This Just Flat Ain’t Right
First, a little story. I went into one of those month-by-month cellphone places which are outrageously expensive but are generally all poor people can do because they have no credit or bad credit. I needed cell phones for a month for phone banking so I bought some and got a one month plan.
The young woman behind the counter, who was holding down the fort on her own, was efficient and pleasant. We, of course, got to talking politics. She confessed to me that she got paid $7.50 an hour and worked 10:00 am until 8:00 pm six days a week. No overtime, no benefits. And she had held the job for three years with no raises. She gets Christmas Day and Thanksgiving afternoon off, but she gets paid for neither. She said she doesn’t complain because her boss says that cheap labor is easy to find. “I need the job,” she shrugged.
She is working 60 hours a week and she is the 47% Mitt Romney doesn’t care about. Screw Mitt Romney. Screw this woman’s boss.
Koch Industries, the Wichita, Kan.-based company run by the billionaire Koch brothers, sent a voter information packet to 45,000 employees of its Georgia Pacific subsidiary earlier this month.
In it was a letter, dated Oct. 1, from Koch Industries president Dave Robertson implicitly warning that “many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences” of voting for President Obama and other Democrats in the 2012 elections, a list of conservative candidates the company’s political action committee endorses and a pair of editorials: one, by David Koch, supporting Mitt Romney, and the other, by Charles Koch, condemning Obama.
That’s political extortion. It’s economic terrorism. It should be illegal.
Republicans are the only people on earth who never have to be worried about being threatened by compassion. Well, them and maybe Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Y’all, I hate these people. I do.
Thanks to PolishSpring for the heads up.
Thanks for the reminder for continuing to boycott any products from Georgia-Pacific.
1Wasn’t there supposed to be a phone app that we could utilize to know which brands to boycott by now? It sure would come in handy.
All of these companies making money off the little people needs to feel the pinch.
2Fear is a powerful tool. I hope “the devil” is stoking the coals extra hot because some day these monsters are going to die. Whether they believe it or not.
3My company does service for a member of the FBGOP-EC. When they found out one of our techs is a Dem – he didn’t volunteer, they asked – they requested to another tech that tech #1 not come back on the property. If they found out there’s a whole nest of us Obama voters here, including the boss and me, they’d likely end the contract. And we’ve been taking care of them for over 20 years. I’ve never in my life seen things degenerate to this level of pettiness and full bore crazy. There are moments when I despair for my country.
4Remember the old Westerns where people were kept in their place ’cause they lived in a “Company Town”? They were too afraid to stand up to the owner and his henchmen…seems that many of us continue to live there, only now they call it a “Right to Work” State. I say screw them! It’s your vote, it’s your voice – use it and send a message that you are NOT afraid!
5Georgia-Pacific makes known home products used in 80% of US homes. Boycott these Georgia-Pacific brands:
Bath Tissues: Angel Soft® – Quilted Northern® – Soft ‘n Gentle®
Paper Towels: Brawny® – Mardi Gras® – Sparkle®
Napkins, Cups & Tableware: Mardi Gras® – Vanity Fair® – Dixie®
Office Paper: Advantage® – Image Plus® – Spectrum®
Build/Remodelling: Too many to list
http://www.gp.com/forYourHome/viewbrands.html
6Twice recently I have had workers come to my house to deliver/install a tv and to do some weather-proofing. They all worked for large companies. I don’t know what they get paid, but their hours were pretty much as described above. Apparently the 8-hour day is dead.
7It is time for all of us to do research for true capitalism to work. In other words – it may take a little effort, but look for products made by G-P’s competitors & share your research results.
Do we have anyone who can put up a Facebook page?
Do we have anyone who is willing to set up a website?
Here’s one for toilet paper: http://www.toiletpaperworld.com
Don’t just bitch – foment a true rebellion!!
8I hope you dropped a dime to the Texas Work Force folks to report this SOB boss … and the local office of the Dept. of Labor … they will get her the overtime and back-pay she is owed …
9Btw… in June, Moody’s revised Georgia Pacific’s outlook to positive & affirmed G-P’s Baa3 rating. Since then, G-P sold off its European tissue division to a Swedish paper company, and was then rated A-/stable by Standard&Poor’s on Oct 1.
Reuters reported on the Koch brothers backing a database group in Alexandria, VA in an effort to catch up with the Democrats. It is interesting reading just to know the GOP is FAR BEHIND THE DEMOCRATS when it comes to database management. Oh, and this was also interesting to learn – FreedomWorks severed its ties with the Koch brothers last spring when it went after Hatch in Utah.
10http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-usa-politics-kochs-idUSBRE84G0E820120517
We buy only recycled paper products for our household paper. Just as absorbent, not scratchy at all, and much better for the conscience. There is no reason on earth why forests should be clearcut so we can… clean up.
Are there laws against intimidating employees about voting choices? There should be. If there are, I assume the Kochs are either skirting the edge, or doing it and not giving a toss because they have very expensive lawyers and more money than God (but want more).
Come to think of it, rich people are like drunks– they’ve already had a lot more than anyone needs, but all they want is more.
11Isn’t overtime pay required in Texas?
12This person would be the perfect example for me to give to a coworker, who had a real hard time understanding how Voter ID laws might be difficult for some people to comply with. If your young woman had to take time off to get a birth certificate, then a SS card, then get her ID: well, she just might not be able to. Not if she wants to keep her job. The co-worker is the boss’s son, is supposed to work 9 – 5, but takes at least an hour off for lunch, no matter how busy we are, and will suddenly announce that he has to go get a haircut, pay a bill, whatever, and will extend his hour lunch by half an hour or more. Instead of doing these chores on his day off. He just loves Romney & Ryan, can’t stand Obama, but ‘it’s not a racist thing’.
Yes, of course there’s protections for her but how is she going to eat while she fights it? I offered to help her but she kept saying, “he’ll fire me because he’ll know I told.”
13So, tell me how, exactly, would the Koch Billionaires know how any one of his employees voted? Are they going to waterboard employees? Last time I looked, voting by secret ballot is supposed to be secret. And I would look either one of those asses straight in the eye and gleefully lie like a rug. After all, Romney taught me how.
14I hope the cellphone lady doesn’t say anything until she finds a better job or gets fired and then sue for the overtime plus interest.
I was talking with a neighbor kid last year who worked at a local restaurant about the minimum wage and he said that’s not what he was getting paid. The owner didn’t post the new minimum wage poster and no one knew. When he asked her about it she exclaimed “Who told you?”
And that was over a 10 cent raise for 4 people. About $3 a day.
15Restaurant workers are not required to be paid the minimum wage, the idea being that tips will make up the difference. Yeah, right.
My daughter was working for 2.10 an hour, declared every penny of her tips and still the IRS added an additional 15% because “everybody lies.” Gee I wonder why.
And, I think it is illegal for an employer to coerce their employees to vote some particular way – federal law, I believe. But I have no idea where to look that up.
16Shameful.
17Is this a chain of stores? If so, call the Department of Labor (they have a local Houston Office) and give them the name of the store. If they take the case, they ask for all records for years back. If they find willful violation of the laws, that means an extra fine. One of the malls in Alief just got fined 1.4 million plus an extra .6 for willful violation for paying their employees below minimum wage. No employer in their right minds wants a DOL audit.
18I hate these people too. I try real hard not to but lord i get all old testament and wanna’ ask the almighty to “smite” my enemies.
19I recently had some clouded window panes replaced and the gentlemen who took the measurements and replaced the panes a couple of days later had a similar story. I had my Obama canvas bag on the table, so he felt comfortable talking with me. He said his boss had told the workers that they had better vote for Romney because he would cancel the company provided health insurance if Obama is reelected. I brought up the website on my computer and showed him that the small company he worked for would probably benefit from the provisions of the ACA. He said that he and the other workers believed the boss was just trying to scare them and they intended to vote for President Obama anyway.
Telling employees how they should vote would appear to me to turn employees off, making them feel as if the boss thinks he “owns” them.
20Could be worse. She could be working for Macys. open till Midnight for the holidays! and now open Thanksgiving night at 11pm! Started this crap last year. A curse upon your house if you are one of those Black Friday shoppers! Note: the best sale is week before Christmas. And for those Fox news people: We are allowed to say Merry Christmas. We’re just not in the mood.
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