America: Land Of The (Working For) Free

America: Land Of The (Working For) Free

Posted by Kris E. Benson

Yesterday we brought you the depressing story of a man who had worked for McDonald’s for twenty years and was still getting paid minimum wage. Now, of course, there is an argument to be made that it was kind of his fault that he was still getting paid minimum wage after all those years. Instead of continuing to work for McDonald’s, he should have gone to that one place where they just GIVE OUT JOBS to black men who don’t have college degrees — jobs that pay a living wage and have benefits and opportunities for upward mobility. Ha ha, just kidding, there is no Job Handing Out Place, not for black men or for anyone else, but there are places where you can BEG to work for FREE, and get a job where you work for FREE, but only if you are INCREDIBLY LUCKY and have NO LIFE and demonstrate COMPLETE FEALTY to your “employer,” only then will you get to work for free. See, doesn’t the guy working for McDonald’s for 20 years look like a genius now? This really puts things into perspective. Anyway, more about a fantastic opportunity to work for free:

Dalkey Archive is a prestigious small press that publishes poetry, as well as works of contemporary and classic works of fiction. And if you’re very, very lucky, and have no life, and don’t talk back, and are practically perfect in EVERY WAY, they will give you a job working for free. And if you REALLY REALLY deserve it, after an unspecified probationary period they might — MIGHT — just promote you to paid work. No guarantees though, OK?

Any of the following will be grounds for immediate dismissal during the probationary period: coming in late or leaving early without prior permission; being unavailable at night or on the weekends; failing to meet any goals; giving unsolicited advice about how to run things; taking personal phone calls during work hours; gossiping; misusing company property, including surfing the internet while at work; submission of poorly written materials; creating an atmosphere of complaint or argument; failing to respond to emails in a timely way; not showing an interest in other aspects of publishing beyond editorial; making repeated mistakes; violating company policies. DO NOT APPLY if you have a work history containing any of the above.

Working for free is the new normal, didn’t you know? No really, it’s the new normal. From an article in Fortune magazine, wayyy back in 2011:

With nearly 14 million unemployed workers in America, many have gotten so desperate that they’re willing to work for free. While some businesses are wary of the legal risks and supervision such an arrangement might require, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right. “People who work for free are far hungrier than anybody who has a salary, so they’re going to outperform, they’re going to try to please,  they’re going to be creative,” says Kelly Fallis, chief executive of  Remote Stylist, a Toronto and New York-based startup….”Ten years from now, this is going to be the norm,” she says.

Maybe it IS the new norm ALREADY.  There are roughly 20 paid Reddit employees running a company that may be worth as much as $100 million or more . Wikipedia has 35 paid employees and the rest work for free as “moderators.” HuffPo has a small core staff of paid workers and the rest write for free. Pinterest has 19 paid employees and the rest of its content is generated for free by users. Tumblr has 18 paid employees, like Pinterest and Reddit, its content is generated for free by users.

So if you’re REALLY REALLY lucky, you can aspire to one day work for free, or if you’re EVEN LUCKIER, maybe you are doing it ALREADY!

[Salon]

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• McDonald’s franchisee in Denver metro area pays $58,227 in back wages (denverpost.com)
• In rare strike, NYC fast-food workers walk out (salon.com)
• Fast-Food Workers in New York City Rally for Higher Wages (nytimes.com)
• Tyree Johnson, McDonald’s Worker, Still Makes Minimum Wage After 20 Years Of Service (huffingtonpost.com)
• McDonald’s $8.25 per hour highlights pay gap in fast food (charlotteobserver.com)
• McDonald’s Employee Excited to Be Earning Minimum Wage After 20 Years On the Job (wonkette.com)
• McDonald’s minimum-wage workers, high-paid CEOs highlight massive pay gap between rich and poor (business.financialpost.com)
• McDonald’s $8.25 Man and $8.75 Million CEO Shows Pay Gap (bloomberg.com)

German Higher Pay Boosts Higher Profits

German auto manufacturers’ high profits and high pay show why U.S. labor laws need to be stronger

German car manufacturers make more than twice as many cars as American manufacturers. German auto workers earn an average of $67.14 in wages and benefits, while American auto workers earn an average of $33.77. We’re told that American auto workers need to accept pay cuts because they earn too much for the manufacturers to be profitable, yet German manufacturers are very profitable despite paying so much more. So, how does that work?

At Remapping Debate, Kevin Brown explains that:

In addition to high trade union density supporting the power of German autoworkers’ wages, the German constitution itself includes a second mechanism for keeping employees involved in the decisions of the firm for which they work. The Works Constitution Act provides for the creation of Works Councils in each factory. The Works Councils provide a mechanism through which a company’s management must work with employees, whether they are in a union or not, on issues affecting work life, such as shop floor conditions, scheduling shifts, and other issues particular to the factory. This system, according to Mund, institutionalized “direct contact for workers’ representatives with management at various levels, from lower to middle to senior management in daily affairs. So you exercise some kind of dialogue where you don’t always wear your management pin or your union pin.”

In the United States, of course, management doesn’t have to involve workers in decision-making. They can fight to get a voice on the job by joining a union, but the deck is stacked against that happening, even in states without right to work free rider laws, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, unionizing is the only chance they have to get management to the table to talk.

In case you were in any doubt that the difference is about the laws countries have regarding workers rights and power, not about corporations in some countries just naturally being nicer to their workers than those in others, consider what happens when German auto manufacturers open up shop in the United States: They take advantage of both the cheap labor and the chance to keep their workers out of the decision-making process. They locate in free rider states and resist unions. They pay lower wages than American manufacturers.

German auto manufacturers like BMW and Volkswagen have, in other words, shown that they can be profitable while their workers make extremely good wages and benefits and have a voice in decisions that affect them. But they’ve also shown that they won’t do it if someone doesn’t make them. That’s why we need laws that level the playing field for American workers—and how we know, despite what Republicans tell us, that those laws won’t tank our economy.

Related articles

• German auto manufacturers’ high profits and high pay show why U.S. labor laws need to be stronger (dailykos.com)
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• BlackBerrys to clock off alongside VW workers (theglobeandmail.com)
• Report: How Germany builds 2x as many cars as U.S. while paying 2x the salaries (autoblog.com)
• German Higher Pay Boosts Higher Profits (theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com)