this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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If your business cannot survive paying living wages then your business does not deserve to survive.
Your business is not more important than the employees, despite whatever they try to say.
+1. A lot of pushback I've seen is along the lines of "but all these business owners will have to close their businesses!". What short sighted BS. We are talking about decades and decades of wage stagnation and business models that are not teneble with living wages. We are talking about a history of having the public subsidize the profits of these businesses through social programs for their workers, while the money stolen from labor goes right into the pockets of the owner.
Will some, or even many, businesses need to close? Yes. Should they have to? Yes. We collectively need to get out of this mindset that MBA-think is the way. It is not.
They can survive by paying living wages. They just don't want to. How would they rake in all that money if they had to spend a little bit extra? Preposterous!
The businesses don't care about employee's lives in the slightest so why should the employees care about the business?
My employer promised a raise after 3 months. It took them over a year and a half for them to finally give me a small raise and it's still below a living wage. They think I'm actually gonna care about my job and do it right when they fucked me over like that? I mean sure it's my fault for sticking around at a shitty company but this situation shouldn't be allowed to happen in the first place. They cost me thousands of dollars that I should have been making. I don't care if I cost them thousands as well.
Also my coworker who gets paid way more than I do does less than a 1/5th of the work that I do but they won't get rid of him.
Oh, I know they won't close. That's just their threat. They keep saying "oh woe is us, if we have to pay living wages then we won't be able to keep the staff hours or we'll go out of business and look at all the employees that would lose their jobs."
But it's a thinly veiled threat and always has been. What they are saying is "if you do this, I'll hurt all these people in response."
If your business closes because you can't manage your costs, then another business will fill the void that can. Isn't that how they always describe capitalism and the "free" market? They have money to pay for all this media and "reporters" to repeat their propaganda. They'd rather pay that then spend the same on their employees.