Do you want extra credit? If you do, please post a comment on this blog post responding to this prompt:
How does Vicky Starr's description of her working experiences (linked in a previous post, part of this week's assigned readings) compare to what you have experienced or heard about as a worker in America today? Use specific quotations from the source and relate them to your experiences. This should be at least two paragraphs long.
Please make your post by this coming Monday night, October 14, at 11:59 PM.
The working safety is the natural right of employees today, but it wasn’t in the first half of the 20th Century. She stated “There were no safety guards. Her fingers got into the hotdogs and they were chopped off.” (Starr, 1973). Employers didn’t responsibility of the safety of their employees. On the other hand, according to Occupational Safety & Health Administration, “Make sure employees have and use safe tools and equipment and properly maintain this equipment.” For example, employees, in my previous job, should have a special training to treat biohazard products properly. This rule is set not only my company in Japan but also in America. I’ve never been suffered from our products, because I had to wear rubber gloves when I touched them. Thanks to movements of workers in the past, such as strike, the right of them have been protected.
ReplyDeleteIn “Back of the Yards” by Vicky Starr, Vicky Starr came to America at age 17 because her family had no money to feed the family. Vicky Starr’s work experience was hard and dangers when she worked in Chicago. Vicky Starr’s first job was a house worker which only earned $4 dollar a week, and she hated it. The second job was in the “cook room” where women cut big chunks of meat into smaller pieces to make hash. The meat was so hot and steamy which could blister fingers, but she had stayed on. She worked six-hour shifts at 37 ½ cents an hour. One day a woman’s fingers were caught by the chopper, so all six floors stopped work and sat down. Vicky Starr was identified as a leader and fired. Vicky got another house worker job again, and she had to take care of the family. The job was horrible; she got $4 dollars a week also. A friend recalled to the stockyards, but she had another job, so Vicky used her name go back to the stockyards the place which she had fired. Later she was laid off because her friend’s name is black list under her name. Vicky changed a lot of jobs, but all the jobs were hard, less pay, and unsafe.
ReplyDeleteMy work experience is a little bit similar like Vicky. When I just came to the U.S, I got a job at the flower stand as a salesgirl. People maybe think about that would be a nice job because I can see the flowers all day. Unfortunately, my job was hard. The flower stand was at outside of the church. In the winter time, it was so cold, and there were no heat and hot water. I almost froze. Some people saw me in the cold, and bought me a cup of hot coffee. I would so appreciate him, and my tears come out. A cup of coffee warmed me up. When it rained, the tent was leaking water, so I need to move the flowers. Also, I used broom to make the heavy water came out from the tent. It was a hard job which I never had before, and the weather made me sick. Vicky said: “I was horribly homesick because I hated the restraint of being in a house all the time.” This word really relate to my experience. I hated to work at the flower stand because I got to stand in the cold for 10 hours. I was horrible homesick and cried so many times. After I worked at this job, I told myself that I need to learn English and get a degree and change my life.
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ReplyDeleteVicky Starr’s in her descriptions of her working experiences during the depression, Vicky mention “ Men who worked in plants got paid for their rime loss—women didn't.”. Different, nowadays women has the same work positions and insurance safety as the men. In words of Vicky Star “ one of the women, in putting the meat into the chopper, got her fingers caught. There were no safety guards”, at this time people were submitted to work under bad conditions with no safety and they did not have the right to organize protest, the once who have done that were fired, “Soon after the work stoppage the supervisors were looking for the leaders because people were talking up the action. They found out who was involved and we were all fired”.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, today as a worker in America much what Vicky Star has experienced is now considered by law as a crime. The worker in america now defend the safety in the work place, the equality of genders and the right to protest. Of course, still having cases where the workers today still suffering the same as what Vicky Starr had mention, but at least these cases are minor and if caught by the law, the people responsible for the establishment would be punished.
The experiences she had gone through at work is very hard in terms of social security, cheap wages and gender, and they are different from what we can see today in America. In the employment office, they employ only one or two persons every time. It seems people don’t have a work are very difficult to get a chance for jobs. On top of that, when she works on the stock yards, there are some women who get he fingers cut off by accident and pass out during the work. This is because of lack of security, and even after these accidents, the things does’t change, That is because women must be treated as tools for the workplace. As you can see this quotation “ we worked six hour shifts at 37 1/2 cents an hour”, the wage they get is also terrible and not enough to live on.
ReplyDelete"America is what it is today because workers began to organize—to demand fair pay, decent hours, safe working conditions, and the dignity of a secure retirement," President Obama said in a Labor Day proclamation. "Through decades upon decades of struggle, they won many of the rights and benefits we too often take for granted today, from the 40-hour work week and minimum wage to safety standards, workers' compensation, and health insurance. These basic protections allowed the middle class to flourish. They formed the basis of the American dream and offered a better life to anyone willing to work for it." I do not know so much about American workers, but it is sure that the treatment for workers today has improved little by little considering his speech, and America itself has focused on workers. They get fair pay and make sure their security more or less. They are getting equality of opportunity regardless of gender, so it would be much more better than the time Vicky lived.
There are both differences as well as commons between Vicky Starr’s working experiences and today workers in America.
ReplyDeleteThe differences are clearly seen that the Labor Union has made good progress and the today working conditions are not as terrible as what is revealed in the passage. Vicky Starr had to receive four dollars as the weekly salary income for countless housework “I got a job doing housework again and it was just horrible. Here I was taking care of this family with a little spoiled brat and I had to pick up after them—only Thursday afternoon off and every other Sunday—and all for four dollars a week of which I sent two dollars home. I just couldn't stand it. I would rather go back and work in a factory, any day or night.” Nowadays, the minimum wage that a person can receive is eight dollars per hour, a rather acceptable income that help the worker survive through their difficult time. Moreover, the Labor Union has got its stronger voice that is powerful enough to interfere in the factories that have the unsafe working conditions and protect the workers’ right if necessary. That is a big step compared to the situation “one of the women, in putting the meat into the chopper, got her fingers caught. There were no safety guards. Her fingers got into the hotdogs and they were chopped off. It was just horrible.” and the result of daring to react to the unsafe conditions is that “They found out who was involved and we were all fired. I was blacklisted”. And finally, the most bitter feeling is when Vicky permitted that she had to do the job that is considered to be horrible but she had no choice “Those beautiful cows! They can't kill those beautiful cows!" At home we just had cows for milking. But here were all these cows and they were going to be killed and they were crying, mooing, as they were going to be killed. But one had to get a job!”
However, it is sad to notice that the same bitter working experiences still exist in today life. This is the problems that most of the immigrants, especially the very new came immigrants, have to face day by day. To make end meet in the more and more difficult life, the immigrants have to do the jobs that offer cash pay. The advantages of these jobs are fast income, no tax pay and avoid the limited working hours that the government restricts on the immigrants. But there are terrible disadvantages that are suffered in silence such as horrible working conditions, the unacceptable poor income and the labor exploited policies. Just like Vicky Starr in the passage, they are miserable, feel hopeless and life is the day by day struggles for surviving. How sad and desperate it would be, they still accept all because of their family members.
Vicky Starr is great example of people who are under the rot of the financial slavery. Today, we can feel the harshly economy. I can dare to say that my experience is the same as Vicky Starr with some little difference between me and her. First, Vicky Starr could not find job easily, and she could not find the law to protect her. This point are quit the same as my experience. I have been looking for job for many years. I have been in the USA form 2009, I did not work as a total of two years in a period of five years. I have been moved to three states to find a job. Second, Vicky Star biography is very popular, but I have been suffering in this financial problem for many years. Nowadays, there is no wonder if you find the educated people in streets or applying to work as dishwashers in any place. On the other hand, you should not worry if you applied for hundred job and you did not get anything. All in all, we got to live under this mode tell we get new adjustment; give poor people talent to stay alive.
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