Why are disabled people of colour, especially Black people, so much more likely to be unemployed?
Blogging Against Disablism: Racialised disability employment numbers
Tag: labour
Why aren’t more of us working from home?
In an era of growing connectivity, why do so many workplaces still insist on demanding that people report for work in person?
I’m getting tired of people whining about minimum wage increases
Nationwide, the push for a higher minimum wage is causing escalating traction: Minimum wages are creeping up across the country to reflect changes in cost of living, fundamental working rights, and the need to address a world in which people working full time cannot afford to support themselves and their families. Yet, to my disgust, […]
Who took the ‘Working’ out of ‘International Working Women’s Day’?
New York City, 1909: The Socialist Party of America holds an event commemorating a 1908 strike by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, a labour organisation that played an extremely prominent role in reforming working conditions at the turn of the 20th century. It had a great deal invested in the subject, as garment workers […]
Is paid sick leave for federal contractors a gateway drug for everyone?
An Obama Administration order earlier this year — one of a string that’s in the spirit of give no fucks Obama — mandated that federal contractors provide a minimum of seven days paid sick leave annually for their employees, with employees accruing leave at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked, and […]
Sending inmates into the jaws of hell as wildland firefighters
California has an estimated 4,000 prisoners working within Cal Fire on the frontlines of wildfires — taking on one of the most dangerous careers in the United States. Those 4,000 ‘volunteers’ earn a whopping $1 an hour when they’re out in the field, and a generous $1.45-$3.90 daily during training. The Bureau of Labour Statistics […]
Why we can’t afford to give work away for free
Publishing is in a very conflicted and strange state at the moment, as many people have noticed. This goes double for publishing related to social justice, because there are some peculiar notions bound up in the valuation of work done by journalists, commentators, and others involved in reportage and discussion of social justice issues. To put […]
How about we not judge pregnant people?
This is the year of fecund friends. Every time I turn around, someone I know is pregnant. I’m starting to fear walking into a room lest my uterus spontaneously sprout a foetus in order to join in the party. I’m very happy for all of them, as they all appear to be very happy about […]
You can’t have your union cake and eat it too
One of the most poorly-understood aspects of unions in the workplace is the closed shop versus open shop dynamic. This is not coincidental — unionbusters very much want to sow the seeds of confusion here. In a closed shop, all employees must be members of the union, joining within a certain amount of time when […]
Utilizing unexpected tools to combat farmworker rape
If you haven’t seen Frontline’s Rape in the Fields, I highly recommend it — the documentary is a detailed and unforgiving look at labour abuses across the US. As the title implies, the primary subject is sexual assault of farmworkers, specifically women, and it does contain some graphic and disturbing content including discussions of rape and […]