I went out to a county political event last night and saw my friend Dolores. She told me that she was involved in an Occupy group in a city east of here, so I went out there to see how it was going. Defiance is the name of the city. You can read about that name here.
General Wayne surveyed the land and declared to General Scott, “I defy the English, Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it.”
I saw this sign on the way into the small city:
Dolores wasn’t there, but I met these people when I arrived:
This is their statement:
Occupy Defiance is a group dedicated to eliminating corporate and financial influence on our government and to promoting positive community action at a grassroots level.
I did my usual disclosure, where I showed them Balloon Juice on my phone and told them I’d be posting pictures. I don’t want to get anyone fired. They were really welcoming and willing to talk.
They got a permit to set up in the location pictured, which is a grassy area right in front of the county courthouse. They had invited two state senators to speak with them, both Republicans (it’s a conservative area). One was a no-show and they didn’t know if the second was coming. He was scheduled at 3:30.
The two negative things they had heard was one outraged citizen complaint that they are located close to a veterans memorial and a local business owner who came out of his store to tell them to “get a job”. Most of them have jobs. Like a lot of lower-wage workers, they don’t have a regular, predictable work schedule.
It’s amusing that there are people in this country who still cling stubbornly to the belief that everyone who works has a forty-hour 9 to 5 job, with weekends off. That hasn’t been true for a very long time.
One of the main complaints I hear from lower wage service workers is that they don’t know from one month to the next when they’re working, because their schedules change constantly. That makes it very difficult to have a less than chaotic family or personal life outside work, let alone scheduling time for a movement, like these folks are doing. Of course lower-tier workers aren’t compensated for erratic or impossible-to-predict work schedules the way Paul Ryan’s makers are. They’re not makers, they’re takers, and they have to take whatever random 32 hours in a 7 day period they’re given by the makers.
Maybe the “get a job” guy thinks all those people he sees working Sundays and nights (when he’s off) are volunteers.
Martin
You’d think they’d figure it out the first time they hire a babysitter, go out to dinner, catch a movie, and stop off at the store on the way home. But no, those must be free-market fairies doing all of those jobs.
Maybe we need to bring back blue laws, eliminate all retail work on weekends and after 5PM, and see how things improve as a result.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Martin:
Hey! I know some free market fairies! They babysit and everything!
__
Hmm. I’ve been to a country where that’s the case. It’s done wonders for their kultur of kinder, küche, kirche …
Original Lee
Hell, my spouse hasn’t had a predictable work schedule in years, and he’s management! I used to have a predictable work schedule, but now that my employer has decided to finesse the shift differential pay rule, I have 2-3 days a week where I work the evening shift and the rest is morning shift, plus weekend a month. I’m a white-collar professional. My neighbors who are doctors and nurses are also not having predictable work schedules.
All the worker bees are having problems, and it adds to the stress of surviving in this economy.
HumboldtBlue
Yeah, how dare those occupying fuckers take to the streets with their rights and stuff, RIGHT NEAR A VETERANS MEMORIAL!
First, those veterans are dead and could not give a flying fuck about a protest, and second, well, that’s self-explanatory.
kay
Original Lee, I don’t think that’s comparable.
Professionals are well-compensated for that.
These folks are not.
They have the worst of both worlds.
Dr. Squid
Lemme guess. No credit for the GM reorganization even though the GOP said, “Let them all die.”
WaterGirl
@Original Lee: I’m wondering what a “shift differential pay rule” is, though I am guessing that it’s a new way to screw the workers?
EditL love the signs, love the town name, love these posts.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
This is a basic conservative value. Along with ripping up your roots and community connections and moving to where ‘the jobs are’. Screw your friends, family, and kids.
kay
No, Dr. Squid, I think people there know exactly who saved GM.
This wasn’t that crowd, though.
Mnemosyne
@kay:
I think Original Lee’s point is more that the same people bitching about how the protesters must not have jobs since they’re out there during “working hours” are themselves probably not working 9 to 5 jobs and haven’t for years, but they’re incapable of making the connection between the two.
johnny's mom
I’m a retail hack with a b.s. in agricultural science, aka free market fairy. I love the idea of bringing back blue laws. I fantasize about what it would be like to have a life. I have worked 6-day weeks. I’ve worked open at 6am in the same week that I closed at 11:30 pm. What’s sleep? What’s a schedule? I’m a jack-of-all-trades kind of girl, so half of my job is product report analysis (for the same company). My boss is paying me $200 to learn access and set up a database for the company. :) Not joking. This will give you a sense of my overall pay scale. Before you say, “must be a small company”- no. Stores in 6 states.
ruemara
I love this. I’ve had the working hours issue come up a number of times, because my job is part time, strictly. I also have a 24/7 emergency availability clause (FEMA requirement), a schedule that shifts week to week if not day to day. My boss, a good person with limited experience outside his norms, does not understand why I cannot find that part time other job that will put me back into the $20k club of earnings, ergo, he thinks I should be thrilled at my %3 COL increase. Wooo! 51¢ more in another year! YEAH!
I wish these folks well. People don’t get that you’re not at those events because you have nothing to do, YOU’RE WORKING. Us low wage 99% need to do a damn general strike and let people get how absolutely idiotic the idea of “unskilled labour” & “get a job, then”, really is.
kay
Thanks mnem, I just think it’s an important distinction.
I’m on-call, basically, a lot.
I get paid pretty well for that, though, and I own the practice.
I don’t think folks who make 9 dollars an hour signed up for 24/7 devotion.
General Stuck
You know, I don’t know if this is actually true, as anyone can print up a flier and leave a pile laying around about anywhere, especially where a cop might just accidentally spot them.
But do to the fact that this is Phoenix in the state of insanity, I got my doubts. I know there are some anarchist types that hang around mainstream dem/liberals when they protest this or that, but the wording that Special ED quotes, just doesn’t seem like it comes from anywhere but the average fever swamp brain or your average tea bagger.
Nevertheless, the wingnut powers that be in AZ, are sounding the official alarm and we are at an Orange Alert, or Red Alert stage. I mean, it’s not like the goopers have been slinging every fucking thing they could against the OWS/
Short Bus Bully
Goddamn Kay this is a really excellent post. I’m a chef and throughout my working life I’ve been the guy working every night, weekend, and holiday. It’s great to bring this kind of stuff to people’s attention, thank you for that.
The problem is that the people who have a problem with this think that the SERVICE industry equates to SERVITUDE industry. The days of serfs and slaves is not very far gone in the minds of many.
“They are there to serve ME…”
General Stuck
sorry link for @General Stuck:
HRA
I have to ask myself why am I not getting the reasoning of someone going to work at a place that does not fit their personal needs or schedule. I worked since I received working papers at 14 years old. Its many years on the US work force with several different jobs and many interviews where I refused a job due to personal conflict, not providing health insurance, etc.
I have to shut down the office and that’s a good thing for I don’t think my experiences will be helpful to anyone today.
Jay in Oregon
@WaterGirl:
From my time in a sheet metal shop, a “shift differential” is basically a bonus to your hourly wage for taking a swing, weekend or graveyard shift.
Usually it’s like an extra 10% or so; in other words, you can earn $10/hour working the day shift or $11/hr for taking the swing or graveyard shift. If you get a raise, your shift differential goes up as well.
ruemara
@HRA:
*sigh* You need to work, because you need money. Period. That is not up for debate. Most of the time you’re promised a schedule that works for you when you’re hired. Case in point: worked at a store in NYC, asked what hours they need me to be free before I signed up for classes at school, came back with an open morning til 1 pm schedule, got fired by the same person who told me that she’d give me 8 am to noon Tues-Sat. If you can’t shift it around, you’re out of a job.
SuzieC
Kay, you live WEST of Defiance? You really are in a rock-ribbed ultra conservative part of the state. Makes me admire you all the more.
Redshift
@HumboldtBlue: Hey, we’re always being told they’re “defending our freedoms,” but that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to actually use those freedoms! Just knowing they exist should be enough.
Jay in Oregon
@General Stuck:
Especially when you have wingnuts bragging about “infiltrating” and harassing Occupy protests.
And, of course, the history of establishment thugs and flunkies trying to incite violence and pin it on the protesters, giving the cops an excuse to crack
downheads.Mnemosyne
@kay:
I don’t think it’s a bad thing that OL was using his/her personal experience to sympathize with the protesters, especially since, as you pointed out, it’s not like most people who have erratic hours get compensated decently for it.
The bigger question, as OL said, is why people who themselves have erratic hours can look at the protesters and assume they must be unemployed since they’re not at a 9 to 5 job (actually, these days, it’s always 9 to 6 or 8 to 5, especially if you get hourly compensation. No such thing as a “9 to 5” anymore that I know of).
Mnemosyne
@HRA:
Really? You never — not once, even as a young person — worked at a retail job, or in food service, or in any in-person customer service job? Ever?
That in itself is extremely unusual, you know.
Phylllis
Ah yes, flashbacks to Christmas Eve at the B Dalton Bookseller I worked at back in the day. One fellow actually shoved me aside to get in the store as I was trying to lock up the gate. Twenty minutes after the official closing time. Because retail drones surely don’t have a life outside of the store. I especially enjoyed wrapping the $5.00 bargain book for him, since I ‘forgot’ to peel the big red sticker off the front cover before wrapping it.
ruemara
@Phylllis: Awesome. Christmas douches are the best, aren’t they?
johnny's mom
Christmas douche: person who doesn’t realize Christmas comes the same time every year, and expects the under-paid salesperson to pay the price.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: I actually haven’t. I worked as a lifeguard as a teenager. But I’m aware that it’s extremely unusual.
Phylllis
@ruemara: I still find myself missing the bookstore on occasion, even though it’s been 20 years or so since I’ve worked there, but I don’t miss working Christmas Eve, ever.
Btw, there’s a great book about Defiance, called The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio that’s well worth a read.
El Cid
Anyone else notice that marchers went out in Tahrir Square, Cairo, you know, Egypt, in solidarity with Oakland’s OWS.
BruceJ
Too bad they didn’t thank “get a job” for cluing them in on a business to NOT take their business to.
(another) Josh
Defiance, Ohio? Didn’t Julianne Moore win a prize there?
dww44
@Short Bus Bully: Ditto that. Kay’s posts deserve a far wider readership because she makes all the important points that need to be made in such a way that even those who are opposed (but not rabidly so) to whatever issue she’s covering will be inclined to consider her reasoning. Just so common-sense and fair, and refreshingly sane.
We could go far as progressives and Democrats with many more Kays. Also, too, she puts her money where her mouth is. Thanks, Kay.
VidaLoca
Kay,
Just thought I’d take a moment to echo dww44 and Short Bus. I always make a point of reading anything you post here. Thanks for all you do.
Rissa
I participated at the Defiance Occupy Event today. There are currently people staying overnight on the sidewalk tonight and through tomorrow until we march in the Halloween parade Saturday evening. I would like thank Kay for coming down to visit and for posting this article, and everyone who has read and commented on it for being realistic and aware individuals :) Thank you for your support!
moe99
I grew up in Defiance, OH. Left there in 1969. It’s very very conservative, except for the some of the GM plant workers and a few other blue collars. John McCain visited there in 2008 as his campaign was crumbling, to get some solid support on the tv cameras. I remember when JFK was shot in 1963, there were a few guys in my 6th grade class who cheered when the principal broadcast the sad news.
Gretchen
I’m a supervisor at one of those places that thinks people should be glad to have a job, period. I try to explain that you can’t change people’s shifts all the time – they’ve signed up for classes, they have childcare arrangements, you can’t just jerk them around. I’m in trouble for not doing what management wants, telling them to show up when they’re told and deal. It’s especially great to tell someone who’s working hard and trying their best that we love you, you’re great, we’re really happy with your work, and as a reward you’ll get a giant raise of 20 cents an hour. Lots of turnover at evaluation time. That 20 cents an hour raise goes over especially big when corporate decides they really need a $20000 brass eagle decorating the parking lot. Object? Be glad you have a job, sucker. Ever heard of 9% unemployment?
low-tech cyclist
A friend of mine from grad school is on the faculty at Defiance College. He’d get a kick out of that church sign – wonder if he’s seen it.
kay
Thanks, Gretchen, for giving the supervisor’s take.
Child care is what drives my clients nuts with changing schedules. They can’t schedule child care.
It is extremely stressful, and, again, unlike me, they aren’t well-compensated for that kind of weekly panic attack.
kay
Hi Rissa !
I’m glad you found the place.
I can’t come to the parade but email me what you’re up to and I’ll come out to see you again.
Email is at the top of the page. Click on ‘Kay’.
toledored
kay is the only commentator with original content. Or maybe the only one with a life. She rocks!
HalfEmpty
@Redshift: And, of course, we can all be comforted that we know somebody who knows somebody that actually uses those freedoms.
Jasmine
Wow. Thank you all of you who understand that we do have jobs we just work weird schedules, it was probably one of the most frustrating parts of the whole event(I am a member of occupy defiance) to keep hearing GET A JOB. I have a job. I have a home. I own my home. I am 24. I have a son, I’m a single mom. I make totally JACK at my job. But have managed these things to careful meticulous planning…So hearing this over and over. Got really old. Someone wrote on the back of my sign while I was at lunch “I have a job. Thanks :)” i thought it was sweet. Thank you everyone who supports us the journalist who wrote this, I didn’t get a chance to speak with you, BUT THANK YOU.
I am a writer myself, and this is what I wrote when I got home after visiting the stalwart folk determined to make it through the night, two of them did. They were at the courthouse until 8 am this morning, I know because I took them tea and cookies, but saw when I got there Defiance had taken pretty good care of them. But last night when I visited them, a married couple, middle age, middle class was screaming at them… Saying YOUNG PEOPLE like us were the problem, because we got loans for houses we couldn’t afford and thought we should be able to keep them. We had no idea what he was talking about, as this was NONE of us, one of our gents was even a former real estate agent so him shouting continually DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A HOUSE COSTS?!?!!?was pretty funny. He too accused of not having jobs….this was strangely all he had to say, but i was inspired to write this when I got home :
Occupy America from The (former?)Non-patriot
These past weeks I have learned a great deal about America, and it’s many diversified citizens. Citizens diversified so many times over. Races, creeds, political parties/sides, generations.
The United States, is seeming unfortunately anything BUT. While it’s leaders make decisions that take away from it’s own citizens, it’s lifeblood, for what is a nation without it’s people? A wasteland. We are sliding into a wasteland fed by deception from our leaders and our people’s own willful ignorance, negligence, naivete, and denial. Some of us are so patriotic we are stuck in this rut where our leaders, OUR AMERICA, can do no wrong.
And yet. It is. It is bleeding out it’s own lifeblood for money. Corruption and greed is starving our nation, slowly. So slowly a lot of our 99% don’t really know what is happening to them. They aren’t really listening. They hear what they are told by their leaders and their media and this is enough for them. Even as it is these “people” slowly stealing from their very pockets, for their insanely luxurious and wealthy lives.
I have never been a patriot, I will confess. My youth was spent detached from traditional American culture. But, I am an American. I weep for a country that showed such promise, such rebellion, SUCH INDEPENDENCE, As The United States of America, during its budding time of establishment, to see it turned into a NEW culture of tyranny. Our greedy kings, are our CEO’s, our Governors, our Senators, our people who are TRUSTED with the responsibility of our nation, and therefore its people.
How will we save ourselves now America? There is no new world to flee to, to emancipate ourselves from the problem, the tyranny. But save yourselves YOU MUST, YOU CAN. YOU. Are the 99%. YOU. Are the power. YOUR VOICES. Are the ones who must be heard. You need change. Without it surely America as we know it will dry up, and die. The United States will become a wasteland. A nation that has bled dry it’s people, and therefore its self.
Are you a citizen of The United States of America? Act like it.