I saved this article to read when I had more time, which I finally have and did. The headline sounded vaguely familiar to me as a Minnesotan and, as I read, I started to remember this from when I was a teenager. My dad, always the staunch Republican, would sneer about it whenever it was mentioned on the news (and it actually was, several times) and say something about how if they didn't like it, "they should find someplace else to work." Meanwhile, my own mother working a similar job where the men made about 30% more than she did for the same work. She never argued with my dad about it but just sat there, silently seething.
I think this was about the time when I started to really lose respect for both of them.
OTish: my first job was in a bank, starting in 1978. In 1979 our union took the bank to arbitration over the pay rise, we ended up with less than the bank's offer. Good times.
I recall my mom talking about how little she made when she and my dad were first married (this is the late 1960s and she was a special ed teacher. In the south. In a mostly Black school. So no big bucks anyway.) Dad was also a teacher. She was also told a variation of "we have to pay men more so they can support their families!"
At my job before last, I made WAY less than similarly situated menfolk, except that I had so much more experience and tenure that we couldn't even do a good comparison. The best we could say is I made $20k less per year than the man I supervised as one of my 3 direct reports, who had been with the department 5 years less than I had.
I’ve quit 3 jobs because they tried to pay me less than men in the same job. Admittedly that's in 35 years of professional work but is still 3 more than most men.
One company tried to get me to rehire when they determined that no one knew how to do several crucial tasks. I told them No in very impolite terms since they were only going to keep me around long enough to train someone else how to do those tasks - they were shocked, and assured me that they valued my contributions. I laughed, told them not to call me again and hung up.
I have often wondered over the ensuing 20 years why they thought I would believe them. I mean I know people do but I’d been there at least 2 years so they knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t buy it. They also wanted me to narc out my co-worker who told me about the pay disparity. Yeah, sure - Dipshits
An interesting variation on the standard line/lie of the time, which was "...because men have to take care of families." Lou Grant actually used that one on Mary Richards when she complained about unequal pay on an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (which was set in, yes, Minnesota).
Another bit of sexism along those lines that I remember from the time:
Reader's Digest, that ode to all things lame, used to run regular "humor" vignettes as filler. One of these concerned women who worked at a bank and were upset about a rule that if they became pregnant, they would lose their jobs as soon as they could no longer face a wall and touch it with their toes but not their bellies. Supposedly some gummit bureaucrats told the bank that they would have to apply this rule to men too. Punchline: "The bank lost three tellers and two vice-presidents."
Ha fucking ha.
Shit like that keeps me from being nostalgic for days of yore.
I was part of a huge lawsuit against the federal government for sex discrimination in hiring at the VOA. It took more than 20 years, but we won the largest settlement ever awarded in a sex discrimination suit, about double what Goldman Sachs got socked with a few years ago. I think that if we tried to file the same suit today we'd be shot down. It's Hartman vs USIA if you're interested in looking it up.
Starring Jean Stapleton of 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 fame and shot in my smallish Canadian home town. The diner they used as a location still has the little neon sign the set designer created for them.
Another reason why I got the fuck out of the Federal Civil Service when I could.
The 2020 pandemic resulted in many businesses moving employees work from home — and some have yet to return to their office spaces. President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that included 49,000 federal workers — and he vowed to fire them unless they come back.
"If people don't come back to work into the office, they will be dismissed," he said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference. "Somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver so that, for five years people don't have to come back into the office. It involved 49,000 people."
"For five years they just signed this thing, it is ridiculous," Trump continued. "So, it was like a gift to a union, and we are obviously going to stop it."
During Trump's time in the White House, he left to work from the "winter White House," which is what he called Mar-a-Lago, and his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. There was an expectation that he was still working despite being in his clubs.
If they did, then I really have no sympathy at all anymore.
They're gonna get what they asked for. I feel sorry for their kids and others in their immediate vicinity that didn't sign up for this shit and wouldn't if they had a choice.
But, if they voted for him, they did, so, enjoy the office grind or the unemployment line.
I'm expecting a shitty time, and preparing for it. My "extra" upright freezer's already stocked with good food that was on sale over the last six months. I'm expecting whatever $comes$ and I hope I'm prepared.
They've changed the way they calculate windchill since then, so we don't ever get such low numbers now as we did then.
It's also gotten warmer here.
But I grew up about an hour's drive southwest of Willmar. I don't care what the windchill would be now; it's butt ass cold, and most people not living on top of Mt. Washington have never experienced constant wind at the velocity, all the time, as it is out in that country. What happens to an inch of snow in that wind is something that kills incredulous out-of-towners, and even locals who get careless.
Willmar was a shitty town then and it still is now. It had a state hospital, so if anyone had a mental health crisis the "went to Willmar." It had a vo-tech school that graduated incompetent cops in 8 months. It had at least one major meatpacking plant.
I remember the strike. Everyone knew it wouldn't end well, but the remarkable thing was that it happened at all in that culture in that place at that time, that it happened for the first time so late. At that time it was still unusual for a woman to have her own bank account. If a woman got a job, it meant her marriage was in trouble.
Yeah, late '70s. We used to say that area was about 20 years behind The Cities. Now with the internet and the acceleration of society, it might be 40 years behind in some ways; but they can see exactly how far behind they are, so they're really resentful about it.
I remember Willmar as being like "the Brainerd of the south"—we, too, had a state hospital and vo-tech but instead of a meat-packing plant we had the railroad shops and, of course, all the more affluent people from the Cities coming up to their lake cabins in the summer.
I grew up near Marshall, which is, culturally, southeast South Dakota. So I never had much of an impression of Brainerd.
Willmar, like Marshall, is a regional center. Brainerd, probably too. So the dynamics are a little different from the smaller towns in their regions.
Now in Marshall, all the medical stuff is owned by South Dakota companies (Avera, mostly). So with the ongoing collapse of the healthcare system, and its disappearance in rural America; everything beyond the scope of an Urgent Care requires a 110 mile drive to Sioux Falls. Except the cancer center in Marshall. The farmers poisoned themselves so completely, Avera's cancer center there is state-of-the-art. But if you need more than ER services or what an Urgent Care can do; other than cancer treatment; you are hose-ola.
The rest of the economy is pretty much along the same lines. There are a lot of reasons I, and all 8 of my siblings; got out of that region as soon as we could.
Truly depressing how many of these stories of people standing up for their rights and demanding society change end with the workers having to suck it if they aren't outright killed.
They could change it with votes, but most people are too stupid to know that workers rights would improve their lives. They bought into the trickle down theory, so now they vote for the very rich oligarchs that oppress them.
Time and time again the agency I worked at told me that they would not promote Jews. And since private industry told me that I was too old to work for them I just stayed in the agency until I maxed out a pension. The day after I hit the mark of 41 years and 11 months for the maximum pension I retired. And now I'm gonna collect that maximum pension as revenge for all the anti-Semitism I had to deal with.
We're watching the schmaltzy HGTV "White House Christmas" show with the White House tree and decorations. Schmaltzy yes--fun and seasonal and a wonderful reminder of who really IS our Presidential Family right now!
OT: Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has been standing up to the threat of DRONEZ in our skies. They're moving in precise formation! Oh sure, the know-it-all types say, "That's the constellation Orion, you fucking knob," but that just shows you how far the coverup goes. They've been menacing us for thousands of years! And Biden does NOTHING!
I saved this article to read when I had more time, which I finally have and did. The headline sounded vaguely familiar to me as a Minnesotan and, as I read, I started to remember this from when I was a teenager. My dad, always the staunch Republican, would sneer about it whenever it was mentioned on the news (and it actually was, several times) and say something about how if they didn't like it, "they should find someplace else to work." Meanwhile, my own mother working a similar job where the men made about 30% more than she did for the same work. She never argued with my dad about it but just sat there, silently seething.
I think this was about the time when I started to really lose respect for both of them.
Ta, Erik. This is a strike I knew nothing about.
OTish: my first job was in a bank, starting in 1978. In 1979 our union took the bank to arbitration over the pay rise, we ended up with less than the bank's offer. Good times.
I recall my mom talking about how little she made when she and my dad were first married (this is the late 1960s and she was a special ed teacher. In the south. In a mostly Black school. So no big bucks anyway.) Dad was also a teacher. She was also told a variation of "we have to pay men more so they can support their families!"
At my job before last, I made WAY less than similarly situated menfolk, except that I had so much more experience and tenure that we couldn't even do a good comparison. The best we could say is I made $20k less per year than the man I supervised as one of my 3 direct reports, who had been with the department 5 years less than I had.
I’ve quit 3 jobs because they tried to pay me less than men in the same job. Admittedly that's in 35 years of professional work but is still 3 more than most men.
One company tried to get me to rehire when they determined that no one knew how to do several crucial tasks. I told them No in very impolite terms since they were only going to keep me around long enough to train someone else how to do those tasks - they were shocked, and assured me that they valued my contributions. I laughed, told them not to call me again and hung up.
But they "valued your contributions"!!! Doesn't that mean ANYTHING TO YOU?
/s
I have often wondered over the ensuing 20 years why they thought I would believe them. I mean I know people do but I’d been there at least 2 years so they knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t buy it. They also wanted me to narc out my co-worker who told me about the pay disparity. Yeah, sure - Dipshits
𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴
An interesting variation on the standard line/lie of the time, which was "...because men have to take care of families." Lou Grant actually used that one on Mary Richards when she complained about unequal pay on an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (which was set in, yes, Minnesota).
Another bit of sexism along those lines that I remember from the time:
Reader's Digest, that ode to all things lame, used to run regular "humor" vignettes as filler. One of these concerned women who worked at a bank and were upset about a rule that if they became pregnant, they would lose their jobs as soon as they could no longer face a wall and touch it with their toes but not their bellies. Supposedly some gummit bureaucrats told the bank that they would have to apply this rule to men too. Punchline: "The bank lost three tellers and two vice-presidents."
Ha fucking ha.
Shit like that keeps me from being nostalgic for days of yore.
Should have scrolled down!
'men needed more money than women because men paid for dates.'
THIS is where that came from? I had no idea. I vaguely remember this story, mostly because of that particular line.
I was part of a huge lawsuit against the federal government for sex discrimination in hiring at the VOA. It took more than 20 years, but we won the largest settlement ever awarded in a sex discrimination suit, about double what Goldman Sachs got socked with a few years ago. I think that if we tried to file the same suit today we'd be shot down. It's Hartman vs USIA if you're interested in looking it up.
GOOD FOR YOU.
𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮 𝘪𝘯 1984 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘳 8 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘈 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘦𝘹.
Starring Jean Stapleton of 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 fame and shot in my smallish Canadian home town. The diner they used as a location still has the little neon sign the set designer created for them.
Another reason why I got the fuck out of the Federal Civil Service when I could.
The 2020 pandemic resulted in many businesses moving employees work from home — and some have yet to return to their office spaces. President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that included 49,000 federal workers — and he vowed to fire them unless they come back.
"If people don't come back to work into the office, they will be dismissed," he said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference. "Somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver so that, for five years people don't have to come back into the office. It involved 49,000 people."
"For five years they just signed this thing, it is ridiculous," Trump continued. "So, it was like a gift to a union, and we are obviously going to stop it."
During Trump's time in the White House, he left to work from the "winter White House," which is what he called Mar-a-Lago, and his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. There was an expectation that he was still working despite being in his clubs.
https://www.rawstory.com/working-from-home-trump/?utm_source=push_notifications
Do they get the work done? Then what's the problem?
I wonder how many of them voted for him.
Probably half of the folks in my former office voted for him because Jesus told them to...
If they did, then I really have no sympathy at all anymore.
They're gonna get what they asked for. I feel sorry for their kids and others in their immediate vicinity that didn't sign up for this shit and wouldn't if they had a choice.
But, if they voted for him, they did, so, enjoy the office grind or the unemployment line.
This recession's gonna be something.
I'm expecting a shitty time, and preparing for it. My "extra" upright freezer's already stocked with good food that was on sale over the last six months. I'm expecting whatever $comes$ and I hope I'm prepared.
They've changed the way they calculate windchill since then, so we don't ever get such low numbers now as we did then.
It's also gotten warmer here.
But I grew up about an hour's drive southwest of Willmar. I don't care what the windchill would be now; it's butt ass cold, and most people not living on top of Mt. Washington have never experienced constant wind at the velocity, all the time, as it is out in that country. What happens to an inch of snow in that wind is something that kills incredulous out-of-towners, and even locals who get careless.
Willmar was a shitty town then and it still is now. It had a state hospital, so if anyone had a mental health crisis the "went to Willmar." It had a vo-tech school that graduated incompetent cops in 8 months. It had at least one major meatpacking plant.
I remember the strike. Everyone knew it wouldn't end well, but the remarkable thing was that it happened at all in that culture in that place at that time, that it happened for the first time so late. At that time it was still unusual for a woman to have her own bank account. If a woman got a job, it meant her marriage was in trouble.
Yeah, late '70s. We used to say that area was about 20 years behind The Cities. Now with the internet and the acceleration of society, it might be 40 years behind in some ways; but they can see exactly how far behind they are, so they're really resentful about it.
I remember Willmar as being like "the Brainerd of the south"—we, too, had a state hospital and vo-tech but instead of a meat-packing plant we had the railroad shops and, of course, all the more affluent people from the Cities coming up to their lake cabins in the summer.
I grew up near Marshall, which is, culturally, southeast South Dakota. So I never had much of an impression of Brainerd.
Willmar, like Marshall, is a regional center. Brainerd, probably too. So the dynamics are a little different from the smaller towns in their regions.
Now in Marshall, all the medical stuff is owned by South Dakota companies (Avera, mostly). So with the ongoing collapse of the healthcare system, and its disappearance in rural America; everything beyond the scope of an Urgent Care requires a 110 mile drive to Sioux Falls. Except the cancer center in Marshall. The farmers poisoned themselves so completely, Avera's cancer center there is state-of-the-art. But if you need more than ER services or what an Urgent Care can do; other than cancer treatment; you are hose-ola.
The rest of the economy is pretty much along the same lines. There are a lot of reasons I, and all 8 of my siblings; got out of that region as soon as we could.
Truly depressing how many of these stories of people standing up for their rights and demanding society change end with the workers having to suck it if they aren't outright killed.
They could change it with votes, but most people are too stupid to know that workers rights would improve their lives. They bought into the trickle down theory, so now they vote for the very rich oligarchs that oppress them.
AND--for the ones who SMUGLY bought into it, THEY OWN IT.
"Women! United! Will never be defeated!!" A chant we said when marching. Bless the women (and others) who came before us.
Time and time again the agency I worked at told me that they would not promote Jews. And since private industry told me that I was too old to work for them I just stayed in the agency until I maxed out a pension. The day after I hit the mark of 41 years and 11 months for the maximum pension I retired. And now I'm gonna collect that maximum pension as revenge for all the anti-Semitism I had to deal with.
YOU GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May you live many years to collect.
OMFG I CAN'T TAKE THIS BULLSHIT!
Why do they fucking have him on right now?
We're watching the schmaltzy HGTV "White House Christmas" show with the White House tree and decorations. Schmaltzy yes--fun and seasonal and a wonderful reminder of who really IS our Presidential Family right now!
At this moment he is compromising the health and wellbeing of the American people with his double-talk.
Drumpfenfuehrer is dumb enough to be damned dangerous.
The fucking journalists are calling him "President" and sucking up.
Fuck this shit. Why is he even fucking ON?!?!?!?
$$$
OT: Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has been standing up to the threat of DRONEZ in our skies. They're moving in precise formation! Oh sure, the know-it-all types say, "That's the constellation Orion, you fucking knob," but that just shows you how far the coverup goes. They've been menacing us for thousands of years! And Biden does NOTHING!
ETA: Link, https://www.eschatonblog.com/2024/12/drone-fever.html
He's got a lotta time on his hands to watch stars in the night sky now. Idiot!
Guess he's still mad about losing last month. I did see that folks in Bowie were also reporting seeing the drones.
We're in need of more catchy phrases having to do with drones. Drone out with yer bone out! My, dey do drone on! Drone, drone, all alone...
Defense Secretary president elect on line one.
Hang up would you please.
Greta Gerwig your next movie awaits.