Happy Labor Day

Granddaughter asked, "What is irony?"

This is irony:

In the laundry room, waiting for the load of clothes to finish swirling, I flip through the magazines. One bold cover blurb catches my eye: "Lose 10 pounds in 30 days." Recently, I've done that, but don't think it took 30 days. More like two weeks. My secret is simple--Gatorade 'n' water. No money = no food.

The machine stops spinning, and I crouch in front of it, scooping clothes into the basket.

I stand. The basket of wet clothes is heavy, and I'm lightheaded.

Here's another irony. A tweet, by a homeless New Yorker calling him (her?)self  I.M.Kafka, reminding Mayor Bloomberg about HOMELESS PEOPLE WHO WORK.

I.M.Kafka is not alone. He is legion. We should never forget and never forgive that people work and yet can't afford a place to live. Expect us.

Poverty is not idle.

This labor day is laundry day. I have $1. Enough to wash most of the dirty clothes, etc-- not enough to dry them.

I like clotheslines, but I rent an apartment and I have no clothesline in the back yard. I have a place to live, and know how fortunate I am.

I stand on a chair and screw a metal hook into the wall of my apartment, adjacent to the window. Around this hook I loop one end of a piece of clothesline rope, and tie a knot.

Pulling the rope across the room, I wrap the other end around a hook in the opposite wall, and knot it. This wall is hollow and can't support the weight of the wet clothes, so the hook slides out of the wall and the laundry tumbles to the floor. I take the clothes off the line and  return them to the basket. Now I stand on a table to wrap the end of the rope around the vertical blind bracket over the window, tie a knot and it's up again.

I re-hang the wet clothes, open the blinds all the way to let the sun shine in. Sunlight is a disinfectant, which is why more of it should illuminate government and industry.

Jeans I hang on a plastic chair in front of the window. For what doesn't fit on the clothesline, I have a folding clothes drying rack.

Now there is $1 left. That will wash the clothes next week. The week after  that, the dirty laundry will pile up. Small things get washed in the sink.

Then the monthly check--the one I WORKED for-- will come, and sheets and towels and jeans will get washed again. Sometimes a month is five weeks.

You have to be very organized and creative to live as a poor person, and even more so to live as a homeless one.

I'm used to this. When I worked, I sold my Cd's to buy gas to get to work. I pawned my rings to buy gas so I could get to work. F**K You, Oil Companies.

I borrowed money to buy food, when I worked. I worked all night, and slept all day to recover from the job. Like all things unsustainable, eventually it all came crashing down.

Today-- Labor Day, a woman called NPR's Talk of the Nation to tell America about her job cleaning motel rooms for $3.25 a room. She has three degrees, used to teach art. Teaching art is not highly valued in today's America. Neither is making useful things that people need. Or writing stories.

Before journalism school, I cleaned motel rooms. I know that the fastest workers can clean (thoroughly) three rooms an hour, and that is what was expected of us in those days, for minimum wage. Twenty minutes to vacuum, dust, wipe up spills, change linens, scrub toilets, tubs , sinks, walls, empty garbage cans, make up beds...But not everyone is a fast worker, and if you are paid $3.25 per room and can only manage two rooms per hour, then that is less than the federal minimum wage. Is this legal?

The national minimum wage should've been $15 an hour by now, anyway.

Happy Labor Day to all who have jobs and all who are looking...wherever you live. You are not alone.

Recession?

Here's a news item from the MSM(mainstream media):

The Associated Press reported today that Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's biggest investment bank, thinks a recession will be inevitable this year. The housing meltdown/credit crunch threatens to "slingshot" the economy into a recession. (Slingshot--I like that analogy. It's so Biblical!)

Here's a news item for the MSM--free of charge. Those who labor at the bottom of the economic food chain are already in a recession. Matter of fact, we're in a CODE ORANGE economic depression, and have been for years. Don't like the "D" word? What do you call it when you walk past people sitting on the cold sidewalks, or sleeping under highway overpasses because they can't afford rent? What do you call it when you see men, women and children in the subway stations asking for some help? This situation isn't limited to NYC. It's nationwide. Like countrywide's CEO severance pay, it's a nationwide disgrace.
You remember us, don't you? The little people Leona Helmsley referred to when the tax dodger said, "Only little people pay taxes." We're the workers who earn less than $102,000 a year and have to pay social security taxes on those wages. We're the ones most likely to need that meager income that we worked for-- when we become disabled, or when we retire with no golden parachute, no employer paid pension, and no free health care for life.
Remember Social Security? The People's pension fund Wall Street is so eager to grab, and that Bush tried to give away to Wall Street.
Mortgage meltdown refers to the predatory lending SCAM perpetrated on consumers who bought into Bush's "ownership society" and who tried to buy a cornerstone of the American Dream for themselves and their families. Loan sharks dressed as mortgage brokers were happy to oblige them, one and all, with subprime variable rate loans. When the mortgage payments ballooned and these home owners defaulted, the mess hit the fan.
But not to worry. Bank of America bailed out Countrywide, and the CEO of Countrywide will (eventually) land in Unemploymentville aided by a golden parachute worth $1 million plus. In addition, Bank of America will keep the executive on as a paid "consultant" for a few years.

Not so fortunate are the record numbers of workers facing the New Year on unemployment lines. And the retail workers/hourly wage slaves who get their hours slashed. Already trying to survive on wages that barely surpass minimum, hourly wage slaves are having to survive on even less.
What's a wage slave to do? Complain to yer union--if you have one, and if the one you have's not on life support. Oh, wait: labor unions were outlawed by the Bush administration...no, wait-- not quite--yet.
But the Bush Administration and the good folks in Washington stand ready to rescue us with a tax rebate, much like the one in 2001 that was sent out to low wage workers. I remember that rebate. After our hours and our OT had been cut at the factory for months, that $300 came in real handy. It allowed me to partially pay my very late back rent. My second job paid the rest.

Thanks George!

BTW: We don't need no stinkin' rebate. What we need in America is a country wide slave revolt.

Labor Day Greetings

To all the embattled, harassed, underpaid, unappreciated, overworked, and oppressed workers out there: may your labor be fruitful, and your gains meaningful-- today and every day. Keep fighting the good fight!

Happy Labor Day from Cris

The Grapes of Warmth

Forget the Merlot, kids, and start thinking Corona-- or Blatz, for those of you on a budget. A recent Associated Press report said climate warming could spell trouble for much of the U.S. wine industry. And a National Academy of Sciences study predicts suitable growing areas for premium grapes could be reduced by 5o percent--and as much as 81 percent by century's end. "The main problem, according to Noah Diffenbaugh of Perdue University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, "is an increase in the frequency of extremely hot days.' Grapes used in premium wines need a consistent climate," he said in a Tampa Tribune article.

It's not just the vineyard owners who are feeling the heat of global warming. In August 2005, after the fourth farm worker that year died from heat exhaustion, Governor Schwarzenegger ordered implementation of emergency regulations in California to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat. More about this at www.ufw.org.

Last year Democratic assemblywoman Judy Chu introduced AB 805 which, in summary would require Cal-OSHA to adopt by December 1, 2006 a standard for heat illness prevention, and prescribes certain requirements for that standard. It passed in the assembly but was opposed by Bakersfield republican Kevin McCarthy. He proposes instead an "educational campaign" in which workers get cards printed in English and Spanish, listing heat exposure symptoms and advising the workers to drink more water and sit in the shade. Not addressed in McCarthy's proposal is that often there is no shade, no water, or inadequate water supplies. In addition, since many farmworkers are paid piece work wages, their pay is docked for time spent not working. AB 805 (info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/) is opposed-- not surprisingly-- by the California Chamber of Commerce, Construction Employers Association, and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association. AB 805 now awaits Senate consideration after the return of lawmakers from summer break.

The problem with McCarthy's self help cards is it puts the burden for enforcement of basic health and safety standards on the workers, who are dependent upon their employers for their livelihood, and sometimes even their housing. The unique employment conditions of migrant farmworkers make them especially vulnerable.

And Cali isn't the only state with heat related illnesses and deaths in the workplace. Florida's sunshine state economy relies heavily on agriculture, construction, and landscaping; all outside jobs. Moreover, many of Florida's so called "indoor" jobs--in laundries, bakeries, and foundries, for example, are in non air- conditioned workplaces. These involve heavy physical labor in factories and warehouses, and yes--even Target stores. Read moreTarget worker adventures at www.targetunion.org . Overnight workers at Target who unload truck freight and stock store shelves begin their shifts after the stores close--and the air conditioning system is shut off.

I did an internet search, looking for some kind of Florida law similar to AB 805, that protects workers from heat related illnesses, and I found none. Bruce Nissen, a director at Florida International University's Center for Labor Research and Studies, said he's never heard of any Florida law protecting workers from heat illness. I did find an OSHA poster dated 2003, listing recommendations for working in hot environments -- again putting the compliance burden on workers.

After ten years in Florida, with my last three jobs here not air- conditioned, I know these voluntary compliance schemes don't work. I personally had to bring a note from my doctor to be "allowed" to carry a bottle of water with me on the job at Target-- a job that involved heavy physical labor in a non air conditioned environment. Even after asserting my rights, I was continuously harassed by a supervisor. Now imagine what might happen to a worker who doesn't speak English, doesn't understand our laws, and fears deportation.

Voluntary safety precautions didn't work for a North Carolina farmworker named Urbano Ramirez, who was working in the tobacco fields in 2001 when his nose started to bleed. He was told by the foreman to go rest under a tree. Ten days later his family found him dead, under that same tree. According to a Miami Herald article I recently dug up, Urbano was one of 11 Mexican born farm workers to die in North Carolina that year. It's not known whether the heat killed him. His body was too decomposed to determine the cause of death. He was in his thirties, and described as healthy. Although healthy, well nourished, well hydrated and well rested workers who take frequent water breaks will tolerate heat better than others, no one is immune to heat illness.

The South Carolina Agro Medical Program lists the following info on "relative humidity" and how it can impact working in the heat. On a 90 degree day when relative humidity is 70 percent, your body reacts to an "apparent temperature" of 106 degrees. Heat illness can result in heart attack, stroke, or death. Its advance is gradual and effects are subtle in the early stages, making it easy to miss, especially in labor intensive occupations, where workers are time pressured and focused on getting the work done. Early signs include cramping in arms and legs or abdomen, and fatigue.

A recent Tampa Tribune editorial laments the shortage of farm labor to bring in the citrus crop. This year's yield threatens to be one of the worst in a decade. What do they expect? The people who do this work are treated like criminals for trying to make an honest living. They labor in extreme heat, often for 12 - 14 hours a day, for pay that is challenging to live on, to say the least. There's speculation that many farm workers have fled this state, in the wake of the anti- immigrant saber rattling. In that case there are two choices: we can, in the words of Martin Luther King, "respect the dignity of labor" and proceed accordingly, or reap the harvest of our neglect.

AB 805, if passed, would be a good start. It should be extended to all states. The thing is, making a living shouldn't kill you.