Michigan is the center of this scandal because of the large workforce and the amount of complaints that have arose. Also, Michigan use to have one of the largest workforces in the country due to the amount of cars we produced.
An example of workers rebelling on these bad wages is in 1937; workers at a General Motors plant did not walk out on their jobs, rather they did just the opposite. They simply sat down at their posts in the plant as a form of strike. This action is also known as a sit-down strike.
By withholding the proper wages from workers the corporations were performing white collar crimes. White collar crimes, first defined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939, are when a person who is in a position of authority commit a financially motivated crime in their business.
A present day instance of these crimes (reported) are McDonald corporations. Their workers have sent in complaints saying that the managers are forcing them to work extra hours, hours off the clock, and not honoring their time card punch-ins. This could develop to be a severe problem due to the magnitude of the fast food industry.
Fast food restaurants have monopolized eating quickly on the go. They also employ a large scale of workers. If they do not maintain a credible reputation for being a reputable restaurant, they could potentially lose workers and customers.
Businessmen who commit white collar crimes have an advantage over their competitors. They do not have to pay their workers as much, therefore they receive more money. Also, if their workers feel that they want to quit, they can easily hire workers. Jobs are becoming scare in todays day and age, just like they were in the past. That is the reason why workers have a hard time rebelling. They are easily replaced with nothing to fall back on.
White collar crimes have impacted the workforce substantially. It goes back to the belief that those with money have power. The business owner is not the blue collar, hardworking floor man. He or she is the one at the top of the organization with all of the money and power.
White collar crimes can lean toward being authoritarian conservatism because they are the ones with the power. The business owners feel they should be allowed to control their enterprise how they see fit. They would have the view that they should not have to be taxed more money because they work harder for their pay.
Wage theft prevention will benefit immensely from all of the social medias. The media can now get their opinions out to the world and community faster and easier. They can coordinate dates and times for campaigns, strikes, and movements.
Some objective data that you can gather from all of these cases are the feelings of the workers. You can gage their emotion when they find out how much money they are losing. Also, their actions can be measured. If they have a specific demeanor after you ask them a question, that can signal that they are upset or content with a situation.
Catholic Social Teaching tells us that we should feel for the workers. It says that we need to help the poor because they are being taken advantage of. The business owners are in the wrong in these instances because they are lying to their workers.
Once the Wage Theft Prevention Act was established the workers knew what they would be making each day. This act is a strong measure because the business allows the workers to know their day-to-day wages.
Hopefully, these businesses can clear their name and make amends with their workers. This is a serious manner that all owners who have committed these crimes should reconsider because they could end up facing penalties. For the workers, I have this to share about the situation.
"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone." - Rose Kennedy
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