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 203 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)
[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 67 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 40 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] deacon@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

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

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 44 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

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[–] JustJack23@slrpnk.net 134 points 1 month ago (4 children)

And how is that different from slavery?

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 151 points 1 month 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 90 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] Sineljora@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 month ago

All of our 401ks invest in it.

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[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They get a whole 3/5 of their wages!

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 105 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The constitution makes slavery legal for prisoners

Says so right there literally just read the 13th amendment

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 64 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

The amendment to abolish slavery enshrines it in the Constitution

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Yeah lmao this is the amendment making slavery illegal….~exceptaspunishmentforacrime~

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 20 points 1 month 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 83 points 1 month 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 35 points 1 month ago

The only thing Capitalists love more than wage theft is slavery

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[–] frostysauce@lemmy.world 60 points 1 month 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 43 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 month 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 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip 54 points 4 weeks ago

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

[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 53 points 1 month ago

America never ended slavery.

[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago
[–] cranakis@reddthat.com 52 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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

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[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 45 points 1 month 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.

[–] Felis_Rex@lemmy.zip 42 points 4 weeks 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 13 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Or why they have decimated public education in black communities.

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[–] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 39 points 1 month 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.

[–] PhoenixDog@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's like Trump being what poor people envision as rich.

America is what other countries view as prosperous, when in reality it's just 10 rich people in a trench coat, and 350 million suffering underneath.

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 37 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 19 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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

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[–] ideonek@piefed.social 35 points 1 month ago

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

[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month 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 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Normalize burning those places to the fucking ground.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 28 points 1 month 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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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"Land of the free" fucking lol

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[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 23 points 4 weeks 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 16 points 4 weeks 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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[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month 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 18 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

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

Alabama ranks at a surprising 10th in most federally dependent at 61%

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

[–] choui4@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 month ago

This is slavery under Neo-Liberalism

[–] locahosr443@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago

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

Literally slavery, what a 3rd world country

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Driving Uber, I hear so many stories like this. For example, I never knew you paid for this "privilege," and apparently you PAY TO BE ON PROBATION!? Among so much other insane bullshit.

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[–] DevotedShitStain69@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

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