I knew this country was "effed" when I had to pee in a bottle for a minimum wage

[CC27]

maxrandb (15,980 posts)

I knew this country was "effed" when I had to pee in a bottle for a minimum wage job
I have posted about his before, but I had a great job in 1980 before I joined the Navy.

I was a full-time stock clerk at a local grocery store chain in Ohio. We had stores all over Ohio and a couple in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

In 1980, I was making $12.60 an hour, time-and-a-half for overtime, double-time on Sundays and holidays, and even got 8 hours of pay for my birthday, whether I worked that day, or not.

The calculator I used says that adds up to $96K a year in todays money. Not bad for a 24 year old with a high school diploma. It was a job that could put you solidly in the Middle Class.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I wanted more from life and joined the Navy.

During one of my shore duty assignments, I decided to take a part-time job at a big box hardware store. As an E5 at the time with two young kids. I thought it would be a way too make a little extra money.

For the "pleasure" of stocking toilet plungers and PVC pipes, I had to pee in a bottle for a drug test.

I agreed to that for my Navy job, and I get drug tests for pilots, bus drivers, law enforcement, etc., but when it became mandatory for minimum wage retail work, it made me realize how powerless American workers are.

I think once the ruling class has you peeing in a bottle, they may just have a bit too much power over your life. Not sure that's what America had in mind when we started this freedom and democracy experiment.

Overtime pay??? - Are you effing kidding me, just be thankful you have a job!
A Pension???? - You're stealing my profits so you can lay around on your ass in your 60's?
You don't want to piss in a bottle for a drug test???? - You ****ing hippie scum!!
You want a decent health care plan??? - Are you a ****ing communist?

So, once we've surrendered our bodily fluids, what do we do? Boss wants you to work Saturday...why not offer Sunday as well?

Boss wants to increase your individual costs for health care? Just cut some "luxuries" from your grocery bill and throw in increased contributions to a pension plan as well. Mind you, we can't guarantee that pension, or retirement account that you may...OR MAY NOT have...will be there for you in your golden years. We may have to pay the creditors and shareholders first!

Oh...and those Golden Years aren't going to be so "golden" after you've killed yourself working 70-80-90 hours a week, but that's the American workforce today. Proud, strong Americans that allow the wealthy and powerful to piss on them and tell them it's "trickle-down".

I tell you, "if my Grandfather, who fought to organize Coal Miners in Corning, OH were alive today, he'd take a ****ing flame-thrower to this place, and would proudly throw his World War II medals in the trash.

What a bunch of absolute pissants we've become.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835775

And here we have ANOTHER stupid long post.. 

[FlippyDoo]

I've never been to Ohio, but unless he was a magical stock-clerk who could crap product out of his arse, I have a hard time believing he was getting paid $12.60 an hour in 1980 as a stock clerk.

[FunkyZero]

I've never been to Ohio, but unless he was a magical stock-clerk who could crap product out of his arse, I have a hard time believing he was getting paid $12.60 an hour in 1980 as a stock clerk.

It's not unheard of. Depending on the area of course.  When I first got my DL, I worked in a grocery store part time for barely over min wage. However, the full time guys there were making 10-something an hour stocking shelves, this was roughly late 80's. The butchers were making quite a bit more than that. 80% of the employees were part time though, and not making that much. I remember drooling over the prospect of making 10 bucks an hour. This part I can't be sure about due to how long ago it was, but I *think* those guys had some sort of union affiliation. I always thought that was pretty odd for a grocery store, but it was a larger chain (A&P)

[SVPete]

For the "pleasure" of stocking toilet plungers and PVC pipes, I had to pee in a bottle for a drug test.

Now why would a hardware store whose employees might move large heavy quantities of stock using pallet jacks and fork lifts want employees whose awareness isn't addled by recreational chemicals? Ditto employees who work with customers?

[FlippyDoo]

It's not unheard of. Depending on the area of course.  When I first got my DL, I worked in a grocery store part time for barely over min wage. However, the full time guys there were making 10-something an hour stocking shelves, this was roughly late 80's. The butchers were making quite a bit more than that. 80% of the employees were part time though, and not making that much. I remember drooling over the prospect of making 10 bucks an hour. This part I can't be sure about due to how long ago it was, but I *think* those guys had some sort of union affiliation. I always thought that was pretty odd for a grocery store, but it was a larger chain (A&P)

I can see that the area would make some difference. I just didn't realize that they'd be that much difference between my part of Georgia and Ohio. In 1985, while I was going to college, I was working with a large company as labor making around $7.75 an hour. Then, by 1990, I was a supervisor/coordinator with a company truck at a different, very small company that worked in the technical field making about $13 to $15 an hour. Both of those wages, for that time period and those jobs were pretty good money in my area. Though with the stress and headaches involved with the second job that wage probably should have been $5 or $6 an hour more because that job was about as calming as trying to get DUers to use common sense.

[SVPete]

Overtime pay??? - Are you effing kidding me, just be thankful you have a job!

In the real world, overtime pay is mandated by law, if not a union contract.

A Pension???? - You're stealing my profits so you can lay around on your ass in your 60's?

In the real world, many companies have 401Ks set up to which employees can contribute if they choose, select how much they contribute (within legal limits), select from an array of mutual funds they can choose, sometimes with partial or full match.

In the real world, those 40-, 50-, and 60-something make strategic, operational, and financial decisions that will determine whether their companies will continue to operate or slide into bankruptcy. When the dust from bankruptcy settles, a whole lot of ordinary people had to find new jobs, including the manglers whose decisions were bad..

[Ralph Wiggum]

I've been a salaried employee for my entire 30+ years as a working adult, and while I dabbled with a few drugs in college it has never ever been a lifestyle nor have I partaken since.

It took me aback upon being required to take a drug test in 2001 upon accepting a new job. The heaviest machinery I worked with was a fax machine or printer.  Every subsequent job I've taken since I've always been required to undergo a pre-screen drug test.

Suck it up and pee in the bottle you whiny bitch, and ask me if I want fries or onion rings with my order.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I've never been to Ohio, but unless he was a magical stock-clerk who could crap product out of his arse, I have a hard time believing he was getting paid $12.60 an hour in 1980 as a stock clerk.

Glossed over that factoid as I was more interested in his tales of woe.

There is no way on God's green earth than anyone made $12.60 per hour as a stock boy in 1980. While I cannot remember my exact hourly wages in the late 80's at a local department store chain, it never broached the $7/hour level.

Perhaps he was diddling the wife of the manager at the Piggly Wiggly where he worked. More likely, just spinning yet another yarn in the bouncy pantheon of bullsh*t.

[Rebel]

I worked for Ohio-based Kroger in 1988 making 3.35 per hour doing the same thing. I call bullshit.

[SVPete]

I've done THE drug test twice in nearly 5 decades in electronics. Once, in the 90s, for a job with a semiconductor company. I ended up taking another job because they made a suitable offer earlier. The other time was with a defense contractor, where I'd be working with fairly high voltages and might work with a classified product. In both cases I had no trouble understanding the reason for the requirement, and I've never done drugs, so of course I "passed".