Stressed. Exhausted. Exploited. Abandoned. In a new book, Tom Juravich exposes and examines the degradation of work in the United States today. At the Altar of the Bottom Line, based on in-depth interviews with workers, lifts up the experiences of working people from diverse sectors of our economy.

Juravich, a writer, researcher, and professor at the University of Massachusetts Labor Center, spent six years interviewing workers in four different occupations:

• Workers at a Verizon call center faced degradingly rigid work days, forced to raise their hands to go to the bathroom, work mandatory overtime, and push sales over real customer service.

• Undocumented Guatemalan workers at the fish houses in New Bedford experienced shocking work conditions and exploitation—even before a massive raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) undermined workers rights and human dignity.

• Operating room nurses at Boston Medical Center worked nonstop, with inadequate staffing levels driving them to exhaustion and jeopardizing their health.

• Workers who made machinery for the paper industry at the Jones Beloit plant in Dalton, Massachusetts found their plant abruptly closed after years of dedicated work.

Work in American is deteriorating very quickly, Juravich says. “The interviews were so compelling,” he recalls, “in some ways the hardest thing I had to do is call it quits.”

Juravich is also an accomplished singer and songwriter: an album inspired by the interviews he conducted is included with the book.

» Listen to Tom Juravich on Public Radio’s “Here and Now”
» Buy the book

Want to hear innovative companies discuss the importance of working with unions to support workers’ rights, sustain the environment, and benefit the company’s bottom line?

Join American Rights at Work at the 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference taking place from May 4-6, in Washington, DC.

We’re proud to join our partners at the Blue Green Alliance as a sponsor and convener of this event, and excited to host a panel highlighting real-life examples of how working in partnership with employees and their unions helps companies weather turbulent times while increasing demand for green products and services.

Our Socially Responsible Business Director, Nikki Daruwala, is moderating the panel and will be joined by Michael Peck of Gamesa USA; Molly Bordanaro, Senior Vice President at Gerding Edlen Development, Inc.; Ron Kenedi, Vice President at Sharp Solar; and William “Butch” Johnson, CEO of Flambeau River Paper.

Please register and join us at the session “Partnerships That Work: Good, Green Employers” on Tuesday, May 4, 2:30-4:00 p.m. at the Hilton Washington Hotel.

We hope to see you there.

But while that event shocked and galvanized the nation, it was hardly unique. Just days before, an explosion at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes killed six workers in Washington. In February, three workers were lost in a gas explosion at the Kleen Energy Plant in Middleton, Connecticut. Every day in the United States, an average of 14 workers die as a result of workplace injuries.

There’s a word we can use to describe the majority of these horrible incidents: Preventable.

On Workers Memorial Day we recall those who have passed, but we can also use this opportunity to redouble our efforts to create safe, fulfilling workplaces across the country. We can pledge to crack down on employers who skirt safety regulations in the name of wider profit margins. We can ensure that those companies who intentionally put workers in perilous situations receive more than just a slap on the wrist. We can support legislation, like the Protecting America’s Workers Act, to update and strengthen occupational safety and health laws.

And we can remember why we fight for workers’ rights – because we’re fighting for our lives, too.

For more information on Workers Memorial Day, visit the AFL-CIO’s Workers Memorial Day page and read their report “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.”

Unfortunately, that’s not the case when you’re a worker trying to form a union. Here’s a statistic that’ll get your blood boiling: 78 percent of workers are forced to attend closed-door meetings with management during union organizing drives. And how much can employers be fined by the National Labor Relations Board for illegally threatening, intimidating, or firing their workers? A whopping zero dollars and zero cents.

Watch this video from the IBEW (featuring actors from the acclaimed HBO series The Wire), showing exactly how such a closed-door meeting might go:

Under current law, management can act like playground bullies – except at this school, the teachers have their hands tied behind their backs, the principal is distracted with other things, and the parents treat the bullies like heroes.

Almost makes that jungle gym look downright civilized.

Watch the video and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Women who work full time earn an average of 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Even more shocking? It’s not getting better: census data shows that this wage gap widened between 2007 and 2008, from 77.8 percent to 77.1 percent. And as the AFL-CIO points out, the wage gap is even worse for women of color.

Here at FixOurJobs, we’ve heard from dozens of women who have experienced discrimination – not only from coworkers but also in their paychecks:

•    Marilyn from New York was reprimanded by a male superior when she suggested fixing a discrepancy in her company’s payroll, where an older woman was making less than her younger male equivalents. He claimed it didn’t matter, because the older woman technically had a “different title,” even though she was clearly in the same salary grade.

•    Deb from Northern California has been at the same large company for 24 years, where “good old boys is taken to a new level” – the male executives expensing everything from coffee to gourmet meals is casually overlooked. All this while the company’s female employees make a salary far below industry standards.

•    Jane from Colorado has worked at a large retail store for 30 years – and now many of her female coworkers are having their positions “revised” by the company. Translation? The store is firing or cutting wages for many employees – all middle aged women – by eliminating a particular job title.

These are only three examples of incidents happening all over the country. Even now, in 2010, “equal pay for equal work” is yet to be a reality.

Fortunately, there is something we can do: pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.182), which would close loopholes that still allow employers to discriminate based on sex. The bill has passed the House, but is stalled in the Senate. If the pay gap makes you angry please contact your Senator here.

Freeman Brown and Thompson outline a few of the things really going on at the show’s featured companies:

Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Service recently settled a class-action lawsuit brought by its plumbers in California for $2 million over complaints for working without meal breaks and unpaid overtime. A similar lawsuit is now pending in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. 1-800-Flowers is currently fighting a sex-discrimination lawsuit from a female former executive attorney, who said senior management referred to women as “babes,” praised her coffee-fetching skills and subjected her to offensive comments about their sex lives.

Topping off this list is Waste Management, whose Seattle sanitation workers are now deciding whether or not to strike over workplace safety and wages.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. America’s workers as a whole are working harder and earning less. But it doesn’t have to be this way, as the column describes:

We can push for better labor reforms, and ensure new jobs created in the economic recovery are good jobs. We can also press Congress to improve workers’ rights to form unions to give men and women a voice in fixing their jobs, while the administration can favor vendors who respect workers’ rights. Workers in unions can be empowered to negotiate with their employers as equal partners to improve workplaces and job conditions.

CEOs picking up trash for five minutes while the cameras roll? That’s nothing more than good TV. Changing laws so that every worker is treated with dignity and respect? That’s what change really looks like.

Read the full opinion piece here.

But it’s not a reality show if you avoid reality. As Stanley writes, “Undercover Boss” is less a reality program and more of a fantasy:

Nobody gets fired on “Undercover Boss,” at least not on camera, except for the undercover boss. Management concessions are minor, but they are lavishly praised. Each narrative is carefully crafted to depict the boss – and the corporation – as benevolent and worthy.

Supposedly, “Undercover Boss” is taking these executives to task for the way they’ve been ignoring the egregious working conditions their employees have to endure every day. The idea is to expose these CEO’s to the truth about how their companies make money.

Right? Sorry, not in this fantasy:

“Undercover Boss” is less an exposé than a showcase, and the chosen companies view it as an opportunity, not a reckoning. Chris McCann, president of 1-800-Flowers.com, who is the star of the season finale, uses it as a marketing tool, sending customers a “special offer” e-mail message. “See our president on ‘Undercover Boss’ – and shop his personal picks!”

Instead of offering gift certificates and lip service (and profiting off the free publicity) these bosses should change their policies; so that no one has to endure the shame of the Hooter’s waitresses who are forced into eating competitions, or the indignity of the Waste Management driver who pees into a cup because she can’t take a break.

Otherwise, it’s not reality. It’s fantasy.

Knowing of the grave violations that these workers are forced to endure, we thought it only fair that Mr. McCann take a trip to the fields and farms of Colombia and Ecuador so as to truly be on the most frontline position in the flower industry.

ILRF runs the Fairness in Flowers Campaign, which promotes the labor rights of workers in the cut flower industry.  ILRF Executive Director Barna Athreya sent McCann a letter (PDF) inviting him to visit the workers who grow, harvest, and package the flowers his business depends on:

Our campaign highlights a variety of labor rights violations, such as the violations of firing women when they become pregnant, exposure to toxic chemicals and even child labor. With their hardship in mind, we invite you to explore more in depth the working conditions of the workers supplying the flowers that have marked 1-800FLOWERS.COM “Your Florist of Choice”. We think that a trip to the fields and farms of Colombia and Ecuador could truly put you on the frontline alongside your workers. We would be happy to accompany you to Colombia or Ecuador and would introduce you to the men and women that struggle just to feed their families while working on farms that produce for your company.

ILRF also encouraged the company to adopt a code of conduct that addresses flower workers. León writes:

…we hope that gaining a new perspective on such conditions will push the entire company to expand on their corporate social responsibility of providing the public with a code of conduct that applies to all levels of the supply chain. Although I was able to find the corporation’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for the Board of Directors, Officers and Employees, the document failed to include any information on the working conditions of the workers at the root of the flower industry.

We hope that Mr. McCann and 1-800-FLOWERS take ILRF’s invitation seriously.  But you can do something right now: click here to learn more about the Fairness in Flowers campaign, and click here to learn what you can do to support flower workers’ rights.

As has been widely reported, the mine had been repeatedly cited for safety violations:

Massey Energy is actively contesting millions of dollars of fines for safety violations at its West Virginia coal mine where disaster struck yesterday afternoon…This deadly mine has been cited for over 3,000 violations by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), 638 since 2009…

Not coincidentally, the Upper Big Branch mine was non-union, and Massey Energy, which owns the mine, is notoriously anti-union.  (The company is also um, “politically active:” In 2004, its CEO essentially bought a state supreme court seat.) Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said yesterday that if these workers had been union members, they would have had more recourse to refuse unsafe work—and that perhaps if the company were empowering its workers, instead of fighting the union, it could spend more time focusing on safety.

But companies aren’t going to do it on their own.  Massey CEO Don Blankenship is still denying the mine was unsafe. As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former Mine Workers (UMWA) president and third generation coal miner, said yesterday,

…this incident isn’t just a matter of happenstance, but rather the inevitable result of a profit-driven system and reckless corporate conduct. Many mining companies have given too little attention to safety over the years and too much to the bottom line.

That’s why workers need two things: first, strict enforcement from the Mine Safety and Health Administration and second, the real, protected right to join a union, so they can have a voice on the job.  Let’s fight like hell to make that happen.

“But I emptied the trap and didn’t yak, so I deserve some kind of an award,” he jokes.

Ha! Right. He definitely deserves an award. I mean, it’s not like any Roto-Rooter employees have ever before had to pump a grease trap or clean a drain without complaining. Certainly, none of them do it daily, for their actual job. Oh, wait: that’s exactly what they do!

He says he isn’t going to be a regular:

Despite his grand experience with reality TV, Arquilla says that he isn’t planning a repeat performance.
“I don’t know how good I am at my regular job, but if you compare being an undercover boss with being president and COO,” he says, “I think I better stay very focused on this president thing.”

Good thing he has this cushy COO gig to go back to—and thousands of employees who can do the plumbing and drain cleaning instead.  Sure, it’s great that Mr. Arquilla has finally experienced first-hand how difficult his employees’ jobs can be.  But it would be even better if he ensured his company’s employees were treated with respect, fairly paid, and able to fully exercise their right to organize.