Damn' Straight, I Shouldn't Have to Work "Hard"

[TygrBright]

Not when "hard" is defined by people who think that your ass is lazy if you're not gasping in misery at the end of the 10-hour work day.

Not when "hard" means standing on my feet on hard concrete surfaces without a break for hours, with a bare few minutes for lunch and bathroom breaks, and hot, smelly air choking me until the migraine is so bad I can hardly find my locker to pick up my purse at the end of the day.

Not when "hard" means that my "exempt" job "exempts" me from being paid overtime for the extra ten hours a week I routinely have to put in at a flickering computer monitor in an ergonomic nightmare of a chair, with sleazy supervisors telling me how lazy I am and denying me raises because the company's profit margin isn't inflated enough.

Not when "hard" means bending over in the hot sun, muscling a heavy piece of equipment intended to be operated by two people all on my own.

Not when "hard" means accepting shitty pay and constant disrespect, suspicion, and superior attitudes from people whose only "qualification" for the job is that their brother-in-law is a company Vice President.

Not when "hard" means getting a theoretical two weeks' vacation I never get to take because if I do, my job will have been disappeared by the time I get back, "re-organized" so that two even worse-paid part-time employees take over the work.

Not when "hard" means no benefits and barely enough pay to eat on and three months behind in the rent and no money to pay for the medication I need to keep breathing without wheezing constantly, but I'm still expected to be on-the-bounce, cheerful, willing to stay late and arrive early and take over the extra work required when a co-worker is out sick.

No, you fuckers, you're right. I DON'T want to "work hard," you piece-of-crap smug sleazy empty suited heartless amoral assholes. I DON'T want to "work hard" so that you can keep making payments on your Lexus and sneer at me because I'm behind on my mortgage and "not making good financial decisions."

I want to WORK.

I want to work with DIGNITY.

I want to work for a LIVING WAGE.

I want to work for the feeling that what I do is IMPORTANT and APPRECIATED and DECENTLY COMPENSATED.

THAT'S how I want to work.

That's what UNIONS used to be for: To keep you slimy, self-righteous, greedy, arrogant shitheels from being able to take advantage of my need for a job, my need to support myself and my family and feel like I'm pulling my own weight in the world by regarding me as a disposable commodity that can be pushed around, treated like crap, and ditched whenever your fucking profit margin drops below two hundred percent and your bonus or your stock options are in jeopardy.

And then you can justify your smarmy, hypocritical, vicious, parasitical behavior by sniffing superciliously about how I "don't want to work hard."

Damn'.

Fucking.

STRAIGHT!

furiously,
Bright

[Ken Burch]

1. You said it.

Work was never meant to be a punishment for living while not born rich.

[handmade34]

13. nicely said. n/t

[j420norcal]

64. Ken, I'm going to plagiarize the Hell out of your comment.

If you don't mind of course.
I like it that much.

[svpadgham]

65. Is that a quote?

"Work was never meant to be a punishment for living while not born rich."

If it's not, it should be. It's got a nice ring to it.

[merqz]

2. This union member agrees

It's because of my union that I have those things.

[Populist_Prole]

7. As does this one

Also, I ( we ) don't want our efforts trivialized/marginalized because we're payed by the hour, rather than salary.

[merqz]

8. Yea, that;'s a good one too.

Salary is a weird kind of status symbol for some people. Personally, I like the fact that when and if I want extra $$$, I give extra work (hours) and am rewarded. It's a nice option to have.

[Citizen Worker]

11. As does this proud Union member!

[billlll]

3. add "NO lunch break"at some offices...A solution-.. Co-ops give dignity

Also... OP pls make this more reprintable ..its a classic... Pls clean up the language so all can use it in meetings, fliers and etc.

[laughingliberal]

4. K & R nt

[Jim Sagle]

5. KNRNFNA.

:thumbsup:

[Tsiyu]

6. This aching person

is kicking and reccing.

:kick:

[Scuba]

9. Well stated, thanks.

[reggie the dog]

10. i gave up on work, i want to sell cannabis

but a flood took my crop this year

next year i will do better and i dont give a fuck if it is illegal

i would rather risk jail than be blamed for spoiled kids misbehaving in my classrooms (hell i got laid off i have no classroom anymore)

the govt says do more with less which means less teachers like me are needed

the same govt says the weed we smoke cant be legally grown or sold so it enables someone like me to get by on growing 4 kilos of weed for sale a year (12000 profit at 3 euros the gram)

i am tired of workig for bosses who never praise me for doing extra work or doing great work ( my last boss said that the fact that some parents called because they thought i was doing such a great job teaching their kids was trumped out by the fact that some other partents in other classes i taught called to complain of discipline problems) so no praise for the unpaid debate team hours i gave but because i dared to say that kids are responsible for their own behavior my boss called me incompetent!!!

well you know what??? it is easier and less stressing to GROW FUCKING WEED!

I doubt I would get jail where i live for 10 plants out in the woods and they dont seize your house in this country....

[Enthusiast]

12. K&R!

Unfortunately those that characterize American workers, especially unionized workers, as lazy, have a huge head start in delivering their propaganda. Often those we hear spouting this bullshit have never done a real days work in their lives.

[bvar22]

14. Back in the Old Days...

the Democratic Party Fought FOR and Protected the Working Class values you cited:

"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.”
People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

*The right of every family to a decent home;

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world."--FDR

...but that was the Old Days.
I miss THAT Democratic Party!

[The Uncola]

16. It hurts that ..

.. the "New Democrats" are barely recognizable as Democrats at all.

I'm out of hope that I'll ever even find a job again, at all, let alone find one that pays a fair wage or treats me with any dignity. But the pleas to my email from the same bunch that failed to help me and mine, for even more "contributions" keep coming, unabated. Even if I had an income, which I haven't since February, I wouldn't give these clowns a nickle.

[bvar22]

18. Don't worry.

That new NAFTA job you were promised will show up any day now!
Free Trade is GOOD for the American Working Class.
Really....That what "they" ALL said when they were pimping for NAFTA!
You just gotta "HOPE",
and NOT criticize the Democratic Party Economic Policy because Palin will be worse!
.
.
.
Yep.
Any Day.
I'll let you know when I get MY new high paying American NAFTA job!
I should be NEXT on the list!!!
:patriot:

[The Uncola]

20. Yep...

... funny that. Sad funny, not good funny. I don't quite know where to turn anymore. I've written my Senators and my President. All I get in return, is platitudes, pablum, and hat in hand appeals for me to give money I don't have, so they can "continue the good fight." The time is rapidly approaching when I'll have nothing left to lose, what happens then is something I'd rather not think about. And our "esteemed leaders" wonder why the Teabaggers are gaining ground?

[Recursion]

26. For white men. NT

[The Uncola]

28. What the heck is that supposed to mean?

Huh?

[Recursion]

29. Our party fought for those things for white men

It's not clear the glittering post-WWII prosperity we are longing for can work if everybody gets a piece of the pie.

[TygrBright]

30. Yes, and the Unions guaranteed them for white men, mostly.

My sister tried to get into a craft union in the 1960s and was denied apprenticeship based on her gender.

Unions weren't ideal, but they were still the best shot we had at any kind of decent work life.

They have improved in the area of gender/ethnic discrimination, at least.

philosophically,
Bright

[The Uncola]

32. Why in the world...

... would you presume to bring race into a reply to me? Other than this reply, I've never even mentioned race for any reason. in my whole two days here. Is this phenomenon common here? Bringing stuff into discussions out of the blue? Do you have any idea what race I am? I'm absolutely baffled as to why you even went there. Please explain yourself, a little less cryptically this time.

[TygrBright]

34. Don't take it personally. The member was just noting a fact relevant to your post.

Not necessarily implying that you, personally, were addressing race in any way.

Did the Democratic Party used to fight for the rights of workers more aggressively than they do today? Yes, they do. You stated a fact and it's correct.

Did those right apply mostly to white males? Yes, they did, which was a function of the era and the stage of social evolution at the time when the Democratic Party was making that fight. Also a fact. Not a reflection on you, your post, or even the Democrats of that bygone era, who did pretty darn well by the standards of the time. Simply a reflection on the standards of the time.

helpfully,
Bright

[The Uncola]

45. I suppose it might be..

.. that I'm being hypersensitive or it might just be that this person is tossing something at someone (me) who has championed the rights of the poor without regard to their race for my entire life. (Well after puberty anyway.) Quite frankly, it disturbs me, more than a little how quickly some people are to make rash judgments of others without even bothering to get the minimum of information about them.

Oh, and BTW, I was a Union Stewart for the UFCW at the age of 23 and there were a fair percentage of blacks and other minorities in our local that received the very same rates of pay, benefits, votes, opportunities to hold offices and protections from the Union that whites did. That was almost 40 years ago. So, excuse me if I'm less than happy to have the race card played on me for absolutely no good reason.

[Recursion]

35. Of course I have no idea what race you are, and I don't care

I brought it up because the Union-driven postwar prosperity was pretty much confined to white males. As women and minorities started to get an equal share, everybody started to drop. It's not clear that the model we're hearkening back to works if everybody gets to participate (it's not impossible, it's just not clear).

And, yes, bringing stuff into discussions out of the blue is par for the course on DU, and Internet message boards in general.

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Demoiselle]

49. I'm sorry, Recursion....but..

the statement that "as women and minorities started to get an equal share, everybody started to drop" is NOT evidence that the drop was caused by sharing the wealth and therefore
the "model" was wrong.
I'm old enough to remember that something else happened during that time....the right wing started its extraordinarily single minded campaign of bullshit and quarter truths, combined with a thoroughly cynical use of "values" issues to distract many Americans from clear comprehension of their own best economic interests. To say nothing of the extraordinary capacity of television reporting to keep us all stupid while pretending to report everything.
The right has dictated the terms of the debate for over 30 years. No surprise, god knows they paid enough for it!
The right has been poormouthing every effort to improve the lives or ordinary Americans for decades, while simultaneously pushing appalling military budgets and tax breaks for the rich. Even "good liberals" buy into it. I think I hit bottom the other night when Lawrence O'Donnell actually parroted the right wing crap about Social Security being bankrupt in his patronizing attempt to put a bright young commentator in her place.
I'm not talking about race here. What bothers me about your comment is the assumption we cannot, as a nation, afford a decent life for everyone.
Of course we can afford it, if we value it. There's the rub.

[Recursion]

55. Nor did I claim it was evidence

the statement that "as women and minorities started to get an equal share, everybody started to drop" is NOT evidence that the drop was caused by sharing

No, it's not, which is the main reason I didn't claim it was evidence. I said it's not clear whether it's possible, because we've never tried.

What bothers me about your comment is the assumption we cannot, as a nation, afford a decent life for everyone.

The US GDP is 14.5 trillion. There are 114 households in the US. So, yes, with everything exactly equal we could put everyone into the upper middle class. But that kind of leveling would have a very serious negative impact on the GDP. Where the curve is, I don't know, but I'm not convinced we can both have a big enough GDP to keep everyone at a middle-class level of income while having the equality that makes that happen.

[Demoiselle]

62. It would help, of course, if you and I could define "middle class" with raw numbers..

But I would hope we could agree that a "decent" life would include a good education...or at least literacy...for everybody's children, health care as a right, not a privilege of the wealthy, freedom from fear of crime, clean and affordable housing. This is a matter of national will, more than anything else, and, since many other Western industrialized countries have managed it pretty well, I find it ridiculous that we can't seem to do it.
And as far as the GDP being 14.5 trillion...you're surely not suggesting that our economy finds something closer to equality by a simple process of division!
Isn't it true that if more people earn better salaries they can afford to buy more goods and that demand in turn makes for more jobs producing the goods that answer the demand?
You're talking about numbers, I'm talking about making those numbers work for all of us.

[liberation]

60. You are making some very very creative correlations to justify your causation.

Of course one could make a stronger correlation between the drop in Union membership, the introduction of more and more supply-side economic policies, the shooting of inflation and corporate profits are the causes for the clear reduction in median income/purchasing power we have witnessing during the past 3 decades.


Far stronger than your inane insinuation that civil rights and workplace equality are causations for the reduction in the overall wealth of the middle class. It takes some creative demagoguery, but I guess there are no depths some of the DLC acolytes are willing to "recur."

[Recursion]

61. *snort* I'm a "DLC acolyte" now?

And yes, of course the drop in union membership and right-wing supply-side bullshit demagoguery had a lot to do with it.

My question still stands, could we equalize the GDP enough to bring everyone into the middle class and still have a big enough GDP to do it? I don't know.

(Incidentally, where you're getting that I said social equality "caused" the decline is beyond me; I said "we've never tried" to get a full union-level middle class standard of living for everyone.)

[liberation]

63. LOL.

"of course the drop in union membership and right-wing supply-side bullshit demagoguery had a lot to do with it. "

a lot to do with it? Yeah, talk about an understatement. Geez, I wonder if the dismantling of the labor movement had anything to do with the decline of the middle class... you know the very same people the labor movement was fighting for. Or maybe it must also have been due to sun spot activity. Right?


"Incidentally, where you're getting that I said social equality "caused" the decline is beyond me; I said "we've never tried" to get a full union-level middle class standard of living for everyone."

So you moved from a red herring to a full blown strawman argument. You said, and I quote:

"I brought it up because the Union-driven postwar prosperity was pretty much confined to white males. As women and minorities started to get an equal share, everybody started to drop. It's not clear that the model we're hearkening back to works if everybody gets to participate (it's not impossible, it's just not clear)."

Yeah, were did I get that idea... I wonder. I am not in the mood for more tangential and the plausible chinkenshit deniability BS arguments. You know damn right what you wrote, and it is there on record. At least if you are trying to derail the discussion with tangential race issues, stand behind your arguments/statements.

Cheers.

[liberation]

58. It is called a "red herring"

Usually thrown around by people who are grasping at straws.

[bvar22]

38. Please go back and read FDR's 2nd Bill of Rights.

In the 2nd paragraph of the segment I posted, you will find THIS sentence:

"In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Now, please find me an earlier public statement that postulates a Party Policy of "racial equality".
.
.
.
I'll be waiting.

[Recursion]

39. Wow, that line in FDR's BoR sure was effective

:sarcasm:

[bvar22]

40. I noticed you were unable to produce...

...a Democratic Party Policy statement of Racial Equality that pre-dates FDR's.
What we see here is the beginning of a long battle.

Thank You, FDR.

[Recursion]

41. What we saw there was a hat-tip to racial equality that was ignored...

...for 3 decades. And as soon as the party finally got around to fighting for it, we simultaneously stopped supporting unions and started losing union support.

But anyways my issue was not FDR and whether he was right about this or not, my issue was that we don't know that the kind of prosperity white males saw in the postwar period can scale to the whole country.

[pattmarty]

15. Union, YES!!!!!!!!!!

[Capitalocracy]

22. WHO SAID THAT??!???

THANK YOU!

[FredStembottom]

17. I am so tired of seeing people crying!

As they speed them up over and over while demanding (literally) 100% accuracy. And then when they somehow do it, moving punch in and punch out times closer together by 10 minutes over and over (every person has a "custom" start and end time). And if they don't fit the same amount of work into the squeezed time they get written up - a step towards being fired.
Oh, and if they get hurt operating the giant machines while in a total panic (or crying) - they get punished and forfeit their tiny raise (every person has a "custom" pay rate).

And. So. Much.. More............

All while the company prospers.

[TBF]

19. Until workers own the means of production this is what we get -

capitalism not only encourages this behavior, it demands it.

Well done OP sister. Solidarity.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. K&R

:applause:

[Capitalocracy]

23. Increasing hours and lower pay

when we have unemployment and underemployment and less than a living wage... We're going the wrong way!

If a job is extremely difficult or unhealthy, maybe someone should only be doing it for 4 hours a day. And maybe they should be earning a living wage for doing so. And maybe the CEOs should get their heads out of their asses and understand that they'll still have many times higher income than them, with a middle class customer base with disposable income and high employment.

But no, instead they want to bring us back to the dark ages.

[Bluzmann57]

24. Damn straight!

I am in a Union and there is no possible way we could survive without it. Great post.

[tblue37]

25. K&R!!!!! nt

[jcboon]

27. Right on!

There's something wrong with the language?
I'm circulating it verbatim.

[Loki]

31. Everything you said X100

How I wish you could give that rant on the floor of the House and every Representative would have to sit and listen. I would be there right beside you.

[BrklynLiberal]

33. UNIONS!!! Yes!!!

[Lugnut]

36. A-fricken-men! n/t

[sagetea]

37. I just applied for a job in a brothel

as a bartender. We need the money, so I get to help the ladies of the night sell their bodies, if I get the job.This was a hard decision to make, we live in a small Nevada town, not a lot of options. I have a college education and a lot of experience running a company. I was working at a motel cleaning rooms but the pay was horrible and I ended up in the hospital for female problems and I can't do physical work anymore! Besides the Latino ladies thought I was trying to take their job from them, I explained to them that I really wasn't and I thought I was equal to them, I told them that we are all in this together we are all Earthlings, just trying to get by.

So here's to you and here's to me and the the Latino Women and the Ladies at the brothel, We are all in this together!

Ho,
sage

[Politicub]

42. K&R!

[Javaman]

43. Sadly, I can only recommend this once.

Well said!

[bobburgster]

44. Big time K@R!!!

You've painted a picture that millions suffer through daily.

[defendandprotect]

46. Sweat Shop conditions are slavery . . . how many are also working weekends now?

[walldude]

47. Big K&R for working people...

I swear if one more spray on tan, manicured fingernails jackass talks to me about "hard work" I'm gonna slap the shit out of them.

[blondeatlast]

48. Word. nt

[cliffordu]

50. K&R.

[Yavin4]

51. Too Many of our Fellow Americans Have A Lottery Mentality

They don't want unions nor government regulations nor taxes on the wealthy because they all seem to believe that one day they're going to be rich. Like those early round contestants on American Idol who walk in self-assured that they're going to be a singing star even though they cannot hold a note.

The difference between us and the average European is that the average European has a much more realistic approach to life. They just want to be able to survive and have a nice life. They don't have these child-like fever dreams of being uber wealthy.

[drmeow]

52. The one's who do have those

dreams - emigrate here!

[Yavin4]

54. I Live in NYC, and The Streets Are Flooded with European Tourists

They flock here because they have the money and the time to come here. These people are middle class. Yet, most Americans foolishly believe that European nations are horrible places to live.

[Demobrat]

67. I live in San Francisco. If not for the European tourists

half the cafes and restaurants in my neighborhood would be gone. They have not just the money but the TIME to come here, because they do get paid vacations.

[Yavin4]

76. The Europeans Have These Things

Because they ensure, through their governments, that their economies work for EVERYONE, not just the wealthy.

[Love Bug]

53. Wordy, word, word. +1,000,000

[chillspike]

56. If I was an employer

I would be ashamed to employ someone 40 hours a week on less than a living wage. How can they face themselves in the mirror every morning?
Beautiful post.

[HughBeaumont]

66. With an insufferable, non-caring and completely oblivious profitized smile, that's how.

Most owners just straight up suck, especially the ones who are all asshurt about getting their taxes raised 3.6 percentage points.

[ooglymoogly]

57. It is disgusting what the pugs and fat cats have done to this country.

for pure vicious greed.

[oceanman]

59. Working for a living - libs, uh, uh......

But, but according to the comments/opinions of many on the right, we on the left don't work - we're all living off the government tit!! Tell me it ain't so!! (Says he who's never collected a dime in gov't benefits and been gainfully employed in one job or another since age 16 - now in my 50s.)

[SocialistLez]

68. +100 for you

=]

[bertman]

69. Great rant, Bright. Rec. nt

[Subdivisions]

70. The leechfucks need to pay their fair share of taxes too! Un-American assholes! n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

71. I worked clerical and industrial temp for three years during the Reagan recession

so I met every variety of Simon Legree boss there was, including one manufacturing plant where the air was full of black particles, we had to stand on concrete floors, and we got a total of thirty minutes off during a work day that lasted from 7:30 to 3:00. We got ten minutes at 9:00 and twenty minutes at 11:10. That was it.

There was another place where we packed boxes of crackers--it was work that required about one brain cell per person, but we were not allowed to talk or listen to music and sit down.

Another time, I packed cassettes for shipment. The supervisor walked around yelling "faster! faster!" Again, we had to stand on a concrete floor and couldn't talk. One of the workers was several months pregnant, and I'm sure that the owners felt that they were being really, really generous to let her sit down.

The last industrial job I did was at a metal plating factory. My job was to look at each piece through a microscope and make sure there were no flaws. I did this ten hours a day, six days a week for three weeks. The other workers, who had been keeping this schedule for months--some of them walking around amidst vats of chemicals--were so tired that they slept instead of eating during their 30-minute lunch break. I quit when the suits (really expensive suits) came through and told us that we could have Fourth of July off if we worked a full shift on Sunday.

Another boss, who made people clock out have lunch, take a coffee break, or even run to the bathroom, told us that if anyone even breathed the word "union," he'd shut the place down and move it to Mexico. (I think that's illegal, but the other workers didn't want to risk it.)

It was that experience that pushed me farther along the road left that I first embarked on when I read the truth about American foreign policy in Latin America.

[varelse]

72. You said it

I've been thinking it :)

K&R

[krispos42]

73. Amen,sister

Supportively,

Kris

[Tuesday Afternoon]

74. K&R

and a big old fucking A-men :patriot:

[Beartracks]

75. George W. Bush sympathizes with you.

"It's hard work. I understand how hard it is. Everybody knows it's hard work."



-------------------------