I knew this country was "effed" when I had to pee in a bottle for a minimum wage job

[maxrandb]

I have posted about his before, but I had a great job in 1980 before I joined the Navy.

I was a full-time stock clerk at a local grocery store chain in Ohio. We had stores all over Ohio and a couple in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

In 1980, I was making $12.60 an hour, time-and-a-half for overtime, double-time on Sundays and holidays, and even got 8 hours of pay for my birthday, whether I worked that day, or not.

The calculator I used says that adds up to $96K a year in todays money. Not bad for a 24 year old with a high school diploma. It was a job that could put you solidly in the Middle Class.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I wanted more from life and joined the Navy.

During one of my shore duty assignments, I decided to take a part-time job at a big box hardware store. As an E5 at the time with two young kids. I thought it would be a way too make a little extra money.

For the "pleasure" of stocking toilet plungers and PVC pipes, I had to pee in a bottle for a drug test.

I agreed to that for my Navy job, and I get drug tests for pilots, bus drivers, law enforcement, etc., but when it became mandatory for minimum wage retail work, it made me realize how powerless American workers are.

I think once the ruling class has you peeing in a bottle, they may just have a bit too much power over your life. Not sure that's what America had in mind when we started this freedom and democracy experiment.

Overtime pay??? - Are you effing kidding me, just be thankful you have a job!
A Pension???? - You're stealing my profits so you can lay around on your ass in your 60's?
You don't want to piss in a bottle for a drug test???? - You fucking hippie scum!!
You want a decent health care plan??? - Are you a fucking communist?

So, once we've surrendered our bodily fluids, what do we do? Boss wants you to work Saturday...why not offer Sunday as well?

Boss wants to increase your individual costs for health care? Just cut some "luxuries" from your grocery bill and throw in increased contributions to a pension plan as well. Mind you, we can't guarantee that pension, or retirement account that you may...OR MAY NOT have...will be there for you in your golden years. We may have to pay the creditors and shareholders first!

Oh...and those Golden Years aren't going to be so "golden" after you've killed yourself working 70-80-90 hours a week, but that's the American workforce today. Proud, strong Americans that allow the wealthy and powerful to piss on them and tell them it's "trickle-down".

I tell you, "if my Grandfather, who fought to organize Coal Miners in Corning, OH were alive today, he'd take a fucking flame-thrower to this place, and would proudly throw his World War II medals in the trash.

What a bunch of absolute pissants we've become.

[House of Roberts]

1. They also think because they sit on their ass at a desk all their life,

those of us who use our bodies to work as well as our minds should continue to work into our 70s instead being able to retire with our Social Security in our 60s.

[maxrandb]

5. Funny how a job like Senator, Congress, Governor and Judge don't require random, mandatory drug testing

[BigMin28]

21. Or actually

working a minimum of 5 days/ 40 hours a week.

[Seinan Sensei]

34. Hegseth needs a daily blood-draw

To determine Blood Alcohol Content

Too drunk to drive?
Then you’re too drunk to lead 2,079,142 military personnel and 778,539 civilians

[Keepthesoulalive]

3. Americans (not all)

Brought this on themselves. Worshipping Ronald Reagan and being trickled on.
Believing in the self made man, hating others and listening to preachers, something about moral majority. Each republican president has gotten worse and still they vote for them. Propaganda works.

[maxrandb]

7. Perhaps the greatest scam/sting in history

Has been convincing Americans making $50K - $55K a year with shitty healthcare and retirement benefits, that their true enemy is their fellow Americans making $52K - $57K a year with somewhat decent healthcare and retirement benefits.

[Squaredeal]

27. Reagan started it.

It’s been downhill ever since. His cynical quote, “I’m here from the government and I’m here to help you”, played to the masses and they ate it up.

[Clouds Passing]

47. The murder of JFK started it. It was they, the facists, who killed him.

[Callie1979]

50. Trump's gonna release those files and we'll see EVERYTHING!!!

Even though he promised to do that LAST time too......

[rampartd]

53. he was legally required to do that last term. and only released a few redacted.

maybe rfk can get to th bottom of it? lolololololol

they are screaming about a fake assassination in pennsylvanis a week later, while i have been waiting 60 years to learn how lee oswald got his defector self and a commie wife into the usa during a red scare.

never mind. as conspiracy theories go, this might have a little more substance than q anon nonsense.

[Nigrum Cattus]

65. This is the book that explains who killed JFK

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/276333.Mortal_Error

[DENVERPOPS]

67. The perfect title for a book

covering the past 45+ years would be:

WHILE AMERICA SLEPT

[rsdsharp]

4. In 1978 I had to take a polygraph test as part of a job application.

It was to work in a jewelry store, and I did it primarily because I was interested in the process, having recently read F. Lee Bailey’s books. I passed (are you shocked?) and went to work selling jewelry. No drug test, though.

[malthaussen]

44. No, you "voluntarily" took it, according to the hypocrites.

It was (and still may be) illegal to require employees to take a polygraph. So they pretend you asked for it.

-- Mal

[rsdsharp]

52. I wasn't an employee. I was an applicant. And, in point of fact, I did volunteer.

I had already accepted a different job, and wanted to see what the process was like.

[IronLionZion]

8. "They're stealing your jobs" vs "Nobody wants to work anymore"

is a nice distraction from the fabulously wealthy getting wealthier. Most Americans can't understand how much bigger a billion is than a million than what we have in our own accounts. And things get really interesting if you start calculating how much it would cost to spend some of those billions on helping people who need it or fixing social problems.

Don't worry. Trump and GOP will solve this problem with tax cuts, tariffs, and mass deportations.

[maxrandb]

9. Here's an experiment

If you saved $100 a day from the day you were born, it would take 9,689,000 YEARS to accumulate as much wealth as Leon, or whatever the fuck Musk his name is.

[Celerity]

17. Assuming a Musk net worth of $450 billion (he was up to $486 bn on Tuesday but fell back) it would take 12,328,767 years

if you ignore inflation and do not account for leap years adding 1 extra day every 4 years.

That is a pretty rough calculation btw, but not off by that much.

[Journeyman]

35. Oh come now, if you just put in a little overtime, cut back on food and other non-essentials . . .

you could probably get that under 9 million years, easy peasy.

And just think, if you could afford boots with straps, you might cut another couple dozen years off . . . maybe more.

Eye on the prize, ya know. We're all going to be billionaires if hyper-inflation works out all right for us all. Just gotta have the proper tariffs in place and we're gonna soar -- like the Hindenburg!

[BigMin28]

23. My son

explained it this way.

1 million seconds = 11 days, 13 hours 46 minutes and 40 seconds.

1 billion seconds = about 31 years and 8 months

Quite the difference.

[Devilsun]

10. I have a pension from working

At a small grocery store in SW PA. I became vested after 7 years. It won't be much but it's a little something for retirement years.

[H2O Man]

11. Recommended.

Back when I was new at the mental health clinic, there was a meeting between our staff and that of Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services. The people from ADAS were angry and hostile. And I mean mean and ugly. Finally, their leader said she thought the MHC employees should have to take urine tests. The room was quiet for a brief moment, before I said, "If any of you need clean urine, I'll sell you some of mine." My co-workers burst out laughing, but ADAS did not think it was funny at all.

[Javaman]

12. we are, indeed, piss ants.

we keep doing with less and less and they keep telling us it's more.

[AdamGG]

13. The piss test seemed somewhat regional

I lived for years around Boston and for a while in Kansas City. I used to work transcribing medical records. No hospital that employed me in Boston (before and after the KC job) ever required a drug screen.

In KC, I had to pass a urine drug screen through employee health before being hired. I hadn't used pot or anything else for years and I knew I would be clean, but I told the nurse that in more liberal parts of the country, people might consider this an invasion of privacy. When my results came back, she said, "you were worried that there would be a problem, but your results are fine". She literally didn't understand my comments about it being an intrusive practice and just thought I was worried about failing the test.

My work was just to transcribe reports and the accuracy and speed with which it was done was monitored. The drug test accomplished nothing.

[LiberalArkie]

18. The drug test made money for the company doing the testing. Usually someone the head of HR knows

[cadoman]

74. the piss test also establishes dominance early

If you can be humiliated like that they know you have few options. It's really just a variation of the old "casting couch" interview. How badly do you want the role? If you'll degrade yourself they know you want it very badly and they have confirmed dominance in the relationship.

And I'm not lecturing here, I've done them myself. Americans have few options--especially when employers coordinate to normalize this stuff.

[cadoman]

14. applying for work right now is really demoralizing

The process feels so disconnected from the work itself. Most places reject me before I even get a chance to show what I can do.

And as you describe, they want people to be desperate so that any policy they put in place has no resistance. This is why people end up going to work sick with COVID19, get no sleep, have bad nutrition, and lose their house or medical when they're fired (Obamacare helps but it still happens).

[still-prayin4rain]

15. 100% all of this.

[Meowmee]

16. Yes big brother etc.

I had to do that years ago for a retail job I had while I was a student. But not for the current job ever… the retail job did have the option of health insurance though, if I had taken a different schedule. They had it even for part-time workers on the afternoon schedule then which was very unusual I think. However, I heard years later that they eliminated it for that, and you had to be full-time.

[Demobrat]

19. I have had FBI background checks run on me three times

and been drug tested once so that I could sit in offices and write advertising.

[Just Jerome]

20. Ah, yes, 1980...

the tail end of the 70’s.
During which one ( I ) could work hard for 40 with maybe some OT, pay the bills easily, practice hedonism, and save some money; It was also easy enough to quit ( two weeks notice, because we must be considerate) and land comfortably on one’s feet. Imagine!

[mountain grammy]

22. Excellent post!

From beginning to end.

[appalachiablue]

24. Excellent post, pre and post Reagan work it seems. 40 years of hardship, hell and decline.

K/R. RIP American middle class.

[ForgedCrank]

25. The reason

you have to pee in a bottle is a direct result of lawyers and insurance companies, and in some cases, government mandates

[SixteenTons]

26. This is good. Hard hitting commentary.

Last edited Fri Dec 20, 2024, 02:34 AM - Edit history (1)

When people say what does the Democratic Party need, and what should Democrats be talking about, this is it. More of this. A lot more of it. Even if the politicians won't, the rank and file should be hammering this kind of commentary out daily. When the vampires at the top start wailing about less regulation, they're not talking about less regulation for the workers. They're talking about less regulation for the owners and bosses so they have free reign to put more regulations on the workers and the rank and file.

“America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you’ve lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn’t belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don’t care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.”

― Tom Morello

[marble falls]

40. That's awfully RW-ish. Work or die. Or work and die.

[SixteenTons]

55. Tom Morello is not right-wing.

[marble falls]

58. I don't know anything about Tom Morello past I think two guys on DU know him, and the one statement ...

... I find hard-hearted.

I didn't mean to upset nobody's, apple cart, mister! Honest!

[SixteenTons]

61. Well, to each their own

I don't find the OP or Morello's quote to be hard-hearted. I find it to be hard reality, but opinions vary. Cheers

[marble falls]

63. And thankyou, sir, for the kind backhand as you've dismissed me and my insignificant opinion.

[SixteenTons]

64. Like I said. Opinions vary.

I find the statement... "I don't know anything about Tom Morello past I think two guys on DU know him" pretty dismissive in its own right. So there's that. I'm at a loss, as to why commentary on the very unequal relationship between owners and workers and capital and labor would be considered hard-hearted but your welcome to that opinion. No dismissiveness on my part. I just don't agree.

[bagimin]

42. Welcome to DU!

[Emile]

45. K & R

[Callie1979]

51. Dont people in OTHER countries work for companies too? Of course they do

Its not like the US is the only place we work like we do.

[SixteenTons]

54. Of course. Never said differently.

As a class, the rank and file workers have always gotten the short end of the stick throughout history. Rulers, owners, and bosses come in a lot of different forms, with a lot of different labels. American Capitalism is just one of them.

[Callie1979]

62. Its a lot easier to open & run your own business here than many other countries.

Takes a lot of work & you might not make it, but if you DO its pretty good.
I also believe union activity will INCREASE under trump

[SixteenTons]

66. Ah...I see

So in other words..."if you don't like being a worker, just open your own business and you too can be a boss and an abuser instead of being the abused. To me...that would be like telling a slave..."if you don't like being a slave, just open up your own plantation and then you can be master and own slaves of your very own."

[maxrandb]

73. Sure they do. Let me tell you about the German Exchange student who was my daughters best friend

She recently came back to the state to visit us with her husband and new baby.

She was on month 10 of her 12Th month of paid maternity leave.

Her husband will start his paternity leave when hers is done.

Imagine how much of a good start our young families could have with just half of that type of new baby support.

But, and here's the sad thing....because some people would abuse that benefit, we deny it to all.

If only we applied the same standard to the benefits given to wealthy people.

[Jack Valentino]

28. Maybe we could just pee in Trump's mouth, and he would determine

whether or not we are using drugs, by the taste....


That would be worth it to me, without getting such a job
and Trump would probably like it

[ecstatic]

29. the double standard is horrible, BUT

there is a lot of liability involved when an employee is under the influence and on the clock. They could harm themselves or someone else.

That said, the double standard is disgusting. I'm sure trump will never have to pee in a cup, and he's allowed to be president with 34 FRESH felonies. It's sickening!

[Mariana]

37. That's the excuse they give, anyway.

Funny how they never test for alcohol. Plenty of people show up to work intoxicated and put everyone at risk, so where are the breathalyzers? Benadryl practically turns me into a zombie, and drowsiness is listed as a common side effect of that and lots of other legal drugs, but they don't test for those, either.

[maxrandb]

39. I think it's more about control

Throw in the fact that we don't value labor as much as worship wealth, and you're pretty close to a feudal system.

If I smoked a joint on Saturday, it could be detected by a test for close to 10-14 days. Your life could be completely ruined, even if you were NOT high on the job.

You could drink so much gin on a Saturday that you could get drunk by licking your sweat, but as long as you sobered up by Monday....

[SixteenTons]

60. "I think it's more about control"

Exactly, and it's not just the piss tests. Credit checks, verifications, security checks, onerous paperwork, invasions of privacy, and dozens of other hoops designed to dehumanize, demoralize, and keep the "peasants" in line. It also extends far beyond the workplace. Renters, the disabled, the elderly, single mothers, and on and on are all subjected to dehumanization in every aspect of society. The ruling class is delighted when those beneath them have to beg for the right to simply survive. They tell you how to walk, how to talk, how to dress, when to stand, when to sit, when to piss and if the peasants object in any way they are immediately labeled "malcontents" and "a drag on the system."

[IA8IT]

76. Hearsay that a local manufacturer has stopped testing to keep and hire employees.

[Aussie105]

30. It's offensive and degrading.

Mandatory drug testing is understandable if you work with heavy machinery or at an assembly line where any drug in your system makes you more likely to sustain a injury.

Some large industrial employers do 'surprise' testing on a Monday morning to catch out the weekend drinkers and smokers.
Seems reasonable, but for a desk job?

Had some problems here in the teaching profession, apparently some adults can't be trusted around kids.
The 'solution'? Mandatory registration, with regular police checks.

Of course you pay a regular fee to those who run the system. No registration, no job.
Get in trouble with the law? Bye--bye job!

Didn't cause me any problems, innocent as the driven snow I am!

Teaching doesn't pay that well and this level of mistrust is just insulting.
Having to pay to be insulted just doesn't sit right.

[MichMan]

81. Why should blue collar employees be held to a company standard that their white collar co workers aren't?

Mandatory drug testing is understandable if you work with heavy machinery or at an assembly line where any drug in your system makes you more likely to sustain a injury.

Some large industrial employers do 'surprise' testing on a Monday morning to catch out the weekend drinkers and smokers.
Seems reasonable, but for a desk job?

Rules for thee, but not for me is what that sounds like.

[usonian]

31. If you were rich, you could pee in a crystal bowl

And people would pay to

[DET]

32. I'll Never Forget...

…the first time I had to get a drug test - for a white collar job. It may have required a clearance; can’t remember any more. It was incredibly intrusive and degrading. Regarding overtime pay - I’ve never gotten any. As an ‘exempt’ employee I often worked 60 hours/week with 20 hours uncompensated. One year I was told to be on hot standby to work Christmas Day, not because the project was critical but so that my boss could meet a deadline to get his bonus.

There is no respect for the workforce anymore. Much as I felt abused, I knew that service workers and blue collar workers in general were treated far worse. If I was starting out today and had or could acquire a marketable skill, I’d advise someone to go out on their own if they could.

[Figarosmom]

33. Yeah

The pee test for low level jobs or even any job that wasn't life or death was the turning point. I remember one application even asked how many bowel movements you had during the day. I walked out on thst one. That was a step too far

[La Coliniere]

36. Your posting really struck a chord in many of us.

Thank you for your candor, honesty and truth. Many folks are waking up to the realization that living under corporate control is the antithesis of “with liberty and justice for all”. I hope it’s not too late.

[Emile]

41. I was drug tested three or four times a year. CDL

truck drivers are constantly drug tested. I despised it and felt like it was an invasion of my privacy. You would be surprised what all a company can find about your health in a drug test. Thank God I'm retired now and no longer a wage slave.

[MichMan]

82. You are opposed to a CDL driver being drug tested?

What about airline pilots?

[Emile]

83. If the driver is involved in an accident, no

problem what so ever. I come in from an overnight run after driving over 600 miles, the last thing I wanted is to drive another 30 miles on my own time and go to the nearest hospital and piss. Randomly selected my ass.

[MichMan]

84. Testing someone only after they cause an accident.

Kind of late then, isn't it?

[Emile]

85. CDL drivers are required to pass a CDL physical

every two years. Depending on your health, weight, age, etc etc this requirement can be one year or even six months. This physical includes drug testing.

[malthaussen]

43. Me, I knew it when gas stations started charging for air.

"Free as air," people used to say.

When everybody started wearing pagers, it confirmed it. Now nobody's time was their own.

-- Mal

[maxrandb]

46. The saddest thing is the number of people that willingly surrendered

without so much as a whimper.

I can't find it, but there was a chart at one time that tracked American workers purchasing power with the decline of union membership.

As union membership went down, so did purchasing power.

[Mr. Mustard 2023]

48. The "oh so rugged" white guys,

bent over and begged Rush Limbaugh to have a threesome with them. Now they're joining the MAGA cult and don't dare criticize them, or you'll hurt their feelings. You know, because they're "oh so tough".

[Callie1979]

49. Blame LAWSUITS on a lot of that.

No matter what your job is, if you sc few up something & someone claims to be hurt by it they'll sue. And if you've got drugs in your system it'll go bad for the company
Its all ass covering.

[wryter2000]

56. What happened in 1980?

Reagan. And the pundit class was too wealthy to see the Reagan Miracle for what it was.

[MagickMuffin]

57. The War on Drugs is responsible for this invasion on our 4th Amendment

The 4th Amendment got trashed to the point no one cared or cares.

I submitted once over my objection. I was told if I wanted to work there I’d have to pass the drug test. I passed and worked in layout design for a grocery chains.


The 4th Amendment has been subverted and here we are. Unlawful searches of homes, cars, and bodily functions.

[twodogsbarking]

59. I have a friend who worked for a company back in the 80s and the owner asked her

if he should get employees drug tested. She told him, "if you do you will be firing most everyone".
They never tested.

[yankee87]

68. Lost pension

One day my company went from pension to a 401K. The only plus, is I got a buyout.

[maxrandb]

69. That grocery chain I worked for was a victim of "trickle down - greed is good" RAYgunomics

Once the original owner died, the family decided that the owner making 15x's more than his highest paid hourly workers wouldn't make them as filthy rich as paying themselves 300x's the highest hourly worker.

It was eventually sold to a NJ based grocery conglomerate. They immediately transferred a bunch of their debt onto it, and in the early 90's, the last Big Bear Supermarket in Ohio closed.

I got out, but my brother stayed. He was paid "pennies on the dollar" for his pension, and at 50+ found himself struggling for a job. He had to take a pay cut to do the same job at Kroger, and took a part-time job at Mcdonald's to try to make up the difference.

I am sure he is just one of millions of similar stories.

Oh, and I haven't spoken to him since he went MAGA.

[SpankMe]

70. Drug tests - and personality tests

Several years back the son of a friend of mine applied for a job at a kiosk in a Home Depot. (The kid had just graduated from high school and didn't plan on going to college.) The application program asked very personal questions, and asked a series of questions for use in a Myers-Briggs assessment.

And if you've been arrested or had anything do do with a felony, you were eliminated immediately. All this for a minimum wage floor laborer.

I'd like to see data on the percentage of the US population that can't get jobs due to minor drug use or past arrests for low level, non-violent crimes. All employers want to hire people with G-rated lives only. That knocks out quite a bit of the population.

[maxrandb]

71. But an X-rated Nazi president is A-OK

[k55f5r]

72. Thank Nancy Reagan for that urinary inspection.

"I ain't gonna piss in no jar"

?si=4JN3GVTWTP3U3VRL

[Kaleva]

75. Why did you decide to become a "pissant"?

Your comment:

"What a bunch of absolute pissants we've become."

What's stopping you from being like your grandfather?

"I tell you, "if my Grandfather, who fought to organize Coal Miners in Corning, OH were alive today, he'd take a fucking flame-thrower to this place, and would proudly throw his World War II medals in the trash."

Maybe you don't like how it is today but it's just a mere annoyance and not worth doing anything about.

[maxrandb]

77. I've phone-banked and volunteered to try to get sane people elected

Maybe it's the 24/7 AM hate radio firehose, or the 24/7 Faux News shit-stream. Maybe my phone calls don't add up to $250M of just one billionaires efforts.

Hell, even my own lived experiences can't bust through.

I have made MAGAt heads explode though. I've told them I worked a federal government job that allowed me to retire at 54, with a life-time pension and great health insurance.

They look at me like I'm a FUCKING thief, until they ask; "what did you do"? When I say; "served 30 years in the United States Navy", they sputter and stammer like I've asked an AI program to explain why Musk is a genius.

Their brains kind of short circuit as they try to figure out if I'm a "French surrender monkey commie", or if they should thank me.

I really wish they instead would ask WHY THEIR PENSIONS AND BENEFITS CAN'T BE LIKE MINE!!!!!!?????

[Kaleva]

78. Gaining labor rights cost lives

Same thing with the civil rights movement and the Vietnam anti war movement.

The greater the resistance, the greater the sacrifice needed to overcome such resistance.

Look at the efforts your grandfather made.

I'm not advocating violence but if you look at history, you'll agree with me.

People not willing to spend time in jail or give up their lives to correct a situation that isn't bad enough to warrant such doesn't make them "complacent pissants".

[Shermann]

79. Drug testing is pretty standard during onboarding

It costs very little to do and supposedly can filter out individuals who are more likely to be unreliable. I can accept this as being part of my dancing monkey routine.

Some companies are more committed to the idea and randomly screen employees. Unless this is a genuine safety issue for the job function it crosses the line in my opinion.

[doc03]

80. When I got out of high school in 1966 we had a

choice we could at least go into a steel mill or the coal mines. Both good paying jobs where you could support a family and purchase a home with one income. I got a job at ATT instead which also was a good paying union job. After being drafted I went into the mill in 1970. Starting in 1980 it all changed. That .was the start of pay cuts, lay offs and benefit cuts.