occasion se présente d’entrer en relation avec des personnes véritables, nous préférons rester en compagnie de nos portable chums, nos copains portatifs, puisque nous ne les ressentons plus comme des ersatz d’hommes mais comme de véritables amis ».
Across Southeast Asia, interest in German is on the rise as the German government taps increasing numbers of the region's skilled workers to tackle the country's severe labor shortages.
Italy is Europe's leading kiwi producer and the third in the world. From the province of Latina come Zespri kiwis, sold across the continent. The industry relies on Indian pickers, underpaid and unprotected, whose welfare is delegated to shady third parties.
Wages are never more than €7 per hour
The "caporale" (supervisor) films workers while they stop to drink as "proof" of their inefficiency
Hi, @searls. Since you linked to an old Medlum post of mine in your @testdouble blog, I checked out the archived version.
I must have been really drunk when I bashed that out. It's got dropped words and typos everywhere. Nevertheless, I meant it and I stand by it, so I've posted a cleaned up version.
I loved #JulesVerne's expeditionary contraption stories as a kid, including the gripping #steampunk adventure that is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I still have a fond spot for the 1954 #Disney film of the same name, although I now acknowledge how terribly racist these #imperialist#exploitation fantasies of Western Europe and America are. But some parts still inspire. With deeper understanding we may still take something good from that, like #LovecraftCountry did. #SciFi#racism
Fresh Del Monte has claimed it should not be held liable for a civil lawsuit alleging killing, rape and violence by security guards at its Kenyan pineapple farm because it is domiciled in the Cayman Islands.
Workers unite! Form unions to gain collective strength against bosses. Recognize that harm to one worker reflects the systemic exploitation affecting all workers. We have a world to win!
Toronto lawyer Louis Century of the law firm Gold Blatt Partners filed a Statement of Claim on behalf of Kevin Palmer, a Jamaican who worked at Amco, and former Tilray worker Andrel Peters of Grenada last month.
Amazon's EV company, Rivian, started 5 years ago when they bought a Mitsubishi factory in Illinois. At the old factory workers were union, made $30/hr, and had great benefits. Now, 25 years later, Rivian workers start at $20/hr, have no union, and injuries ran rampant.
'We want payment for our trees': Landowners (www.dailypost.vu)
Five Santo land owners have asked a Chinese company of the Vanuatu Forest Industry Limited and the Department of Forestry the payment of their trees.
Why more and more Southeast Asians want to learn German – DW – 01/09/2024 (www.dw.com)
Across Southeast Asia, interest in German is on the rise as the German government taps increasing numbers of the region's skilled workers to tackle the country's severe labor shortages.
Feds face massive class action filed by two Leamington migrant workers (windsornewstoday.ca)
Toronto lawyer Louis Century of the law firm Gold Blatt Partners filed a Statement of Claim on behalf of Kevin Palmer, a Jamaican who worked at Amco, and former Tilray worker Andrel Peters of Grenada last month.