Views in brief

April 17, 2014

The odds against the homeless

IN RESPONSE to "The real crime is homelessness": I work as a social worker at a non-profit. My job is to prevent homelessness by, one, helping with evictions, and two, helping people get set up in a place if they are already homeless.

There is governmental funding that we receive. There are stringent guidelines I have to follow in order to assist someone. There are so many sad stories out there, people losing jobs, families being abandoned by the provider, families with sick children...the list goes on.

I believe that those who make the rules have NO IDEA how it is for a person to be out there struggling to survive and make ends meet.

The process now takes about three weeks to complete. And we have gone from a one-page form to fill out to 12 different forms that have to be filled out and completed by either myself or the client.

We are counted (for the next year's grant application) on how successful the people were: Did they stay in their housing? Did they get higher incomes? So it all comes down to statistics, instead of helping people. And with cuts in food stamps and benefits for the poor, the problem keeps increasing instead of decreasing. It's pretty frustrating, not only for myself, but for the many trying to make ends meet!

Image from SocialistWorker.org

Shame on a government that places corporations first, above its citizens!
Cidneye, Bastrop, Texas

Life on the extra board

IN RESPONSE to "The real danger is CTA management": Regarding life on the extra board: There were weeks when I worked 13 shifts in a 7-day period. There were other weeks when I worked once or twice. The call could come anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, month after month.

Just when you began to fall asleep, often around 3 a.m., the call would come, "Railroad for G.C. Miller"--and you would have two hours to get to any one of a dozen starting places. With eight hours between shifts--minus travel time, minus errands, minus unwinding--you were lucky to get three hours of sleep.

Of course, if you worked 12 hours or more, you were entitled to 10 hours off--yes, the system was indeed "merciful." In the era before cell phones, you had to call the "caller" and ask if there was time to run to the store. Maybe, but on rainy nights or weekends, you could go from being 15 times out to being called in a matter of minutes.

Readers’ Views

SocialistWorker.org welcomes our readers' contributions to discussion and debate about articles we've published and questions facing the left. Opinions expressed in these contributions don't necessarily reflect those of SW.

As for a personal life? Good luck. A friendly beer at the corner bar? Can't do it. Circadian rhythms might as well be a Duke Ellington classic.

So now, the suits and ties and the 9-to-5 crowd are ready to make a villain out of the train operator. The extra board could be reformed, it could be made humane, it could have assigned days off, it could have calling brackets--but that would require hiring more people, and that would cost money.
Guy Miller, Chicago

Retired and struggling to get by

I AM a retired person who has worked all my working life and I do not agree with the Republicans' views concerning Social Security and Medicare. There are people in my small community who depend entirely on these benefits.

I cannot imagine them having to get a voucher to use their Medicare benefits. Also, the cost of living adjustment is so small, it does not help when insurance premiums increase each year.
Janice DeVore, Des Arc, Ark.

Less-than-great expectations

IN RESPONSE to "A writer for new hard times": Charles Dickens was not a socialist, but a moral reformer. He simply believed that if we all treated each other more kindly, all would be well. The heroes of his books, for the most part, are kindly old gentlemen from the middle or upper classes who treat their workers well, or who have a change of heart and "see the light."

Dickens seldom writes about the working class except to caricature them. Steven Blackpool in Hard Times was portrayed as a man of integrity who refused to join a union to confront the coke-town capitalists. Dickens was a reformer, not a trade unionist nor a revolutionary nor even a rebel. Still, much can be learned from his writing, and he undoubtedly helped advance the conditions of poor folks in Victorian England.
John Murray, from the Internet

Companies holding unions hostage

IN REPONSE to "Will a membership rebellion remake the IAM?": The International Association of Machinists had to take the deal with Boeing in Seattle, or Boeing would have moved the jobs out of state. St. Louis had offered $3 billion to Boeing to move them there. In regard to Mercury Marine, if the machinists had not taken the deal, Mercury Marine would have moved the plant to a non-union one in Stillwater, Okla.

Unfortunately, in today's tight economy, the employer often has the upper hand. The important thing is to keep the union together.
Greg Guthrie, Washington, D.C.