Current Events > Indentured servitude is back, baby!

(+) Yeah! (+)

It probably never left, but
https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/

A yearlong investigation by the USA TODAY Network found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.

If a driver quit, the company seized his truck and kept everything he had paid towards owning it.

If drivers missed payments, or if they got sick or became too exhausted to go on, their companies fired them and kept everything. Then they turned around and leased the trucks to someone else.

Drivers who manage to hang on to their jobs sometimes end up owing money to their employers – essentially working for free. Reporters identified seven different companies that have told their employees they owe money at week’s end.

The USA TODAY Network pieced together accounts from more than 300 drivers, listened to hundreds of hours of sworn labor dispute testimony and reviewed contracts that have never been seen by the public.

Using the contracts, submitted as evidence in labor complaints, and shipping manifests, reporters matched the trucking companies with the most labor violations to dozens of retail brands, including Target, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Hasbro, J.Crew, UPS, Goodyear, Costco, Ralph Lauren and more.

Among the findings:

Trucking companies force drivers to work against their will – up to 20 hours a day – by threatening to take their trucks and keep the money they paid toward buying them. Bosses create a culture of fear by firing drivers, suspending them without pay or reassigning them the lowest-paying routes.

To keep drivers working, managers at a few companies have physically barred them from going home. More than once, Marvin Figueroa returned from a full day’s work to find the gate to the parking lot locked and a manager ordering drivers back to work. “That was how they forced me to continue working,” he testified in a 2015 labor case. Truckers at two other companies have made similar claims.
...
Drivers at many companies say they had no choice but to break federal safety laws that limit truckers to 11 hours on the road each day. Drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation testified that their managers dispatched truckers up to 20 hours a day, then wouldn’t pay them until drivers falsified inspection reports that track hours. Hundreds of California port truckers have gotten into accidents, leading to more than 20 fatalities from 2013 to 2015, according to the USA TODAY Network's analysis of federal crash and port trade data.

Many drivers thought they were paying into their truck like a mortgage. Instead, when they lost their job, they discovered they also lost their truck, along with everything they’d paid toward it. Eddy Gonzalez took seven days off to care for his dying mother and then bury her. When he came back, his company fired him and kept the truck. For two years, Ho Lee was charged more than $1,600 a month for a truck lease. When he got ill and missed a week of work, he lost the truck and everything he’d paid.

Retailers could refuse to allow companies with labor violations to truck their goods. Instead they’ve let shipping and logistics contractors hire the lowest bidder, while lobbying on behalf of trucking companies in Sacramento and Washington D.C. Walmart, Target and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies have paid lobbyists up to $12.6 million to fight bills that would have held companies liable or given drivers a minimum wage and other protections that most U.S. workers already enjoy.

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The truck drivers should have taken the trucks and gone on strike.
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Bullet_Wing posted...

I'm surprised to see Costco in there. I was under the impression that they treated their employees extremely well? Is that just a misconception?

Costco may not be employers of the truck drivers.
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Jesus. And they say self driving trucks will be a bad thing.
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i told you last time not to call it a come back
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Antifar posted...

Retailers could refuse to allow companies with labor violations to truck their goods. Instead they’ve let shipping and logistics contractors hire the lowest bidder, while lobbying on behalf of trucking companies in Sacramento and Washington D.C. Walmart, Target and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies have paid lobbyists up to $12.6 million to fight bills that would have held companies liable or given drivers a minimum wage and other protections that most U.S. workers already enjoy.

Welcome to America, where corporations have more freedom and rights than the average citizen. How much you wanna bet not a single one of these bastards is arrested and if they do get hit with lawsuits they'll just drag it out in court since none of the people they screwed have any money to keep paying the fees?
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shockthemonkey posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

This seems similar to what happens to some sales jobs, specifically Ashley Furniture Homestore salespeople.

You get 3 months to understand how the job works, then after 90 days you enter a draw. If you don't sell X amount each week, it's deducted from your paycheck. Some salespeople have even been forced to pay-in for an entire week's work.

I don't understand how that is legal.

American conservatism is all about fucking over lower classes to help business owners. And boy are they effective lawmakers.

yeah, i like the liberal model better where even the buissness owners have nothing.....i would rather live in a completely destitute nation where everybody lives on government support instead of the "bad men" shop owners having a little extra $$$
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Asherlee10 posted...

This seems similar to what happens to some sales jobs, specifically Ashley Furniture Homestore salespeople.

You get 3 months to understand how the job works, then after 90 days you enter a draw. If you don't sell X amount each week, it's deducted from your paycheck. Some salespeople have even been forced to pay-in for an entire week's work.

I don't understand how that is legal.

that... doesnt seem legal at all

I know a guy whose dad owns a trucking company. I wonder if they do this.
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AlternativeFAQS posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

This seems similar to what happens to some sales jobs, specifically Ashley Furniture Homestore salespeople.

You get 3 months to understand how the job works, then after 90 days you enter a draw. If you don't sell X amount each week, it's deducted from your paycheck. Some salespeople have even been forced to pay-in for an entire week's work.

I don't understand how that is legal.

that... doesnt seem legal at all

Its not, to the point where I have trouble believing it even happens. This sounds like one of those urban legend things.
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shockthemonkey posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

This seems similar to what happens to some sales jobs, specifically Ashley Furniture Homestore salespeople.

You get 3 months to understand how the job works, then after 90 days you enter a draw. If you don't sell X amount each week, it's deducted from your paycheck. Some salespeople have even been forced to pay-in for an entire week's work.

I don't understand how that is legal.

American conservatism is all about fucking over lower classes to help business owners. And boy are they effective lawmakers.

Imagine believing liberals aren't just as beholden to corporations and money.
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Asherlee10 posted...

AlternativeFAQS posted...

that... doesnt seem legal at all

I don't think it does, either. However, I can speak first-hand of its existence. Right out of college I worked for AFH for 89 days.

I wasn't worried about going into the draw, I was selling really well. I discovered that they were skimping me on my check and deliberately moving delivery dates around to pay me less. Your amount sold was based on deliveries.

So, I quit on the spot.

Oh AND that store was owned by hardcore Christians that forced us to pray together each morning. It was extremely uncomfortable, as I am not Christian.

When did you work for them, and when? I work for a largish company that carries their products. I am simply curious.
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Asherlee10 posted...

Oh AND that store was owned by hardcore Christians that forced us to pray together each morning. It was extremely uncomfortable, as I am not Christian.

I know this is Texas and all but that sounds like lawsuit city, how'd they get away with it?
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Antifar posted...

Retailers could refuse to allow companies with labor violations to truck their goods. Instead they’ve let shipping and logistics contractors hire the lowest bidder, while lobbying on behalf of trucking companies in Sacramento and Washington D.C. Walmart, Target and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies have paid lobbyists up to $12.6 million to fight bills that would have held companies liable or given drivers a minimum wage and other protections that most U.S. workers already enjoy.

Every additional middleman in the chain adds plausible deniability. Just go look at the utter disaster web ads have become.

Never knew stuff like this happened. :(
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Asherlee10 posted...

AlternativeFAQS posted...

that... doesnt seem legal at all

I don't think it does, either. However, I can speak first-hand of its existence. Right out of college I worked for AFH for 89 days.

I wasn't worried about going into the draw, I was selling really well. I discovered that they were skimping me on my check and deliberately moving delivery dates around to pay me less. Your amount sold was based on deliveries.

So, I quit on the spot.

Oh AND that store was owned by hardcore Christians that forced us to pray together each morning. It was extremely uncomfortable, as I am not Christian.

How long ago was this? Not saying I don't believe it happened to you, but I can't find any recent record of it happening. Plenty of other complaints, however

https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/ashley-furniture-c28997.html
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Asherlee10 posted...

fire_bolt posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

AlternativeFAQS posted...

that... doesnt seem legal at all

I don't think it does, either. However, I can speak first-hand of its existence. Right out of college I worked for AFH for 89 days.

I wasn't worried about going into the draw, I was selling really well. I discovered that they were skimping me on my check and deliberately moving delivery dates around to pay me less. Your amount sold was based on deliveries.

So, I quit on the spot.

Oh AND that store was owned by hardcore Christians that forced us to pray together each morning. It was extremely uncomfortable, as I am not Christian.

How long ago was this? Not saying I don't believe it happened to you, but I can't find any recent record of it happening. Plenty of other complaints, however

https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/ashley-furniture-c28997.html

Summer of 2008

Honestly, it's so ridiculous and questionably legal that I wouldn't believe it if it didn't happen in my presence.

Yeah, seems like either they've quit doing it or nobody is reporting it. I can't find anything about it through Google. Hopefully they got their asses kicked in court for doing it.
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Asherlee10 posted...

This seems similar to what happens to some sales jobs, specifically Ashley Furniture Homestore salespeople.

You get 3 months to understand how the job works, then after 90 days you enter a draw. If you don't sell X amount each week, it's deducted from your paycheck. Some salespeople have even been forced to pay-in for an entire week's work.

I don't understand how that is legal.

How does that work? They get fined if they don't sell enough? I mean, they aren't leasing anything themselves, are they?
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For two years, Ho Lee was charged more than $1,600 a month for a truck lease. When he got ill and missed a week of work, he lost the truck and everything he’d paid.

Important part bolded.

Kaliesto posted...

Never knew stuff like this happened. :(

Corporations do shady shit all the time in the name of the bottom line. Remember that time a Walmart decided to pay their employees in Walmart gift cards instead of actual money?
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I mean, what does the store provide to the employee that the employee has to pay back? This sounds a bit less like the OP where the trucking company uses the debt of a financed truck to control employees and more like "if you don't meet your sales goal, we'll fine you because reasons."
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Alucard188 posted...

Kaliesto posted...

Never knew stuff like this happened. :(

Corporations do shady shit all the time in the name of the bottom line. Remember that time a Walmart decided to pay their employees in Walmart gift cards instead of actual money?

What? Now that sounds unreal.
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Asherlee10 posted...

Esrac posted...

I mean, what does the store provide to the employee that the employee has to pay back? This sounds a bit less like the OP where the trucking company uses the debt of a financed truck to control employees and more like "if you don't meet your sales goal, we'll fine you because reasons."

I guess they are providing a job, so that seems to be enough to them. This also similarly happens at some restaurants, but I've only heard that from servers, not first-hand experience.

The deal is that it's in the contract. After the 90 day period, the salesperson is responsible for selling X amount of furniture. The X amount is also dependent on delivery dates (which they would fuck around with). The salesperson was paid a low wage, as well. Their policy was that if X amount wasn't sold, then it would be deducted from that paycheck. I only saw 1 time that a person went into the negative and was going to have to owe money to them. The person quit and bailed. I don't know if they pursued that person or not.

It this was truly a "bad thing" Ashley would have gone out of business from lack of employees.

Remember folks: The solution is deregulation. If only we let companies do whatever they want they would only do what's best for us. They would never screw people over for a profit... Never, ever...
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

Esrac posted...

I mean, what does the store provide to the employee that the employee has to pay back? This sounds a bit less like the OP where the trucking company uses the debt of a financed truck to control employees and more like "if you don't meet your sales goal, we'll fine you because reasons."

I guess they are providing a job, so that seems to be enough to them. This also similarly happens at some restaurants, but I've only heard that from servers, not first-hand experience.

The deal is that it's in the contract. After the 90 day period, the salesperson is responsible for selling X amount of furniture. The X amount is also dependent on delivery dates (which they would fuck around with). The salesperson was paid a low wage, as well. Their policy was that if X amount wasn't sold, then it would be deducted from that paycheck. I only saw 1 time that a person went into the negative and was going to have to owe money to them. The person quit and bailed. I don't know if they pursued that person or not.

It this was truly a "bad thing" Ashley would have gone out of business from lack of employees.

The typical low wage employee does not actually act in their best interest. It isn't that difficult to exploit them because they are too worried about not having a job to actually think about if the job is actually worth it.
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fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

Remember folks: The solution is deregulation. If only we let companies do whatever they want they would only do what's best for us. They would never screw people over for a profit... Never, ever...

You have no idea what you're talking about.

What? You don't agree that deregulation is a good thing?
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fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

Remember folks: The solution is deregulation. If only we let companies do whatever they want they would only do what's best for us. They would never screw people over for a profit... Never, ever...

You have no idea what you're talking about.

What? You don't agree that deregulation is a good thing?

You were being sarcastic.

I was?
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fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

Remember folks: The solution is deregulation. If only we let companies do whatever they want they would only do what's best for us. They would never screw people over for a profit... Never, ever...

You have no idea what you're talking about.

What? You don't agree that deregulation is a good thing?

You were being sarcastic.

I was?

Okay then you weren't? You agree with me that deregulation is good?

I hope you think deregulation is a great thing that only helps the People because companies are good and only care for the good of its consumers and employees. As this story clearly illustrates.
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Whoever is most responsible at the respective companies should be arrested on multiple counts of extortion, labor law violations, and reckless endangerment(of the drivers and the public.) A highly tired driver is a dangerous driver) and never see the light of day.

In addition said individuals and the companies responsible should have to pay the affected workers all the money they spent on the trucks x2 plus any connected medical or legal costs(and I bet there is a iot of unpaid or improperly paid overtime here as well)
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Man that is terrible, though not surprising at all.
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fenderbender321 posted...

The Deadpool posted...

Remember folks: The solution is deregulation. If only we let companies do whatever they want they would only do what's best for us. They would never screw people over for a profit... Never, ever...

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Please, if we have no idea what we're talking about, enlighten us so that we may see the Right Way
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