The Most Sacred Holiday Next Weekend [Archive]

TerrorEd

08-27-2005, 04:41 AM

The first Monday of September has been set aside to honor the efforts of the toiling masses in the USA. To me, it's the most Sacred Holiday of all Holidays, bar none. I'd like to see Labor Day extended worldwide, with equal pay, benefits, and working conditions to the third-world nations trying to gain a foothold in the global economy.

It's time to put a stop to the sweatshop exploitation of children and adults now involved in the so-called "Global Economy". The only folks that seem to be doing well are well-to-do stockholders, oil barons, and corporate america (Can you say: Wal-Mart?).

Together, we can make a change, a change for the better of all.

DON'T SHOP LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Make your purchases for the Holiday ahead of time, even beer . You know gas prices are gonna go up that weekend, fill-up B-4!

"Workers of the world, UNITE!"

Ed.

Purjal

08-27-2005, 05:41 AM

But Ed, we have one of our biggest sales that Monday and I can't cancel it now!

:1kiss1:

BWS

08-27-2005, 06:37 AM

Sorry...but I need everyone to be out and about on Labor Day...because I will be working..its just another Monday....So everyone go to a restaurant for lunch because the servers need you to be there...lol..

My whopping 3.13 an hour won't even cover the food the boy will be eating me out of while he's home and i work ;)

Powerhouse

08-27-2005, 09:03 AM

I plan to watching a lot of TV for Labor Day - pretty much how I celebrate it every year. :)

juliatheena

08-27-2005, 09:59 AM

I'll be doing laundry as usual.

$3.13 per hour for waitressing? Where do you live? In Calif, it's at LEAST minimum wage regardless of your profession.

Don't get me started on Tips. My whole adult working life was in the restaurant industry. WHY should tips be included as income when they are not a mandatory option? Now if the tip were INCLUDED in the bill, then ok. BUT....when someone does not tip, then you are taxed anyways? Sucks.

When I was bartending, I had these regular scumbags come in once a week for happy hour. The 6 of them would sit at the bar, drink multiple beers, eat most of the happy hour food, even the GARNISHES, run me ragged and leave a BIG FAT ZERO tip. :mad: Assholes. One time they left me a dime, and as they were leaving, I yelled after them....WOW! A WHOLE DIME!!! Bad thing to do. The manager heard me and wrote me up. Anyways, they had a $102 tab, no tip, I was taxed 15% of that.

Optional tipping should not be taxed. Period.

Heartland

08-27-2005, 10:13 AM

I agree with Julia about the taxes, but I also hate the entire idea of tipping. (I am a good tipper, though.) I think servers should be paid a decent wage by their employers, period. If they're not doing their job properly, let the employer handle it, instead of the customer/tipper.

The servers here make a measly $2.20 an hour, so tips are extremely important for them.

Yes, don't boycott the restaurants on Labor Day. The servers are workers too, and not only do they not get a day off, but they have to kiss major ass to make a decent living. They all have hair-raising war stories.

juliatheena

08-27-2005, 11:27 AM

Tell me about it Sandy.

I did nearly every job there is in the industry, then went into mgmt. Ugh. The ass-kissing I had to do was unbearable at times. I had one customer tell me, in a full dining room, at the top of his voice: "You can shove that plate up your ASS BITCH!!"

:1fuck2: were my thoughts.

BTW...I was in mgmt for 12 years. I was a good mgr, but a lot of the customers were plain assholes.

Monique Renee

08-27-2005, 02:47 PM

The practicing of tipping, and neckties for men should be done away with. JMHO.

krisinluck

08-27-2005, 02:56 PM

The thread has derailed, and I'm going to join in the restaurant business slamming. :D

It's a helluva way to make a living - here the minimum wage for servers is $3 an hour. Sure, you can make a killing on a good night, but man. It should be worth more to the employers.

lmao @ Julia's Happy Hour idiots! BTDT! Although when I got the shitty coin tip, I just politely called after them, ran around the bar and dropped it in his stunned hand with a smile and a "oh! You forgot your change!"

And then I would go behind the bar and stick pins in a wax figure of them. :D

BWS

08-27-2005, 09:28 PM

:1jamesbon Sorry for the hijack..lol...I get a whopping 3.13 because Florida Voters passed a mandatory minimum wage increase of a dollar an hour for all mins and tipped empolyees...but then again I actually lost .50 cents per hour because I was at a training bump...lol...

sadie999

08-27-2005, 09:56 PM

The thread shouldn't derail in a country where wages have been basically frozen for almost two decades while the costs of "luxuries" like health insurance and gasoline have skyrocketed.

It shouldn't derail in a country where workers have watched even mid-level jobs go overseas and as consumers we all suffer when customer service, tech support, etc. is given to us in broken English by the very people who are working jobs that should have stayed here.

Hey, if a career smelling like grease from slinging McShitBurgers is all you want for your kids, stick your heads in the sand.

But please don't treat the original post as something trite.

krisinluck

08-28-2005, 02:34 AM

Sadie, for some of us, the only work available now is slinging hash and smelling like grease - simply because the jobs went overseas and everything else has gone to hell.

I left a corporate job - nice shoes, nice hair, nice private office for chrissakes - and moved up here. Rural communities don't have corporate options. Food service. Convenience store. Grocery store (that pays $6 an hour to stock or cashier, but for an extra buck an hour you can work in the deli and smell like chicken grease constantly because it doesn't wash completely off of you). Or a wood factory, like my husband - who comes home covered in sawdust every day. His job is a rare one that offers health insurance up here, and for a family of four? A quarter of his weekly take home.

I won't be shopping on Labor Day weekend. I'll be working.

I never thought it was trite. I just morphed into a commentary of tipped employees because that's how a lot of us attempt to make ends meet. Tipped employees are part of the labor force, even though they rarely get Labor Day off. If no one eats out on Labor Day, then that slams some of the lowest paid workers America has. That's all.

And now, I'm off to work. At 4:30 AM on a Sunday morning. That's not sticking my head in the sand - it's doing what I need to do to provide for my family.

TerrorEd

08-28-2005, 05:15 AM

"Tipped employees are part of the labor force, even though they rarely get Labor Day off. If no one eats out on Labor Day, then that slams some of the lowest paid workers America has. That's all."

I'd never slam you, Kris. In our current economy, the worker does what the worker has to do. 'Sides, eatin' ain't 'zactly shoppin'..... ;) I think you should be able to have the whole weekend off, with pay !

"But please don't treat the original post as something trite."

Sadie, your post tends to mirror my thoughts, other than the last sentence. Most of the other posts to this thread are the thoughts of workers addressing their concerns. I consider their opinions to be a concensus of the working class, ie: us. I don't read any of the posts as being trite.

"But Ed, we have one of our biggest sales that Monday and I can't cancel it now!"

I understand, you n' Joe cook up some brats for the workers! Get 'em some beer too, for after work.... :D

Ed.

Hellzapopin

08-28-2005, 05:20 AM

You are absolutely right, ed. We need to seriously reflect on what is happening to this country and it's economic base. It is indeed a challenge to go anywhere and purchase anything that can claim to be Made in USA. My shunning of Walmart, for example, is year-round.

We plan to spend this holiday at home.....eating out of the garden and putting our feet up out on the porch. Thanks for the advice about buying gas and beer early....will do!

socrfan2

08-28-2005, 10:17 AM

As long as people below the national average in income continue to vote for "good Christian candidates" like Tom DeLay and George W Bush, we'll continue to get tax cuts for the rich; repeal of inheritance taxes; corporate welfare and bailouts; and shams like Bush's initiatives to "save" the national forests (by cutting them down), "save" Medicare (by giving major bailouts to HMOs and drug companies), and "save" Social Security (by dismantling it).

I know, the Democrats are barely better. But when people vote because their minister says "he's a good Christian, that's all that matters," they will continue to get screwed.

I agree, Ed, it's the most important holiday. But workers are an endangered species, and we made it happen. We inherited from our parents a country that seemed to have boundless opportunity and where any HS graduate had a ticket to a safe job and "the good life." We're giving our kids a country that's bankrupt and where "career opportunities" run the gamut from Wal-mart to Kinko's, where any job with "benefits" is the elite.

pcgoddess

08-28-2005, 10:54 AM

I SOO agree with this post. My family is fortunate enough to earn above the national average and I really dislike this class and culture war the right has started against anybody that doesn't agree with them. We were in the trenches once...working every holiday and struggling to make ends meet. I never forget where we started and what it took to get here now. Folks of higher means, IMHO, should not forget about others not so affluent. And in small ways, like treating service workers with respect. Unless I get crappy service, we tip 20% at least.

Socrfan2's post reminds me of a story I heard the other day. There was a woman who lost a niece to leukemia a few years back...this child wanted to meet the president and got a half hour to meet Clinton with her family. When Mr. Clinton found out they only had half an hour, he cancelled the rest of his appointments that day, took them to lunch and spent the whole day with that dying girl AND kept in touch until she passed. The woman telling the story broke down and cried.

Maybe our good Christian politicians do that as well, but I never hear about it. They are trying to take apart the New Deal and don't care who gets hurt in the process.

As long as people below the national average in income continue to vote for "good Christian candidates" like Tom DeLay and George W Bush, we'll continue to get tax cuts for the rich; repeal of inheritance taxes; corporate welfare and bailouts; and shams like Bush's initiatives to "save" the national forests (by cutting them down), "save" Medicare (by giving major bailouts to HMOs and drug companies), and "save" Social Security (by dismantling it).

I know, the Democrats are barely better. But when people vote because their minister says "he's a good Christian, that's all that matters," they will continue to get screwed.

I agree, Ed, it's the most important holiday. But workers are an endangered species, and we made it happen. We inherited from our parents a country that seemed to have boundless opportunity and where any HS graduate had a ticket to a safe job and "the good life." We're giving our kids a country that's bankrupt and where "career opportunities" run the gamut from Wal-mart to Kinko's, where any job with "benefits" is the elite.

krisinluck

08-28-2005, 01:07 PM

LOL...I'm home. Eighteen hours plus in two days...I am a tired woman. As long as people below the national average in income continue to vote for "good Christian candidates" like Tom DeLay and George W Bush, we'll continue to get tax cuts for the rich; repeal of inheritance taxes; corporate welfare and bailouts; and shams like Bush's initiatives to "save" the national forests (by cutting them down), "save" Medicare (by giving major bailouts to HMOs and drug companies), and "save" Social Security (by dismantling it). You forgot "No Child Left Behind" - in and of itself the biggest load of legalese bullshit I ever tried to decipher. It's of little use to the parents who spend time working with their kids and the school - it's part of the overall dumbing down of America that will make those trips to Walmart even more hellish than they usually are. :irollers4

krisinluck

08-28-2005, 01:09 PM

There was a woman who lost a niece to leukemia a few years back...this child wanted to meet the president and got a half hour to meet Clinton with her family. When Mr. Clinton found out they only had half an hour, he cancelled the rest of his appointments that day, took them to lunch and spent the whole day with that dying girl AND kept in touch until she passed. The woman telling the story broke down and cried.

Maybe our good Christian politicians do that as well, but I never hear about it. They are trying to take apart the New Deal and don't care who gets hurt in the process. Bush is too busy vacationing to take time like that!

He should be ashamed of himself, taking five weeks of vacation in one fell swoop when most of the people in this country are lucky to get a three day weekend without pay.

pcgoddess

08-28-2005, 02:04 PM

Yep, gotta love it...and now the administration spin is that he is on a "working vacation doing the people's work." Makes me wanna gag.

This arrogant excuse of a man doesn't have it in him to feel ashamed...I truly think he could care less about normal everyday people.

Bush is too busy vacationing to take time like that!

He should be ashamed of himself, taking five weeks of vacation in one fell swoop when most of the people in this country are lucky to get a three day weekend without pay.

toke

08-28-2005, 02:51 PM

Remember the famous comment? "Poor George. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

It makes me sick that so many are still buying his disgusting, self-serving BS. :1drummer1

oddish

08-28-2005, 03:16 PM

I originally opened this thread to see what Toke had to say because even when I disagree with her she always makes me think and I'm glad I did.

I have no idea where to even start.

I know this is a derail but just bear with me k? I think the phrase "good christian" should be banished from society. If you really are a "good christian" then no one need mention it at all, people will know it by their interaction with you. Not to mention adding christian to it implies that there aren't good buddists or jews or anything else. The whole thing irritates me. How about just a good person or a nice person or a decent fellow? What is supposed to be a good christain anyway? From the way some people act it's showing up every week and going through the motions...BAH that's pucky. Not that their isn't a place for showing up and doing all the "right" things but if you treat people like garbage or gossip about them or make them feel inferior or uncomfortable around you then how good could you be? Of course that doesn't mean you can't have your principals and stick by them. Go ahead but no one has ever in the histry of the world thought to themselves..gee that person makes me feel like crap..I think I'll be just like them. Off soap box.

I could write reams about being a waitress. I, too think the tipping system should be done away with but for now it's what's there and stiffing your server only hurts them. Working your butt off running all over all night and going home with under 5.00 a night is just depressing and happens way way too often.

No child left behind....ohhh what an enourmous pice of garbage that is. Until this country stops gaging people on standardized tests I'm afraid there will always be those left behind. People are so different. They learn differently. A test is nothing more than a snapshot of that second which means nothing. Not everyone is cut out to be a college grad but we need everyone. Machanics and construction workers mean just as much as a lawyer. These kids are dying under rules instead of flourishing according to their own set of talents. It's disgusting.

Good thread ED which speaks to many points about America.

toke

08-28-2005, 03:34 PM

Hi, Oddish... :)

I'm all for tips...as a real gratuity given for superior service. Not an expected thing that's just there to allow employers to pay less. Not served up in a "pool" so that lazy servers get the same amount as those that do their best and go beyond the bare minimum required not to get fired.

Can you tell I waitressed back in the day? ;)

socrfan2

08-28-2005, 03:35 PM

No child left behind....ohhh what an enourmous pice of garbage that is. Until this country stops gaging people on standardized tests I'm afraid there will always be those left behind. People are so different. They learn differently. A test is nothing more than a snapshot of that second which means nothing. Not everyone is cut out to be a college grad but we need everyone. Machanics and construction workers mean just as much as a lawyer. These kids are dying under rules instead of flourishing according to their own set of talents. It's disgusting.

Even worse is the fact that it's questionable how well (if at all) standardized tests measure academic skills, either. People who have the money to take test prep courses or who "have a talent for taking tests" are going to do better than equally intelligent people who don't. Besides the 30 days a year or so most school systems spend TAKING these bleeding tests, more and more of them are setting aside even more time to teach kids the utterly useless "skills" they need to take the test.

All the money Bush's people brag about that they've supposedly put into education, mainly goes two places -- companies that publish and grade standardized tests and commercial "approved" tutoring centers, like Sylvan Learning Center, that charge top dollar for their rather dubious "services."

NCLB is so characteristic of this miserable little administration -- like the drug benefit or the social security "reform" or the forest service "reform" or the "energy policy" -- they're all just bailouts for politically influential industries. A lot of people think it's just a slightly dressed up way to justify gutting the public schools and providing federal vouchers for "segregation academies" -- a goal of the GOP for at least the past 30 years.

oddish

08-28-2005, 03:48 PM

I have one of those kids. He can pass any test ever given to him. He just has a talent for it. Does he have any idea in two weeks what was on those tests? No.

I have another one who simply can't take tests. He fails but he knows more of the material in two weeks time than the other.

My latest complaint is that they won't let you be in any advanced classes unless your gpa is high enough. It matters not if you are a straight a supurb student in English and suck at other things. You will not be allowed to continue your above average performance in an accelerated English class unless you are good at everything. Deafeating and stupid.

bluekazoo

08-28-2005, 04:04 PM

Well what's the sense in THAT? So now - if a kid is good in math, he should be held back with the rest, just because he is NOT so good in English?

If there's a way for them to screw things up, they will. That much we can count on ... DH and I were talking just today, playing the 'Name One Program That Hasn't Been FUBAR'd' ... we couldn't come up with a single one.

Used to laugh when Letterman said we were 'very near the end of civilization as we know it' ... I don't find it so amusing anymore ...

oddish

08-28-2005, 04:16 PM

I wish I could tell you what the point is but I can't figure it out. My daughter is very very good at English and has even won awards for her writing. She sucks really bad at science and barely passed it which killed her GPA. The real nasty partis she tried. She studied her butt off, went to tutoring, everyhting she could to undertsnad the science. She just didn't get it. So now she can't take her English class....the point being...I have no clue.

krisinluck

08-28-2005, 04:18 PM

All the money Bush's people brag about that they've supposedly put into education, mainly goes two places -- companies that publish and grade standardized tests and commercial "approved" tutoring centers, like Sylvan Learning Center, that charge top dollar for their rather dubious "services."Amen. Educuation is not important enough to actually put the money into *teaching* - but lip service and lining already well insulated pockets? That's the life blood of this administration.< snip >Not an expected thing that's just there to allow employers to pay less. Not served up in a "pool" so that lazy servers get the same amount as those that do their best and go beyond the bare minimum required not to get fired.I never worked so hard as I did in a "pool tips" environment. The the girls leaning against the wall, twirling their hair and talking about last night's party, and in my damned WAY while I hauled food as fast as my short legs would carry me...and they got an equal cut of the tips? Bullshit. I was 21 when I learned that lesson, and I've stuck to it for nearly 20 years now. I don't care if they pay me more an hour...Never EVER again will I work for anyone who believes that pooling tips creates better service.

And lastly, this is exactly why I heart Oddish, even if she is a Republican (which I most certainly am NOT...no matter what she says ;) ):I think the phrase "good christian" should be banished from society. If you really are a "good christian" then no one need mention it at all, people will know it by their interaction with you. Not to mention adding christian to it implies that there aren't good buddists or jews or anything else. The whole thing irritates me. How about just a good person or a nice person or a decent fellow? What is supposed to be a good christain anyway? From the way some people act it's showing up every week and going through the motions...BAH that's pucky. Not that their isn't a place for showing up and doing all the "right" things but if you treat people like garbage or gossip about them or make them feel inferior or uncomfortable around you then how good could you be? Of course that doesn't mean you can't have your principals and stick by them. Go ahead but no one has ever in the histry of the world thought to themselves..gee that person makes me feel like crap..I think I'll be just like them. Well done.

krisinluck

08-28-2005, 04:20 PM

Well what's the sense in THAT? So now - if a kid is good in math, he should be held back with the rest, just because he is NOT so good in English?Luck School ran into a funding problem a few years ago. Tried to pass the referendum FOUR times before it went through. They cut the gifted program anyway, and did a lovely remodel on the commons area and beefed up sports.

And this is why teachers live on an annual salary that is less than any professional sports figure.

bluekazoo

08-28-2005, 04:37 PM

Oh do NOT even get me STARTED on funded high school sports activities.

I think exercise and team-playing is great for kids, don't get me wrong ... but the fact that it now takes precedence over music, art, and even accelerated learning programs absolutely bites ...

Women should rule the damned world, I'm telling ya ... we couldn't do any worse than the guys that are currently in charge ...

Wanna stage a takeover? I believe we've got them 51-49 ...