2006 Projects?

This phenomena happens to anyone who works varying shifts. My husband frequently is scheduled so that he can barely get any sleep before his next shift starts.

What has happened is that Federal workers' laws have been dismantled over the past 25 or so years. This is where we need to direct our anger.

Did you know that you can make an employee work 12 hours without a break? That used to be illegal.

Dianne

I don't think that Wal*Mart should be penalized because they're large. I think they should be penalized because their business practices suck.

Elizabeth

That's not completely true.

Elizabeth

My LNS is a single person operation.

And I have to say that I'm unclear on what your point is. Everybody's doing it, so Wal*Mart is ok? Everybody's doing it, so we should shop at Wal*Mart anyway? What's your argument, Karen, because you've completely lost me.

Elizabeth

Dianne

Oh, Karen. There's plenty of yarns out there that you can both wash and dry in a machine and are nice quality and should be found in a local yarn shop. If not, I'd request they get some!

The sweaters I made were "lay flat to dry", but a baby's sweater (or 2- or 4-year old sweater sizes) is so small that, even in a small apartment (and I lived in a one-room when my daughter was a baby) you could find a spot to lay it, including a cutting board over a small stove.

Also, with today's modern dryers, mine has a shelf for doing the "lay flat" routine.

Dianne

Karen C - California wrote:

Oooh, I'll have to hunt those up! Thanks for the heads up! I'm all for comfort! Dianne

They don't?

Karen, do you have anything besides anecdotal evidence for any of this?

Elizabeth

I took a little bit of flack here for knitting an all cotton sweater for a friend's toddler, but I'm happy to say that she throws it in the wash and the dryer and it comes out fine.

You can see it here:

Ditto but I buy the ones that have the high hips cut to the waistline.

Hanes Her Way and Fruit of the Loom for women are just about interchangeable and both very comfortable.

Elizabeth

Unfortunately, it can, and it does. Especially in high cost of living places like California.

Many landlords here require that you demonstrate income 3x rent. With the average for a 2 bedroom apartment in Sac running around $1100 (which, coincidentally, is approx. what full-time minimum wage equates to), you'd need a family income of $40,000/year to qualify for the average 2 BR apt.

The gov't recommends you not spend more than 30% of income on rent. I've always considered myself fortunate if I could find a place for 40%, and sometimes, that was on the fringe of the ghetto, not somewhere I felt safe. Then again, I don't own a car, so I could afford the extra for rent.

Don't know if Father Joe's Villages have made their way east yet; I've been acquainted with his work since my San Diego days. His PR department's focus has always been on the people you don't expect to be homeless, e.g., here's John and Mary, who both work, but Junior's medical expenses prevent them from saving up enough for an apartment deposit. Most Americans are one missed paycheck away from being homeless, and most of Father Joe's guests are those hard-working people who were laid off and couldn't make rent from their Unemployment checks, or missed a week of work due to illness, or got hit with massive car repairs that they had to have taken care of so they could use the car to get to work.

I can't ever, no matter how old I get, agree with that statement. Anything can, and maybe should, be altered.

That is extremely lame Vic

I think differently than you do, I suppose.

Yeppers, I have lived in countries where the people had no freedoms and let me assure you, you would not care for it ~

It's not

All right - think of the people who cry because they lost a child, because they are too poor to buy a Christmas gift for their child, because they are old and lonely, because they go in daily fear of losing their job etc. Then don't you feel it is very effete to talk about crying over a movie ?

Well I am not drunk with anger and angst over Wartmart, I am just implacable, I don't approve of them and will not shop there.

No, we can't be the same. I still have the capacity to try and put myself in anothers position, also to try and prevent erosion of my freedom and liberty in whatever small way I can and hopefully will care enough do so until I croak!

True. And the specific size has been chosen, more than once, because that's the size WalMart is. As Sue pointed out, her local legislation affects precisely three employers, two of whom are already in compliance.

Why was it written for 200 employees, and not for 150 or 100? Because

I've been party to too many political discussions about how can we rule in this specific target while ruling out the entities we're not targeting; I don't believe that number was drawn out of a hat. It was specifically selected to rule in WalMart while not affecting other large employers. Let's pick a number big enough to affect WalMart (200), but too big to include KMart and Target (175).

Go read the Federal Tax Code, Elizabeth. There are plenty of sections along the lines of "any corporation whose name begins with B, which was chartered on May 28, 1976 in Delaware, doesn't have to pay taxes on the first $100M profits annually." Trust me, that's not generosity to Bob's Bar & Grill, which happens to fit those criteria; it's payback to BigBoxCo who made the right gifts to the right legislators to get company-specific legislation drafted.

At least these guys are a little more subtle, not specifying that this law is intended only for companies whose name begins with W, based in Bentonville, Arkansas", but it doesn't make it any more fair.

I haven't seen any ads telling me to not shop at Target or KMart because they do the same things to their employees. No ads demanding that McD's provide health insurance, though I'm sure McD's as a whole (franchisees included, not just McD's owned and operated locations) employs as many people as WalMart, with a similarly low percentage eligible for health insurance.

I suppose my lifestyle doesn't allow for much meeting people, which is one of the downfalls of not being well. However, I do get out a bit and it seem so much easier for my mind (and this could be really head it the sand) to relax around people who challenge me, but not on issues which are futile.

As for Walmart and parking overnight, this is not for employees who have no place to live. That is a rumor and urban legend. Walmart accomodates truck drivers and RV full timers and travelers to stay in their lots because they are well lit and safer than most darkened rest stops. Sometimes when people travel long distances they bypass the RV parks because there's no time to register, hook up, level, etc. So, I don't know where you read they do it for their homeless workers.

It wasn't a personal attack Elizabeth. I know what it means and I don't agree with it. I do not think living well is the best revenge. I think living well...how fabulous! We think differently I guess. I am usually always way out the box, progressive and liberal. Don't take what I say so personally. I didn't say you should rethink, only that maybe you will.

One of my students lent me Barbara Ehrenreich's _Nickeled and Dimed_ to read. It was a real eye-opener.

Elizabeth

It's even more scarey when you actually watch this stuff on c-span and see just how disgusting the behavior of some of the Senators actually is. If everyone in America watched c-span I have a feeling a lot of this would be completely avoided. Nobody pays any attention to any of it. Sad, really.

...and I'll add if you can hold out, wait till you see them with the extra pair in the package AND on sale. I buy several packs at a time and I love them. No more tags! The undergarment industry has finally figured out how to remove tags! YAY