The NEW SLAVERY in the USA

[Miigwech]

Forcing workers back into meat packing plants without any rights is CORP SLAVERY !!!! Workers will be forced back to work, risking their lives without PPE, and will be denied Workers Compensation/ Unemployment Insurance for those who don't show up for work. Would you want your spouse, child ... any loved one to be put under this kind of fascist government approach? Creeping fascism should be more worrying then Socialism.

[brooklynite]

1. Overwrought...

Nobody is FORCED to go to work at a meat packing plant, any more than I am forced to do work from home if I decide to quit.

[Miigwech]

3. Workers will not get any benefits if they refuse to show up for work!!!!!

Please understand this.

[Miigwech]

14. Yes, in fact they are. In rural areas these are most times the big

employers. Quit, the Governor says no unemployment benefits, and you can't quit because we say so.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Especially when their governors and red congress says NO unemployment if you dont

they will choose homeless or work at risk.

One wonders when will the stupid rank and file cons figure out what is what.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Not Helpful

While I greatly sympathize with the plight of these workers, when and if they go into work, they get paid. They can go live their own lives after work. (Assuming they don't get terribly sick) They can choose to move to find a job where they're treated better. As hard as that may be.
It's not slavery.
This sort of hyperbole sounds like the RWNJs saying a stay at home policy is a dictatorship.
Neither analogy is apt.

[totodeinhere]

6. Agreed. It's not slavery. Slaves cannot quit. Meat packing plant workers can quit. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Not Diminishing Their Dilemma

But it is a job. Labor for money. Everybody needs to do something to live beyond bare subsistence.
It's a brutal choice, but a choice nonetheless.

[Miigwech]

17. I said "Corp. Slavery" ... the New Slavery

Not the same as historical slavery ... but a new form ... you have no choice but to work or nothing to live on, for you or your family. Abused, striped of human rights, physically exploited, oppressed ... sounds like a form of SLAVERY ... CORP. SLAVERY

Prison's are they biggest purveyor of CORP. SLAVERY

[totodeinhere]

21. At least here in Nevada the unemployment board has ruled that refusing to work out of

fear of contracting covid-19 is a legitimate reason to qualify for unemployment insurance. Of course going on unemployment would mean a pay cut which many workers could ill afford. And I can only speak for myself but if my choice were between living and getting a paycheck I would choose life.

[totodeinhere]

5. I would quit that job before I risked my life or the life of my family.

n/t

[Miigwech]

8. My point ... why is this now a choice?

Work or starve ... no, your Gov. will not be protecting you from dying.

[Caliman73]

16. Indeed choices are limited and the situation is desperate.

The problem with equating it to SLAVERY, especially in the United States, is that our slavery and Portuguese slavery were rather unique in that slaves were considered Chattel, like animals, not human, and a commodity.

I think that most people here on DU understand that what Trump and the GOP are proposing is exceedingly cruel and disgusting, but using the term SLAVERY adds a connotation that is offensive to people whose families have a history of being enslaved.

[uponit7771]

9. What about those in greater risk with a pre-existing condition? that would 75% of that work

... force for that plant.

[cwydro]

10. How do you know the pre-existing conditions of the workers in that plant?

[uponit7771]

11. I don't I'm thinking 75% of all workers fall into the "at risk" for CV19 in the US due to age

... diabetes, HPB etc etc

[LAS14]

12. I totally agree with you!! Somehow...

... we need the legislation to protect us from idiotic, immoral presidents, so that plants under this kind of order also HAVE TO implement CDC requirements. Then, I wish there were a way to stop the law's being used for meat, while still allowing it to be used for manufacturing PPE and ventilators. It's tough having to rely on the judgement of the president.

[Miigwech]

13. Exactly, CDC, OSHA should be required, trump says no

[ooky]

15. Rather than slavery I would call it blatant fascism.

If the workers cannot work safely then the facility should be shut down until they can work safely - full stop - with unemployment payouts to all the workers.

Government and Corporate Management teaming together to force workers to choose between risking their lives or losing their income is a glaring example of fascist policy.

Trump should be labeled by the media as a fascist for trying to enforce this policy.

[brooklynite]

19. If I was a fireman and you "forced" me to show up at work, would that be fascist?

I find that “fascist” and “police state” get thrown around far too easily. As someone who’s actually lived in a police state, I don’t appreciate it.

[ooky]

22. "Police state" is not a term I have used. Possibly because it doesn't apply to my post.

Merriam-Webster defines police state as "a political unit characterized by repressive governmental control of political, economic, and social life usually by an arbitrary exercise of power by police and especially secret police in place of regular operation of administrative and judicial organs of the government according to publicly known legal procedures".

There are no police or secret police being used to force workers to work. So to evoke its meaning is simply "overwrought" as it relates to what I posted.

Fascism, from the same source: "a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government
: very harsh control or authority"

This, I do believe applies to my interpretation of the policy if forced without compliance to proper safety standards as I stated. (In this case Trump behaving as the dictator.)

Your example of the fireman in my opinion is simply a false equivalency. Fireman and meat packer are very different occupations, and the circumstances are not similar.

This is not to demean or downplay your life experiences but of course I would have no information about that anyway when I made my post. That said, I believe my post and observation correctly line up with the use of the term I provided. Whether you agree with it or not is another thing entirely. I starkly disagree that my use of the term was something baseless though, (i.e., "thrown around" in some reckless manner) which I don't appreciate.

[Demovictory9]

18. k&r

[HarlanPepper]

20. The hyperbole is becoming exhausting.

[pink]

23. I cannot agree with those who think these people should stay on working under these conditions.

Does anyone know exactly how much they are being paid? In an industry where there have been many cases and deaths from covid-19 I think they should be cut some slack. If they dont want to work while conditions are dangerous, they should be given unemployment benefits.

If Trump is so keen to keep this industry going during these trying times, let him and his family show how its done.

I'm trying to picture Ivanka, Jared, Don Jnr and Eric doing it. Nah, cant be done.