The american "consumer" - something about my job

[wantedtohelp]

You know I was thinking today... consumer is very accurate description. Americans just consume so much crap it's not even funny.

Let me start by saying that I work in a department store that primarily sells clothes. (not by choice, but by need due to lack of jobs... BTW I get laid off pretty soon) Nearly everyday I see a box with a shipping label marked to arrive at some dock, always from Bangladesh, China, or some other country where it was no doubt made with slave labor.

A ton of this crap is sold for prices so high it makes you wonder why ALL positions under management get paid an awesome $6/hr. We are talking $800 for a jacket that costed a few dollars at max to produce. In fact, I can't think of anything in the store under $50. Even jeans are that high. The company makes millions in profits.

Thanks to the fact the company has a clear "we are union free and will stay that way" policy (still amazes me that's legal in this country) there are people who have literally spent 10 years working for the company STILL making $6/hr. (usually minorities & people who are not male, of course)

Of course I hear everyday someone saying "I can't believe we don't make more than $6/hr" or complaing about something else. Of course, if you asked them to organize and do something about they wouldn't. No one has the desire to improve their situation. (part of the reason unions are dead. That and corporations killing them off)

Anyway, people actually come in and spend money on this stuff. The customers I run in to are (usually) angry and bitter middle/upper class people. In a way I feel bad for them, as I realize they are probably trying to add something to their lives that's missing. (which is probably why they are so bitter)

I noticed today all the people just going around buying their slave labor produced clothing (and perfume/jewelry/etc) and thought to my self "what the hell is wrong with this country?". Some people literally spend THOUSANDS in one day on clothes alone. Why? Do people in the rest of the world do this? Not bloodly likely.

I'm sure none of the customers care about the slave labor either. If you asked them I am sure they would tell you they are totally against slavery (which in their world no longer exists), and aren't at all racist. Of course, they are more than happy to benefit from such a crime. Who cares if a 10 year old has to spend 16 hours a day at cost to his/her health making practically nothing in order to give them their soon to be $100 shirt? Slavery was made illegal here, so the corporations just got slaves abroad. Nice system they have going.

If all of a sudden Bangladesh/China/et al were to stop shipping to the states that place would be EMTPY. EMPTY. Literally. Nothing is made in this country. NOTHING.

And you know what's really funny? The company REQUIRES that every employee be given a special card to use in order to get a 10% "discount" (off of something that has been marked up 2000%). We are CONSTANTLY encouraged to buy from the store. Sometimes a notice is put up saying essentially "Oh look! Today there is a special EXTRA 10% discount for employees" I must say, what a great scheme. Just like the company stores from the labor movement. They pay us $6/hr, and we pay them BACK the money we earned at ZERO cost to them. What's tragic is no one seems to think of this. I occasionally will mention this scheme to another employee who is using that great "discount" and they are literally like "Wow! That never occured to me".

So anyway - I guess my question is - WTF are people doing spending $800 on a jacket? WTF would you need $100 jeans for? WTF is congress doing letting child slave labor produced foreign products in to the country? WTF is congress doing NOT making it illegal to ban unions? WTF is wrong with people not THINKING about any of this?

After observing all of this all I can say is I'm not surprised the republicans control everything. Hope all the sheeple are happy when the system crashes. This kind of consumption can NOT be sustiained. If this is only one store, can you imagine how much waste is going on nationwide?

[Us vs Them]

1. So when I was in high school I had a job at Banana Republic.

It was no secret that all clothes came from third world countries who forced labourors under harsh conditions to make the products we were schlepping to the happy consumers. We openly talked about it when the managers were not around. If it sounds like we were callous to the situation, the answer is yes, we were. Until one day, unpacking a shipment of cashmere holiday sweaters, ripping them out of their protective, sealed, plastic bags one by one, I came across a colour not scheduled in the most recent shipment list. Canary yellow.

They're not kidding when they tell you these people are not afforded such human decencies as bathroom breaks.

[wantedtohelp]

2. That's the least of it

try beatings and rape (of children) in some of those places.

All I can say is at least I put some of the pay check in to good causes and I do NOT feed to corporate machine more than I have to with it.

[ikojo]

28. It isn't only those in "third world" countries who are denied

bathroom breaks. I recall a thread a year or so ago about checkers at grocery stores being denied the right to urinate on company time. Some posters said they knew of baggers and checkers who wore depends in order to make it through an eight hour day.

I also worked for an insurance company that had a contract to pay Medicare claims. They hired consultants to do productivity studies and those consultants told us that going to the bathroom twice a day was more than enough and any more than that cut into claims production.

A book was written a few years ago called, Void Where Prohibited all about OSHA's bathroom break rules...here is a blurb...

http://www.labornotes.org/bookshelf/vwpr.html

Void Where Prohibited Revisited
The Trickle-Down Effect of OSHA’S At-Will Bathroom Regulation

by Marc Linder

n Void Where Prohibited, Marc Linder exposed OSHA’s failure to protect worker’s rights to urinate on company time. Five years after OSHA declared that right in a memorandum, Linder examines OSHA’S record of enforcement in Void Where Prohibited Revisited.

Void Where Prohibited mobilized public opinion to pressure the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue its 1998 memorandum declaring that the industrial sanitation standard “requires employers to make toilet facilities available so that employees can use them when they need to do so.” (Previously, OSHA claimed that its requirement that employers provide toilets did not obligate them to let workers use those toilets.)

[knitter4democracy]

32. Teachers too

Shoot, when I was a high school teacher, I had a hard time with that one, especially when I was pregnant. It was part of my job to police the halls between classes, so no going to the bathroom then. I could go on my prep period (if I wasn't subbing for another teacher, since they wouldn't hire subs unless it was for a long-term position), and I could go at lunch. When I was preggers, I was on the second floor as far away from the women's restroom as you could get, and, let me tell ya, that was hard at times. Yes, sometimes I waddled as fast as I could during breaks and got to my room after the bell rang. Yes, sometimes I asked the teacher across the hall to watch my students so I could go. Yes, all of that was against my contract.

Grrrrr. Why is going to the bathroom such a problem?

[7th_Sephiroth]

3. you work at Kohls, dont you?

i'd say take a 12 ga. to corporate

[sbj405]

12. My mom works there.

I don't think they are so bad(in terms of the way they treat their employees). She's now part time after having landed a full time job. I believe that she started at over $6/hr and is now at over $8. They offer benefits to even part timers. Their discount is decent (ie the employees are able to purchase the items for themselves and their families and nothing is anywhere near $100). It seems to be a decent place in the retail sector. They have a picnic and holiday party each year with games and prizes. My mom won a big screen TV last year.

[RebelOne]

13. There is a Kohl's quite close to my house.

Personally, I think they are quite decent. They employ quite a few senior citizens. And on Wednesdays, they give a senior citizen discount of 10% to all those over 55. I qualify because I am over 55. And they also have some really great sales.

[7th_Sephiroth]

35. the kohls i worked in (in michigan) were horrible

filthy conditions in thier store rooms, physically impossible networks, one actually had a ladder looking into the women's dressing room and a nereby cabnet labeled "loss prevention" and they swapped thier managers to different locations weekly, one manager pretty much traveled with us for 3 weeks and 4 locations

[vpigrad]

4. Sigh

> spent 10 years working for the company STILL making $6/hr.

As depressing as it sounds, $6/ is better than sitting at home making nothing and starving. After Bushie's systematic destruction of welfare, losing your job can end-up with you starving. That's why we need welfare as a safe fallback when fighting the corporate thugs. We'd have a lot more unions if the good old days of looking-out for people still existed.

[ikojo]

10. Bush did not destroy welfare...that charge was led by CLINTON

and the DLC. Clinton bragged about the number of people kicked off the "rolls." Of course neither he, Hillary or Chelsea are ever going to have to worry about putting food on their tables or having a job.

Income disparity grew astronomically during the Clinton years. True many people did better then than they are now but the number of poor also increased.

[vpigrad]

38. How could you blame Clinton?

He was a great president and looked-out for us!

> Clinton bragged about the number of people kicked off the "rolls."

Of course he did not.

> Income disparity grew astronomically during the Clinton years.

No, it shrunk, but not enough to fix the harm that 12 years under those horrible people did. Now ,four years of the idiot in office has undone all the good Clinton did in eight years.

[Kitka]

5. I got in my first political fight with a family member over this topic at

Thanksgiving. They asked why I wasn't going to shop at certain stores with them the next day and I replied that I didn't support that employ child slave labor. What does my cousin say? "Well, obviously those kids need the money. They're probably helping support the family. Without that job, they could starve. Besides, their clothes ROCK."

Sigh.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Introduce your family member to this website

Child labor in America, as seen through the camera of Lewis Wickes Hine. Conditions for working kids in the Third World today are as bad as this or, probably, worse.

http://www.geh.org/ar/letchild/letchil_sld00001.html

[question everything]

6. The reason why unions have fared so poorly in this country

and why there will never be a revolution is because people believe in the "American Dream." Instead of being mad at the gap between the top and the bottom economic strata that keeps growing, many hope and dream that someday they, too, will belong to the upper class.

If more people were thinking outside their small circle, Democrats would be the party of choice for the majority of the voters.

And, of course, since Reaganomics we moved from a manufacturing base to service base where two-thirds of the economy depend on service. Don't be surprised if management will demand the employees do their patriotic duty and purchase "stuff." After all, when Bush first gave those $600 to families back in August 2001, the directive was to go and spend. And how disappointed he was when most people paid their debts or put the money into savings.

If you remember the 1992 elections, papa Bush went to J.C.Penney, I think, to buy a pair of socks - that he obviously did not need - to show how we all should "stimulate" the economy.

One last point - Henry Ford was no friend of the working class, but he paid decent wages because, he said, his employees should be able to purchase the goods that they make.

Obviously a lesson lost on most of today's corporate officers.

[sandnsea]

9. They blame themselves

They don't think they deserve any more money than they get because they aren't smart enough to know how to get it. So they accept the crumbs.

Maybe unions worked befoe the 70's because white males think the top of the heap is their birthright. It was easier to convince them their labor deserved equitable pay as much as any rich slob living off of investments. That's where we've lost our working voters, they don't value their labor anymore. I guess we shouldn't be surprised women are easiest to convince not to fight. I've heard some men at the local grocery store say that, it's the women who capitulate making it harder and harder to get good labor contracts.

[sandnsea]

8. Nominated

:toast:

Excellent. I hear you. And what's more, there's no way to lift the world out of poverty through capitalism that is based on this kind of US consumerism. There's just not enough resources.

In the meantime, maybe this is something you'd be interested in:
http://www.campaignforlaborrights.org/alerts/2004/nov06-holiday.htm

Or this group that works to free people from bonded slavery:
http://www.ijm.org/ijm_case_Sridhar.html

And this group, who are trying to bring these issues to light and give people a means to fight:
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org

[ikojo]

11. People will not fight to organize unions because

they don't know how to for one thing. They really may not know that there are unions. Most people do not know anyone in a union. All most Americans know of unions is what they are told in the corporate media, that union workers are lazy, that in a union shop everyone gets paid the same and it's difficult to fire poorly performing employees and that union wages cause price increases. I recall hearing all of these things growing up in the 1970s during the hyper inflationary years.

I read my history so I did not believe any of this. I knew unions were needed to fight for workers. That an employee and his/her boss do not share the same goals. A boss cares only that the company makes a profit and will do anything to realize that, even laying off a friend.

Another reason people are reluctant to try to organize a union is because it gets you fired in this country. There are very few protections for union organizing in the US.

[hollowdweller]

22. I also think it is a byproduct of the 80's when companies were in trouble

A lot of people have no idea that these companies are now making so much money. The mindset is still back in the 80's where if we ask for more $$ the companies will go out of business.

Look when Clinton raised the minimum wage. I knew a lot of people who earned it were worried about losing their jobs.

Speaking of clothing. My grandfather, a staunch republican was an organizer for the Textile Workers of America. In the 40's and 50's he spent a lot of time in the South. He would be turning over in his grave now had he lived to see Reagan break the air traffic controllers union and the permanent replacements and all the terrible things his party has done to the working man.

[dbt]

14. Wow. Welcome to DU, wantedtohelp!

Excellent piece!

:hi:
dbt

[salin]

15. Think about this - Paul O'Niell, representing the CEO

republican mentality, is on record saying that we don't need social security OR medicare because people should save for their retirement years and be able to pay their own way. On jobs like yours at $6 an hour.... Oh to be part of the Leona Helmsley crowd...

Very depressing, but real view, of our superficial and self-satisified/serving culture.

[Charlls]

16. This is precisely the first problem that must be addressed

But we are naive if we think politicians will come and solve it for us. Without organization theres no hope. Done let the boss become aware of what is going on. Be subtle when you dont know what are the thoughts of other fellow workers. Try to organize a reunion at home (offer a BBQ, some beers, a poker game, i dont give a damn) then you can talk more freely about the subject. Im sure other fellow workers feel like you, they just dont dare to talk

[Deja Q]

17. A lot of people think and feel the same way. But there is no impetus.

No catalyst that re-kindles the driving spirit of freedom.

Where is the figurehead? The leader that will get the masses demanding justice? It surely wasn't Kerry. And Kucinich, while having the right ideals and morals, lacked the charisma that perks peoples' ears.

[Charlls]

18. what other impetus you need that improve your life quality?

the problem is that you must help people to dream again. It just requires a bit of good ol' magic

[eridani]

39. Dude got plenty of roaring applause at events where he spoke--

--granted, he doesn't photograph well. I always wished during the campaign that we could introduce him to everyone in the country.

[radwriter0555]

19. SOCIALISM seems so very, very CIVILIZED... doesn't it?

:D

[hollowdweller]

20. Also People Are Greedy. Some of the most well off people I know buy

everything at Wal Mart.

Also shopping is actually a recreational activity.

[Charlls]

21. well, the go out and find a Gandhi

that learns people how to fight the monster by just dont buying its shit

onedit: is not that hard, it just need that one starts looking

[hollowdweller]

23. I harass my fellow employees about buying at Wal Mart all the time!

[Charlls]

24. as i said earlier, you have to organize

or otherwise we are eternally chasing our own tails

[BiggJawn]

25. What did we do for fun before we became "Consumers"?

I'm amazed when I go to the store and see all the "Solutions looking for a Problem" being offered.... the Black and Decker automatic jar opener? OK, so they've had those for YEARS for your arthritic granny, and Medicare probably paid for part of it, but why do the rest of us need 'em to open our nacho sauce?

I'm no better. I'm a "Collector". cameras, radios, bicycles, BOOKS....A real pack-rat. Some of it even qualifies as "Junk".

At least you won't find a 5' tall plastic Santa having an Petit Mal fit while it "sings" outside my door.....

[hollowdweller]

26. went swimming, went hunting, local baseball games, played music or just

sat around talking about stuff.

[BiggJawn]

30. Well, we still sit around talking about "stuff", don't we?

Like we are here....:-)

[Charlls]

31. of course! now we only lack a small step

which is connect what we talk with the mouth with what we do with the hands :P

[Charlls]

27. hmm... but i think the important part of the wantedhelp post

Is how difficult is right now to workers to organize due to the climate of fear of losing their jobs

[BiggJawn]

29. Been like that ever since Ray-Gun gutted PATCO.

And even before. Walter Reuther is DEAD. The AFL-CIO is viewed as a "quaint" relic of a past age.

Nobody wants to risk it all by going up against the Evil Walton Family. My job is not organized. Why? I don't know, other Universities are. Maybe it's the 1/2 price tuition for everyone's kids that does it.

What I keyed in on was the $100 "slave-made" blue jeans. So if you don't wanna spend $100 for slave-made jeans there, you can go anyplace else in town (even the Most Sacred Costco, I'll bet) and buy THEIR $20 slave-made blue jeans.

And the "Bitter/angry customers" What are they so pissed about? they can at least AFFORD $100 blue jeans! I'm stuck playing "Utility Bill Roulette" every month because the price of anything that involves fuel (like heat, hot water, lights, FOOD) has gone up between 50 and 100%...

[fortyfeetunder]

36. Yes, the 1980's was a milestone downturn year

Actually another pioneer in dismantling unions has been General Electric. They would shut down entire plants and relocate them just to move out to a "non-union" community. I will NEVER buy a fucking GE product, not even a damn lightbulb. Their products are crap.

And the youngsters, having been brought up in an anti-union environment, are thinking "unions are evil".. Then we have to tell them, had it not been for the union, you certainly wouldn't have the benefits you have today...

So as the union base erodes, the companies pretty much have folks by the shorthairs. So until people feel empowered to negotiate with their management, they might as well say Good-bye to: overtime, vacation, 40 hour work week, sick leave, potty breaks, health bennies, etc...We'll be back to the 1800's before you know it.

[amazona]

33. that is so wild and so wrong

I appreciate hearing your story. I've wondered about these high end clothing stores. I didn't realize ya'll only got minimum, for some reason I just assumed the sales staff got a commission. Ya'll deserve it, if you ask me, because it can't be fun dealing with the public all day.

Another thing that gets me is I can buy clothing today more cheaply than in the 1970s and I have no trouble passing for middle class or better in my community so I don't understand the need to over-spend for clothes. Some of these women in my area wear the clothes once and then sell them at a consignment store. They can't wear something twice after paying $1,000 for it? Well, hell, all the better for me then!

I have a friend who bought 2 shirts for $450 each. "But they were on sale at half price!" The shirts are very nice on him, but I haven't noticed that they get him any more compliments than the shirts I bought for $4 at Goodwill or for $10 at T.J. Maxx.

[eridani]

40. In my dad's beauty salon 40 years ago--

--they carried quite a few products that came with a whole series of price stickers, ranging from $5 to $150. You chose the sticker depending on who your clientele was.

[Touchdown]

34. A little on the misinformation on collective bargaining

What you brought up is what's wrong with the informational exchange between the corporate media, your company and the White House's reluctance to correct anything about it.

Unions have been given the same bad rap in media for almost 3 decades now. A lot of the same misinformation, propaganda, and urban legends abound to paint unions as unnecessary. Collective bargaining is needed now, more than ever since the Depression. Proliferation of WSJ, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN Financial, Fox Financial, etc, pushes the myth of the "American dream" even further out of our reach. Where is a labor channel on TV? Just one? Even the Network news has a Dow Jones minute...where are workers in the "hero of the week" segments?

You and your fellow employees have a RIGHT to unionize. It's the law. I don't give a shit what "company policy" says. If enough of you want this, then the only recourse they have is to hire scabs, shut all their stores down, or talk to you. If the Government (State or Feds) started cracking down on these unfair practices, then your company would have to capitulate. Ther policy means nothing to the law. If the Government came in and unionized Saks, Niemen Marcus (or wherever you work), they can shut their stores down, go out of business, or capitulate. If they refuse, and the SCOTUS upholds the Gov's ruling, then their corporate charter can be revoked, and all company assets can be liquidated, and sold to the highest bidders, with the residuals going to the employees who lost their jobs. That's my fantasy world of Government actually working for us...maybe someday...

You mustn't accept their version of what it is, because it's propaganda that they're feeding you. "Proud to be non-union" is not a message on inevitibility, but they want you to think that it is. You can't do this alone, and you'll need about 70% of your fellow workers to start, but striking during the holidays is a way to get the company's attention.

Striking isn't easy, and it was never meant to be. You don't get paid, you stand out in the Sun all day, getting honked at, yelled at, and spit at by morans who don't understand what is at stake, but somebody mentioned Ford up there. Henry Ford hired off duty police and other thugs to open fire on striking auto workers in the teens, killing a few. I wear red shirts on Thursdays, because an AT&T employee was killed during a strike in the 80s. The question you have to ask, is your job, livelihood, and family worth it for you to make that risk.

Singed; A Union member who hopes to call you brother/sister one day, and you will be amazed how many of us will support you. Watch your store not get any more cheap, Chinese clothes while your on strike because the Teamsters will refuse to cross you picket line to the docks.

PS:Labor rights isn't up to the government, or even your employer. It's up to you. You just have to decide what in life is worth fighting for.

EDIT: for realy bad typos.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. What yuo sumarized is the heaven of cheap

labor conservatives

Say after me, cheap labor conservatives

they hate unions... and they want to maximize profits

They also live in an idealized word where the few own most of the means of production... and will lead to a new serf class, aka you and me.

If this sounds marxists (since I used some of the terms), yuo are correct.... it does sound marxists

Now here is what our new overlords forget... once a country's missery index reaches oh 80%, you will hve riots, once it reaches 90%, well all bets are off (can we say revolution?)



Some areas of teh country are rapidly aproaching 50%, and if or rather when the economy crashes, we will move towards those magic numbers very fast.

Historically there is a rason why the communist party of the US had such good numbers in teh 1932 election.

Oh and what we are seeing is end stage capitalism according to some, hence why bush kept going, BE VERY AFRAID, but CONSUME!

Oh and my favorite story, I needed a warm hat last sunday... it took me a good20 minutes but the lady finally found one made in the US... it is NOT my favorite style, but my making sure she knew I was not gonna buy ANYTHING but American, and made it loud enough at the mall, mde the point. A manager actually said, if yuo don't like it, don't buy it. I went, you're right, yuo don't carry American MAde Goods, by American Workers, preferably Union, you will not GET MY DOLLAR...

Just yesterday I went looknig for a kitchen timer... I asked the manager at the story, you have one made in the US. NO, fine no American Made, you lost my business, and walked out

Now here is the trick... I do it... will not mae a tinkers damn of difference (and I will still have to get the chinese timer, for baking), but if many of us do it... it will have an effect, think of the 1980s....

And reframe the debate as me insisting on American made goods IS the PATRIOTIC thing to do.

As to yuor observation as to why people buy... my father (and he does not live in this coutry) is a perfect example. He is a bitter old man... who lived through WW II, and has no clue how to TALK to his kids without leaing to a discusion. Every time he comes visit he HAS TO buy us something, even if WE do not need it.