#laborers are in poverty | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nando161mando · 5 months

Text

#1: “let’s form a union.”

5K notes · View notes

berniesrevolution · 1 year

Text

You’re Lucky You Have a House, Peasant!

A history of company towns

by Joyce Rice and Kevin Moore

(Continue Reading)

TheNib.com

@thenib

#politics #the left #the nib #comic #webcomic #labor #Labor Unions #organized labor #history #capitalism #economic inequality #oppression #poverty #working class #long post #long reads

14K notes · View notes

jewishrevolutionary · 1 year

Text

Poverty is not actively recognized in our country nor in the discussions of politics, and I feel deeply hurt and demotivated because of it, especially as someone who has been forced to live in the lowest sectors of it. It ends up being a discussion only used as a trump card, not a regular talking point that needs to be actively recognized. Milenials and Gen Z is the most in poverty, despite all the opportunities people had in college or elsewhere.

Ever since I got kicked out of my parents home, I have moved to the slummiest parts of my state's capital and I live in this shitty, broken down apartment that has lead paint in certain areas, mold in (possibly) the floor, the walls, the ceilings, and other areas. Our bathroom sink and toilet barely work, the refrigerator is broken down, and for the first 6 months, the lock to our front door was completely broken.

In all of that, I and my boyfriend have gone through a plethora of jobs. My boyfriend started talking about unionizing in his first job, got fired almost immediately. His second and third job was too stressful to keep up with mentally. And only now did he get a job that only gave him part time hours.

My first job was too far away to keep working in and they didnt even respect me for all the shitty work they put me through when we only had a skeleton crew. My second job, i got fired for taking a very small tip from someone. And the job Im currently working for is full of shitheads who've gotten recently promoted and are barking and kneeling for the owner and his shitty decisions. (For example, we had a foot and a half of snow and everyone avoided the topic of closing early and shamed me and another coworker for not coming in when it was too unsafe for either of us to leave) I also broke down sobbing during a stressful rush and was blamed for not communicating with my manager about the rush.

Either way, regardless of my own treatement and how much I can tell you about the treatment of my boyfriend at his workplaces, we're still in deep poverty and our rent is going to definitely increase, with the fact that we dont have a car yet that can help get us to and from places. And this constant feeling of dread that I cant escape this has made me so much more less hopeful than I was before.

I have nearly lost my faith in leftist/communist/anarchist movements because there is zero groups in sight in my state and anywhere near where I live. I have tried getting financial help by setting up GoFundMe's, public kofi's or anything. And the constant struggling and difficulty with my recent schedules have made it impossible for me to engage in any of my own artistic interests becsuse of the sheer amount of demotivation I've been through.

I want to be happy, I want to live a fulfilled life, but I dont want to be stuck under this constantly pressuring system that will harm me for not having *credit* and being a young adult.

I need money for a car, but no one is willing to spare because I'm seen as too young and inexperienced. I need credit for getting an apartment, getting a car, getting ANYWHERE, and I fear debt like no one else in the world.

And it has only made me more and more hopeless, because this a problem that is seemingly everywhere, but Americans dont talk about. They wont support each other through it, and I and my boyfriend have talked to people, have tried getting support, but we only get scoffs, angry mullings about making sure we make our own lives better, and advice that gets us nowhere. My boyfriend was told by everyone except his immediate family that trying to unionize was dumb and would have only led to his firing. That he needed to just suck it up and get better.

I want to have hope in people, but this last year has been so dejecting for me and my hope. I dont know what to do anymore. It hurts me a lot that there isnt anything for me to do. I, my boyfriend, and their sibling might become homeless because of the rent increase in the next 3 months, and I feel too dejected to even ask for money anymore because I know no one has money anymore.

I'm just going to end off on the note that I'm not planning anything. I just am going to survive. And if anyone wants to help, I just need help with saving up for a car so send me a DM or something. I have about 1200 between me and my boyfriend.

And be sure to ask everyone you know about their situation, be sure to help as many people as you can. I've been doing it despite my poverty, and it's because I have money to spend for myself that I know would be used better. It only takes a little to make people hopeful, and doing nothing makes them lose their hope.

0 notes

joeywreck · 10 months

Text

“the economist, a journal that speaks for british millionaires”-vladimir lenin

I think it’s safe to say today it’s the american billionaire.

#lenin #the economist #socialist #socialism #communism #unemployment #labor #economics #labour #economy #poverty

4K notes · View notes

bitchesgetriches · 1 month

Text

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Repairing Our Busted-Ass World

On poverty:

Starting from nothing

How To Start at Rock Bottom: Welfare Programs and the Social Safety Net

How to Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year

Ask the Bitches: “Is It Too Late to Get My Financial Shit Together?“

Understanding why people are poor

It’s More Expensive to Be Poor Than to Be Rich

Why Are Poor People Poor and Rich People Rich?

On Financial Discipline, Generational Poverty, and Marshmallows

Bitchtastic Book Review: Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado

Is Gentrification Just Artisanal, Small-Batch Displacement of the Poor?

Coronavirus Reveals America’s Pre-existing Conditions, Part 1: Healthcare, Housing, and Labor Rights

Developing compassion for poor people

The Latte Factor, Poor Shaming, and Economic Compassion

Ask the Bitches: “How Do I Stop Myself from Judging Homeless People?“

The Subjectivity of Wealth, Or: Don’t Tell Me What’s Expensive

A Little Princess: Intersectional Feminist Masterpiece?

If You Can’t Afford to Tip 20%, You Can’t Afford to Dine Out

Correcting income inequality

1 Easy Way All Allies Can Help Close the Gender and Racial Pay Gap

One Reason Women Make Less Money? They’re Afraid of Being Raped and Killed.

Raising the Minimum Wage Would Make All Our Lives Better

Are Unions Good or Bad?

On intersectional social issues:

Reproductive rights

On Pulling Weeds and Fighting Back: How (and Why) to Protect Abortion Rights

How To Get an Abortion

Blood Money: Menstrual Products for Surviving Your Period While Poor

You Don’t Have to Have Kids

Gender equality

1 Easy Way All Allies Can Help Close the Gender and Racial Pay Gap

The Pink Tax, Or: How I Learned to Love Smelling Like “Bearglove”

Our Single Best Piece of Advice for Women (and Men) on International Women’s Day

Bitchtastic Book Review: The Feminist Financial Handbook by Brynne Conroy

Sexual Harassment: How to Identify and Fight It in the Workplace

Queer issues

Queer Finance 101: Ten Ways That Sexual and Gender Identity Affect Finances

Leaving Home before 18: A Practical Guide for Cast-Offs, Runaways, and Everybody in Between

Racial justice

The Financial Advantages of Being White

Woke at Work: How to Inject Your Values into Your Boring, Lame-Ass Job

The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander: A Bitchtastic Book Review

Something Is Wrong in Personal Finance. Here’s How To Make It More Inclusive.

The Biggest Threat to Black Wealth Is White Terrorism

Coronavirus Reveals America’s Pre-existing Conditions, Part 2: Racial and Gender Inequality

10 Rad Black Money Experts to Follow Right the Hell Now

Youth issues

What We Talk About When We Talk About Student Loans

The Ugly Truth About Unpaid Internships

Ask the Bitches: “I Just Turned 18 and My Parents Are Kicking Me Out. How Do I Brace Myself?”

Identifying and combatting abuse

When Money is the Weapon: Understanding Intimate Partner Financial Abuse

Are You Working on the Next Fyre Festival?: Identifying a Toxic Workplace

Ask the Bitches: “How Do I Say ‘No’ When a Loved One Asks for Money… Again?”

Ask the Bitches: I Was Guilted Into Caring for a Sick, Abusive Parent. Now What?

On mental health:

Understanding mental health issues

How Mental Health Affects Your Finances

Stop Recommending Therapy Like It’s a Magic Bean That’ll Grow Me a Beanstalk to Neurotypicaltown

Bitchtastic Book Review: Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos and Your Big Brain

Ask the Bitches: “How Do I Protect My Own Mental Health While Still Helping Others?”

Coping with mental health issues

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Self-Care

My 25 Secrets to Successfully Working from Home with ADHD

Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care Tactics

On saving the planet:

Changing the system

Don’t Boo, Vote: If You Don’t Vote, No One Can Hear You Scream

Ethical Consumption: How to Pollute the Planet and Exploit Labor Slightly Less

The Anti-Consumerist Gift Guide: I Have No Gift to Bring, Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum

Season 1, Episode 4: “Capitalism Is Working for Me. So How Could I Hate It?”

Coronavirus Reveals America’s Pre-existing Conditions, Part 1: Healthcare, Housing, and Labor Rights

Coronavirus Reveals America’s Pre-existing Conditions, Part 2: Racial and Gender Inequality

Shopping smarter

You Deserve Cheap Toilet Paper, You Beautiful Fucking Moon Goddess

You Are above Bottled Water, You Elegant Land Mermaid

Fast Fashion: Why It’s Fucking up the World and How To Avoid It

You Deserve Cheap, Fake Jewelry… Just Like Coco Chanel

6 Proven Tactics for Avoiding Emotional Impulse Spending

Join the Bitches on Patreon

#poverty #economics #income inequality #wealth inequality #capitalism #working class #labor rights #workers rights #frugal #personal finance #financial literacy #consumerism #environmentalism

83 notes · View notes

thoughtportal · 1 year

Video

The crime of poverty by George, Henry, 1839-1897

https://archive.org/details/crimeofpoverty01geor

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55308

#tiktok #the crime of poverty #poverty #henry george #work #workers #labor

431 notes · View notes

queerism1969 · 1 year

Text

528 notes · View notes

if-you-fan-a-fire · 10 months

Text

Unemployment relief delivered by the government in minuscule amounts, The Worker. July 3, 1933.

#toronto #canadian labor defence league #unemployment relief #poverty relief #capitalism in crisis #unemployment #starve or freeze #bennett government #communists #great depression in canada #political cartoons #editorial cartoons

192 notes · View notes

noneedtofearorhope · 2 months

Text

An entire Dollar General staff has walked out of their Wisconsin premises due to staffing issues and poor pay and conditions.

Staff allegedly didn’t want to leave their customers in the lurch, but their manager claimed they were underpaid and overworked, and wanted their work to be appreciated by customers and the company. A letter was also found near the entrance of the store, giving more details on the staff's decision to walk out.

"Take this as notice that we the team at store 20610 located in Mineral Point, WI, all quit! We can not and will not work for a company that does not stand behind in true honest form of what they want the world to see them as," it read.

"Although we love and adore our customers, we must take a stand for the community and not allow corporate greed to continuing [sic] preventing people in need of the help they need and could receive. Policies, processes and procedures need to change! Don't make claims about supporting and helping communities when the reality is that it's all about the bottom line and not about support or help!"

Trina Tribolet was the general manager in the store for around a year. She said: "This is something we've been talking about the last couple of months. Until Friday night when we walked away, this weekend was my first time off since Christmas."

She explained staff were underpaid and overworked, adding she'd been working seven days a week for months because she, as the manager, was only allotted so many paid hours to give her staff. She said staff didn't want to leave, but wanted their work to be appreciated.

"A lot of our regulars came in there every day, and it’s hard on all of us to not be able to see them every day because they brighten your day,” she said. Staff followed through with their plans by walking out at the end of the shift and leaving notes on the door to say would all be quitting.

With no staff, the Dollar General remained closed for about three hours before they could get enough team members in. A spokesperson for the company said the store has replaced the entire staff. They declared that Dollar General is "committed to providing an environment where employees can grow their careers and where they feel valued and heard".

One of the biggest issues that led to the walkout was the store's food donation policy as well as hours and pay. The former manager was alarmed by how much of the food they were ordered to throw out. Trina was one of six members of staff working at the Dollar General in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, when they all made the decision to walk out on Friday

Dollar General donates food to specific pantries, but there are strict guidelines the company follows, and only a portion of what’s available goes to helping other people in disadvantaged areas. “There have been tears that have been shed over the fact that we’re throwing away coffee that is not expired, but it’s close,” Ms Tribolet said.

“Or you’re throwing out a box of Lucky Charms that you know there’s a whole bunch of kids that would love to eat those, but you can’t donate them out because you’re supposed to throw them away," Ms Tribolet explained.

In response to Ms Tribolet's issues with the food donation program, the store’s public relations team said it is following guidelines laid out by Feeding America. Over 44 million people in America live in households that struggle to get enough food.

[...]

The Economy Policy Institute's Wage Tracker reports that 92% of Dollar General's 119,904 employees make less than $15 an hour. That's nearly double the number of employees making under $15 at Walmart (51%).

The EPI notes that companies like Dollar General are "notorious for poor working conditions" along with low wages while generating millions in revenue annually and often rewarding their CEOs "with hefty compensation packages."

#labor #wisconsin #dollar general #food insecurity #poverty #precarity #minimum wage #workers rights #corporate greed

17 notes · View notes

nando161mando · 5 months

Text

228 notes · View notes

queerfemboybf · 2 years

Text

#unskilled jobs #classist #classism #labor work #low wages #poverty #poverty wages #fuck capitalism #anti capitalist

482 notes · View notes

reasoningdaily · 9 months

Text

Children still mining cobalt for gadget batteries in Congo

A CBS News investigation of child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo has revealed that tens of thousands of children are growing up without a childhood today – two years after a damning Amnesty report about human rights abuses in the cobalt trade was published. The Amnesty report first revealed that cobalt mined by children was ending up in products from prominent tech companies including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Samsung.

There's such sensitivity around cobalt mining in the DRC that a CBS News team traveling there recently was stopped every few hundred feet while moving along dirt roads and seeing children digging for cobalt. From as young as 4 years old, children can pick cobalt out of a pile, and even those too young to work spend much of the day breathing in toxic fumes.

What's life like for kids mining cobalt for our gadgets?

So, what exactly is cobalt, and what are the health risks for those who work in the DRC's cobalt mining industry?

What is cobalt?

Cobalt – a naturally occurring element – is a critical component in lithium-ion, rechargeable batteries. In recent years, the growing global market for portable electronic devices and rechargeable batteries has fueled demand for its extraction, Amnesty said in its 2016 report. In fact, many top electronic and electric vehicle companies need cobalt to help power their products.

The element is found in other products as well.

"Cobalt-containing products include corrosion and heat-resistant alloys, hard metal (cobalt-tungsten-carbide alloy), magnets, grinding and cutting tools, pigments, paints, colored glass, surgical implants, catalysts, batteries, and cobalt-coated metal (from electroplating)," says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than half of the world's supply of cobalt comes from the DRC, and 20 percent of that is mined by hand, according to Darton Commodities Ltd., a London-based research company that specializes in cobalt.

Health risks of chronic exposure

According to the CDC, "chronic exposure to cobalt-containing hard metal (dust or fume) can result in a serious lung disease called 'hard metal lung disease'" – a kind of pneumoconiosis, meaning a lung disease caused by inhaling dust particles. Inhalation of cobalt particles can cause respiratory sensitization, asthma, decreased pulmonary function and shortness of breath, the CDC says.

The health agency says skin contact is also a significant health concern "because dermal exposures to hard metal and cobalt salts can result in significant systemic uptake."

"Sustained exposures can cause skin sensitization, which may result in eruptions of contact dermatitis," a red, itchy skin rash, the CDC says.

Despite the health risks, researchers with Amnesty International found that most cobalt miners in Congo lack basic protective equipment like face masks, work clothing and gloves. Many of the miners the organization spoke with for its 2016 report – 90 people in total who work, or worked, in the mines – complained of frequent coughing or lung problems. Cobalt mining's dangerous impact on workers and the environment

Some women complained about the physical nature of the work, with one describing hauling 110-pound sacks of cobalt ore. "We all have problems with our lungs, and pain all over our bodies," the woman said, according to Amnesty.

Moreover, miners said unsupported mining tunnels frequently give way, and that accidents are common.

Miners know their work is dangerous, Todd C. Frankel wrote late last month in The Washington Post.

"But what's less understood are the environmental health risks posed by the extensive mining," he reported. "Southern Congo holds not only vast deposits of cobalt and copper but also uranium. Scientists have recorded alarming radioactivity levels in some mining regions. Mining waste often pollutes rivers and drinking water. The dust from the pulverized rock is known to cause breathing problems. The mining industry's toxic fallout is only now being studied by researchers, mostly in Lubumbashi, the country's mining capital."

"These job are really desired"

Despite the dangers and risks of working as miners in the cobalt industry, at least of the some miners in the Congo "love their jobs," according to Frankel.

"When I talked to the miners there, none of them want to lose their jobs or give up their jobs. They love their jobs," Frankel said Tuesday, speaking on CBSN. "In a country like Congo, mining is one of the few decently paying jobs to be had there, and so they want to hold onto these jobs."

They also want fair treatment, decent pay, and some safety, "and they would love for their kids to not work in the mines," he said.

"It's a poverty problem," Frankel said. "These parents I talked to – they don't want their kids working in these mines. The problem is that their school fees – schools cost money, and you know, food costs money, and they sort of need their kids to work in there."

Poverty also drives children into the mines instead of school – an estimated 40,000 of them work in brutal conditions starting at very young ages.

The thousands of miners who work in tunnels searching for cobalt in the country "do it because they live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and cobalt is valuable," Frankel wrote in the Washington Post article.

"Not doing enough"

CBS News spoke with some of the companies that use cobalt in their lithium-ion batteries. All of the companies acknowledged problems with the supply chain, but said they require suppliers to follow responsible sourcing guidelines. Apple, an industry leader in the fight for responsible sourcing, said walking away from the DRC "would do nothing to improve conditions for the people or the environment."

Read company responses here

Amnesty said in November, however, that "major electronics and electric vehicle companies are still not doing enough to stop human rights abuses entering their cobalt supply chains."

"As demand for rechargeable batteries grows, companies have a responsibility to prove that they are not profiting from the misery of miners working in terrible conditions in the DRC," the organization said. "The energy solutions of the future must not be built on human rights abuses."

An estimated two-thirds of children in the region of the DRC that CBS News visited recently are not in school. They're working in mines instead.

CBS News' Debora Patta spoke with an 11-year-old boy, Ziki Swaze, who has no idea how to read or write but is an expert in washing cobalt. Every evening, he returns home with a dollar or two to provide for his family.

"I have to go and work there," he told Patta, "because my grandma has a bad leg and she can't."

He said he dreams of going to school, but has always had to work instead.

"I feel very bad because I can see my friends going to school, and I am struggling," he said.

Amnesty says "it is widely recognized internationally that the involvement of children in mining constitutes one of the worst forms of child labour, which governments are required to prohibit and eliminate."

#cobalt #PD Congo #PDR Congo #cobalt mining by children #amnesty university #The toll of the cobalt mining industry on health and the environment #Congo Economic Theft #minerals #rare earth minerals #tesla #iphones #cellphone batteries #ev batteries #lithium batteries #child labour #forced child labor #poverty #systemic racism

47 notes · View notes

entitledrichpeople · 1 year

Link

Good article, but fails to mention that a mass disabling pandemic that has killed millions and disabled far more people (many permanently, though some temporarily) is part of what is causing the “worker shortage” panics, as well as bosses that exploit immigrant labor using anti-immigrant laws having overshot recently and lowered immigration of readily exploitable workers too much (undocumented employees are essentially denied all workplace protections and employers will call ICE on their own employees to break attempts at getting basic workplace protections).

#child labor #poverty #work #workplace safety #workplace injury

109 notes · View notes

agnesandhilda · 1 month

Text

every so often I make the mistake of looking up anything related to single moms online thinking I'll find something written by other children of single moms who love their mothers and am inevitably shocked to see that the hatred of women runs so deep that it's directed to the people who stayed with their families

#bolo speaks #if you say any fuck shit about single moms I will kill you personally #“single moms are poor” well yeah we could talk about the feminization of poverty and how it compounds unpaid domestic labor of parenting #but you don't give a shit about that you just want to blame these women for being on welfare slash #being an inherently emasculating influence on their sons slash breathing air slash existing #“there's no positive male role models” and might I ask WHY those positive male role models are not in the room with us right now?

11 notes · View notes

thoughtportal · 3 months

Text

MLK it didn't cost the nation one penny

#tiktok #MLK #civil rights #wealth inequality #all labor has dignity #labor movement #wealth redistribution #wage slavery #minimum wage #living wage #inequality #poverty #wealth

91 notes · View notes

progressivemillennial · 3 months

Text

#politics #us politics #progressive #capitalism #living wage #minimum wage #economics #poverty #middle class #class war #workers rights #labor rights

11 notes · View notes