Call them Companions or call them Associates, these people live and
work in our neighborhoods, eking out an existence on pitiful wages and
on your and my tax support. Whether looking after grandma or serving
you in Wall-Mart, you and I are picking up the difference between
living in abject poverty with no support net, or being able to barely
make ends meet.
Am I the only one who finds the Capitalistic System upside down? Why
do we look down our noses at the folks actually doing the work, while
we idolize the drones? In a Bee Hive, the drones are driven out of
the nest, while the Worker Bees receive the Hive's respect. Bees
understand where their survival comes from. It's hard to think of
some fat, fast talking old bald headed drone blocking the entrance to
the hive, inspecting each in-coming worker bee to be certain they had
gathered their quota of pollen. "Just unload and get back to work",
he would snap, "I've got more important things to do than to babysit
the likes of you". Can it be that Worker Bees are brighter than
Working Class People? We put up with that sort of crap every working
day of our lives.
So now our Drones are calling our Worker Bees, Companions and
Associates. And we allow our Drones to humiliate us and convince us
that they are more important than we.
And poor old grandma and grandpa(Hey! That's me!), just like the
consumers shuffling through the big Box store, we are all incidental
to the Drones constant quest for more, more, more. Why pay a living
wage to something that is disposable? Doesn't it bother folks, being
constantly put down and told that we are lazy, worthless creatures
hardly worth putting on the production line.
And when our struggles are over and the marrow sucked out of our
bones, and our homes have been repossessed, and our bank account has
been drained, and we are in debt to ten doctors and a couple of
hospitals, we can find our way to the modern Poor House, the Low
Income Housing....if any is available. There we can spend our final
days in drafty, rat infested glory. While the Drones lounge about
their pools, sipping fine wine and giggling at us.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/18/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Meet the Right-Wing Judge Who Just Screwed Over the People Taking Care of
> Your Grandma
> ________________________________________
> Meet the Right-Wing Judge Who Just Screwed Over the People Taking Care of
> Your Grandma
> By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
> January 15, 2015
> A notoriously pro-corporate U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C.,
> has gutted a Labor Department effort to boost wages for one of America's
> lowest-paid and growing professions: home care workers for elderly and
> disabled people.
> U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, who in 2012 threw out new labeling
> standards for cigarette boxes, issued two rulings in recent weeks that will
> let nursing home owners avoid paying minimium wage and overtime for
> caregivers-allowing management to claim that their workers are "companions"
> under the law and not caregivers, which allowed the owners to pay less.
> "We are deeply disturbed by Judge Leon's decision," said Jodi M. Sturgeon,
> president of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, which seeks to
> professionalize eldercare and disability services. "After three full years,
> the regulatory process has run its course, and America's 2 million home
> care
> workers should not have to wait any longer for fair pay.
> The case, Home Care Association of America v. Weil, centered around a new
> Department of Labor rules that were to take effect on January 1. One new
> rule said that any homecare worker who spends more than 20 percent of their
> time as a caregiver [3]-meaning they help with daily tasks such as
> dressing,
> bathing, toileting, cooking, giving medicine, going to a doctor, shopping,
> paying bills, cleaning households-would be paid at least the local minimum
> wage and overtime after working 40 hours a week.
> Nationally, 15 states already have laws requiring homecare workers be paid
> minimum wage. In the others, an older "companion" loophole allowed
> caregivers to be exploited.
> "The previous [Labor Department] rule was so broad that companies would not
> have to pay minimum wage and overtime-they called their workers
> companions,"
> said Deane Beebe, PHI spokeswoman. "The Department of Labor addresses that
> with the concept of 20 percent-if they are doing any of these activities
> more than 20 percent of the time in a 40-hour week-the companies can't
> claim
> they are companions."
> Judge Leon ruled that the Labor Department's new rules exceeded its
> authority, striking down its new restrictions on the companion exemption.
> Industry lawyers praised [4] Leon's ruling, noting that he created a
> rationale that skirted a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed the
> Department to regulate homecare industry workers.
> The Department of Labor said [5] it was "studying its options" on whether
> to
> appeal.
> A Major Low Wage Sector
> The home care industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the U.S.
> economy. It has $90 billion in annual revenues and is poised to create 1
> million jobs by 2022, PHI said. However, filling those jobs-as Baby Boomers
> age-will be difficult, PHI said, due to its low wages, poor training
> opportunities and high injury rates.
> Ninety percent of home care workers are women-a majority are women of
> color-who earn a median wage of $9.61 an hour, PHI said. More than half of
> home care aides rely on public benefits to support their families, the
> organization said. The industry has a 50 percent annual turnover rate,
> meaning half of its workforce changes jobs every year.
> "Without the basic guarantee of minimum wage and overtime pay for these
> workers, families across the nation are more likely to find themselves
> without access to qualified workers right at the moment when they most need
> them," Beebe said.
> "It makes good business sense to pay more," she said. "We have many
> employers who pay minumum wage. But turnover plagues this industry. The
> public wants qualified people doing this work."
>
>
>
>
> Share on Facebook Share
> Share on Twitter Tweet
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [6]
> [7]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/labor/meet-right-wing-judge-who-just-screwed-over-pe
> ople-taking-care-your-grandma
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
> [2] http://alternet.org
> [3]
> http://www.alternet.org/phinational.org/sites/phinational.org/files/flsafact
> s-20131206.pdf
> [4]
> http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/what-does-the-decision-in-home-care-asso-32
> 956/
> [5] http://www.dol.gov/whd/homecare/litigation.htm
> [6] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Meet the Right-Wing
> Judge Who Just Screwed Over the People Taking Care of Your Grandma
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/
> [8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Meet the Right-Wing Judge Who Just Screwed Over the People Taking
> Care of Your Grandma
>
> Meet the Right-Wing Judge Who Just Screwed Over the People Taking Care of
> Your Grandma
> By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
> January 15, 2015
> A notoriously pro-corporate U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C.,
> has gutted a Labor Department effort to boost wages for one of America's
> lowest-paid and growing professions: home care workers for elderly and
> disabled people.
> U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, who in 2012 threw out new labeling
> standards for cigarette boxes, issued two rulings in recent weeks that will
> let nursing home owners avoid paying minimium wage and overtime for
> caregivers-allowing management to claim that their workers are "companions"
> under the law and not caregivers, which allowed the owners to pay less.
> "We are deeply disturbed by Judge Leon's decision," said Jodi M. Sturgeon,
> president of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, which seeks to
> professionalize eldercare and disability services. "After three full years,
> the regulatory process has run its course, and America's 2 million home
> care
> workers should not have to wait any longer for fair pay.
> The case, Home Care Association of America v. Weil, centered around a new
> Department of Labor rules that were to take effect on January 1. One new
> rule said that any homecare worker who spends more than 20 percent of their
> time as a caregiver [3]-meaning they help with daily tasks such as
> dressing,
> bathing, toileting, cooking, giving medicine, going to a doctor, shopping,
> paying bills, cleaning households-would be paid at least the local minimum
> wage and overtime after working 40 hours a week.
> Nationally, 15 states already have laws requiring homecare workers be paid
> minimum wage. In the others, an older "companion" loophole allowed
> caregivers to be exploited.
> "The previous [Labor Department] rule was so broad that companies would not
> have to pay minimum wage and overtime-they called their workers
> companions,"
> said Deane Beebe, PHI spokeswoman. "The Department of Labor addresses that
> with the concept of 20 percent-if they are doing any of these activities
> more than 20 percent of the time in a 40-hour week-the companies can't
> claim
> they are companions."
> Judge Leon ruled that the Labor Department's new rules exceeded its
> authority, striking down its new restrictions on the companion exemption.
> Industry lawyers praised [4] Leon's ruling, noting that he created a
> rationale that skirted a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed the
> Department to regulate homecare industry workers.
> The Department of Labor said [5] it was "studying its options" on whether
> to
> appeal.
> A Major Low Wage Sector
> The home care industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the U.S.
> economy. It has $90 billion in annual revenues and is poised to create 1
> million jobs by 2022, PHI said. However, filling those jobs-as Baby Boomers
> age-will be difficult, PHI said, due to its low wages, poor training
> opportunities and high injury rates.
> Ninety percent of home care workers are women-a majority are women of
> color-who earn a median wage of $9.61 an hour, PHI said. More than half of
> home care aides rely on public benefits to support their families, the
> organization said. The industry has a 50 percent annual turnover rate,
> meaning half of its workforce changes jobs every year.
> "Without the basic guarantee of minimum wage and overtime pay for these
> workers, families across the nation are more likely to find themselves
> without access to qualified workers right at the moment when they most need
> them," Beebe said.
> "It makes good business sense to pay more," she said. "We have many
> employers who pay minumum wage. But turnover plagues this industry. The
> public wants qualified people doing this work."
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [6]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[7]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/labor/meet-right-wing-judge-who-just-screwed-over-pe
> ople-taking-care-your-grandma
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
> [2] http://alternet.org
> [3]
> http://www.alternet.org/phinational.org/sites/phinational.org/files/flsafact
> s-20131206.pdf
> [4]
> http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/what-does-the-decision-in-home-care-asso-32
> 956/
> [5] http://www.dol.gov/whd/homecare/litigation.htm
> [6] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Meet the Right-Wing
> Judge Who Just Screwed Over the People Taking Care of Your Grandma
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/
> [8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
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