Not gonna lie, the articles idea is actually better than the headline suggests.
It has *some* issues, but fuck it, I can see some immediate benefits societally in giving people exposure to working at the bottom of the economic shitheap.
The downsides? Retail/service industry would exploit this to the hilt to get free labour, and I doubt working conditions/compensation would improve for those at the bottom.
Better chance to squeeze blood from a stone than get some rich fucker to volunteer work in retail and hospitality.
Let’s get scab labour in so the minimum-wage retail workers will be freed up to take on a second (or even third!) job to make ends meet!
Brilliant solution, Steve. This is how they broke the General Strike in 1926 in England. Mine owners were going to cut pay and conditions for miners, so a strike was called, including in transport. The government then appealed to middle-class (and some upper-class volunteers as well) to take on jobs like driving trams etc.
Awfully good fun for the upper-class twits who treated this like a jolly jape since they weren’t depending on earning a living, but the actual workers couldn’t afford to stay out on strike, so the ‘volunteer’ scabs did the government’s dirty work of strike-breaking for them.
No thanks, we don’t need that here. We need better pay, better conditions, and looking at why people don’t want to stay in retail jobs where managers treat them like crap.
I like the idea of some sort of civil conscription, but not for retail and hospitality. My manager was saying a couple days ago that she thinks it’s all going to be robots in five years time, because it’s just so difficult to get staff.
4 comments
Not gonna lie, the articles idea is actually better than the headline suggests.
It has *some* issues, but fuck it, I can see some immediate benefits societally in giving people exposure to working at the bottom of the economic shitheap.
The downsides? Retail/service industry would exploit this to the hilt to get free labour, and I doubt working conditions/compensation would improve for those at the bottom.
https://archive.ph/p3Y5c
Better chance to squeeze blood from a stone than get some rich fucker to volunteer work in retail and hospitality.
Let’s get scab labour in so the minimum-wage retail workers will be freed up to take on a second (or even third!) job to make ends meet!
Brilliant solution, Steve. This is how they broke the General Strike in 1926 in England. Mine owners were going to cut pay and conditions for miners, so a strike was called, including in transport. The government then appealed to middle-class (and some upper-class volunteers as well) to take on jobs like driving trams etc.
Awfully good fun for the upper-class twits who treated this like a jolly jape since they weren’t depending on earning a living, but the actual workers couldn’t afford to stay out on strike, so the ‘volunteer’ scabs did the government’s dirty work of strike-breaking for them.
No thanks, we don’t need that here. We need better pay, better conditions, and looking at why people don’t want to stay in retail jobs where managers treat them like crap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike
I like the idea of some sort of civil conscription, but not for retail and hospitality. My manager was saying a couple days ago that she thinks it’s all going to be robots in five years time, because it’s just so difficult to get staff.