#labor laws

[pazzesco]

📷 Lewis Hine 📷

Lewis Hine - Newsies, 1910 - Newsies: Newsies at Skeeter's Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking. St. Louis, Missouri.

Lewis Hine, Photographer of the American Working Class

Few American photographers have captured the misery, dignity, and occasional bursts of solidarity within US working-class life as compellingly as Lewis Hine did in the early twentieth century.

Lewis Hine - Breaker boys, 1910 - Child workers who broke down coal at a mine in South Pittston, Pennsylvania.

Lewis Hine - Little Spinner 1909, Globe Cotton Mill. Overseer said she was regularly employed. Augusta, Georgia. Library of Congress

Lewis Hine - Ten Year Old Spinner, North Carolina Cotton Mill, 1908

Lewis Hine - Little Lottie 1911. She was a regular oyster shucker in Alabama Canning Co. (Bayou La Batre, Alabama)

Lewis Hine -Little Rosie 1913. She was a regular oyster shucker. She was just 7 years old and in her second year at Varn & Platt Canning Co. Bluffton, South Carolina

As an investigative photographer, Hine chronicled the normalized labor abuses in US factories leading up to the Great Depression. Not only did he help introduce some of the country’s first child labor laws, he also revolutionized photography’s artistic use value.

Lewis Hine - Child laborers in glasswork. Indiana, 1908

Lewis Hine -Baseball team composed mostly of child laborers from a glassmaking factory. Indiana, 1908

Lewis Hine - Factory Boy, Glassworks, Alexandria, Virginia, 1909

Lewis Hine - One Of The Loading Boys In J. S. Farrand Packing Co. Baltimore, Maryland, 1909

Lewis Hine - Newsboys, Bridgeport Conn., 1909

Hine once argued that a good picture is “a reproduction of impressions made upon the photographer which he desires to repeat to others.” For him, an organized workforce was the epitome of empathy and mutual benefit, which he hoped to convey to the greater American public.

Lewis Hine - Empire State Building worker in 1931

Lewis Hine - Power house mechanic working on steam pump, 1920.

Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940)

“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.” -Lewis Hine

[animentality]

[unimatrix-420]

[aquitainequeen]

Katherine Trendacosta on the limits of AI, labor laws and workers' rights

[empirearchives]

Napoleon and Child Labor Laws:

“Napoleon was the first in France to be concerned about the condition of children and had a decree adopted on January 3, 1813 prohibiting the work of children under 10 years old.”

“Across the Channel, the same ban had been in effect since 1801 and concerned children under 8 years old. This was a major breakthrough especially for young miners forced to work in coal mines; many of them died of this terrible labor. Unfortunately, unscrupulous bosses took advantage of the fall of the Empire two years later to send this decree into oblivion.”

(Source)

[adoodleintime]

Do you guys remember the industrial revolution where everyone moved from their farms to the cities to work garbage jobs that paid shit and were incredibly dangerous?

And everyone in a family, even children, had to work up to 16 hours a day to live in terrible apartments and eat cheap food?

And after years of fighting, rules and laws were put into place to protect workers, particularly children?

Remember when a 9-5, 5 days a week, was enough to support your family?

We're reliving history now. People are working just to stay alive. Wages are awful. Housing is awful. Everything is ridiculously expensive. Child labor laws are being loosened because children won't demand a living wage.

This isn't the future our ancestors imagined.

[oh-dear-so-queer]

The belief that all lower-class women were sexually active meant that working class women friends were suspected of sexual activity, and from 1700 single women friendships came under scrutiny and suspicion. Working-class women living and working together could be separated by the labour laws, which allowed magistrates to rule how and where women worked. Four women at South Milton, Devon, who had been self-sufficient in a spinning house together, were ordered to go into domestic service, where they would almost certainly be separated.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[theintoccabile]

Seems a lot of people here seem to believe at-will employment is the norm but it's really not and an expression of the frankly shitty US labor laws

Not sure where else it may be a big Thing but don't expect to have it in Europe

At-will employment is not anywhere close to universal outside of the US and a really messed up system (so is unpaid sick leave but I digress).

Where I live an employer can only fire you for just about any reason during your probation period, with advance notice. (And even then if it's due to say illness, if they're smart they won't mention that)

[whimsicalmeerkat]

The noise I just made when I learned my client is calling something a Stat Holiday because there is a statutory fucking requirement in British Columbia that employees receive holiday pay. And apparently hours worked on those holidays are paid at overtime rates? Double time for anything over 12 hours? Is this another one of those things that’s normal outside the US and just feels mind blowing to me because we’re ass backwards here? Even California doesn’t have any requirement that employers pay holidays and it’s the most employee-friendly state in the country. Seriously, it’s good I wasn’t on a call because my mind is blown and I’m having a bit of a crisis over it.

[mudwerks]

(via Dollar General Is Deemed a ‘Severe Violator’ by the Labor Dept. - The New York Times)

no surprise there

[unimatrix-420]

At least 50 children found cleaning Midwest slaughterhouses

[dylsexai]

US states are starting to talk about how slavery wasn’t bad. Let me tell you that this is a clear statement that they are thinking about bringing back slavery.

Just like they spent the last few years talking about how good child labor was and now there are changing child labor laws to cover the gap left by their anti-migrant movement.

[publicdomainbooksdevotee]

Me clicking on a Project Gutenberg recently-added book about restaurant workers: oh, an old-timey Kitchen Confidential, right?

The book:

A twelve-hour day and a seven-day week is the lot of one-fifth of these workers. A fifteen-hour day is not uncommon. […] They have no legal redress for overwork; the law has neglected them. In the course of this investigation, a girl of twenty was found working one hundred and twenty-two hours a week—longer than the law allows factory employees to work in two weeks. Yet this is within the law.

Hang on, I'm adding more after the cut.

Girls are commonly fined for lateness, one particular restaurant exacting $0.25 if a girl is ten minutes late. Her pay is always cut for breakage, and in some places a certain amount is deducted weekly whether she breaks any dishes or not. Also, mistakes in adding up checks, either over or under the correct amount, and mistakes in orders, must be paid for by the waitress.

The janitor of an East Side tenement house said: “A little while ago down in Third Street there were twenty-three girls sleeping in two rooms. They’d put their mattresses down on the floor at night and pile[11] them on top of each other in the day time. Most of them were kitchen hands at ⸺’s,” naming a well-known chain of restaurants.

Tipping is a direct drag upon wages. When the public is perfectly willing to contribute part of a waitress’s wage, why should not the employer take advantage of this fact and pay her less? […] As matters stand now, however, they are a very necessary part of a girl’s income.

(this was published in 1916)

[mentorshelly]

You Won't Believe What HR Consultants Can Do for Your Business

As a business owner or manager, you may be familiar with the myriad of employment laws and ethical standards that govern your company’s operations. However, with the constantly evolving legal landscape and increased public scrutiny, it can be challenging to keep up and ensure your business is staying compliant and ethical. This is where HR consultants come in. HR consultants are experts in…

[wannabecosplayer]

So, for the past several weeks I have been speaking with my management team (in person) about how I would love to finish up the training that was cut short but all of my shifts have been dedicated to my regular duties and how I needed time scheduled during a shift that I could dedicate to training.

For the past couple of weeks I have been receiving (written) messages from management about the importance of completing our training modules. These messages have included deadlines for our training.

Meanwhile I have continued to speak to management about how I would love to complete my training but just need time.

Yesterday the deadline passed.

Today I received a message from management that if I did not complete the training before I clocked in for my next shift I would not be allowed to work.

So maybe it's my fault for not conducting my end of the conversation in written form where everything could be recorded for prosperity. Well, lesson learned.

I wrote a message back that I would LOVE to complete this training but, "I am hesitant to do my training off the clock as -- under the Fair Labor Standards Act -- all training that is related to work duties counts as hours worked and must be compensated."

They told me that I would be paid for work done off the clock.

Cool! How will you keep track of hours worked off the clock? I asked.

Then, and ONLY THEN did they tell me that I could log the days and times that I worked on my training and submit it for compensation.

And you can bet that I'll be auditing my paycheck.

Know your rights, people.

Be cordial, be respectful, be firm, know your rights, and keep records.

[mischief-tea]

why in the heck isn’t Newsies trending yet on this website