Republican's anti-labor policies

[stpioc]

When you leave a few bucks on the table for your waitress at the diner, you probably assume that she'll scrape together enough Washingtons by the end of the evening to get by, since those tips augment the same $8.60-an-hour everybody else gets. Wrong on both counts.

New Jersey, like many states, has a $2.13 minimum wage for restaurant servers, so "they live on tips" is simply a fact. And last month, Donald Trump's Department of Labor made it legal for employers to grab a part of that tip for themselves. That's right, the boss gets first dibs, as long as these employees are paid up to the regular minimum wage once their pay is calculated.

It's called "tip-stealing," and it's going to squeeze 140,000 workers in our state especially hard. How hard? Tipped workers will lose $119.7 million a year in New Jersey - and $5.8 billion nationally - according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. And women will be hit especially hard, as they represent 80 percent of that work group..

Your waitress makes $2.13 per hour. And now Trump wants to take her tips | Editorial | NJ.com

[stpioc]

Welcome to the consequences of right-wingers assault on worker rights and deregulation in general, and the gig-economy:

• No bargaining power
  
• No recourse to the law (signed away through forced arbitration)
  
• No healthcare
  
• No pensions
  
• Little or no wage rises, hardly making up for inflation, let alone the much higher rise in cost of healthcare and education
  
• Everything deregulated, giving even more power to corporations to control their workers
  

Zachariah Vargas was six hours into his shift delivering packages for Amazon. He was about to drop off a package when he accidentally slammed the door of his truck on his hand. The door clicked shut, trapping his middle and ring fingers. Once he freed his fingers, the blood began to pour. Both of Vargas' arms started to shake involuntarily. The lacerations were deep. Vargas thought he glimpsed bone when he wiped away the blood.

Panicked, Vargas called his dispatch supervisor, who was working at a nearby Amazon facility. He said he received no sympathy. "The first thing they asked was, 'How many packages do you have left?'" he told Business Insider. Vargas had dozens remaining. Delivering them all would take several hours. Still, his supervisor advised him to drop them all off before returning to the station or seeking care. Vargas ignored his boss and headed back. He was worried, and there was no first-aid kit in the truck. When he arrived at the station he said he was mocked. "My dispatcher kept saying, 'Are you dying right now? Girls have come back with worse wounds than you,'" Vargas said. The same manager ordered Vargas to unload his truck and pointed toward an Amazon official at the warehouse and told him: "Amazon is watching you. They don't like when undelivered packages come back." Vargas also claims another supervisor told him he should have knocked on a customer's door to ask for a Band-Aid, then continued on his route. The supervisors told him to go to the hospital to prove he was injured, even though he did not have health insurance at the time, Vargas said.

Amazon delivery drivers reveal claims of disturbing work conditions - Business Insider

Some drivers described a variety of alleged abuses, including lack of overtime pay, missing wages, intimidation, and favoritism. Many of these drivers also described a physically demanding work environment in which, under strict time constraints, they felt pressured to drive at dangerously high speeds, blow stop signs, and urinate in bottles on their trucks. The drivers we interviewed are managed by third-party courier companies that work out of Amazon facilities. Amazon provides the companies with packages, delivery routes, navigation software, and scanning devices. In response to this story, Amazon said, "While it is impossible to characterize a network of thousands of delivery drivers based on anecdotes, we do recognize small businesses sometimes need more support when scaling fast." The company also said it's working to improve the system through a new program that provides special rates for van maintenance, insurance plans, and other assets.

Amazon delivery drivers reveal claims of disturbing work conditions - Business Insider

[Admin]

Declining unionization, increasingly demanding and empowered shareholders, decreasing real minimum wages, reduced worker protections, and the increases in outsourcing domestically and abroad have disempowered workers with profound consequences for the labor market and the broader economy

Declining worker power and American economic performance