this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Work Reform

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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 141 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)
[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If this was fiction I'd be complaining about how on-the-nose it was.

[–] deacon@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

I find myself saying words to this effect more and more, and more and more lately

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Holy shit! The ratio is really 3/5! wtf!?

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[–] JustJack23@slrpnk.net 81 points 2 months ago (4 children)

And how is that different from slavery?

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 110 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It isn't, this is how they get around it, and literally wrote into the amendment banning slavery to leave a carve out for prisoners

[–] West_of_West@piefed.social 65 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Could also explain why prisons are such a big industry in the US

[–] Sineljora@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 months ago

All of our 401ks invest in it.

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[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They get a whole 3/5 of their wages!

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 75 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The constitution makes slavery legal for prisoners

Says so right there literally just read the 13th amendment

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 47 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Had a whole civil war over it and still didn't get rid of slavery.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

The amendment to abolish slavery enshrines it in the Constitution

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah lmao this is the amendment making slavery illegal….~except as punishment for a crime~

Tho I guess in fairness involuntary labor for prisoners is not really like slavery of innocent people but that’s why we have a corrupt criminal justice system to make up the difference 😃

[–] bagsy@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Black americans have the highest rate of incarceration for this exact reason. Racist cops, lawyers, and judges get to lock up black people and make them slaves.

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[–] bagsy@lemmy.world 62 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Slavery is illegal except for prisoners. Forcing prisoners to work is perfectly constitutional.

The bill of rights is wrong and must be admended. Closing this loop hole will kill the for profit prison industrial complex.

[–] LemmyBruceLeeMarvin@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 months ago

The only thing Capitalists love more than wage theft is slavery

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago
[–] frostysauce@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Unionizing is NEVER illegal. Source: The thousands upon thousands of people that have died over the years for your right to organize.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And besides, what're they gonna do, put them in prison?

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The video gets into this a bit; what the workers are threatened with for not working is stuff like being put in a more dangerous environment and not being able to see their families.

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 2 months ago

America never ended slavery.

[–] BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip 40 points 2 months ago

Yeah the USA is a slave empire, they have to be stopped.

[–] cranakis@reddthat.com 39 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is an all over problem but Alabama and Louisiana are so bad I avoid even driving through.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago

Alabama is bad but Louisiana is an absolute shithole state with crooks in the gov. Full of poverty when those should be very rich people. Too bad they didn't make the oil companies pay taxes for all that oil they drill or spill in the gulf every day.

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[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 34 points 2 months ago

If they're capable of working at these jobs, they don't need to be in prison. Either release them or stop using a system that garnishes their wages.

[–] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The more I learn about the US, the more I realise the shining city on the hill I believed in as a child is actually a giant dumpster fire.

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[–] Felis_Rex@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Y'all really ain't ready for the slavery in the US agriculture sector conversation. It's really bad, and this ICE shit is just acceleration

[–] criscodisco@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Or why they have decimated public education in black communities.

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[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Normalize refusal to do business at places who use prison labor.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Normalize burning those places to the fucking ground.

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[–] ideonek@piefed.social 26 points 2 months ago

USA - the country that have "except" in thier "no slavery" rule. I'm not even joking. Thats 100% true.

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Slavery never went away. It's just been rebranded, repackaged and sanitized.

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Not American, but isn't that what the 13th amendment did? Make slave labour legal for prisons?

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[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That is slavery.

Hopefully the decent folk in Alabama-- wherever they hide-- boycott the fuck outta those places.

[–] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Here’s a reminder that the 13th amendment didn’t abolish slavery. It simply added the “they must be a criminal before you can enslave them” qualifier…

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction

Emphasis mine. Why do you think the model for the modern police force started as slave catchers, and then pivoted hard towards “law enforcement” after the civil war? The US already had law enforcers. They were called sheriffs (county), troopers (state), and marshals (federal). The individual cities and towns didn’t have their own independent police forces until after the civil war… Instead, the county sheriff would deputize people to enforce laws in the individual cities on the sheriff’s behalf. And those brand new city-level police forces were manned by, you guessed it, former slave catchers. And they never really stopped catching slaves. They just changed what they called it.

The US thrives on slavery, even today, with private prisons as the modern slave owners.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 20 points 2 months ago (7 children)

This is the future of MAGA America. Imagine how much more profitable corporations could be if 90% of their workforce is AI, Robotic, or Federally-provided Slave Labor, privately managed by a Trump-owned company?

What do you think all those new regional concentration camps and an enormous paramilitary organization are going to do when the "immigrant problem" has been largely handled? Trump and Stephen "PeeWee Himmler" Miller and Trump are getting into the slavery business.

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[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (8 children)

The 13th Amendment allows for forced labor in prisons. This is how Trump and the GOP will reinstitute slavery in the USA.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's been a feature of the US prison system since the end of Reconstruction. This isn't something Trump invented.

Bright Blue California rejected a measure to ban prison slavery just a year ago.

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"Land of the free" fucking lol

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[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

Another reminder that private prisons (>10% of prisons in the US) are not the end-all be-all of everything wrong with the US justice system. The public side of things is messed up enough on its own.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago

Remember kids, if the republicans start complaining that someone is stealing their money, it means the state is.

Alabama ranks at surprising 10th in most money taken from the state at 61%

Note: No. 1 means most dependent. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700

[–] DevotedShitStain69@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'd sabotage those companies if I were forced to do anything other than my time.

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[–] locahosr443@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Offered to non violent misdemeanor offenders... First person has 15 year sentence...

Literally slavery, what a 3rd world country

[–] vpol@feddit.uk 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Future of the United States?

[–] athatet@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 months ago

Future what? It’s literally happening in the US right now.

Present of the United States.

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