Workers are working longer hours without overtime pay, health insurance or any retirement benefits.

[midnight]

Fight for better jobs, better wages, and the rights of all workers!

Across New York, our livelihoods are under attack. After years of massive layoffs and high rates of unemployment, wages and benefits are being cut from what used to be middle class jobs. On top of that, workers are working longer hours without overtime pay, health insurance or any retirement benefits.

Meanwhile minimum wage jobs are the fastest growing sector in the state growing ten-fold over the past five years.

A minimum wage earner employed full time makes just of $15,000/ year. That’s hardly enough to get by in New York. And many low-wage workers have tips and wages stolen by employers, forcing them to survive on even less.

Full-time work shouldn’t keep you in poverty. It’s time for workers to band together and demand respect in our work places. It is time to tell our elected officials that New York needs a raise. It’s time for broader prosperity across the country.
http://occupywallst.org/

I find it interesting that tips can be stolen by the employer... Two years ago, Wisconsin's summerfest Beverage operations we're contracted out of state to some attorney's in New York... and the school teachers that took bar tending jobs during the summer via Summerfest would get their tips at the end of their shift prior to new management... After new management via these, New York lawyers, all tips were taken and divided among all the bartenders and beer runners. I wonder how many of those tips were pocketed?

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[yellerpup]

2. My friend, who is a server

has to turn over a percentage for the bus boys but the worst thing is (and I'm pretty sure this is illegal) that her boss deducts the cost of credit/debit charges from the banks from her paycheck.

Mr. Pup worked 19 hours last Saturday with no overtime.

[barbtries]

4. isn't that illegal?

but then you lose your job if you squawk. i'm so sorry. i work 45 to 50 hours a week no overtime - i'm salary - but my position could legally be defined as hourly, which means my employer is also ripping me off. am i going to do anything about that? oh yeah, i'm gonna get up tomorrow and put in another week just like the last one. after all i am lucky to have a job.

i'm not sure i've mentioned today how much i hate republicans. i really do.

[Squinch]

5. I think it's called "Right to Work"

and I'm told it's for our own good. Because you know how greedy those unions are. Uh huh.

[yellerpup]

7. It is illegal.

She feels the same way about having a job. So does Mr. Pup. He just left for the office where he spends time almost every weekend.

[obxhead]

16. Have your friend document everything.

The day she finds a new job she calls dept of labor & wages. Lets face it, a server job from a employer like that isn't going to be any kind of reference she needs to worry about either way.

It might take a while, but they'll investigate and if she's owed any of the money back they'll be forced to pay it. Even just an investigation doesn't look good on the asshole management that does these kinds of things.

[yellerpup]

19. She probably won't.

I have been encouraging her to do just that for the past year. She's on a green card, though, and afraid to rock the boat. Thanks for the advice, though.

[CrispyQ]

11. Hmmmm, maybe I'll hire an employee & make them pay my business costs!

What a cheap asshole.

on edit: Meant to respond to yellerpup, regarding the waitress who has to pay the boss' credit card fees. What a cheap fucker.

And to barbties, been there, too! Working for salary, putting in 60+ hours a week - all those hours of your private life that you give to the company in return for nothing. No extra compensation, no time off, no extra benefits, just extra profit for the company.

I hate repubs, too.

[yellerpup]

12. I know!

You know he deducts the credit card fees from his taxes, that cheap, double-dipping asshat! Taking advantage of a $3.25/hour worker!

[midnight]

6. I'm sure if your husband received the over-time he deserved for putting in exceedingly long hours

it might begin to compensate him for this sacrifice on his part... Chances are people like your husband are given no choice in the matter...

I have never heard of this type of bold dipping into the workers pockets before and making them pay for credit card fees..That is a new one... The labor and wages division in Wisconsin has allowed with explanation some strange accounting practices to go on here without following up... I suppose that dept. was the first to be restaffed with people who would turn the other way...

[yellerpup]

8. Those kind of hours take a toll.

He's not a kid, he's in his 60s and I'm afraid they will literally work him to death. To restaff his position, they'd have to pay someone twice what he makes and it would not be easy to find someone with his specific skills. Those specific skills are the only reason they keep him on.

[midnight]

20. I know they do. I'm watching the road workers in this heat and I'm hoping that they are being able

to rest and hydrate. Right to work sounds like an ALEC con job.

[yellerpup]

22. I feel so badly for those workers.

I'm sure that takes a huge toll on the body. I grew up in a very red, right-to-work state. Only the bosses make good money, yet the people there continue to vote against their own economic interests.

[valerief]

3. Yes, we'll be North Korea in 10 years. No doubt in my mind. nt

[MsPithy]

14. We'll be lucky to be as "well-off," as North Korea.

My fear is we will end up like Somalia, starving, religious and racial machete massacres with only roving bands of heavily armed war-lords to stop the slaughter. And, did I mention the entire mid-west is a desert.

The rich live behind 12 foot fences topped with razor wire, with their own private police and fire departments manned with the laid off public employees, needless to say, there is no minimum wage.

At this point, there is no dystopic view of our future that I think is beyond the realm of possibility.

[kooljerk666]

17. Climate Change & Armed Conflict......

This is the most comprehensive work I could find so far, I am workin on FOIA on US Military plans for the next 50 years & water wars & mass human migration................ but keep getting sent to a different office every call & no one calls back.



http://mey.homelinux.org/companions/James%20R.%20Lee/Climate%20Change%20and%20Armed%20Conflict_%20Hot%20a%20(988)/Climate%20Change%20and%20Armed%20Conflict_%20Hot%20a%20-%20James%20R.%20Lee.pdf

I plan on 1-2 ares in Vermont, big fences & about 4 dogs big enough to pull a sled & guard my gardens.

Black Powder fire arms for defense & hunting is more than sufficient.

Soylent Green is coming soon.

[midnight]

21. kooljerk666 I wish I was able to open your link...

[kooljerk666]

29. If u copy the entire link directly into the "ADDRESS AREA"...........

it will work.


Highlite entire link w/ left mouse button, then rite click & copy

goto address bar & insert.

This a bit tedious but does work.

or put "climate change armed conflict pdf JR LEE" in google search it comes up first.

Or leave the JR LEE part off & there is much much more.

[robk6295sie]

24. Sad, but true.

[Honeycombe8]

9. The tip thing is socialism. Tips are sometimes pooled and distributed equally among all the waiters.

That was never the policy where I worked, when I waited tables, but it's not an uncommon policy. It doesn't qualify as an employer confiscation of tips, BTW. It's a form of socialism. The bad waiters end up getting the same tips as the good ones, the lazy ones end up getting the same as the ones who busted their rears all night. Still, it's done at some places, probably because some waiters are just lucky to get some large parties or big tipping patrons.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. The tip thing is a caricature of socialism.

[Honeycombe8]

30. Tip sharing IS the essence of socialism. Some people here at DU love to extoll the virtues of

socialism, but they don't really understand what it is.

If you like to sell things on Ebay for highest bidder, you are not a socialist. If you are against pooling your tips and wages and sharing among the whole commune, you are not a socialist.

Capitalism is where the wages/tips goes to those based on what each individual is able to earn; they aren't forced to share by a higher authority.

[newfie11]

10. Work smarter not harder

Many times that bullshit was told to us. As a X-ray tech working a level 1 hospital. We worked with no breaks, sandwiches brought in so we could chow down quickly. One tech working two rooms at a time. This is why a 40 year old tech died of a heart attack and another had to quit due to extreme stress. This was in MI

[midnight]

23. I loved that phrase. I had to listen to that at monthly meetings...

[Brickbat]

15. As long as the workers accept it, the bosses and companies will keep pushing.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. "Organize"...

the only thing has ever done the workers any good. How soon we have forgotten.

[gtar100]

26. And the one thing that really, truly gets them where it hurts the most.

I understand perfectly their hatred of unions. And when the entire world of workers unite against the oppression of the rich, that will be the day our nightmare ends.

[limpyhobbler]

27. +1 nt

[Sherman A1]

28. +1000

[robk6295sie]

25. kick.