I recently read 'Hand to Mouth, Living in Bootstrap America', by Linda Tirado (2014). Below is what she writes on page 11. it is not that I agree we are/were not better paid than minimum wage but what causes the deep anger and frustration is the discrimination concerning the lack of 'benefits', the lack of respect that was initiated and is still perpetrated by companies like Microsoft and most high tech firms in the US toward their "temps'. Who remembers Bob Herbold and his despise for "useless fixed assets"? Unfortunately, the more things change...
"There is something even worse than minimum wage. It's called temp work... companies regularly hire temps to work full time hours, but because they hire these workers through temporary work agencies, they have to pay no benefits and offer no job security. To save a buck, companies will regularly hire such workers for years -years. And they do it because it's cheaper than hiring labor directly..." Of course companies save more than 'a buck', they save millions of dollars. The short text above resonated with me because it triggered back all the bitterness accumulated with years of discrimination, years of attempts to crush our union organizing efforts and our struggle to get a fairer deal for our work. Our struggle is coming to an end. The last legal fights we had initiated is coming to an end. The bitterness remains. Obviously. Any hope somewhere?
Comments