WORKPLACE NOOSE AND SHACKLES!

WORKPLACE NOOSE AND SHACKLES!

(The Root/The Roanoke Times/Frazer Chronicle)

Vernell Coles, a maintenance worker at a Roanoke, Virginia medical and office complex claimed that he endured discrimination and racial harassment that included the display of shackles and a noose in the workplace.

If there would have been whips and chains, I would have been there; looking to apply for a job, of course it would have depended on who was welding the restraints. I don't know about you guys, but I've always found whips and chains in the hands of a leather clad women with knee high black boots to be an extreme turn-on.

The only thing that I really find offensive in Cole's law suit would be the noose.....although I'd try anything once, but a noose, come on, with all the toys and gadgets "out there," you really don't need a noose. I'd submit for just a couple good slaps with one of that cat of nine tails whips, "Oh it would feel so good right now."

However this Roanoke business place is should get a silver star on their board, they got it down right, and I mean who could resist being shackled to their work place station. No breaks of any kind.....for anything. My sister-in-law works for a well known Mid-West lumber supplier, and she can't take breaks, can't be late, nor call in sick. This place once "docked" a dead person a day's pay for not showing up for her work day.

Of course the lawyers have now taken over the Coles case, and it will undoubtedly be buried in all sorts of legal mumbo jumbo. All I can say about the legal maneuvering is that these lawyers maybe should work a day in Cole’s shoes.

A QUESTION OF RACIAL HARRASMENT:

I don't really think that what allegedly happened to Vernell Coles can be called a black thing, or a white thing. In today’s work-place, employers don't see black or white, just results, results at the cheapest rates possible.

Employers today have it "their way," make no mistake about that, workplace injuries, personal events at home, or a worker just plain tired is completely at the mercy of his/her employer, and really the frame of mind that employer is in on a particular day.

My first job was for a truck company back in 1959, they hauled produce from Grand Rapids to Traverse City, Michigan, where it was loaded on smaller delivery trucks that drove throughout the five county areas for deliveries.

My job was to unload the semi into the smaller trucks; I started at 3:00 A.M. and worked without breaks until all the produce was off the truck, usually about 6 hours. The boss was very emphatic about no breaks, even a bathroom break. So us workers went pee in the corner of the cooler, a nifty trick until the smell got so bad that we had to switch pee corners. This process was a good one, and served the 4 or 5 workers throughout the summer.

Employers who pay low wages mostly don't see color, they see some poor SOB who is either unable to get better employment, or is a huge underachiever. Sure they use slang terms for their workers, Nigger, Spick, or Indian Joe, but they don't mean anything by it. They call Polish guys Pollock, and Germans Kraut heads.

Here in Wisconsin they got this ploy about age discrimination, (list your age for insurance purposes), ya right. You have to fill out all manner of documents, and agree to fill out all sorts of "responsible" papers. Stuff like the training you get must be repaid if you leave the company before six months or a year is up. If you don't sign, well to bad, guess you didn't need a job that bad.

DOWN WITH UNION ACTIVITY:

Most workers in America today are not under a union contract, they are left out there.....in the work place to fend for themselves, absolutely no protection. It's becoming a "right to work world," and exactly who does that favor.....well, it ain't the worker baby.

As union size dwindles here in the U.S. the threat of union solidarity, of strikes becomes less a threat to employers. Wages are cut, benefits are slashed and workers rights.....ha, ha, go right out the window.

The Cole case is not surprising, just another sad case of workers losing whatever leverage that they thought they might have had. Looking at things sardonically is the only answer, find out who's cracking the whip, their gender, and if possible, "if it's a women, her cup size" for future reference.

Drop the lawsuit Vernell, you won't win, and maybe, just maybe you might be able to start some sort of relationship with your superior.....but get her to drop the noose, that's just too much.