93 Million Man Service Industry Strike, DO IT

Economics is a hot topic on Ats these days. Many of us are being forced to take second jobs, (myself included ) and Corporate America is seriously riding our necks in a terrible way. I wish to propose a handful of solutions that I think are viable with the proper public out cry.

1: Unionize the Service Industry

As America becomes both a Communication and or a Service Industry Economy isn't it high time we did something to assure that the bulk of our citizens get paid properly?

I have a friend who works in Fast Food every single night his register takes in aprox 3000.00-4000.00 dollars yet.. He makes 7.50 per hr, receives no benefits and is not allowed to so much as have a jar out for tips either!!!!

The sheer grotesque behavior to employees in the service Industry is intolerable. These companies make gross profits, usually the owner of such places works as little as 20 hrs a week if a franchise and takes in yearly an income in the high 6 figures.

I propose a National Service Industry Strike

93 million Americans work in the service Industry

93 Million Americans the BULK of our work force, we could cripple the country in a single organized strike until they gave in to some simple demands that would never affect the bottom line in anyway and make massive economic improvements and stimulate the economy. These people are not 2nd class citizens nor do they deserve to be treated as such.

I remember only 20 years ago when I was a teen... I worked for a Supermarket

I was in the grocers Union at the age of 18 (which I don't know if that even exists to any degree anymore)

I received benefits

I received a small raise every 90 days

I received time and 1/2 pay for any day over 8 hrs

Breaks, small ones, were not deducted from the clock

I received Double Time on Holidays

The chain was required to give x amount of overtime EVER WEEK to good employees

When I worked deli counter I was allowed to eat a small meal every day with no charge instead of buying lunch

The registers if available were always kept full.

I was given comfortable employee discounts virtually to cost.

This was only 20 short years ago.

I'm sorry but 93 Million Americans are being raped and if they can't spend money you can't buy houses or clothes or go out at night, the economy can NEVER recover unless something is done to help 93 Million people who are being treated like animals by CEO's around the country

A nationwide Service strike is in order and formation of a single Massively powerful Union

Some of the demands... (and please feel free to chime in)

Benefits

reversal of overtime to include over 8 hrs a day not a two week period

Guarantee of a certain percentage of hrs dedicated to overtime.

Elimination of the ability to not pay minimum wage to employees that receive "tips"

Guarantees for minimum raises over time

Vacation time DOUBLED like Europe and Paid

Minimum #'s of employees on duty vs gross profits i.e Walmart can't keep 2 people on register and hire low on nights were they take 30,000 dollars, requirements to not overwork minimum numbers of staff

Service is crap...pure crap with these business practices it is inconceivable to me when i walk into a mega mart of sorts at 11 at night and there are 200 people in the store, no one to help you but a skeleton crew and one register line open, it's abominable, the prices aren't even cheap anymore so where do these profits go?

This is asking for nothing, but giving back what was common employee related practice 20-25 years ago.



2: Divorce insurance

This as part of any benefits package and available fairly, I was divorced and all I will say is if you want an economy to work with an 80% divorce rates you should be able to pay 5-10.00 a week and if divorced for man and woman receive, 10 g at least, to buy a car, get a new apt and feed your kids or make any basic payments.

Something at least of this nature, no one should starve or loose a place to live due to this event that affects almost every single one of us practically at one time or another.

It might not be a pretty part of American culture, but if you can't be there for your kids you end up with damaged traumatized children who the rest of us then have to live with for the next 70 years

I don't propose this as welfare, but if the same 93 million Americans above were being paid fairly 10 or 20 dollars a week would be immaterial to assure your life in the event of a tragedy

Amounts could reflect what you have paid in like ss security have finite caps but we can't have holes in our society


#3 Minimum wage HAS to by law reflect the poverty line... that would up minimum wage at a guess to 10.00 - 11.00 an hr.



Let me first say I am an entrepreneur, I was also a Republican my whole life I do NOT buy into the shtick that this would, any of this would ruin small business...

What has happened since the people of America have been lost to these things since the inception of laws to "protect small business"? SMALL BUSINESS HAS BEEN DEVASTATED BY THE LIKES OF WALMART AND IT'S ILK

I Can not be an Capitalist if the people have no money to spend, mega corps have decimated the work force AND small business in tandem by being able to RAPE profits at our expense and up the value of commercial properties hand in hand with the banks there Is No More Small Business practically...

This is Rape, we are being violated...

I am a capitalist and I need to PAY employees for them to do good work and I need people paid to be a capitalist they need to go on vacations and spend money, they need to go OUT at night...

I don't want to be here right now... I want to be out, at a movie, but these things can't happen because the economy sucks, it's a spiral and our Money is VANISHING into thin air.

This is simply not acceptable

Organize, start talking about it,

93 Million person Service Industry STRIKE, cut them where they live. Make the NWO Cry, DO IT

I can concur with most of yur points. I would also think that we are being raped by the hike in prices on Housing and Atoumobiles, they are not worth what we are asked to pay for them, What if we were to offer a fair price for above mentioned, refuse any attempt to get ore. Banks, morgage brokers, and auto co. would be inundated with unsold real tangent properties and would be forced to loser prices to somethin more tolerable and affordable.

Just thought

reply to post by Pappa_Bear


The price of Housing is ridiculously high like many industries it suffers a bit from gross profiteering.

But it bears mentioning, construction workers mainly start at a living wage have unions and get paid decently, if housing prices are bit high as a result, that would be okay provided the rest of American wages were in par with the same kinds of standards

With that said there isn't much accounting for the price of houses these days, land value is overrated and the manner in which houses are built today is substandard to even 100 years ago, chicken wire and stucco and cloned floor plans and cloned exteriors don't really do it for me personally. Not for a half a Mil at least.

Mopus, normally I'm on your side...but I have two major problems with your theory here. First, bumping min wage up to 11 bucks an hour would cut me and others like me to the bone. I make 15 which in Oklahoma is awesome, but if you bump others up, MY pay will stay the same, meaning I am now 3 dollars away from completely unskilled labor. That segues in to my second point:

Where do you think that extra money will come from? They corporations won't take it away from expenditures or CEO's salary...they will drop it on us, the consumer. That means, in the jist of things, the people who just got the pay raise see no difference, but I DAMN sure do. Instead of me paying 3 bucks for my Big Mac, I now have to bay 6 bucks for it. The increase is always proportional. You bump someone from 7 to 10 bucks an hour, and you increase your prices by 3 bucks, no one on minimum wage feels the difference. Middle class is slowly squeezed even closer to poverty, and the only people that it doesn't matter to are the ones that have more money than God anyway.

I would say the better way to control that would be to salary cap management, and cap pricing. But that opens up a whole new bag of worms

Oh I'm right there with you on houses. It's ridiculous and completely with out balance. I can punch a whole through the entire wall of the houses being put up today that cost 200, 300 thousand. If I tried that with a 20 thousand dollar house from 1950, I'd break my hand

Hypothetical headline on September 24th, 2009:
Service Industry Strike!
93 Million Americans Stay Home

Hypothetical headline on September 25th, 2009:
Service Industries Rebounds!
93 Million Illegal Aliens Go to Work

...

Hypothetical headline on December 31st, 2009:
Service Industries See Record Quarterly Profits!

Jon

reply to post by midnightbrigade


well you do bring up an excellent point.

The corporations would push the expense off on the people.

There would need to be legislation that prevents them from doing so, In a world of lobbying that would be hard to accomplish, but again 93 million people not going to work for a bit and rent striking would destroy the economy they would have no choice but to do something about it.

Take my example... my friend making 7.50, like I said his register brings in 4 G, rent insurance all of it is covered for the franchise given 3 open, in about 24 hrs as I estimate it.

The MONEY needs to come from the profits, not by raising the .99c menu to 2.99

Somewhere in here restraint of capitalism legislation needs to be proposed, just like we have monopoly laws, monopolizing laws need to be put in place to handle this.

Price gouging has to be made completely illegal.

You have to remember my main point...

You make 15.00 an hr...

20 years ago working in a supermarket at 18-19 years of age... I was up to before quitting due to unions and wage laws about 10.50 an hr a living wage, on overtime for standing behind a register, I made .75 an hr more than you do today with 20 years of inflation to account for...

Business survived, America was wealthy and life went on...

I agree completely with you on that a system of controls would need to be put in place on the price gouging issue, but as i see that, the technical details of demands need to be worked out via discussion, i'm not an expert, and there is time for that by professionals in the course of a strike and negotiation

I think however you need to ask yourself (and I don't know what "profession" your in) Why YOU if your a professional only get 15.00?

I'm in the SW too, notorious Southern Labor abuse highly resistant to Unions, but the reality is 15.00 the problem isn't them getting 10.00 it is why you only get 15.00

I think your allowing yourself to be devalued... Guys I know in professional Unions, one an electrician makes 24.00 an hr, most are in that range...

As a personal Trainer with my share by 22, I was making... about 20-25.00 an hr.

It's NOT allot of money given what the companies charge for your service to others...

We have to fight,

I'm not proposing we ask for anything new... I'm saying life was 10x better with Unions and we have a President who sent Biden around promising Union support... The big corps took advantage of policies designed to HELP small business and eliminated everyone's wages...

But again, if your "service" is professional... then your getting JACKED UP at 15.00 It's hardly above the poverty line my friend

I know the thought is scary...

But these threads lately from me are about Viable options for non violent change, change without actually having to go into Revolution which everyone talks of these days...

This is, a simple solution, demand Unions back, Unionize everything.

We hear everyday that we are SLAVES

and if your working without legal and professional representation, well yeah that's what you actually are... Unions were invented to help the down trodden those who couldn't get that representation alone...

It was good

Again any reason thrown at me as to why NOT... I have a very simple comeback.... 20 years ago this is the way things were, this isn't about demanding something new, it's demanding what was taken from us.

maybe it sounds scary... but the other options violent revolt or the Multinationals one day boarding Jets and simply flying off with YOUR money are worse... there wont be a 15.00 an hr job, there wont be ANY jobs if either of those scenarios come to pass.

reply to post by Voxel


1 major problem with your hypothetical headlines; the last one would most likely say: "Record quarterly losses" as 93 million legal residents would be without a job and having no money, while the illegal immigrants would be making only half or even less than the original 93 million , and unable to afford the cost of living as prices rose in an attempt to recoup the losses.
Sorry no money in our pockets cannot create record quarterly profits, only losses.

reply to post by Voxel


I knew the topics of illegal Aliens would come up...

And it is a part of the reason that Mega Corps are getting away with what they are doing...

But a Strike is a Strike... there aren't 93 Million illegals to fill the jobs

And... they would have to cross the picket line which is kind of scary

And... part of a strike is NOT using those companies, you make a list and 93 Million Americans stop being patrons... They wont have any burgers to flip. If your not consuming them.

reply to post by mopusvindictus


My first job was a union job. I was forced to join the union as part of my job. I was paid minimum wage and the union thugs took out $5/week out of my paycheck. I'll hate unions forever for that. Forever! I'm not one to hold a grudge but when someone commits a bold-faced crime against me and then tells me they are doing me a favor, I'll frankly never forgive them without compensation and apology for the crime. I'll never get that, so I'll never forgive them.

reply to post by truthquest


May I ask... what Union paid minimum wage lol

Seriously, I have never heard of this in my life...

this sounds made up, I need details

reply to post by mopusvindictus


Star, and flag because You have the right idea. I cannot demand anything in particular that You laid out, but definitely can reason with it in a positive light. It would take hours of conversation to work through it, or several pages.

The basic concept is a necessity for radical change. Where the Elite, and power brokers aren't making ungodly percentages above the average worker.

I did a thread that sited the average CEO of today makes around 319% of those working around him...........it's for real. It's not a normal amount, as the usual number has been historically WAY WAY WAY WAY under that, but these minions are being bought, and paid to sell the rest of us down the river.

bailout barons
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Rise of the elites........has a link to article showing history of CEO's/executives earnings, and current earnings
www.abovetopsecret.com...


[edit on 24-9-2009 by sanchoearlyjones]

reply to post by sanchoearlyjones


What i'm trying to do is pose people with act within what rights we have and pose ideas, this thread and the Great vote out... should have labeled it a series.

We don't need to freak out, we have the power to stop this, if we act together and work together.

I want the right ways to do this in the collective unconscious, too many people are just so frustrated they aren't thinking.... we know we are being worked against, the individual debate doesn't matter, we need to use our rights as citizens to get what we want in ways they CAN'T use force against us

Vote... run them all out of office and vote 3rd party

Strike and Protest... exercise right to not go to work, don't pay bills...

We have the legal right to do those things the WORLD will be behind us if we do it the right way and show we aren't the Lazy fearful people the rest of the world thinks we are.

They only get away with it because we allow it, we own the Govt, we have certain basic rights that haven't been taken nor will be.

Unity in action and Non Violent legal measures, together undivided we can do this.

But if we freak out, we are going to loose






[edit on 24-9-2009 by mopusvindictus]

In Oz everyone cant be paid below whats called a industry Award Wage.
And then if you work overtime or nights in service you get paid Time and a Half, or Double time on public hols or after 9pm.
Time and a half=nomal hourly rate plus half the hourly rate
Double time= Double hourly rate.

But tipping isnt huge here (it can be great depending where you work) I think minimum wage for daytime hours is at about 14.56 an hour for hospitality services.
This is for full time work based on a 38 hour week.
If you go over your 38 hours you also get paif time and a half loading.
Leave loading you get 12.5% bonus on those 4 weeks annual.
If you are a casual employee it is higher, but you get no paid leave.

You can negotiate above award wage also, and your skill set you maybe able to get above it.

I know it doesnt do the U.S much good, but setting minimum is a good system.
Oh also you get a thing called CPI each year, which is; with inflation your wage goes up about 3% a year.
Hope that helps a little
Zazzy




[edit on 24-9-2009 by zazzafrazz]

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Yeah, that's basically the way it was here until very, very recently... what they are doing is raising a generation of kids to EXPECT nothing for their Labor...

OZ survives fine, business thrives and people are treated as humans even if they haven't lit the world on fire...

It was like that when I was a kid...

This thread demands nothing of them but to stop robbing us, there is actually no major change proposed here but a return of rights to workers, rights we had when we were a CREDITOR NATION and a King of Capitalism... things we no longer are

reply to post by mopusvindictus


Oz is the only 1st world coutnry to not hit a recession, I think its because of a number of factors, but strong employment guideles is one, also the Govt gave us all money to keep spending...yikes.
We also are a major trade partner with China.
We kept our ties strong in Aisa instead of bothering everyone...lol

reply to post by zazzafrazz


It's pretty simple, if people can go to the movies and out for drinks... your economy wont stink.

We have freaks in charge prepping for a police State in America and The UK... with no common sense that this has never sustained itself in all human history

People have to be able to buy things even if your only interest is funding a war, Even Hitler had the brains to shell out TV's and Volkswagons to try and achieve his maniacal goals

reply to post by mopusvindictus


I'm behind You all the way!!! The ideology of the worker's standing up withstands the age of time. We just need to do a little encouraging is all

Proposing a strike is a slap in the face for the millions of americans who have been laid off over the past several years. You don't like your job? Well just be glad you have one. I for one want to slap every person who has the nuts to go on strike in these economic times, including TEACHERS (who enjoy their nice summer vacations every year and expect everyone to feel sorry for them because they are "teaching the future of the world. . sniff, sniff). Well, the rest of blue collar america doesn't work that way, so why should teachers be an exception? Pure BS.

The Man has always taken advantage of said worker, what the hell is different NOW? The world has become more greedy. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie workers say. Well, if you don't like it, start your own fricking business, be the boss, and underpay your workers. Until then, shut the hell up. YOU have a choice!

I'm just sayin.

reply to post by sanchoearlyjones


That sad part is... I think that people associate workers rights and Unions etc, etc with Socialism and Communism and Anti Capitalism...

But we've been sold one crap load of a bill of goods here.

Walmart and Massive Chains taking over most of our income is not just real socialism and anti competition and anti capitalism, this Economic crisis is ushering in Socialism

People need to pull the wool out from over their eyes we have been bait and switched

I'm a hard Capitalist, never been all "that"successful lol..but I enjoy the game! And also take my knocks and don't cry

I KNOW people need money for Capitalism to work... it's power to the people all the way or I don't get rich, i'm not doing this to be a saint, I like my life and want to keep it not be used and abused in some hierarchy of an empire...