Showing posts tagged messengering
Sharecropping on Wheels - Working In These Times
I wrote about Savannah’s port truck drivers, who are classified as “independent contractors” by their bosses but don’t get to make their own schedules or control the work that they do. What they DO get is the “right” to pay for their own trucks and equipment, charged for the cell phones the companies require them to use and other miscellaneous “repairs” to their trucks that they’re never sure were actually performed.
But they control a very important part of the supply chain, and they’re getting organized. So much for those who say we can’t organize the South.
(via differentclasswar)
Ah, the old pretending your employees are actually independent contractors scheme. Used to be pretty much the only option for bike messengers here, but Massachusetts has cracked down on that over the years. Also notable is the fact that there’s no withholding on taxes, and self-employment tax is a bitch. I’ve learned a lot about this the hard way. So, good luck to Savannah’s port truck drivers.
Photo from work the other day. I liked the lines in this alley. Would have liked to get a couple shots with a tripod at different exposures so the sky isn’t just plain white, but what can you do?
Photo from work today. All these old industrial buildings in the South End have been converted to loft spaces and whatnot. Then they used some of these huge pieces of the old machinery as a sort of gritty reminder of what used to be. I hear the Creative Class loves this sort of thing.
One last shot from today. I was stuck waiting outside the federal courthouse while they verified that there wasn’t in fact any anthrax in the building or whatever. Right in the middle of the brief span of really nice weather we had in the middle of the day.
(Source: ForGIFs.com)
Helicopter landing pad at Massachusetts General Hospital. Had a delivery way up on the twentieth floor yesterday. Insanely slow elevators there. And then on the way down, I shared the elevator with an old guy in a wheelchair who was being escorted by two MGH police officers and two Middlesex County Sheriff’s officers. That was unusual.
Here is someone working on the other task that earns a Pog: turning your clothes backwards. This task was done in honor of Kriss Kross. You remember them, right? They made you jump, jump. Underwear was not required to be reversed, although there was another checkpoint where some nudity was involved. I wasn’t there, my pictures are all relatively clean.
I think this guy has addresses of checkpoints written on his arm. I guess that’s easier to read while riding a bike than pulling a sheet of paper out of your pocket.
Yep, this is the stuff that had to be shotgunned. I studiously avoided any sampling of the product myself. In the immortal words of Dennis Hopper, “fuck that shit! Pabst Bue Ribbon!” Is that blue liquid dripping down his left arm? Looks tasty, right?
