Wisconsin Republicans Draft Bill Proposing 7-Day Work Week For Retail Workers

Posted By: JacobSloan Jan 16, 2014

They say do what you love – and if you love working in a factory or the service industry, get ready to get excited. Via the Stevens Point Journal:

Wisconsin manufacturing and retail workers could work seven days straight without a day off under a bill two Republican lawmakers are circulating on behalf of the state’s largest business group. The bill promises to ratchet up tensions between the GOP and Democrats and their organized labor allies.

The measure’s authors, Sen. Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Mark Born of Beaver Dam, say the bill gives workers a way to make extra money and employers a way to boost production. But Democrats and labor leaders insisted bosses would use the bill to force their employees to work longer and effectively erase the weekend.

Current Wisconsin law requires employers who own or operate factories or retail stores to give their workers at least 24 consecutive hours off every seven days.

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  • Liam_McGonagle

    You know, back a couple years ago during the “Madison Uprising” I thought it would take an organized partisan approach to destroy the credibility of Wisconsin’s misanthropic Republican Party.

    Now I see the Republicans are doing a pretty good job on their own.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      On a side note, this actually represents a bipartisan compromise. Grothman originally wanted an 8-day work week, but someone convinced him that was not possible so they took a more moderate approach.

      • American Cannibal

        The bill will pass with bipartisan support as a 6 day work-week with 1 day off, as per the Bible.

    • ÿ

      You’d think so, but I wouldn’t wager on it.

  • Calypso_1

    Excellent! With money saved on new hires they can afford suicide netting.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Will employee orientation include issuing all new hires a capsule of cyanide?

      • Calypso_1

        Soaps and lampshades are so 20th century. Outside of organ harvesting, human tissue is worth about $100 grand a body – mostly for cosmetic surgery.

        • American Cannibal

          Nah. All that surgery is too damn expensive. We need the surgeons for the middle class. Just kill them off with bullets or something. Gas! Poison them with gas – like in the old days. Cheaper than bullets and a proven method. Problem solved. NEXT…

          • Calypso_1

            We can use robot surgery and outsource the procedure to Mongolia.

          • American Cannibal

            I thought the object of the game was to make more money, not waste cash on redundant stock.

            Save the surgeons for the strivers. If we can’t keep the strivers at work, what the hell are we going to do? Go make money at a ‘job’? Please. I’m an asset holder.

          • Calypso_1

            Exactly. As I said, the reintegration possibilities are interesting. Striving middle management are costly. Post-suicide attempt implanties will work for endorphin jolts w/o benefits and strictly follow control algorithms. What a promotion track!
            Real strivers come up with ideas to replace everyone else.

          • Matt Staggs

            Have you seen “Sleep Dealer”? You should.

          • Calypso_1

            No. Totally missed that, will check it out.

          • echar

            I have it in my library, but have resistied watching it. I have read it’s a low budget/Indie movie but tells a good story.

          • Liam_McGonagle

            Both of your ideas have appeal. I like the Blade-Runner-y implications of Calypso’s ideas, but I think life for the elites will be much simpler if they just turn the excess population into fertilizer instead of trying to integrate future proles into society.

            Then again, our elites have never shown much inclination to that degree of forethought, so it really seems like anything could happen.

  • Cortacespedes

    bosses would use the bill to force their employees to work longer and effectively erase the weekend.

    Am I the only one to see the silver lining here? Erase the weekend sounds like a fine idea; fewer cheeseheads in the stands during Packer games, ya see. After that, we get every city with a franchise to erase their weekends too. Then, and only then, can we finally erase the scourge that is the NFL.

    Congratulations on taking a step in the direction of becoming another “right to work” state.

    Well, have fun with mandatory overtime. (Welcome to my world.)

    • Liam_McGonagle

      You know, the next logical step will be to lock up unemployed people, like they did in Czarist Russia. That’ll really tamp down the unemployment problem.

      • Cortacespedes

        Don’t we already do that? That little clause in the 13th amendment that actually wrote slavery into the constitution is going to come in pretty handy when we reach critical prisoner mass.

        • Liam_McGonagle

          Good point. We’re getting to the point that it may be more economical now to segregate the warders rather than the prisoners.

  • Audio7

    Productivity in most retail businesses is already through the roof, weekends off for most who work in retail is an illusion, and few retail workers belong to unions.

    So what purpose could this Dickensian proposal be but further proof that Wisconsin republican lawmakers are out-of-touch dicks?

    • Liam_McGonagle

      They’re in touch alright.

      http://youtu.be/wv-34w8kGPM

      But I’m cool with that. Bring on the Fimbulwinter! Nobody wants to live forever.

  • Will Mickelson

    People better not be supporting this! This is a big business move that is true.
    Anyone who works 7 days straight, deserves the next two days off.

    can’t people choose to work threw the 2 days off if they choose too though?

    • VaudeVillain

      Sure they should be able to choose to do that. In fact, they already can: it’s called getting a second job, and working there instead.

    • American Cannibal

      Your plan stinks! 7 days junk-work, then 2 days off!? Fuck that shit.

      I vote for 2 days of BS work, 5 days off. Who’s with me?

      • Monkey See Monkey Do

        2 – 3 days of work is all society really needs.

        • Liam_McGonagle

          Actually, that’s been proven to be mathematical FACT.

          You probably already knew that, but I didn’t have anything else to say. So there you go.

  • Andrew

    Now THAT is a shit eating grin.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      You know, some people just grow into their bad primary school photos, don’t they? I mean, with this guy’s walnut-shaped head and ridiculous hair, you can just see him wearing a bright blue and red wooly sweater, right?

    • Jonas Planck

      …

      • Guest

        :…

      • Jonas Planck

        :..

        • Jonas Planck

          ::.

          • Rhoid Rager

            Proof positive: reptilian shape-shifter.

    • Calypso_1

      He should try smoking it.

      • echar

        I heard he shoots up the tears of retail workers.

    • American Cannibal

      He’s a McNuggit Eater.

  • Juan

    Maybe things will get so bad that people will finally say “fuck this?”
    It’ll be interesting to see how much shit people will put up with before they do something about it, en masse.

    • ÿ

      Madison was an encouraging moment a few years back, but that evaporated real quick and most certainly did not make a positive impression on the people who needed it. Milwaukee is gentrifying at an impressive pace, but the rest of the state can barely admit Milwaukee is inside state borders. Oh, and it’s still one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States.

      There’s a reason I don’t live in Wisconsin any more… and it’s not
      because I was banned/exiled or decided it was a smelly pit that I hate
      more than a tire fire.

      • godozo

        Same with Illinois and Chicago, Michigan and Detroit, and quite a few other formerly progressive states. Heck, I’ve watched things fall apart in NW Indiana and people here saying that being the red-headed stepchild that Indiana beats up on/rapes when they feel like it is heaven because it’s not Chicago.

    • http://uzzas.blogspot.com/2010/06/introduction.html uzza

      Question is, what do we do about it? or, What CAN we do about it?

  • echar

    How about giving the employees a fucking raise, instead of treating them like pakc animals?

    • VaudeVillain

      What are you, some kind of COMMUNIST? Anyone working in retail of manufacturing is clearly a lazy freeloader waiting for handouts from Real American Patriot Job Creators who should have studied harder or something.

      • echar

        I lasted a year and a half working retail. Where I was told $10.00 an hour was more than what I was supposed to start with, but the boss did me a solid. I had to sacrafice sonsecutive days off, flip flop my hours (typically afternoons, late evenings/early mornings [anywhere from 10:00 PM – 2:00 AM or later], and wear more hats.

        All to watch punk ass college kids (mostly women) slack off and refuse to work as a team, and get pissed at me because I was one of the few getting a full 40 hour week. Not because I wanted to, but because I needed the god damn money.

        By the end of that experience, I had a dim view of humanity and new found respect for retail workers that make it look easy. Also an understanding of the dead eyed stare of the workers.

        This article has hit way too close to home, and I am a bit upset. I’d rather be a communist than a demonic corporate bean counter.

        • gustave courbet

          “By the end of that experience, I had a dim view of humanity and new found respect for retail workers that make it look easy” -We appreciate it! I think everyone should be mandated to work in retail and food service for a month. It wouldn’t guarantee a more compassionate disposition from the average consumer but it would certainly help.

          • echar

            I am always kind and uplifting to retail workers. Some well placed compassionate words can go a long way. I always return the carts to the corrals, too.

          • Matt Staggs

            Here, here. I always try to make a human connection.

          • ÿ

            Agreed.

            I’ve worked in food service, retail/sales, and other bullshit jobs all totaled more than ten years. Sometimes, it could be “fun” if there were other cool people on the job, but most of the time it was hell.

            That said, I’m not sure there’s a better tutorial in compassion for the Western Mind than being employed in food service or low-level retail as a necessity of survival.

        • ÿ

          I just had to do a two month stint myself after successfully avoiding that kind of work for 6 years. Somehow, it was so much worse than prior experience. Words fail me.

          The irony now of course is that it is extremely difficult for me to get this kind of work because I am so “overqualified” and not interested in wasting my life slaving away for their dead-end operation, therefore not a good candidate regardless of competence/intelligence/etc…

          • echar

            They know when jobs are on short supply and take advantage of that. That’s how I see it. Then they’ll hammer in how the individuals actions affect overhead. They reinforce this with daily and/or weekly stats gathered by questionable phone survey results.

            They’ll post shrinkage figures, and give rewards for good behavior, and other pavlovian maniuplations.They give a time limit to do certain tasks calculated by using robots. Which do not have emotions, nor get interupted by idiot coworkers, or having to help customers.

            as an aside:

            Anyone, if you ever get one of those phone surveys that give you a discount if you complete them. Please for the love of all that is just, give the most positive review possible. Even if your experience wasn’t the greatest. These directly affect the workers that have to deal with way too much bullshit for a measly pittance.

          • ÿ

            Agreed. And if they are offering you fries with that, an extended warranty, the store credit card, or some other stupid shit you don’t want/need, please understand they are likely forced to ask as a stipulation of employment. Throw em a bone every now and then if you can afford to and add whatever they’re selling to your purchase.

            $5 and 5 minutes of your time can sometimes be the difference between getting a 20 hour work week and getting a 40 hour work week.

          • Oginikwe

            Better yet, do what I do: I praise the workers to high heaven and towards the end, I tell them how much I respect the workers for staying with such a crappy, greedy, soul-killing corporation when I would have given it up long ago.

          • echar

            Someone needs to lead/ take on the responsibility. Thank you for being human.

          • Oginikwe

            I worked with the public for over 20 years–that’s an education in itself. The public may be batshit crazy but the petty tyrants in management were the ones who seemed to do the most damage to us. The Little Napoleons just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shit on someone’s day if it made them feel in control.

          • echar

            The person I knew was mostly decent with the public/employees. When faced with an oportunity to lift his standing amongst his “betters”, he would take it no matter what it would do to his employee. I know, because he was my friend and my boss.

        • VaudeVillain

          I’m pretty sure you understood the sarcasm, but just to appease the occasionally dense population of the internet:

          I am, in reality, an assistant manager at a small grocery store. I also work part time in a game store. I have a 7-day, 60+ hour work week. I hold the asshole pro-corporate fuckwads who pull this shit in absolute contempt, especially when they clearly have no idea what “communism” means but blather about it anyway.

          Just figured I should clear that up.

          • echar

            I did understand it as sarcasm. Your comment recalled some things for me, so I shared them.

            Management gets to be the face of corporate rules, and gets rewarded when they act upon them. There’s management that is human, and then there’s real dicks that further themselves in the company by screwing people.

  • teachpeace

    Tar, meet feathers.

  • tibby trillz

    its funny that people continually vote against their own best interests. id imagine that this bill does accomplish half of what they could get away with. if presented in the right way, people would vote for their own enslavement.

    • godozo

      You’ll never see that (people getting to vote for their enslavement).

      Owning a slave means taking on responsibilities towards your chattel, and the one thing Corporatehood is about is avoiding all the responsibilities one can get away with avoiding. Plus, they’re afraid that the people would do as you’re guessing they’d do, if given the chance (and at the present time you could probably make the wording sloppy).

    • tibby trillz

      how does someone downvote that? do you really have that mcuh faith in humanity after reading that article?

  • rhetorics_killer

    ‘Nineteenth century man, you work all day, yeah..!’ (ritournelle)

  • lilbear68

    just the beginning of the results of demonizing labor and the unions. slowly the big corps will get rid of OSHA and all that has been achieved over the years. 40hr work week? that’s going. overtime pay that will go, work on un guarded machines? that will go too. ventilation in mines? that will go too. eventually all the safety standards that we are used to will slowly disappear.
    stalin said they would hang us and we would sell them the rope

  • marvin nubwaxer

    isn’t sunday the traditional family values day of rest?

    • Andrew

      That was before the Republicans realized Ayn Rand was the second coming of Christ.

  • Oginikwe

    Someone should introduce a bill that says all politicians should have to work a five day week, forty hours a week. And, they should pay their own health insurance, no dental or eye, as well as pay for their own meals.
    And, get rid of the guards and rules at the Capital in Madison. Give the constituents free rein to commit to some productive dialogue with their lawmakers, no holds barred.

  • G Russell

    These Wisconsin Republicans are ruining my State! Wisconsin is known by its motto ,’Forward!’, and as a progressive political State..the State of legendary Bob LaFollette, but it has been taken-over by Gov. Walker and his crony Republicans who take their cues from the Koch Brothers, and other out-of-state corporate interests. I hate the political environment of Wisconsin! It’s true, we are not trees..so we can pick-up and move; MN is looking more attractive!