“The balance of power between businesses and their workers
shifted in Kansas and Missouri this year — in favor of the boss.”
Unemployment Insurance is a new experience for me. This is the first time I have had to apply for it. It is a strange new land to journey
within and one for which I am both grateful yet wish was not necessary.
Although it seems to tie me to a boss with whom I do not wish
to be associated, still, I am grateful for the laws in place that protect an
employee from the whims of such a boss.
That is what is frightening about this article; it allows whims to be acted upon legally. While I am
one of those who believe that arriving at work at the designated time is
important, anyone can be late
occasionally. Chronic tardiness is a different thing.
But I don’t think we are talking about chronic anything here, except perhaps chronic greed. I
think that the whole gist of the new regulation is pettiness. In a state that
is supposedly an “at-will employment” state, what is the need for such
pettiness?
One can be fired for no reason – at will – at the will of the
employer – just because, on any given day, at any given time. Regardless, if the
fire is not for misconduct, then the disengaged employee can receive
unemployment benefits.
This is good for a minimum of two reasons.
1) It helps keep employers accountable.
2) It helps fired employees stay in their apartments/homes.
Homelessness is never ever good for the economy. I know for
sure that without my unemployment insurance, my household could have been in a
very serious and dire circumstance. As it was, with the UI, it was merely
serious.
By the way, for what it is worth, speaking to the issue of
accountability, my past employer appealed my benefits. The appeal was lost. That
employer was unable to prove that I had violated any organizational rule
therefore it appeared that I was fired because I made too much. This was substantiated
by the fact that she actually said that I was one of the highest paid employees
and that this was a problem. While that is a fully acceptable reason for her
ridding herself of me, it is not a good enough reason (at this time) to deny
responsibility for unemployment benefits.
So, at this moment, I am very grateful for whatever laws are
in place that allow me to receive this benefit.
However, it is likely that these benefits will change. Never
having had a need for unemployment insurance before, I am not quite sure how
the next step goes.
So, the second scary threat of this article is that unemployment
helps people maintain a certain place within the economy as opposed to at the
mercy of the economy.
I only can speak from my own particular place in this
situation. I have accepted a temporary part time job which I like a lot. At
this moment, it is for two months. I am happy to be doing this particular new
job in that it is what I love doing – on the ground floor of ministry. Yet it
is at a good bit less than past employment and less than my benefits received
from UI. In that I have quite a few weeks left on the benefits, I am hopeful
that UI will pay the difference between what I was receiving and what I now
receive from the new temporary position. Then, when I am able, I will have
another more permanent position (with “permanent” being a relative term).
But at the moment, I am considered under-employed. I am not
alone. In fact, under-employment is one of the reasons unemployment figures are
lower. More people are working but out of those people, more of them are
employed in a much lower paying job with fewer, if any, benefits. Lower hours
equal no overtime, no health benefits, no pension/retirement plans.
I get the idea that the world has changed. Corporations no
longer care about loyalty or taking care of the employees that make them what
they are. Employees are now considered disposable, replaceable. It is all about
the bottom line – the profit margin. Employees are considered an expense and
therefore, the fewer employees, the less time spent on the job, the less amount
of money lost.
I understand that it is what it is. What I don’t understand
is that the corporations don’t see the harm to themselves that can be done by
eliminating that middle class and increasing the numbers that live in poverty. I suppose I am not at all surprised that the
states – the Red States with the ideas that there are some deserving while the
majority are undeserving – are finding yet more ways to lessen the expenses of
businesses with no regard for the actual damage done overall.
We talk in quantitative terms of majority and minority with
our historical background based in the ideal of “majority rules.” If it is now
true that we are “ruled” by a minority of 1%, just how long must the majority have
slept to allow us to get into the state in which we now find ourselves? I am
fairly certain that very few of the people holding elective office right now
are working for me. I can see the good that some have done and I applaud that
but seriously…how inept must a group of people be to be so ineffectual in
speaking for the majority of the population? How the hell did we wind up like
this?
And yes, that is a rhetorical question. I know that indeed
the majority has been unmotivated to act if not actually asleep or unaware. And
yes, I know that often, life its ownself wraps us up in a time warp that
carries us into the future with little understanding how time passed so
quickly. I also understand that we are inundated with “causes” – so many as to
almost make us immune to the compassion needed to rile us up.
Or we get caught up in causes of the day – a badly mutilated
innocent animal, abused and tortured – or the rape of women in the military –
or five hundred other equally reprehensive acts of violence perpetuated upon an
innocent populace. We look and react at the individual act without
understanding that these are all effects of a much larger cause. Just as
victims of war or those living and participating in violent cultures become
immune to the daily acts, so we too – just likes kids watching too much
violence in games and cartoons – become numb to the damage.
What can we do? What can be done? There is so much – so much
damage, so much pain, so much violence? How can we change anything? These are questions
that we ask ourselves – often to no avail.
That seems to be the point. We are paralyzed by what we know
and the magnitude of the damage done. It is like looking into a basement into
which years of discarded items have been thrown. Where to start? How to begin
to rid the basement of the clutter?
It is difficult to begin. Yet the only way is to start at the
doorway and work our way into the crap and clutter, discarding the majority of
it…looking with nostalgia at a few things maybe yet knowing that the item has
been there for who knows how long without having been missed. One piece at a
time; one box of trash after another; tossed into the dumpster.
That is basically where we are at this time politically. We
start at the place where we are – ward, city, county, state, national. Clear
out, clean out the rubbish, keep those things really needed but put aside
nostalgia for a time past. It is gone. We are in a new time and we have been
sequestered, cast aside, deemed less than worthy. It is time to reclaim our
rightful place as the majority. It is time to reclaim our voices and to
proclaim loudly and clearly – corporate rule is over.
We
cannot continue to support people that consider the majority as being unworthy
of respect. Justice belongs to all – not just a few special people.
We have to look at the broader picture – what allows such
injustices to affect such a large group of people? What causes the perversions,
the prosecution, the anger and disorder?
I don't know about the rest, but as for me, I am damn tired of being ruled...or of people thinking that I should be ruled.
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