YOU ARE A SLAVE

[spooky girlfriend]

Ah, don't listen to that, Rope. You go right ahead.

And shame on you doggy for not letting me know when you came through Huntsville. I would have treated you to a homemade dinner and not just a doggy bone! But I understand that you were upset at the time from layoffs and such.

[A rope leash]

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man,
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can.
And when it's time for leavin',
I hope you'll understand,
That I was born a ramblin' man.

Well my father was a gambler down in Georgia,
He wound up on the wrong end of a gun.
And I was born in the back seat of a greyhound bus
Rollin' down highway 41.

I'm on my way to New Orleans this mornin',
Leaving out of Nashville, Tennessee,
They're always having a good time down on the bayou,
Lord, them delta women think the world of me.

[BlueChair]

I understand rope, I truly understand.

[A rope leash]

Yes, Bamboo, the big ones are major labor. Thankfully, there aren't that many of them, and I've so far only been involved in the construction of one of the monster dishes. I generally deal with dishes that are only a meter or two in diameter, but even those systems can weigh over a ton.

Thank fate for frieght elevators, cranes, and helicopters.

Laffy, I'd have to check the transponder sheets to see if SKY is available in the US. I don't do television much anymore, I mostly do data transfer. If your asking weather I could point to a European satellite and recieve SKY, it depends on the satellite footprint and the curvature of the Earth, but it is highly unlikely.

The satellite and cable telvision industries here in the USA are in a cut-throat "commercial war". They rag on each other like viscious schoolyard bullies. The fact of the matter is that the cable customer is limited to what the local cable plant can provide, and also to what the local cable company has decided to offer.

With satellite, you can get almost all of it, if you can afford it. A properly installed satellite system is a very dependable device. It is true, however, that large black cloud will knock it out, but I've always found that watching a large black cloud is both prudent and more entertaining than watching what's on television.

If we were to really get serious, we could simply make fiber optic cable the standard all the way to your TV or PC. That would make telephone, cable, and satellite service completely obsolete. But, we would have to get serious, so I'm not worried about it.

As for passing through someone's hometown, I must explain that I have contractual obligations to meet concerning the amount of time that I can allow a particualar system to be inoperable. Therefore, when I get busy, as I often do in times of rainstorm and layoff, I am obliged to keep moving until all customers are returned to service.

I came through Huntsville about 2300hrs that night, on my way to Scotsboro, where I slept. After doing a job there the next morning, I was expected to be back in Nashville for another call that afternoon. I have a nephew in Huntsville, and I didn't stop for him, either.

I like to travel, but I like to get home, too. This past week I discovered that surviving the layoffs has meant a new position for me, one which will allow a more relaxed travel schedule. So, folks in the middle might want to look out.

Hey, Blue, that song's stuck in your head, ain't it?

Now everyone knows all about what this slave does, so I'd like to hear about others. Any coal miners out there?

[laughingcrow]

Hmm interesting Noise...thanks for the info. The digital sattelites we're just starting to use here seem pretty reliable with regards to weather (and living in Scotland, home of the 7 varieties of rain, I can vouch for it)...

[bambooneedle]

Now everyone knows all about what this slave does, so I'd like to hear about others. Any coal miners out there?

I returned to masonry work (brick, block, construction) last week, as an employee. The company has a large contract working on building a retirement village, one of those ones with the big metal gates at the front. We've been working in 35-40 degree celsius heat [C=(F-32)/1.8], and they're a disorganized bunch of knuckleheads. They waited till after the Christmas break to add a few of us, and, on Friday, I heard a few of the others casually exchange prison stories...they kept telling them, relieved to be in understanding company.

It's reliable income and not too taxing mentally as I get organized enough now to hire myself independently (maybe with others, but I think eventually with others) as a builder and/or masonry project specialist. Last year, I completed the building studies course, required to apply for a license to build residences when I need it (probably later this year).

I will have a lot to sort out in the next few months, so it's a bit daunting (but it has to be).

[A rope leash]

Hey, Bam'oo, bricklaying is a real man's job!

I worked as a carpenter when I was young. I never was much good, but what I learned translates well in what I do nowdays.

We have something around here called a "contractor's license". My brother-in-law has one, but he talks more about it than he does any actual work.

I've known a few bricklayers in my time, and I've always been impressed. Everytime I see a brick wall I think, "each brick, by hand, one at a time". How do they ever get finished?

[bambooneedle]

We have something around here called a "contractor's license".

That's what our 'building license' essentially is -- you can manage a project hiring out the various sub-contractors. Houses are easy to build, but it amazes me how few people make the direct decicions about how their living or working spaces are conceived from the beginning, to suit. Most of us adapt to someone else's (probably very irrelevant) ideas about that. I realize this while I try to incorporate an office into my place...

[mood swung]

I work for a small chain of dumpy motels. The owner makes Ted Turner look sane. Ostensibly, I do the payroll, but on any given day I might be plunging toilets, waiting tables or doing taxes. Besides the dumpy motels, the boss man has cattle, oil rigs, a recording studio, a newspaper and until just recently a gospel music television station(thank you Jesus that we don't have it anymore). We be diversified. The economy has hit the travel industry hard and we aren't any exception. We used to go thru about 2500 employees a year (our turnover is a little higher than average), but this year maybe 1000. Do your patriotic duty--VACATION in the Smokies.

[spooky girlfriend]

Did some of that last year, Mood. May try to come back again.

You guys may not know this, but Mood is actually quite special - the way she walked through the forests with all the little creatures following behind her, birds landing on her outstretched hands like Snow White. Why, she's practically a moving billboard for visiting the Smokies.

[A rope leash]

The Smokies remind me a lot of Northern California.

Don't let 'em fool ya, travel downturn or not, they're making major bank on those motels. 95% of the wealth in this country is controlled by 5% of the population. You're boss sounds like he's a 5%er.

A question: GWB says the immigrants who come to this country illegally take jobs Americans won't do, such as, say, motel maid. I say Americans won't take these jobs because they don't pay shit, not because they are beneath them...

What do yo think?

[taz]

Combination of both Rope, in my opinion.

It has to do with a, hopefully ever-decreasing, section of the population that feels they, as white american citizens are superior to other non-whites/non-americans/non-citizens/non-christians and therefore certain jobs are "beneath" them. It's the same theory as "that's womens work" but on a much more grandiose scale.

GWB is helping to perpetuate that with his philosophy. NOTHING should be "below" an american to do but okay for a non-american, you either need the money or you don't. If you can find a better way to buy your meat and potato's then have at it. Just don't turn your nose up at something cuz you're afraid to get your fingers dirty. But what the hell do I know....

Oh, and mood...for some reason you're description of your boss made me think of Pappy O'Daniel from "O' Brother Where Art Thou"..."You don't tell your pappy how to court the electorate. We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're MASS communicating!"

[mood swung]

so you know my boss then, taz? that's a very apt description of him.

I've been working in hotels in this area since 1982 (year of the World's Fair in that scruffy little town called Knoxville). Used to be, most hotel work was strictly seasonal and the winter layoffs were like a bonus for a lot of folks. We're kind of a year round place now. The housekeeping/scut work side of the business is the lowest paid, and now seems to be mostly immigrant (legal and illegal). I can't tell you where the "natives" who used to do those jobs went. Probably other motels pay better and that's where they've gone. What's horrifying to me is how people are so willing to take advantage of non-white, non-redneck workers. There's an attitude of 'I wouldn't have it, but it's good enough for them' where housing is concerned. I think it takes mucho cajones to leave home, work at a crappy job or six, live in a glorified hovel (rats AND cable!) in a place where you can't speak the language to come up here and get threatened by tiny-dicked rednecks who can't cross the county line without asking Momma. Also, a lot of businesses are using contract labor companies to clean rooms, work banquets, wash dishes, etc. It makes good business sense--no unemployment taxes, no matching social security and medicare taxes, no workman's comp ins. worries but the employee earns a lot less (to make the contractor $). These companies specialize in students from Poland, Czechoslovakia (sp?). and other eastern European nations. Most of the time they provide them with housing, so they can take that out of their wages. The worker might end up making 60-70 cents an hour.

ok, my rant is over. To answer your question, rope, yes I do think some Americans think they are too good for this type of work. But you are right in tying it to the wage. We used to pay up to $10 an hour for housekeepers, and we had plenty of help. The average is down to about $6 now, and it's hard to find people (of any color or nationality) who will show up.

[Poppet]

mood - you're right dear, for those wages *I* wouldn't show up. i've worked fast food, cashiered at a drug store, sold shoes at the cheapo shoe store, waited tables, etc. fyi, i can't wait tables to save my life. i totally SUCK at waitressing.

my daddy worked on the railroad, fixing boxcars (thus, my link to the coal mines - dad came home covered in coal dust most days from the hopper cars). my mom watched other people's brats. these days i sit in a cubicle at a university and write contracts for renovations to the buildings. someday i'm gonna be an interior designer.

when i was in/out of school (took time off midstream 'cause school was making me crazy) i tried to become a dishwasher in Colonial Williamsburg. they refused to hire me as that, they kept insisting 'you have to be a waitress.' well, i suck at waiting tables. but, i'm also a white chick. thus, i can't wash dishes. apparently, at least at that point in time, the only people capable of washing dishes were black men.

i did spend a summer intrepreting (hello! these are violins. this is how the craftsmen make them....) at the musical instrument maker's shop in colonial wmbg. that was fun.

MOOD - let me know what chain/where you work. i generally stay w/ relatives in TN but might make an exception.

[A rope leash]

Shit jobs that nobody wants should pay more not less.

What happens is that employers perpetuate the idea that "anyone can do that job, so the labor is not valuable". The fact is, that while many people can do these jobs, very few can stick with them, unless they are tempted with money.

Here's an example. The guy who climbs the cell tower to change the lightbulb or whatever. Nobody in their right mind really wants to do that job. It's the money that gets them up there, and if it doesn't pay him enough to get that new motorcycle or whatever, that bulb ain't gonna get changed.

What is also handy is for the worker to have an element of desparation about them. The less they are paid, the more they have to work.

[mood swung]

Poppet--trust me. You don't want to stay in one of these rooms! And, btw, I am an excellent waitress.

[bambooneedle]

Waiting provides a unique viewpoint on some extremes of human behaviour... I did it while I was a uni student -- mainly functions waiting, but also restaurant and room service waiting. To varying degrees, some people refuse to acknowledge that your humble service to them might just be cos it's a job. If your ego can handle that, it can handle almost anything. At least i ate chef-made food in my breaks every day for a while, and took home loads of leftover liquor. Incidentally, at every hotel I worked at, it was a funny fact that the maids always seemed to interrupt the guests, wanting to get into their rooms to clean them. Is there any hotel where that doesn't happen? It would really piss me off if I'd paid top dollars for privacy.

[verbal gymnastics]

If you want to see snobby attitudes about waiting/waitressing come to England! We are such a snobby race when it comes to that. People at restaurants in England generally look down upon waiters and waitresses. Yet they whine at any opportunity.

I hope these people get the Chef's special or Vanilla Anglais...

[Lipstick]

This past summer, living on one teacher's salary, our budget was stretched so thin you could see through it. Okay, there were holes in it filled by credit cards. It was very stressful.

Driving down a main road in town, I saw about 150 men hanging around in the parking lot of a large c/w bar. They were all hispanic, wearing clean work clothes. I realized that they were waiting for work. Hanging about hoping that someone would come along and need them.

And suddenly I felt the blessing of a real paycheck that came every month.

These guys work in 110 degree heat, building our houses, repairing our roads, landscaping, putting on roofing, and digging our ditches from pre-dawn until dusk. Jobs I am physically incapable of doing.

What I believe is that life is so awful and hopeless wherever they were, that they will risk literally everything to come here, where there is still hope for a future. They pay thousands of dollars, get into the back of a semi and cross the desert. Many die on the way. Some get here and work for a month, then the day before payday their boss calls the INS, and they get deported. Recently there was a national Amber alert for a boy, the son of an illegal. Father and son had been traveling in a semi from Mexico. At some point, an additional payment was demanded. Dad didn't have it, so the smugglers took his son away from him and left him there.

Who's the bad guy now?

I don't really blame these people for coming here, even though I know they are breaking the law. They are desperate, and they are willing to contribute to society. If there were a legal way they could come and stay and work, I think a good many would. They are human beings who deserve protection, who could be tax-payers as well.

[Misha]

So much to say....

I manage a roofing company. The owner makes ok money, but it's a horrible business. Insurances (and here comes the famous part---since 9/11) have gone out of sight here in CA. I was overpaid, but just took a cut in pay due to the precariousness of our company.

Worker's Comp in our state is screwed. For EVERY $100.00 I pay an employee for roofing, I pay worker's comp. $ 100.00. Yep, that is correct. So, if some guy is making $ 500.00 a week, so is WC, multiply that by 8 guys...you get the nightmare. Now, if they are painting, we have the nice low rate of $ 47.00 per $ 100.00. (large sarcasm emoticon here) You'd be amazed how much painting my guys do now.....To show some of the spectrum, clerical employees are $ 2.00 per $ 100.00.

Then there is liability insurance--the one affected by 9/11--we used to pay about $ 15,000 a year for it. It covered almost everything other than bulldozing a house for the gee whizzes of it. Then we renewed after 9/11--it went to $ 34,000, and had exclusions aplenty. Nothing changed on our end, we were told:

1. You are in California.
2. You are a contractor.
3. You are a roofer.
4. You work on condos.

As if that made us monsters from hell. THEN this year we try to renew and seriously one quote was $ 250,000. Yep, a quarter mil. Another one was $ 125,000. We finally got one that is $ 40,000 but it excludes everything except changing light bulbs on the sixth Tuesday of the month providing there is a hellacious avalanche the day before. California has created a lot of it's own problems, but all of us average joes pay for it.

Then you have taxes.....and regular bills. Most of my guys bust their ass, at least half of the time for about $ 13.00 an hour....some less, some more. They deserve more, we can't pay it. Hell, most of them don't have medical, cause they don't want the money taken away from their check. All of my guys are latino (some from South America and some from Mexico). We had white guys come to work for us, one made $ 24.00 an hour as a supervisor, but didn't do anything to keep him. Another one stole about $ 70,000 worth of time and materials, we still haven't recovered from totally (owner's friend).

We've hired some of our actors trying to help them out....they've never stayed longer than three months. It's a hard freakin job. It's not that they are of latino descent, it is education. Most of my guys have an extremely marginal use of English. Most won't talk to me in English as they are worried they willl look like idiots. My Spanish is pigeon at best. I still use it. Many of them can't read. Most of them don't know how to sign their name, but they can print it. I've tried getting them into free English courses, I've helped them write letters for immigration or legal reasons, I've pushed and cajoled, I've refused to speak Spanish with them, it doesn't work, they just send someone else in to translate. I have one guy that has been in America since the late 70's and he speaks as much English as I speak Sudanese. It's a shame. I don't know if it is cultural or not, but I think it might be.....I have a posse of men with the same problem.

I worked at a large chain hotel as a rooms controller, and would always see the Spanish speaking workers either in housekeeping or in the kitchens or janitorial staff. The reason this is the way it is, is because that these people will have little contact with the public in a conversational way and the business knows that and can make allowances for it. You need your bilingual staff at check in, on the phones and in the restaurants. Beds hold very little conversation. I cross trained in housekeeping for a short time and was very much the odd man out, as I didn't speak fluent Spanish. They had a different community, and it worked for them. They actually were happy employees......they could turn a room around in 12 minutes flat if need be....they rocked. I had to clean rooms one day as part of my training, mind you I did it in heels and hose, but it kicked my ass. I couldn't keep up. Now, mind you if I had done it awhile I might have gotten better, but why would I? I could make more money downstairs getting yelled at by Marie Osmond (huge bitch). Donny---extremely nice.

Worked at Walmart, they'll take anyone stupid enough to put up with them. White, black, brown, asian, don't matter, the more desperate the better. But, you have to be able to communicate there, except for the janitorial staff, which is where you find the less educated/English challenged folk. The theory is if you can't communicate, you can't move up the evolutionary job ladder. Strawberry pickers....housekeeping.....janitorial....roofers....mechanics(workers, not office guys)...all challenged when it comes to communication, both oral and written. I'm thinking this comes down to cultural stuff.....I don't know....just education....a fear of looking foolish?

Bamboo, I think it was you talking of being a contractor.....call a few up, ask what you have to pay for,,,,,you may find the grass is greener working for another one, so that you don't have the burden on you shoulders.

We have used guys in the lots before, and they know what they want, they want to work and walk away with anywhere from $ 75.00-$ 100.00 a day cash. Smart, but dumb, too. No taxes, no stress, but no security, and no perks. It's a horrible existence to me, but the guys that we have on our payroll claim a million kids, whether they have them or not and they would prefer to be paid under the table--though we don't.

After all this, I don't have any answers.....I do know that they don't see work/life like I do...and most of my friends---as in success, or good job or bad job....they see it as a job, and then you go home. I can't explain it...though Lord knows this was a long enough post......