Jobs and lies
23 Mar 2023 08:42![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
claudebThe world received a big shakeout over the past three years. Two different kinds of fallout drifted down from it. And the first one was the so-called "great resignation", which 1) isn't new and 2) it's just boss-speak for, "oh noes, workers are waking up". Well, there has been a more specific form of worker shortage in the UK (due to Brexit) and the US (due to anti-immigration policies).
I was talking to a friend just the other day (hi, Borris), who told me about the lack of certain medication from pharmacies in parts of the US. He blamed it on not enough truck drivers... while in the same breath telling me about a friend of his who can't seem to find work as a truck driver. Supposedly the governor of California introduced a law to only allow union workers into jobs like these.
Maybe it's even true, I haven't checked. But to me that sounds fishy as hell, for two reasons:
My dear friend, I told him, you've been lied to.
Even so, I wouldn't have bothered writing this rant, but look what crossed my Mastodon feed this morning. Turns out the supposed worker shortage may have been fabricated by abusive employers keeping up job postings despite the lack of any actual openings, as a way to pressure their existing (and already overworked) employees.
Just like the supposed energy crisis turned out to be pure price speculation, using ongoing world events as a pretext. Go figure.
I was talking to a friend just the other day (hi, Borris), who told me about the lack of certain medication from pharmacies in parts of the US. He blamed it on not enough truck drivers... while in the same breath telling me about a friend of his who can't seem to find work as a truck driver. Supposedly the governor of California introduced a law to only allow union workers into jobs like these.
Maybe it's even true, I haven't checked. But to me that sounds fishy as hell, for two reasons:
- it sounds way too much like the systematic union fearmongering we've been hearing for even longer now;
- I know for a fact that other US states introduced laws to bring the hiring age for truck drivers as low as 16.
My dear friend, I told him, you've been lied to.
Even so, I wouldn't have bothered writing this rant, but look what crossed my Mastodon feed this morning. Turns out the supposed worker shortage may have been fabricated by abusive employers keeping up job postings despite the lack of any actual openings, as a way to pressure their existing (and already overworked) employees.
Just like the supposed energy crisis turned out to be pure price speculation, using ongoing world events as a pretext. Go figure.
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Date: 23 Mar 2023 10:21 (UTC)Don't get me started on ^&*%! Brexit! One of my greatest regrets is not staying the extra three months in Belgium and claiming citizenship but if I'd known then what I know now....... :o(
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Date: 23 Mar 2023 12:52 (UTC)