Listening: (random) "Love Comes Quickly," Pet Shop Boys
"The Spider's Stratagem," Dead Can Dance
"Move Over," Janis Joplin
"High Speed," Coldplay
"After the Flash," My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
"Pluto," Bjork
"Big Time Sensuality," Bjork
"Bliss," Tori Amos
"You Are (The Government)," Bad Religion
"Liquid Diamonds," Tori Amos
"Angel Food," Ani diFranco
"Women & Men," TMBG
"El Balaju," Sones Jarochas
"Sliver," Nirvana
"Which Descruibes How You're Feeling," TMBG"
"Dirty," Korn
Mentally Replaying: "Minimum Wage," TMBG
I'd rather be: a millionaire
Desiring: a pbj and pasta salad
Aches and Complaints: damned sore
Enjoying: slaughtering my bills muahahaha!

First I wish to gloat:

Hah! Weather is soo overrated!! Folks east of the Rockies have bitter cold with temperatures that are refusing to go _above_ freezing. Us folks on the west coast are slightly disappointed cause El Niño is a no-show. While we pin our hopes on Febraury to bring our rain levels to somewhere near normal, this coming weekend we're bracing for 80 degree highs. That's in Farenheit, not Kelvin for you folks trying to de-ice your monitors.

Complain all you like but this place rules. Frickin' Rules!!

/gloat

So I came into a bit of money as my very careful planning actually worked out in my favor. There is still going to be a third of my savings I can't pay back yet, but I'm thrilled to be able to pay my bills, pay back Molasses and have the money for the Feb 1 Korea payment. *whew!*

Last night I was going through some scattered papers that have bills and other Important Notices that have been piling up since Summer and I came across a letter inviting me to an interview with some lawyer's firm. Apparently they were reviewing a case for a potential class-action lawsuit against LaborReady and had contacted anyone who had ever worked for them.

LaborReady is(was?) a company that supplies day-labor to anyone that needs it. Generally the jobs are anywhere between manual labor and operating industrial machines - forklifts etc.

When I was doing really horribly in terms of finding work or when I had temp gigs that left open days in the week that I had no work (working 18 hours a week blows when the work is Mon & Wed evening and Sat & Sun during the day) I reported to LaborReady and hoped against hope that they would have something for me.

To get the most out of a day there one must show up the second that they opened - 5am, if you're curious. You tell them you are there (you must physically be there, no calling ahead) and let them know if you have your own wheels (not necessary, but helpful since other people won't have wheels). Then you take a seat in a plastic chair you can probably buy for a couple of dollars at BigLots! (FKA PicknSave). If you have a book or the newspaper you can read it, there is a TV so you can watch the news or something or you can eavesdrop on the conversations around you.

There is a counter behind which full time employees answer phones and compile assignements. When one of them approaches the counter with a fistful of printouts everyone else gets quiet to listen. Then they call out names of people picked for a given assignment. They have files for the employees that were filled out when the employees signed on and they have listed the sort of work you can do (operate different kinds of machinery, typing speed, how much you can safely lift etc). The files are cross referenced when new jobs come in so they know who to send out.

But pretty much anyone is suited for moving boxes or sweeping construction sites. I actually had data entry experience (not like it's so tough, but it's the best I was paid while at LaborReady - $7 woo-hoo!!).

The average worker is 40, white, male and permanantly down on his luck. Sitting in the lobby made me seriously uncomfortable, not just because I was 20 and female but because these guys were able-bodied and while their intelligence was maybe questionable they were definately reliable and patient. These were the folks I was always taught to think of as the salt of the earth. I didn't and don't think they should live luxurious lives I just don't really think they (or anyone, really) deserve to work at the whim of the day labor market.

I kinda think maybe the only folks who should work at this is younger people like I did. Manual labor really teaches you the value of a dollar, especially when you don't earn very many dollars. I also think young people should be impressed into some service-related job for at least six months, to teach humility and politeness. Maybe that's why they won't let me run the world.

But anyway back to showing up at 5am for a minimum wage gig with no benefits:
Some jobs were far harsher than others, but the real trouble, for me at least, is that it's seriously tedious work. Shoving 500 large coils into 500 boxes before lunch is the very definition of mind-numbing. You have to pay attention so you don't damage the coil or the box or your hands, but that just means you have to keep your mind on task just enough so it doesn't wander. It's not fun work.

The worst came when I was severely hard up for money because I had to pay my car insurance PDQ or start driving it illegally (and pay extra for reinstating the policy). That day they had a huge call for a place that auctions tired old cars to used car dealers. The group is divided in two, drivers and hoodmen. The drivers had to know how to drive a stick and I don't so I was a hoodwoman. A huge building was divided into 8 lanes through which the cars were driven through. They would stop at the marked spaces where the prospective buyers were and the auctioners were in towers overlooking the action. When the car stopped the hoodperson would run up and unlatch the hood so the potential buyers could have a look. They poked and prodded while the engines ran (unless they died - more a few cars had to be pushed out) and bid on the cars. I did that gig a few times and had to breath a shitload of exhaust. I shudder to think about the guys who are still going back after all this time.

On this particular day when the auctions ended I drove back with this other girl to pick up our checks. The only great thing about this job was that we got paid the day we did the work. That isn't true of any other short term I've ever done. While the checks were getting printed they got another call for two workers to go to a factory to pack boxes. We were told the gig would be all night (it was about four pm at this point). We said cool.

They got a little annoyed when we asked if we could take an extra ten minutes than the twenty the foreman had estimated. They wanted us there now, but we were hungry and we promised we wouldn't be late.

The job consisted of grabbing bunches of stickers as they flew off the machine that had created them, straightening them into stacks and then putting the stacks in boxes. The stickers themselves were the expirations stickers you see on meat at supermarkets.

We were pretty good for a while and I was surprised that we didn't start nodding off until somewhere around two am. We worked out a system to move in shifts with one person putting stickers into stacks and the other placing in boxes. But once we started to nod off we had to change it in favor of running to the bathroom to rest just a tiny bit and splash water on our faces.

Somehow we made it to dawn and headed back to LaborReady HQ. We had to wait longer this time for our checks. The numbers had to be played with so they didn't accidentally pay us overtime, since we had worked just a little bit more than eight hours the day before. When I got the check I practically ran to the bank and then home. At eight am sharp I called my insurer and paid them, and then I went to sleep. The girl elected to stay, hoping for more work.

I hope the people that I worked with aren't still there. I hope they found something a little more steady.

I still don't know what the class action was for or what became of it. It could be one of a zillion things, and while I know I could have stood to make a lot of money with little effort, if there was any money to be made I hope it went to the guys who used to show up every day needing just a little more money to pay the doctor for setting their kid's broken arm, and keep the bank from taking the house and maybe catch up with their credit.

Just stuff I thought about while I was paying some bills.