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Tampa sports teams use unpaid homeless people as concessions workers

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A

AJLma

Member
Brawndo Addict said:
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.
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Ideally, but 900K only goes so far. Any one of those things would cost them a significant fraction of that and who knows, maybe they hoped to get there someday.

I also don't really give a shit about their stadium rules, I'm only interested in the people affected.

It's easy to sit here and say how unethical what they're doing is compared what's become known as acceptable labor in the US, but we're talking about people who are homeless drug addicts who may have simply ended up dead if something hadn't come along to interrupt them from their habit.
 
N

nateeasy

Banned
Sounds like they are helping homeless people reenter society.

And that any alleged abuse is coming from New Beginnings not the sports teams.
 
A

adamsappel

Member
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.
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They are exploiting people dependent on them for food and shelter. It's barely a step above using prison labor. They aren't "reintegrating" them into society. If they were earning wages, they could save that for getting apartments of their own. It's possible that the team really is unaware of the situation. They probably bid out the contracts; it's easy to lowball when your workers all live in your tax-free building and eat institutional-grade food.
 
D

DontBeThatGuy

Member
It's so noble, exploiting desperate people and taking their benefits, all under the veil of helping them getting their lives together by um, making them take a piss test.

Doing Gods work.
 
Damerman

Damerman

Member
whats making me laugh is the fact that I was recently heard saying "unions are outdated"

I literally have to go and google when indentured servitude was banned on december 4 2014. Am i wrong for wishing our sun would collapse on itself?

EDIT: holy shit, the united states considered it as a form of peonage as late as 2000...source
 
Z

Zee-Row

Banned
I was at last Sunday's bucs game. Hard to tell those people were homeless. They just looked like regular workers.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
I don't think this is that uncommon for homeless shelters. People are expected to do (unpaid) work in exchange for staying there.

There's one in my city (St. Louis) run by Larry Rice that has faced similar complaints (among other things). It's a really long article about it, but a good read if you want a look inside homeless shelters (without actually living in one).

http://www.stlmag.com/No-shelter/

Today, if someone shows up at NLEC’s door looking for emergency shelter, they can stay for 14 days. At the end of that period, they can either find somewhere else to go for 30 days or join one of NLEC’s programs. There’s a 30-day program for men and women, a 90-day program for veterans and women, and a two-year leadership program.

In each case, people exchange labor for room and board. They operate the shelter at night when the pastors go home. They also provide security, do administrative work, cook, clean, and serve as cameramen and producers for Larry’s TV station. They receive no wages. They’re also required to attend daily prayer meetings.

Members of the two-year program are often shipped off to one of Larry’s farms, where they tend to livestock, operate broadcast centers, or turn used vegetable oil into diesel fuel as part of his Missouri Renewable Energy initiative. Their work generates income for NLEC, but still, they receive no wages. In fact, members of the two-year program who collect disability or other benefits are asked to donate 40 percent.

Larry says these programs break the cycle of homelessness and provide on-the-job training. But one homeless man describes the arrangement as “almost like modern-day slavery for blacks and whites.” I meet with Chris Rice in his office to discuss the programs
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OTOH, while they are clearly being exploited, they don't seem to have anywhere else to go.
 
M

masud

Banned
Lmao work threapy... I used to sell concessions in the stands at Giants stadium, the base pay was shit but i used to make a killing on tips so they're probably still making some money.
 
K

KingGondo

Banned
devilhawk said:
I do wonder if there is a contract agreed to in these cases about exchanging room and board for labor.
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I'm gonna go ahead and call bullshit even if there is such a contract. There's such a disparity in bargaining power that it's hard to justify it even if the (possibly drunk or high and definitely desperate) homeless person agrees to it.

It's not like the wages for working concessions are that high anyways. Pay the people for the work they perform.

I'm tired of those in positions of economic power acting like displaying basic human decency is somehow doing society a favor.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
L

LevelNth

Banned
Someone sat down at a table, and crunched the numbers/debated on the PR risk of this moral abhorrence getting leaked out versus the tax relief it obtains by 'donating' the money rather than paying the 'employees'.

And chose the tax relief.

Is there another story that better sums up 21st century America right now?
 
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