I’m struggling with what to do. They made me feel a bit wacky when this went down. Sorry this is long but thank you for sticking through it for me!
I work at a pottery production place in the Bible Belt. They’re big Trumpers and Q followers. I get paid 3$ above the state’s minimum wage. There are 10 workers- 5 are in the family that owns it and 5 are not. Pottery sounds cute but it’s a factory loaded with heavy machinery- it’s a loud and place.
Although there are a bunch of reasons I dislike my job, I wanted to renegotiate my wage for these reasons:
- Inflation is out of control. For the last several months I’ve had to choose gas to get to work over groceries. I’ve never had to do that before and it’s been rough. I somehow don’t qualify for this state’s EBT program but have utilized local food banks.
THEIR RESPONSE: They only give raises once a year. Manager thinks it’s “unfair to others” if I got a raise just because I “feel like I deserve one.” She seemed so shocked I asked for a raise, like no one has done that before. They wouldn’t even agree to give me a .70 cent raise for the inflation from my hire date 6 months ago til now. There is a quarterly profit share I’m just qualifying for (haven’t gotten it before) they said should make up for it. However according to my coworkers these checks are only about a hundred dollars a quarter.
- Poor working conditions. The plant has no cooling and minimal heating. The windows in my area don’t open. I work in a space similar to a green house- floor to ceiling south facing windows, no shade from the outside. It’s consistently ten degrees hotter inside than out and on days that it reaches 90 outside, they expect us to still perform the same. These are ten hour working days standing on concrete. There’s no break room or common area that is air conditioned to take a break. We all go sit in our cars to get AC.
On the other hand the core 5 people who are the family have different circumstances. All of their stations they are able to sit and have heating/cooling. The daughter still wears long sleeves because her room is so cold while the rest of us are literally in sports bras and shorts NOT sweating because we can’t keep the water intake and it’s clearly harming our bodies.
My coworker was out for a week recently because he experienced heat exhaustion on the job. He had to be rushed to the ER because these work conditions are so severe.
Because of the pottery dust the air is filled with silica. They don’t provide masks and I only learned we should be masked when searching for working conditions in pottery productions.
As far as I know, these conditions aren’t regulated or illegal.
THEIR RESPONSE: They don’t expect people to keep the same speed in the heat. This struck me because earlier this day I told my manager I’m not able to complete my last two items because I just can’t function at my station and I’m feeling confused and sick. She told me I’d have to stay late (we work 45 hour weeks already). So, they clearly do expect the same output. They said they can’t have air conditioning in certain areas because of the way the pottery could react- however there is no real heating either so through the winter it’s like 60 degrees inside. It doesn’t make sense.
She kept telling me how they know it’s awful. She kept saying “I’m hot too! AND I get hot flashes!” To which I responded she’s paid more to endure more and I don’t think my wage covers the bodily harm.
- I was under the impression I was getting a raise when I began painting the pottery. I was told painting would be a year long commitment at least and I said I’m willing and able to commit to a year of employment but it depended on wage. I was told something “yes this comes with a raise.”
THEIR RESPONSE: They said I misunderstood them. They meant I would get my raise after a year of painting because I’m not completely trained to be a “real” painter. Although I’m doing the orders, that are more expensive than the regular items because they’re hand painted. They’ve also said they have two painters on their instagram, which I told them, and they said it’s a typo they’ll remove it.
Other things- they asked me to throw out a number. I went into this talking-to thinking I’d throw out something high and negotiate lower. I redid my budget and need $17.23 to break even on my bills and necessities. However I told them I wanted at least 16$- a number I see reasonable as I know my coworkers are getting 16$. They flat out laughed at that number. Then told me nobody in this area or this workplace gets that- they sort of blamed my issues on me being new in this state.
I got annoyed and told them I know my coworkers are getting 16$. They freaked about how that’s grounds for termination, we can’t discuss wage, it’s in the handbook, etc. I informed them doing that is illegal and they really went back and forth with me about how it’s not illegal in this state and I must not know.
It just seems like a lot of fighting and bullshit for a couple dollar raise. I enjoyed my work but never liked the environment (q anony/trumpers) although I didn’t expect them to react this way.
Yesterday was left at them saying to take Friday off and take the weekend to think it over.
I have to quit, right? I’m bummed I have to deal with job hunting but more bummed I have to deal with people who are being completely unreasonable. I moved to this area because I was a victim of violence and had to escape. I love the mountains and wanted a year of employment to qualify for an USDA loan to maybe buy a place to live. Leaving would start me over on that. It’s an emotional thing but I feel like shitty people are hurting my healing and feeling entitled to hurt my body again.
I’m lost.