1,000 stolen points of light

Thanks to Avedon Carol for pointing out Dave Lindorff's CounterPunch article about airline company employees being asked by their employers to work for free. U.S. Air, it turns out, asked its employees who were not scheduled to work New Year's weekend to drop by, greet passengers, help them with baggage, and provide directions--in other words, help bail the company out of its Christmas customer service nightmare.

You have to hand it to U.S. Air: It is an equal opportunity exploiter. One weekend, screw the customers; the next weekend, screw the employees. By calling for "volunteers," U.S. Air saves a ton in overtime pay.

Lindorff is correct, of course, in his assessment that this new "volunteerism" is right in line with the Bush administration's ideas about ownership, capitalism, and workers' rights. And we will probably see more of this sort of thing creep into the workplace. But you don't have to go very far back in time to see a horrific example of it: For decades, American women volunteered for everthing. They raised serious funds for arts and charitable organizations, gave assistance to teachers, helped the sick in hospitals, did office work for non-profit organizations, and did everything from sell tickets to give museum tours for arts organizations.

When those same women, many of whom had a lifetime of invaluable work experience, applied for real jobs, they were told they had no qualifications because they had no "work history." This exploitation of women--yes, allowed by women--and subsequent discrimination against them was in firm place in this country until the mid-70's, when women decided they weren't going to take it anymore. Once the Second Wave was in firm place, companies actually had to start paying salaries to people to do the work they'd gotten out of women for decades.

Watch this trend. My guess is that there will be another grab to get women to "volunteer" to work for free. My other guess is that women will fall for it.