Support the Frito-Lay Strike

The most important thing to know is that right now, if you care about workers’ rights at all, you should not be buying Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos, Tostitos, Lay’s potato chips, Ruffles, and Walker’s potato crisps. And that’s going to kill me, because chips are my crack. When I’m angry or sad or bored, I dive into the chips, baby, and I don’t come out until I’m bloated and feeling slightly sick to my stomach.

But more important to me than a chip addiction is the desire to support fellow workers when they go on strike. Union strong! Power to the people!

One of the few positive things to come out of this accursed pandemic is that workers are starting to realize their power. They’re no longer willing to be treated abominably for obscenely low wages. And in this COVID labor market, they now have options.

And make no mistake, this isn’t about some workers getting a little horsey. The 600 factory workers who walked out in the Topeka, Kansas Frito-Lay facility have plenty of reason to be outraged. Frankly, I’m amazed they kept their cool for as long as they did.

According to this article, these employees haven’t received any meaningful raises in over a decade. In one job type, 20 cents per hour total in all that time. Shame on you, Frito-Lay.

They’ve often been forced into 84 hour work weeks, and have been working under extremely hazardous conditions with no hazard pay. When a worker dropped dead on the line, they moved the body, put in a replacement worker, and made everyone keep going. That’s seriously effed up. FUBAR is what that is.

During a wildfire the employees were forced to work in dense smoke. They had to work during a deep freeze. There are other horrific examples of poor treatment in the article above. Read it as a primer on how no one should treat another human being.

So join me as I shed a tear and stop eating one of my favorite foods on earth. Do it to send a message to all the greedy corporations out there. Tell them they have stepped over the line.

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10 Day Album Challenge #3: Paul Simon, Graceland

If you haven’t been following this series of posts, a friend of mine nominated me to do an album challenge. “The task is to post once per day for the next 10 days about the top ten albums that have an impact on your life, and to pay it forward by nominating someone else each day to do the same.”

Okay, so I’ll play. But I’m changing the rules to suit me. First of all, I’m not writing about this 10 days in a row. I will write about 10 albums, but only on the occasional “Music Monday”. And I refuse to nominate anyone else, because I try to avoid adding stress to the lives of the people I love. Having said that, if you’re reading this, and would like to take up the challenge, go for it!

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In these days of digital streaming, there’s really no need to physically own albums anymore, but there is one that I like to be able to hold in my hands. If I were organized enough to digitally download all my music, I’d still keep this one CD: Paul Simon’s Graceland.

This was a controversial album from the very start. Many said that Simon shouldn’t have broken the South African cultural boycott until Apartheid was finally abolished. And while I do agree that extreme pressure needed to be applied to that outrageous system, I actually think that waking the world up to this country’s culture did a great deal to humanize it for all of us. It’s much harder to accept atrocities visited upon people whom you admire. So exposing this rich culture to the wider world by way of this amazing album hardly prolonged Apartheid. If anything, doing so made the practice all the more horrifying and unacceptable.

Another thing I love about this album is that Simon collaborated with so many different artists to bring it to life. I absolutely adore collaborations, because when you combine the best of two or more people, what you produce is more than 1 + 1. Somehow, the magical math of it all creates something even bigger and better. And that’s the case here.

If it weren’t for this album, I would have never heard of the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, for example, and I admire their work to this day. I had the great privilege to see them in concert several years ago, and it was an evening I will never forget.

This album has a unique bass line, and brings world music, especially African Rock, to center stage. Whether it’s “Gumboots” or “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” or “Graceland” or “Homeless” or perhaps the most famous “You Can Call Me Al”, this music is a love letter to all the culture and artistry that Paul Simon had the pleasure to be inspired by in the mid ‘80’s. I maintain that this was not cultural appropriation. This was a cultural celebration.

Even after listening to it more than 30 years after it came out, it’s like being serenaded by a wonderfully vital and valuable friend. Check it out. I have reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.

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Boycott Automation

I absolutely refuse to go through the self-checkout line at the grocery store. I don’t care how much they urge me. I won’t do it. The way I see it, that’s someone’s job I’d be taking away. The fewer of us who play that game, the fewer grocery stores will think it’s worth trying, and the more people they will have to hire.

I also try to avoid ATM machines whenever possible. I even prefer not to check out my books myself at the library if I have a human option.

Automation is all around us. The trick is not to get used to it. Recently I traveled in Oregon, and was kind of surprised to see that you couldn’t pump your own gas there. I had forgotten that there was once a time when self-service wasn’t an option. How easy it is to forget. Waiting for an attendant was kind of awkward and slow, but it felt good, knowing someone was taking home a paycheck.

I also try to shop at smaller stores and farmers’ markets, and I do my best to eat local and support my neighbors. Am I swimming against the tide? Probably. But these tiny acts of rebellion against corporate America feel good to me. They feel right. And I’ll keep doing them as long as I possibly can.

Power to the people!

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What to Do When You Can’t March

I used to lament being born in the early 60’s. I was too young to participate in the “really good” protests. Be careful what you wish for. Here we are again.

Unfortunately, I have a really strange work schedule, so most marches march right on past me. I would have loved to participate in the women’s march on Washington, for example. Or the protest against the immigration ban, or the march for science, or even the produce your dang tax returns one. But nooo… I get to sit in my lonely little work tower, wishing I could lend my voice to the ever-increasing cacophony.

Other people can’t march for other reasons. Health issues. Location. Having small children at home. Time constraints. For everyone that does march, there are probably 5 who would like to, but can’t. It can feel really frustrating.

But there are still things that you can do. I think the most important thing you can do is speak up. Let people know how you feel. When it’s perceived that the majority feel a certain way, it becomes the norm. So you don’t have to march to be a part of the strengthening tide of protest. You just need to let others know you’re with them. I highly recommend blogging. But even just posting something on your Facebook page, or bringing issues up with friends and family, can be effective. If you get even one person to stop and think, “Hmmm. Maybe the earth isn’t flat after all!” then you’ve done something. You’ve become part of progress.

It is also important to put your money where your mouth is if you can. Support Planned Parenthood. Support public radio. Support the ACLU. Also, boycott companies that you feel are not on the right side of history for whatever reason, such as United Airlines, Ivanka Trump, Wells Fargo, Monsanto and Walmart. Money talks.

In addition, it’s extremely important to let your congressmen know how you feel on various issues. Call them. E-mail them. Write them. Pester them. Sign legitimate petitions. Vote. It’s the people who didn’t bother to vote who got us in this protest-worthy situation in the first place.

I also wear my heart on my sleeve in the form of bumper stickers on my car. I think this is a lot more effective than most people realize. I see people taking pictures of my bumper all the time. And I also sport a yard sign, as you can see, below.

Ask yourself this: do most of the people who know you know exactly where you stand? Then you’re doing well! Keep it up! #resist

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My Hobbies are None of Your Business, Boss

Just when you thought the Supreme Court couldn’t sink any lower in its conservative white male support of corporations over the human beings they are supposed to represent, along comes this foolishness with Hobby Lobby. Their landmark ruling on that lawsuit means that your employer now has the right to impose his beliefs on your body. HOW DARE THEY???

The owners of Hobby Lobby have very strong religious convictions. Good for them. They have decided that contraceptives are a sin. Fine. Then they shouldn’t take contraceptives.

But they’ve taken the concept one step further. They’ve decided that they have the right to impose their beliefs on the at least 15,000 women that they employ nationwide. Thanks to the Supreme Court, they are now allowed to provide these women with health insurance that will not cover birth control.

This won’t stop these women from using birth control. I guarantee you that. But it will impose a financial hardship, and I have no doubt that Hobby Lobby pays its employees pathetically, as that seems to be the retailer trend these days. In many cases it will cause these women to seek out more affordable but less effective alternatives, and this will impact their health and the very structure of their families.

Here’s what no one seems to be saying. If my boss tried to have a conversation with me about my health choices, if he tried to give me advice on what I should do when I’m off the clock, if he even dared to suggest that my private life were any of his business whatsoever, I’d sit him down, look him straight in the eye, calmly inform him that I’m a grown-ass woman and he is not my father, and then I’d tell him to shut his pie hole.

And that should be the end of the conversation. There should never have been a single court in the land that would view this as a legitimate lawsuit. It is a sad day in this country when there is legal sanction to treat employees as if they are children. You pay me, and part of that pay is in the form of health insurance, in exchange for my hard work. A fair trade. It has been that way since the emancipation proclamation. What I do after receiving that compensation, even if it involves sacrificing goats under the light of the full moon, has nothing whatsoever to do with you.

One thing is for certain: I won’t ever spend another penny in a Hobby Lobby. And since the vast majority of their customers are women, I hope all women with sense will do the same thing. If I were a competing retailer, I’d take advantage of this opportunity to make it perfectly clear that I, unlike Hobby Lobby, respect a woman’s right to make her own decisions. Now THAT store would have my undying loyalty.

And believe you me, if there were a way to also boycott the Supreme Court, I’d be doing that, too. They are completely out of control. Sheesh.

[Image credit: Hikaru Cho]

The Shortest News Cycle in the History of the World

On April 24^th of this year a factory collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing more than 1,000 people who were just desperately trying to make a living of about $1.50 a day. They worked obscenely long hours for this money in an overcrowded building with no air conditioning, outdated and dangerous equipment and unhealthy drinking water. All the exits in this building were on the same side and there were very few windows. Not that anyone could have gotten out anyway. It was all over in less than 10 seconds, and the deaths of these people were every bit as horrendous as their lives had been.

The question is, why are we not still talking about this? Why are we not outraged, disgusted, horrified? If this had happened in America it would be a scandal of epic proportions. We’d be talking about it for decades. There would be legislation, there would be investigations, there would be a massive outpouring of support for the victims’ families.

Is the desire for low cost T-shirts really that much greater than the sanctity of human life? Is it that we feel that all non-American lives are insignificant? People in Bangladesh died? Sorry to hear that. Next!

American companies that buy from these factories do insist on a certain level of health and safety standards, but in order to make a profit these standards are overlooked. And we know it. Let’s not upset the apple cart. Wink, wink.

I’m not suggesting that we boycott Bangladeshi products. Good God, if we do, they’d starve to death. The workers don’t deserve that. But these health and safety standards have to be enforced. And it is estimated that if we would be willing to pay just 10 cents more per garment, these factories could be retrofitted and the health and safety of these workers could be achieved. Are you willing to pay 10 cents more for that? I am.

Meanwhile, even as you read this, the factories of Dhaka continue to grind out their products, grinding their workers down at the same time, ensuring that their lives are nasty, brutish and short.

And we’re not talking about it. Shame on us.