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Tampa sports teams use unpaid homeless people as concessions workers

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R

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
http://deadspin.com/report-buccaneers-employ-indentured-servants-as-conces-1664733321

In a system labor experts are calling "outrageous," the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are among several professional sports teams a Tampa Bay Times investigation found employ unpaid, destitute people to sell peanuts and beer to fans at the stadium.

Reporter Will Hobson's investigation found the Bucs, Rays, Lightning, and Daytona 500 all employed labor from the New Beginnings ministry in a system the New Beginnings CEO calls "work therapy" but labor investigators call "indentured servitude." The money earned working the concession stands, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings, which provides the men with shelter and food; in total, New Beginnings brought in $932,816 in income last year.

Most of the men are homeless, destitute, and drug or alcohol addicts. Workers told the Times that New Beginnings confiscated their Social Security checks and food stamps and that while the organization claims to provide counseling, it employs no one with training to treat drug addicts or the mentally ill. One of the organization's chief ministers cited as qualification that "he ran a motorcycle gang."

James Kelly, an admitted pain-pill addict, stayed at New Beginnings for a few weeks in 2012. He said he left after not getting paid for the hours he worked at Rays games.

"You have to work for them, and they drug test you," said Kelly, 34. "I guess that's what they call counseling."
The Tampa Bay Lightning honored New Beginnings CEO Thomas Atchison last year as "a community hero." Tropicana Field concessions operator Center Plate says it's unaware homeless people were working its stands, and that charities are forbidden from sending volunteers "dependent upon the charity for food, clothing, shelter ... or any other necessities of life."
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How does this even happen in the US in 2014?
 
A

Angelus Errare

Banned
Pretty fucked up in all aspects. Hey Tampa...history called and it's asking what the living fuck are you doing.

Boom Boom Pow said:
you mean being a developed country stops people from being greedy corrupt? i can show you off the british people who used girls as sex toys in the UK if you want
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There's always that one person who has the "bu bu but look at what this country did!" post in these threads. Like every time.
 
P

Purple Cheeto

Member
I remember in HS one of the pro teams had a program where HS kids could come work concessions for a game and earn money for fundraisers. Not quite as evil as this.
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
Homeless people as concession workers, cheerleaders earning below minimum wage... you'd think the NFL was broke and not the richest sports league on the planet.
 
J

JumpJeff84

Member
Oh c'mon, at least pay 'em a decent wage to hawk peanuts! It's professional sports! They could probably pay a whole team of peanut-sellers for the price of a single ticket. Bullshit.
 
I

impact

Banned
xbhaskarx said:
Homeless people as concession workers, cheerleaders earning below minimum wage... you'd think the NFL was broke and not the richest sports league on the planet.
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I think this is a Florida thing and not a NFL thing, though I know that goes against your agenda. Not surprising at all (I live in Tampa)
 
B

Boom Boom Pow

Banned
Angelus Errare said:
Pretty fucked up in all aspects. Hey Tampa...history called and it's asking what the living fuck are you doing.



There's always that one person who has the "bu bu but look at what this country did!" post in these threads. Like every time.
Click to expand...

because dude assumes that a diverse country of 330 million people can all behave in a dronelike angelic manner.
 
G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
5162814abf66267598f28b6edc4a4cd2.gif


OR

L2YlgCe.gif


I like options..

terrisus said:
It's too bad Florida Man isn't here to see this... >.>
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Banned? ALREADY?
 
E

Elfforkusu

Member
Sounds a lot like unpaid internships.

so, bullshit, but justifiable in someone's head.

"We're giving these people the opportunity to get back to work!"
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
Elfforkusu said:
Sounds a lot like unpaid internships.

so, bullshit, but justifiable in someone's head.

"We're giving these people the opportunity to get back to work!"
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they should be grateful for having more work experience for their resumes!

backslashbunny said:
I wish people would stop equating church with being a decent person. ._.
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they're not always decent people, but they're usually not the ringleaders for worker exploitation and indentured servitude.

there is at least *some* expectation for someone in any ministry to behave in a manner slightly less shitty than your average sommbitch.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Wait... I'm not sure I have a clear understanding of this.

So it's obviously part time work cause you can only work while concessions are being sold.

And the money the company goes to is giving these people shelter and food.

Couldn't they just get out of this program and panhandle to actually make money if they think it isn't worth it?

EDIT: My point of confusion is simply this: could they totally opt out of the program and simply not get the benefits? Or is there some kind of contract they're obligated to? I ask only because people compared this to slavery, and that's incredibly insensitive historically.
 
A

Arc

Member
Whoompthereitis said:
Cheerleaders make below minimum wage? I didn't know that. What's the deal there?
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They make like $50 a game. Don't let the shocking nature of that fool you though, the make their money through promotional opportunities such as calenders and showing up a fundraisers etc.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
They're supporting the local community.

Trickle up economics.
 
D

danwarb

Member
xbhaskarx said:
Homeless people as concession workers, cheerleaders earning below minimum wage... you'd think the NFL was broke and not the richest sports league on the planet.
Click to expand...

They are rich because they're born in the productivity theft game. The rich are thieves.
 
G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
Wonder if Naples has a plan like that. Then again, I only see the same homeless woman everyday..they must hide the rest in a cage here.
 
A

AJLma

Member
This seems weird, but they're providing homeless people with food and housing for selling peanuts and beer. They're also helping them kick drug habits by drug testing, which isn't cheap, and reintroducing them the idea of being productive in society. I can't say without seeing the conditions for myself whether this is all bad for the homeless people involved, especially since this is far from slavery and they seem to be able to leave at will. Knee-jerk reaction from the privileged of the internet will definitely paint this organization as the devil, though.

The organization is also only pulling in 900K a year revenue, which is far from bank for a church.
 
B

Brawndo Addict

Banned
AJLma said:
This seems weird, but they're providing homeless people with food and housing for selling peanuts and beer. They're also helping them kick drug habits by drug testing, which isn't cheap, and reintroducing them the idea of being productive in society. I can't say without seeing the conditions for myself whether this is all bad for the homeless people involved, especially since this is far from slavery and they seem to be able to leave at will. Knee-jerk reaction from the privileged of the internet will definitely paint this organization as the devil, though.

The organization is also only pulling in 900K a year revenue, which is far from bank for a church.
Click to expand...

What story did you read?

Workers told the Times that New Beginnings confiscated their Social Security checks and food stamps and that while the organization claims to provide counseling, it employs no one with training to treat drug addicts or the mentally ill.
Click to expand...

James Kelly, an admitted pain-pill addict, stayed at New Beginnings for a few weeks in 2012. He said he left after not getting paid for the hours he worked at Rays games.

"You have to work for them, and they drug test you," said Kelly, 34. "I guess that's what they call counseling."
Click to expand...

Tropicana Field concessions operator Center Plate says it's unaware homeless people were working its stands, and that charities are forbidden from sending volunteers "dependent upon the charity for food, clothing, shelter ... or any other necessities of life."
Click to expand...
 
A

AJLma

Member
Brawndo Addict said:
What story did you read?
Click to expand...

The same one you did.

"You have to work for them, and they drug test you," said Kelly, 34. "I guess that's what they call counseling."
Click to expand...

Says a guy who was there for "a few weeks", I wonder how this guy is doing now. Still addicted to pills if the article is to be believed.

Your other quotes are irrelevant. The food stamp/social security checks thing is suspect, but I don't know what they're doing with the stamps or checks, the result is probably keeping many of them from selling them on the streets at a discount and buying more drugs.

They're providing them with food and shelter, reading this article isn't enough to convince me that what they're doing is totally wrong given I don't know the circumstances of the people involved and the environment that they come from.
 
B

Brawndo Addict

Banned
I'm not sure how its irrelevant that the organization is flagrantly violating the rule that they are forbidden "from sending volunteers "dependent upon the charity for food, clothing, shelter ... or any other necessities of life"" and that the only "help" they offer for the drug addicts is drug testing and nothing else like social workers, counselors, or a drug treatment program.

If we're going to treat the addicts as untrustworthy why give the benefit of the doubt to an organization explicitly breaking the rules and described by investigators as practicing 'indentured servitude'? And sure, you can say the investigators are biased too, that's fine, but then you should be equally critical of the organization itself, you can't blast every party as biased except them.
 
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