Kentucky Factory workers threatened with firing if they left before tornado - 8 Dead

[Orange Joe]

Shit, we can dig up the folks who applied to jobs during the pandemic because companies were offering better pay and benefits. Only to find out that they would not start at the advertised pay - but a reduced rate for 3-6 months - while also not gaining any benefits until their "probation" period ends. Oh, and the full time job is part time for a few months so that was a lie too.

BUT THE ADVERTISEMENT SAID FULL TIME! BENEFITS! ROTH MATCHING! SICK LEAVE! $15/h STARTING WAGE!

Even locally we have signs


Start at up to $15/h

[cubby]

I just think a lot of people have been force-fed capitalist propaganda so thoroughly they really can't see it for the bullshit that it is. Even just basic ideas like "you need to work to earn your place in society" are so damningly and irrevocably misanthropic and brutalistic in their nature, but people think it's some kind of natural truth rather than just capitalist malarkey used to dismiss the value of human life.

I very much agree with you here. I hope someday our society will transition away from capitalistic nature. Ironically, climate catastrophe along with UBI might be the gateway to such a monumental shift. Or, it might never happen. That book I keep referencing gave a reasonable fictional "outline" for how it would come to pass.

[Captain N]

I very much agree with you here. I hope someday our society will transition away from capitalistic nature. Ironically, climate catastrophe along with UBI might be the gateway to such a monumental shift. Or, it might never happen. That book I keep referencing gave a reasonable fictional "outline" for how it would come to pass.

I agree with your sentiment of a positive future but considering the amount of people in this country that believe monetary worth is the sole factor of a person's value I doubt it'll happen in our lifetimes. As for climate change, there's so many deniers out there gaining traction (we've seen some of them here) that I expect a Fallout-like universe in the lifetimes of our grand children.

[Edge-]

Even locally we have signs


Start at up to $15/h

Yep. Shitty franchise managers are using every shady trick in the book to bring back more minimum wage staff they can exploit.

[cubby]

I agree with your sentiment of a positive future but considering the amount of people in this country that believe monetary worth is the sole factor of a person's value I doubt it'll happen in our lifetimes. As for climate change, there's so many deniers out there gaining traction (we've seen some of them here) that I expect a Fallout-like universe in the lifetimes of our grand children.

I oscillate between optimism and dread for the future. Once Florida is underwater, maybe this country will wake up.

[Ivanstone]

I oscillate between optimism and dread for the future. Once Florida is underwater, maybe this country will wake up.

When Florida ends up underwater they’ll just blame HAARP for controlling the weather.

[Zan15]

He's not going to get it, not now, not later. Five different people have explained it to him, multiple times, and he still doesn't understand forced coercion. The links Zanny provided showed people were forced to stay, he posted them and cited them, and still didn't comprehend their meaning.

the links I provided showed both people CLAIMED they were forced and CLAIMED they were NOT forced.

[Zan15]

The "choice" of which exploitation you'll suffer is not a free and open choice to begin with. Framing it as such is willfully misrepresenting the truth. That's the point you're evading.

Not evading it at all.
All the pressure, coercion, exploitation and persuasion can be placed on you by your employer, but you still have that choice to make and can still make it when it comes to personal safety. Never said it wouldn't come without hardships or negative results. Never said its right.

All that pressure and coercion is not right by any Strech of the imagination and should be eradicated from any work environment when it comes to personal safety 120%. There should be huge penalties for companies that practice these policies. There should be social safety nets to help people who walk away from workplaces like these.

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On topic of the tornadoes, I have no problem believing that the blue-collar supervisors told people to stay at work or be fired. It'll come out eventually. To people like them, workers are little higher than cattle to them. I've worked in places like that, although it has been 30 years.

The sad part they were most likely were once employees just like the ones they are treating like that now.

Unfortunately, what will happen is at the corporate level there will be procedures/rules against this type of behavior/actions. But they ignore it actually happening on the local level and claim "ignorance" that they did not know local managers were doing it. As long as they have a policy against it, they can claim plausible deniability if local operations are caught doing it. Reminds me a lot of companies that hire illegals at the local level and the corporations claim they knew nothing about it.

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I oscillate between optimism and dread for the future. Once Florida is underwater, maybe this country will wake up.

I am hopping something less sever that the baby boomer "die off" fixes the massive imbalance and power Florida has.

[cubby]

I am hopping something less sever that the baby boomer "die off" fixes the massive imbalance and power Florida has.

Same here. Depending on a number of factors, Florida's "sinking" could be in full swing before the baby boomers start dying off in droves. But we'll more than likely lose the majority of the state before the century is over. Along with many other coastal areas/cities. But Florida is ripe because of it's geography.

[postman1782]

When Florida ends up underwater they’ll just blame HAARP for controlling the weather.

I have seen people blaming HAARP on the Kentucky tornados already, so it wouldn't be surprising.

[Zan15]

I have seen people blaming HAARP on the Kentucky tornados already, so it wouldn't be surprising.

if it was a liberal town/state they would be telling you God did it to punish the heathens....
They wanted too because it was amazon, but it's the bible belt so they couldn't

[Draco-Onis]

I am hopping something less sever that the baby boomer "die off" fixes the massive imbalance and power Florida has.

But Florida has already flipped blue but the laws allow the minority to keep it republican, I mean they gave felons voting rights but republicans just reversed that. This set up is happening all over the country especially with the big lie where the minority will decide where a state even the country goes. Besides by the time boomers die off or Florida is underwater it will already be far too late than it already is to act.

[Glorious Leader]

Not evading it at all.
All the pressure, coercion, exploitation and persuasion can be placed on you by your employer, but you still have that choice to make.

To call it a choice is stupid. Its not. If you're employer literally put a gun to your head and said work or we kill you you would rightfully say you had no choice. If the quality of choice is so poor then you have no choice at all.

[JohnBrown1917]

To call it a choice is stupid. Its not. If you're employer literally put a gun to your head and said work or we kill you you would rightfully say you had no choice. If the quality of choice is so poor then you have no choice at all.

The reality of poverty is just lost on so many who side with the big companies.

[Zan15]

To call it a choice is stupid. Its not. If you're employer literally put a gun to your head and said work or we kill you you would rightfully say you had no choice. If the quality of choice is so poor then you have no choice at all.

are you really comparing physical force to this? Instant death to walking off your job? ?Do you really want to be taken seriously?

[JohnBrown1917]

I heard being homeless this time of year in the US is lovely, they should just have risked that. I mean, with global warming you wont even need to fear the cold!

[Endus]

are you really comparing physical force to this? Instant death to walking off your job? ?Do you really want to be taken seriously?

Is enslavement okay if the masters don't literally beat you?

Is instant death really "worse" than a constant state of suffering and hardship? Because that's the status quo for basically everyone making less than a living wage. And to be clear, that's north of $22/hour, more in big expensive cities. That's a lot of people. They get strung along with false promises and futile hope, and die while serving their masters, as these people did in Kentucky. If they're "lucky", they get to have a poverty-stricken "retirement" once they're too old to labor any more, living off government/family support because they never made enough to develop a retirement fund.

All that so the multi-millionaire who owns their labor can build a third hangar for his growing Learjet fleet, or whatever.


It's really telling when the main arguments against something like a basic income system boil down to "but without the threats of starvation and homelessness, people might have a real choice when it comes to whether or not to work!"

Edit: Before you come back at me again about the use of "slavery", consider this from an economic-system point of view. The "slavery" is in the denial of free choice; that people are made to work, or suffer. It may not be by individual owners, but it is by the economic system itself; capitalism enslaves the workers for the benefit of the owners of the means of production. Broadening that enslavement to a systemic approach rather than individual ownership via chattel slavery isn't really "better".

[Glorious Leader]

are you really comparing physical force to this? Instant death to walking off your job? ?Do you really want to be taken seriously?

The bit you ignored is QUALITY OF CHOICE. The gun to your head was an illustration of that.

[Zan15]

I heard being homeless this time of year in the US is lovely, they should just have risked that. I mean, with global warming you wont even need to fear the cold!

instead, they risked their lives, for which in return would have the same outcome of their family not only being homeless because they lost that income from the dead employee/family member, but they would also have to now figure out a way to survive without that family member being alive.

I think being alive has a way better odds of actually finding a solution to prevent your family from being homeless than being dead does, unless you think people making 12 bucks an hour can afford life insurance.

[JohnBrown1917]

instead, they risked their lives, for which in return would have the same outcome of their family not only being homeless because they lost that income from the dead employee/family member, but they would also have to now figure out a way to survive without that family member being alive.

I think being alive has a way better odds of actually finding a solution to prevent your family from being homeless than being dead does, unless you think people making 12 bucks an hour can afford life insurance.

Or they just bet on the tornado not causing the kind of damage that would kill them, which is probably still better odds than 100% sure on losing your job.


But hey, i get it, any form of labour regulations hurts the billionares and millionares, and we can't have that!