UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

http://www.policymic.com/articles/7771/wal-mart-alec-scandal-company-subjects-female-prison-laborers-to-slave-like-conditions

"Wal-Mart claims they will not tolerate prison or forced labor in the manufacturing of products sold in their stores through a “Standards For Suppliers” mandate. This represents the “public face” of Wal-Mart – leading consumers to believe the company is against such exploitation, refusing to “profit” off of forced labor.

"Wal-Mart uses ALEC’s Prison Industries Act. Under federal legislation, private companies have access to prisoners as a workforce. Thousands of products are made for consumers; from produce to aftermarket auto parts, the list is endless. This allows companies to attach labels reading “Made in USA.” Wal-Mart has tried to hide their use of prison labor for more than two decades by using sub-contractors and cut-outs.

"Since 1991, Wal-Mart has been buying produce from a corporation out of Arizona, Martori Farms.

"A recent Huffington Post article clearly documents how Martori Farms has been using female prisoners from Arizona’s state prisons as farm workers – for the past 20 years.

“Martori Farms pays its imprisoned laborers two dollars per hour, not including the travel time to and from the farm.” Women from the Arizona state prison complex at Perryville Unit are assigned to work at Martori Farms … These women are “forced” to labor long hours in the blazing sun sometimes without sunscreen, water or adequate food …”

This policy, and the conditions and involvement of Wal-Mart in this kind of slave labor operation is reprehensible and should be criminal. Criminal in that Wal-Mart helped write the laws allowing this kind of exploitation possible. They helped ALEC pass legislation now being used in states that are turning to prisoners to solve labor shortages stemming from the Right to Work and immigration laws. They’ve created a new form of legalized slavery in the U.S."

[E.O.T.]

I'M APPARENTLY A HUGE FAN OF MAKING REGRETTABLE DECISIONS, SO I NOW CHOOSE TO POST THIS REPLY:

          i would have loved even the most meaningless task while in jail, i have to imagine prison is a way suckier version

AAAAAND:

          attn: americans: prisoners are stealing our jobs!

IT'S NOT ENOUGH

          to be a minority female to get a job here in the states, now i need to go to jail in az just to be employable. great.

[Freeky]

I hear what you're saying about needing something to do.  People need things to do or they go crazy.  But believe me when I say that you wouldn't want that job.  Well, probably.  I've never been to jail or prison, so I don't know how bad it gets.  But I do live here, and I would die (no hyperbole, I'm pretty weak against extreme heat) if I had to do that.

For instance, a woman I talked to today said that when she was driving to work, it was 120F out.  I had to cover my arm with a towel so I wouldn't get second degree sunburns in the twenty minutes it was exposed.  When I drove into an area of cloud cover, I sighed in relief in the significant drop in temperature and realized how hard it was to breathe before, and noticed a bank's sign, one of those ones that has temperature and time on it, said that in the cloud cover area it was 111F. 

Shit, even that thing Roger said before, about the sun being so intense that you need some clouds to let the light in, actually happened for real. 

I could not even imagine having to be out in that for ten to twelve hours a day, with no water or sun protection.  Sun screen doesn't do shit on days like today, and Tucson is not the worst when it comes to heat and sun and fumes that only happen when it gets so hot out.

[E.O.T.]

I hear what you're saying about needing something to do.  People need things to do or they go crazy.  But believe me when I say that you wouldn't want that job.  Well, probably.  I've never been to jail or prison, so I don't know how bad it gets.  But I do live here, and I would die (no hyperbole, I'm pretty weak against extreme heat) if I had to do that.

For instance, a woman I talked to today said that when she was driving to work, it was 120F out.  I had to cover my arm with a towel so I wouldn't get second degree sunburns in the twenty minutes it was exposed.  When I drove into an area of cloud cover, I sighed in relief in the significant drop in temperature and realized how hard it was to breathe before, and noticed a bank's sign, one of those ones that has temperature and time on it, said that in the cloud cover area it was 111F. 

Shit, even that thing Roger said before, about the sun being so intense that you need some clouds to let the light in, actually happened for real. 

I could not even imagine having to be out in that for ten to twelve hours a day, with no water or sun protection.  Sun screen doesn't do shit on days like today, and Tucson is not the worst when it comes to heat and sun and fumes that only happen when it gets so hot out.

WELL,

          at least someone read the article. (!)

YEAH

          that's fully lame, but not unexpected. i was asked to dj burning man back in '99 and after five days in a world of nothing but silty sand and no living greenery, i would probably have to be arrested in order to go anywhere near that kind of environment ever, ever again.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

People in county would be happy to have something to do other than play spades, spades, spades fifteen times a day, read shitty Barbara Cartland romances from the book cart, geek for cigarettes and worry whether there's going to be anything left of their life when they get out, yes.

But "something to do" usually doesn't involve heatstroke.

I hear ya, Freeky, I can't take it either. I'm ok with sun, I tan pretty good - it's the heat itself. It's been triple digits here and I'm basically living in my daughter's room because she has the window unit and it's not enough to cool the whole house once you pass 90 or so. I see spots every time I go to the bathroom. Couldn't work in this.

I've heard plenty of prison stories about people who passed out in the field and got an ass beating. It's not a place where you can expect sympathy.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'M APPARENTLY A HUGE FAN OF MAKING REGRETTABLE DECISIONS, SO I NOW CHOOSE TO POST THIS REPLY:

          i would have loved even the most meaningless task while in jail, i have to imagine prison is a way suckier version

Arizona sun, EOT.  Different ballgame entirely.

[E.O.T.]

I'm

          From the north so can't tell, but it sound like hell either way

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm

          From the north so can't tell, but it sound like hell either way

No, hell has complied with OSHA standards.

Arizona, on the other hand, misses the good old days of the 1930s.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

We're pulling ahead of AZ, though. Texas misses the good old days from the dark ages.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html

[Juana]

I am so, so glad I don't live in your state anymore, Stella. JFC. Also, fuck your state's education board for its curricula in general.

This is so shocking, that U.S. farmers and Wal-Mart would take advantage of prisoners, especially women, and do it in such a clearly abusive manner by forcing them to work under “slave-like” conditions. 

Somebody slept through US history. Although prisoners now aren't being forced to try to pay back a fine and the demographics are not quite the same these days (it's not just black men this time), this isn't the first time prisoners have worked in slave-like conditions while being loaned out to third parties.

_{edited for coding fail}

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We're pulling ahead of AZ, though. Texas misses the good old days from the dark ages.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html

We have the same GOP platform here. 

Welcome to AZ.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

We're pulling ahead of AZ, though. Texas misses the good old days from the dark ages.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html

We have the same GOP platform here. 

Welcome to AZ.

*swats uselessly at spores* FUCK.

I am so, so glad I don't live in your state anymore, Stella. JFC. Also, fuck your state's education board for its curricula in general.

This is so shocking, that U.S. farmers and Wal-Mart would take advantage of prisoners, especially women, and do it in such a clearly abusive manner by forcing them to work under “slave-like” conditions. 

Somebody slept through US history. Although prisoners now aren't being forced to try to pay back a fine and the demographics are not quite the same these days (it's not just black men this time), this isn't the first time prisoners have worked in slave-like conditions while being loaned out to third parties.

_{edited for coding fail}

I took the word "shocking" to be a journalistic attempt at dramatic effect. Kind of like the way Geraldo used to use the word. "On our next show, shocking evidence of a shocking Satanic cult in Paducah, KY. Is your child safe? SHOCKING."

ETA: Not to imply that the story isn't horrific. Just that "shocking" is a bullshit word.

[Juana]

It stank of naivety to me, but I can see that.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

People in county would be happy to have something to do other than play spades, spades, spades fifteen times a day, read shitty Barbara Cartland romances from the book cart, geek for cigarettes and worry whether there's going to be anything left of their life when they get out, yes.

No spades in Larimer County last I was visiting. Cards were contraband due to the high incidence of gambling for Ramens. At one point I occupied nearly a day and a half of waking hours measuring my cell with a piece of notebook paper and doing hand calculations for the volume, the angles, etc...then it was back to shitty book cart readings, basketball court scuffles and playing chess for ramens.

Still preferable to slave labor, though.

[Triple Zero]

So, how often when a label reads "made in the USA" it means "made by forced prison labor"? .. suddenly worried about that "American Apparal" shirt I bought in NYC (it's got a Helvetica font on it! :P)