I don't think I've ever seen one of those things, but I'll be lying if I ever do now.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
at least this story may turn out to have a somewhat happy ending: the Tennessee government's fuckery is likely going to result in Volkswagen deciding to pack up its marbles and go elsewhere
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
UPS continues to be pretty awful about labour issues. And yet they're still considered to be better than FedEx, presumably because they at least allow unions.
Also, sex work prohibitionism continues to be a thing, even among self-styled liberal feminists. Rather disappointing.
Also, too:
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
We hired our first new staffer since Right to Work* became law. She chose to join the union. Score one for the good guys.
*We really need a good, memorable, negative alternative term for that. Right now the anti-union people have one that war of terminology.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Speaking of sex work, if you are even slightly connected to porn or sex work, Paypal will shut down your account. They've also stopped processing payments to Patreon if you have any connection to adult content. Patreon on the other hand has been working hard to help those affected by the sudden paypal shutout. The Soapbox: How PayPal & WePay Discriminate Against The Adult Industry
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If you see a manual laborer, don't say "That's why you go college."
They probably have a degree and are trying to work off the debt.
We hired our first new staffer since Right to Work* became law. She chose to join the union. Score one for the good guys.
*We really need a good, memorable, negative alternative term for that. Right now the anti-union people have one that war of terminology.
Right to work for less? Because that's what it boils down to, it's memorable, and it's already widely in use.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Yeah, I've heard that before. I think the fact that it incorporates the other term makes it weaker, also people hear the first bit and zone out on the last. Maybe if we called them Kill the Middle Class laws people would pay attention.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
In related news, Lawyers, Guns & Money has a post on how "capital mobility" is arguably the biggest threat to modern labour: in this case, workers in India are seeing their jobs outsourced to the Philippines, just as outsourcing has already resulted in the loss of countless American jobs. It's worth clicking through to David O. Atkins' comments on Hullaballoo as well.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Once again, there is no good reason why international corporations should not have liability for injustice committed against workers making their products. Every cent of money not paid to the Chinese workers is profit for the corporations. Given the harsh downward pressure apparel companies place on their contractors to keep prices low, they incentivize ripping off the workers. This system exists to absolve western companies of any responsibility for what happens in the factories, even though they choose where to contract the work, what prices they will pay for the product, and how much they will sell it for. This is an unjust and morally bankrupt system that can be fought by western citizens and governments demanding accountability, including the application of a broad set of international laws that companies must follow regardless of where they site their work or who they contract it out to. Without this, the race to the bottom around the globe will continue.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Not surprising, given that corporations and rich folks continue to sit on trillions of dollars in offshore accounts rather than investing the money in ventures that employ actual people.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Story on Tennessee labour activism from In These Times. This is probably the kind of thing that we need to see more of if labour in red states is going to have any hope of not suffering more horrific defeats like the story that opened this thrad.
Wal-Mart's labour practices continue to be terrible. Workers apparently suffered horrific safety risks including falling freight, forklifts on fire, and frostbite, and then were fired (illegally) for organising in response. This is technically a subcontractor but since Wal-Mart controls nearly everything about it it doesn't really matter.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
You mean 1920, right? For as long as my political memory runs, at least as an understanding adult*, right leaning Republicans and conservatives have been against the minimum wage. (*circa 1990s)
Tipped minimum wage continues to be a terrible idea, not least because servers are frequently victims of wage theft that would be much more difficult if employers were simply forced to pay servers a reasonable base salary. There is, of course, one very bad reason it continues to exist, which is, as LGM points out, that it allows restaurant owners to exploit their workers.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
… Wage theft refers to the practice among employers of taking money from their employees by illegally paying them less than the minimum wage or not paying them overtime. According to one multicity study, in a single week, nearly two-thirds of low-wage workers had, on average, 15 percent of their pay stolen by their employers.
One of the causes of this epidemic of wage theft — which, according to Mr. Lafer’s E.P.I. report, involves sums “far greater than the combined total stolen in all the bank robberies, gas station robberies, and convenience store robberies in the country” — is lax enforcement of the country’s wage and hour laws. In 1941, there was one federal inspector for every 11,000 workers. As of 2008, there was one for every 141,000 workers. “The average employer has just a 0.001 percent chance of being investigated in a given year,” Mr. Lafer estimates. Because there is so little risk of getting caught, one-third of all employers who have been found guilty of violating wage and hour laws continue to do it.
In 2010, liberal legislators in Miami-Dade County decided to take matters into their own hands. They passed an anti-wage-theft ordinance, resulting in more than 600 prosecutions and $1.7 million recovered in stolen pay in the first year alone. Miami-Dade’s success inspired Broward and Palm Beach Counties to propose similar measures.
In response, Republican legislators in Tallahassee tried to pass a bill that would prohibit any “county, municipality, or political subdivision of the state” from enacting laws, rules, ordinances or regulations “for the purpose of addressing wage theft.” They failed, so they tried again. This time, the bill passed the Florida House, but failed in the Senate.
Where conservatives often style themselves as the champions of local control — Ronald Reagan called for a government with “as much law and decision-making authority as possible kept at the local level” — the Florida example suggests that they have no compunction about sacrificing that principle when it threatens business interests….
Read the whole thing. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Republican legislators actively hate the poor.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith