Whistleblowers are almost always fired, though by law they are protected and they can sue for backpay, lost wages, etc.
Also, i can’t tell if you’re purposefully being an asshole or joking.
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Fuckin A, that is so right on.
Many of the benefits all workers in the US currently enjoy are directly attributable to the work of organized labor unions through the turn of the century to the middle of the 20th century, particularly the United Auto Workers and Teamsters in particular, hitting their stride just after WWII. It’s a complicated equation, however. Unions harmed themselves in the following fifty years. Moreover, the move from a blue-collar economy to a knowledge economy has shifted a lot of the work force around, weakening the bargaining position of the unions. In 1946, 32% of all Americans were members of a union…today that number is about 11%. The UAW has dramatically declined as both the US auto industry, globalization and automation have decimated their ranks…in 1980 the UAW had 1.5 million members…which dropped to 355,000 in 2008. It has since rebounded to about 400,000…still less than a third what it was 30 years ago.
Getting unions to power again requires a community of enough size to wield economic power…something that corporate America no longer has to afford them. In 1941, if you shut down a plant with a strike, you crippled the company. In 2017, if you shut a plant down, they may close it and move operations to another city or even Mexico. Modern auto plants are virtual ghost towns…between robots, automated stations and loaders, you simply don’t need dozens of people to assemble cars any longer. The same applies for other industries. In 1976, there were 2 million teamsters…that dropped to 1 million a few years ago and his since rebounded to 1.4 million…which may suggest unions are on the rise…or may suggest that a lot of people were forced into lower paying union jobs when the economy tanked and they had to take something, regardless of the job.
It’s complicated, really. And that’s nothing to say of the various scandals and politics of those organizations, which is significant.
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I’m not sure it’s going to register with the public though. I haven’t seen or heard anyone talking about it outside BB. It’s not the 70s anymore, when America’s romance with truckers was in full bloom.
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If only we had the means to communicate and organize across national boundaries!
I wonder why this internet thing hasn’t saved organized labor?
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A fucking men!
But instead we get people voting for an orange turd and an evil turtle man and then wondering why they are losing their health insurance and can’t make enough feed their family.
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Are there whistleblower protections for employees of private companies?
I would assume so if there’s illegal activities going on. I’m not sure if it makes a difference if a company is public, private or governmental but i’m not a lawyer. Currently going to call in a work meeting so i can’t look into it much but here’s the wiki entry
And here’s an article about protection to public and private companies
http://mobile.nexsenpruet.com/supreme-court-expands-whistleblower-protection
Not just the Teamsters, but they were important to the postwar success of Unions. There was also the AFL and CIO which merged in the 1950s.
The Teamsters also have a reputation for corruption (see Jimmy Hoffa) and in recent years have aligned with conservative elements (they supported Nixon, Reagan, and Trump).
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Or you know, one could just stick with the perfectly good current UK classifications of worker, employee, or self-employed.
The only thing wrong with the current system is that some businesses try to have their cake and eat it.
They want no obligations to the people who do the work but they want control over them.
You can have the ‘no obligations beyond pay for the work’ model. But that currently has to come with the right for the person doing the work to say yes or no, to decide how to do the work, etc., etc.
If you want more control, you have to offer more benefits and rights.
Uber, et. al. try to have both no obligations and control and when told they can’t, they lobby to change the law.
Society fought long and hard over what employers are entitled to tell us to do and what they have to give in return.
The ‘gig economy’ is not new. The only thing that is new is that instead of lining the streets waiting for a foreman to come along and decide who to hire for the day, the exploited wait online.
I see no reason why a bunch of techno-idiots should be allowed to wind back worker’s rights in the way that is being proposed.
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I used to deal with truckers pretty regularly in an old job and the story of drivers having to falsify their logs in order to meet the employer’s impossible deadlines was pretty universal. It was expected of them (falsifying their logs) because otherwise they simply would never get where they needed to go on time. If they complained they’d be disciplined or fired.
There are so many things in this story that show the ugly side of unbridled capitalism and where America is in this day and age. Corporate greed is rampant and preying upon the disadvantaged is at epidemic proportions. Issue one: companies shouldn’t be allowed to give loans to their employees - this clearly creates gigantic conflict of interest issues, especially when the employer is the lender, judge, jury & executioner in all matters regarding the loan.
My guess is that these trucking companies sell of their ex-employee debt to predatory collection agencies. This is all just chum for sharks.
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Trucking in the 70s-
[quote]And I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonopah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the backroads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
And I’ll be willin’ to be movin’
And I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stove in but I’m still on my feet
And I’m still willing’[/quote]
Now a line would have to be added “financially ruined, but still willin’”
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