Permanently Temporary: The Truth About Temp Labor (Full Length)

[Music] temp labor in a way isn't looked at as an industry but it's a sector in it's an industry and the industry is dealing in moving human beads so instead of moving Tomatoes I move human beans around [Music] we live in a time when at the click of a mouse goods from around the globe can arrive conveniently at our doorstep mega retailers like Walmart and Amazon have created a seamless and efficient system to get our goods to us quickly is a great example of what's possible last year during the busiest day of the Christmas rush customers around the world ordered more than 300 items from Amazon every second and a lot of those traveled through this bill what's not seeing are the people who actually make this possible kept out of the public eye our temp workers employed without benefits or securities they play an integral role in keeping costs down and profits high many of these workers stay silent for fear of retribution often having their livelihoods put in jeopardy if they speak out wanting to know more about this integral yet invisible workforce we traveled across the country scouring warehouses temp agencies and temp towns in search of the people who make our world of same-day delivery possible over 70% of our consumer goods come into the u.s. from overseas unloaded at mega ports like the Los Angeles Long Beach maritime terminal cargo ships carrying up to twelve thousand containers dock here every day and the goods they carry are unloaded and brought to warehouses to be unpacked and sorted for the West Coast an area an hour east of Los Angeles known as the Inland Empire which was once filled with horse ranches and citrus groves is now warehouse central we're out in front of Schneider logistics which exclusively serves Walmart they have over two million square feet of warehouse space here in the Inland Empire and it actually spans three different cities the Inland Empire has the largest concentration of warehouses in the world and they serve other retailers too like GE Nestle Home Depot and Kmart to name a few as retailers increase their online sales it's at places like these that the essential tasks of sorting labeling and loading the stuff we buy happens online sales are growing at a dizzying pace as consumers increasingly look to the web to make purchases in the big retails for instance we will probably see a lot of the behind-the-scenes workers actually being temps and the conditions in these warehouses can be deplorable because we as American consumers now myself included expect our goods to be shipped to us just like that so what is it like working at a warehouse what are the challenges temp workers face [Applause] so we're meeting Xavier here then we're gonna hear from him what it was like working inside one of those massive warehouses Javier's job was to unpack and repack containers at a warehouse where goods were often moved within the span of a few hours what were you doing nosotros cuando llegó almost no signal on own trailer and a specific o e the SS they said trailer que nosotros tenemos que des cars are low Amano he tenemos que era penelon diferentes trailers Quran diferentes cidades destinos and were there any grievances that you had working in those conditions a peon ocasion sk personas se que diga que lastima Baba's son marma me ento bueno Marita Elmo - volcano Sarah Hendrix porque ellos my speedy el entonces es aroun blanco por medio' Demi simply adore es por el motivic a Yoshi impressive a la voz para F in there with math Kaname salud Parata me LEM is compañeros Javier's problems with accountability and safety are common for warehouse workers and as the sector of employment expands more and more people are subject to this kind of treatment since the recession temporary employment has increased has added more jobs than any other industry in the United States the earliest leader of the temporary help industry was Elmer winter who founded and was the CEO of manpower incorporated manpower is the largest temp industry from its founding in the late 40s through the 1990s in the early years of the temporary help industry they very much played on this idea that temp work was women's work in the public arena all of the images that they sold of temporary employment was of these kind of white middle-class very feminine women one of the big things that changed I kind of set the context for these cultural ideological changes was really the rising global competition basically employers had a choice about how to respond and one of those responses could have been to invest in workers and instead they took what policymakers called the low road and D invested in workers cut permanent employees and attempt out jobs temps are increasingly part of a profitable business strategy of corporate giants last year wal-mart the world's largest retailer had its best shopping season yet an Amazon continues to expand its warehouses and fulfillment centers even President Obama has gotten on board because this type of labor is impossible to outsource Amazon is a great example of what's possible last year during the busiest day of the Christmas rush customers around the world ordered more than 300 items from Amazon every second and a lot of those traveled through this building what Obama doesn't mention in his speech is how many of these industries are using template to get back on their feet in some distribution warehouses temps outnumber direct hires so in general the relationship between client's company or the worksite company a staffing agency and attempt scholars have called this a triangular employment relationship so unlike the normal employment relationship which just has two entities a worker and an employer this has three entities it's supposed to be clear who is responsible who is liable for the workers but in reality it's not always clear once we learned that staffing agencies are as important to the logistical system as warehouses we started to see them everywhere we followed the railroad tracks to Chicago the heart of the country's supply chain which is also a hotbed of the temp staffing industry we're at the centerpoint intermodal hub about an hour outside of Chicago and it's the only place in the country where six major cargo rail lines intersect just like in California people unpack sort and label the boxes of goods that come off these trains many of the same problems like these workers and their grievances get lost in the ambiguous triangle between the worker the warehouse and the temp agency in Chicago there's yet another intermediary between the worker and anyone taking responsibility for safety labor brokers known as right arrows are often hired by agencies to do the dirty work of wrangling the workers to and from the warehouses we're on the side of the road in the little village neighborhood of Chicago which is the largest Hispanic population in the u.s. who are waiting and trying to see right arrows who are basically due to shake up temporary workers from the warehouses here they're kind of another middlemen in the whole system of getting temporary work in the US [Music] so we tried to talk to a writer who just picked up a worker in his van but he just sped off you didn't want to talk to us at all the right arrows didn't want to talk but they kept circling back because they had workers to pick up and money to make we tried to speak with them again with no luck these guys are doing basically everything they can to avoid us we just want to talk to them they're still picking up the guys that they're taking to the warehouse is these temp workers who then pay them for the ride since we had trouble getting right arrows to speak with us we turned to members of the Chicago workers collaborative who offered to take us off the main drag and further into the neighborhood to a parking lot full of right arrows I talked to a woman who got on and left and I asked her where she was going and she said to the shampoo place right I said have you ever seen the company name she doesn't know most workers don't know the name of the company even if they worked there for five or six years writers used to be a lot more open and like would talk to people about what they do but the staffing agencies basically told them like if you keep talking about what our business is we're gonna stop using you so that kind of like intimidation trickles down even from staffing agent or entero right arrow to worker as the first round of workers left at about 5:00 a.m. we decided to follow the next shift of early morning temp workers to the warehouses we're on the side of the highway about an hour outside of Chicago many of the warehouses that temp workers go to are located in this area so we're hoping to catch one of the right arrows on its way to the warehouse and follow it as it drops off workers yeah there's one right there it looks like there's like maybe eight ten potentially more people in there workers are at the mercy of right Arabs who often charge each worker for their ride in 2005 the Illinois State Legislature made this form of coerced theft illegal but it still happens all the time we like the temp workers being shuttled didn't know where we'd end up but our journey which began before dawn brought us to great kitchens a frozen pizza manufacturer that sells pizzas to Walmart Walmart has perfected logistics to a frightening science but the way they do that is putting subcontractors against each other to offer the cheapest contract at the end of this great chain of logistics the temp worker barely hangs on their wages and prospects blunted by the force of cost-cutting so this morning we weren't really able to talk to too many workers at the shape-up understandably because a lot of them were threatened with not getting a ride if they did talk to us so instead we're going to talk to essaouira who lives in Cicero and she's worked for a bunch of different you seem pleased Lennon purely on the surface in a certain lots of fizziness lots of his nest canta canta tunnel right there oh you're right there is ok ok busca la hint though this siempre that preference er or right arrows how much do you have to pay a retainer to take you to the warehouse or to LA - so you work 8 hours a day and how much do you make every hour or 20 Cinco what's the owner Lasallian menos a chicken pork a red nose as Quentin what we'll try right there onozonozo chickie a second oh no no no summers you know to come with the chickens I noticed this Quentin they'll cry you ok no sonic or Apple check for cambiar so at the end of every week I mean how much money are you taking on don't see enter so chant and so that would leave you with you know a little bit more than $1,000 a month is that enough are you able to survive oh no I assume with Ottawa notice over me corn is no se puede vivir con ese sorry are there any right taro is like other guys that you trust anyone tener que tiene trihard says panono I told what were they see if they at all at this point a second could you specifically tell us of an instance that you witnessed sexual harassment and what happened no question we all know in this eme tenemos tres mrs. castevet no ha no honest a persona it was me okay Miss Ferrara Jaime's asperities we have a continent in you yo-dee-hey que paso see me where you I don't know there's family home solutely see Nauticus at i don't have their pocket they beat Osama so no telly he's a custodian ignorant racist Niecy machine and it anivia todo lo que no pass para-para-paradise hidden product any Manos como la gente so fray in and porque lo permitting me mahi no care mucho dinero de por medio' no sé pero las docenas tempura no Stan ignorant a settlement that are you originally from the US make you go do you regret coming in this country it sounds like things are really hard with Samara Pete you know Scott's awesome his purpose mr. SEOs s10 Mexico you seem him in the computed solution assisted by a sparrow we said give Assyria the one well most reticence for asara and many workers who aren't able to find legitimate employment temp agencies are an imperfect necessity eking out a living means facing a battery of indignities one of the ways that you can tell the temp work is such a large player in Chicago is the sheer number of temp agencies that line the streets we went for a ride with Leone to learn more about how they operate the problem with temp labor is that it's set up to fail the workers at the bottom you have the client company at the top that gives out contracts to the staffing agencies in order to win that contract staffing agencies have to underbid other staffing agencies and by the time they win a bid they have underbid other agencies and the only way they can make even a small profit is by shorting workers hours charging them for rides getting kickbacks from check cashing agencies and temp labor in a way isn't looked at as an industry our argument is that it's a sector and it's an industry and the industry is dealing in moving human beings so instead of moving Tomatoes I move human beings around it feels to us like in the last 10 or 15 years that the idea of using a temp agency is no longer something that client companies do a little here and a little there but it really feels like it's the new way that people work how do you operate in what might essentially be kind of like a post Union landscape in a country that no longer like produces many of the things that we consume the theory for us doesn't hold water because the vast majority of template's in our experience are at the poverty level or below and you we're not going to rebuild the economy through time temp labor as we pastor on staffing Leonie mentioned Carlos Santino's one of the most extreme examples of how a worker can fall through the cracks in this triangular employment and a few years ago one of their workers was killed when at a shampoo factory several hundred gallons of water mixed with acid fell on him and he suffered third-degree burns and even though his skin was peeling from the acid neither the warehouse nor the temp agency would call 911 he was finally taken to seek medical care in a co-workers van it took 98 minutes to get enough from his place of work where the accident occurred till he got to the emergency room and and then he spent three weeks suffering in the hospital and died it's like a brave new world right war is peace up is down left is right tempis perm if there is an injury on the job the 10th company might say we're not at the worksite we don't control what work that temporary worker is doing meanwhile the worksite employer will say look we are not the employer of this worker how can we be held responsible for this injury while the conditions are harsh and the treatment borderline abusive these jobs are still highly sought after even qualified workers like Reggie Hudson a construction worker with 20 years of experience struggle to find work so Reggie you're looking for temp work today yeah yes it has it been a problem getting temp work yeah I've been having bad experience with two babies why do you think it is that you're not able to get temperance I feel good you been discriminated you know because uh maybe in the Black Canary and so where we going right now what MVP right now discrimination against employees is illegal and but with this triangular employment relationship between the worksite employer the staffing agency and the temp it can be quite difficult to even know that discrimination is going on well I went inside and you know they was saying they had worked for people and that uh Stood Still told you know that sent you out so you have steel toed boots yeah and that's because you used to work construction right correct how much were you making on Union construction jobs like thirty six dollars out I'm here at make if you get called in tomorrow I think she said start off with like twelve twelve hours that's that's a big that's a big loss but I'm willing to do that as supply for my family so what do you think the chances are of like them saying come battery to call at 4:30 is sofa grass there has been extensive research we see that most temp agencies who locate in cities are locating in the segregated immigrant neighborhoods rather than the african-american neighborhoods so just by where they're setting up shop they're seeking to recruit a particular kind of worker but then when African Americans go to that staffing agency and put in their application they may not get called back unlike their immigrant or Latino counterparts [Music] the clustering of temp agencies in immigrant neighborhoods is most acute in New Brunswick New Jersey a small city outside of New York temp agencies target workers who live here but send them to work an hour south where most warehouses are located like people we met across the country margarita Lee misses day starts well before the sunrise well normal evangelist quadruple a preparar me a a las Cinco Cinco Marius a steno Castle Yahoo style in transporting you think'll say sign you see a trabajar angle is more lugar in one cameo maintenance welcome for casaya anything you think oh those thing always steals and I mean apart any single families fathers care opinion than me you mean Carlos Augusto de is this easy my area of business with the cafeteria was trabajo que ellos vienen de semanas a OC no tengo que usted trabajo extra where they you know salga de una voya otro para que puede contar para ellos para mis hijos mean - go be fine tengo que trabajar aqui tienes mucha gente careful sake not quality many there look at the model boost angle that accion SPOC you booster - I'd see honest my handsome a psychodrama how much money do you make per hour and so is that enough to sort of make ends meet [Music] and do you think that's I mean unfair essentially because your you're working for these companies and make these things that potentially you can't buy a lot of Christmas justo porque los años que tengo trabajando Kanye's with no map I'm being it's a message that you have to people who don't know that this is how the goods are they by getting them there people like you know an acacia property is come from somos nosotros guineas la prossima para las tiendas you know seven in the ten years of war house of mantra panel raha Doris it is now a misconception that temporary work is actually temporary we've definitely seen temps working for 10 years 15 years at one employer everyday as though he or she were a regular employee retailers and warehouse companies are responsible for making profit and while unpleasant one very effective tool is relegating workers to permit Em's how many people want a full-time position go out do the type of work that gets noticed you want to be a career temp you want to make a little bit of money maybe save enough buying to buy a TV or buy a new phone we'll put your phone back on for a few weeks and then go disappear again ok you can have that life if that's what you want but if you want to get on the carousel of opportunity you got to show up you got to be consistent you got to be committed to doing this what kind of work can you sort of mediate so our clients come to us and they tell us we have a project to work on or we need to staff up for the holiday season whatever the need may be my principal job is to make sure I provide them with quality workers I have a corporate background and I understand that the key is wherever you serve your product it's got to taste the same look the same act the same like there are other places that continuously sort of do the wrong way and what's the benefit of doing it the wrong well I've heard I've heard some stories I've heard some situations and quite frankly they saddened me but I know in the industry there are people that choose to take shortcuts they may employ people that are not legally able to work in this country now I am NOT going to dispute the fact that there are companies out there in a triad relationship between undocumented worker desperate worker as you referred to which is probably the appropriate terminology staffing agency taking full advantage of that situation client taking advantage of that situation this mega billion billion-dollar industry it's one of the largest industries in the world do you think it's a net good to have more temporary workers just generally as a labor force if the alternative is to have less people employed then I think it's an advantage to have more temporary workers can you tell us how many people you put to work today today we put out 427 people and we've been averaging between 4 or 500 what seeing changes into the hierarchy of the temp labor experience for whatever reason companies are choosing to create this other sector of employment which is what I call steady temporary some staffing agencies or just meat markets process people get them in get them out the bottom line is we all have choices in this industry is my workforce a commodity are they no different than a package of batteries on the shelf or are they a person a human resource that has the ability to not only endure but to develop and grow so could you tell us roughly what percentage of temporary workers end up becoming direct hires from your agency absolutely we're tracking right now about 1 of every 50 people we send out gets converted over to a direct hire spot that is swimming against the stream of the other activity ok that is offering opportunity and hopefully I'm building a trend that other people notice still the majority of the people sitting on those folding chairs aren't gonna find that situation just because of situations that neither of us can change companies are made up of different levels of work they have their executive branch they have their middle management they have their rank-and-file and they have what I call entry-level unskilled there's always going to be a need for that group of individuals the Panama Canal is currently being expanded and will double and width meaning even bigger ships stuffed with more of the things we buy will be able to make landfall on the East Coast at super maritime facilities like the Elizabeth Seaport not only are more Goods coming into the country but other industries like food are being roped into the same super warehousing system Amazon is primed to do to the grocery store what it did to the bookstore the online retailer has perfected logistics to such a degree that it can not only feed our desires but can literally feed us we're in central New Jersey about an hour south of New York City and behind me you'll see the future home of Amazon fresh a 1.2 million square foot warehouse that's going to be the hub of Amazon's new grocery delivery service Amazon fresh plans on offering same-day delivery and what's crazy is that it takes places like this giant warehouses staffed by temporary workers to make it possible for me to order cereal online and get it delivered the same day this whole area used to be farmland and you'll still be getting your food from here but instead of from farms it'll be from warehouses even though the logistical industry is set to expand that doesn't mean the conditions for workers will get any better for perma temps the prospect of joining the consumer economy that they support to their labor remains slim unless Arkansas prácticamente sync wines we see SLO temporal is the pero ways concrete I meant a no no satisfactory opal a perception ricetec America less in trabajo year a a tiempo de Nieva de la Cinco de la mañana says Casio mucho drove at the logical I mean y'know they're Keynesian a Canseco not wake on every obvious cannot go draw your drama I mean is there any kind of like psychological toll that takes on you do you feel unstable is it tough to just sort of not know see Priscilla Priscilla psychologically ultra wanna kill yes lying segorita like zygerria a tener draw constantly and how much do you make per hour what is your hourly wage Oh Cho dole at is lower and if you work 40 hours a week you make 320 dollars a week in in perception emberato CSUN los testigos wednesday pero ella perception net asunto cientos current is yet des Gracia meant a magnet odd o que ahora es muy difícil muy difícil en contra rapport compañía y por ESO que da Mo's in Manos de las Ciencias en la llevamos lon si si de y unos meses nice akhira tenemos la opción de protester porn une derecho say I mean this seems like a silly question in some ways but why is it that you came to the country in the first place where no porque again bueno la palabra comme une yes sir americano is the treatment that you get the uncertainty that you have like even worse than you had expected it to be with yo sista Antonia conocimiento de Lori no puedo hacer decir que fue para lo que pensé que estaba consciente de lo que yo no tenia conciencia era el sistema para buscar el trabajo sobre todo del social yes a cos Oviedo DSO no vengo quien dejó su familia como por gusto en dejas su casa por gusto nadie y siempre es las palacio de tratar avocado esperamos perception yo en notado que canta americana Ganden appearances was uno por toda para trabajar para so it is se la lucha de la reforma we have unprecedented levels of insecurity of job insecurity in American workers today this is not just for temps and not just for contract employees but also for run-of-the-mill workers who feel highly insecure in their work lives even if they have a so-called permanent job and this is really because of this new cultural ideology about how how little workers mean to it employers the fact of the matter is we do live in a capitalistic society nothing will change that structure and that's good in its bed in one way it might help a company's bottom line and be more productive but it's also eliminating jobs now what do all those people go for work ok so there's no solution to that situation the only solution to it and the numbers are a few out of the group will move up right that's just the way it is the economic growth of the US is pegged to the actions of the nation's consumers as the technology for delivering our goods gets better and online sales continue to grow warehouse work is becoming even more crucial but due to the spreadsheet efficiency of sourcing essential labor to temp workers and the low margins squeezed throughout the supply chain an entire subclass of people many of whom are immigrants are being pushed to the margins of poverty OCN haciendo lo hacen poor poor konami su negocio Ilokano zodavia's comment ammos todo esto con el público e SI su p era todo lo que nosotros NOS a simple ahmo's para ser si trabajo what's worse is this kind of employment could be a stepping stone to the middle class but instead the very people who make our consumer economy the most advanced it's ever been are trapped in a permanently temporary existence a Kiowa voy para dos meses penance estado not rose city of mass not spoke Baroness mass mass Incan grantees to positioned okay Mira impression kill temporal for her lapis Erica [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: VICE News

Views: 3,156,206

Rating: 4.7296968 out of 5

Keywords: temp labor, permanently temporary, the truth about temp labor, the truth about temp labor full length, temp labor in US, permanent temporary, vice permanently temporary, temp agenices, temp agenies us, american temp jobs, american jobs, labor force, VICE News, news, VICE, VICE Magazine, documentary, interviews, world news, breaking news, vice news 2018, vice on HBO, invisible workers, vice news documentaries 2018, immigrant america, vice news documentary, jobs usa

Id: waeMkka60po

Length: 33min 33sec (2013 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 15 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/ZgylthZ]

At Roche and Eli Lilly, two giant pharmaceutical companies that pretty much own Indiana, they have gone so far to have temporary MANAGERS.

That's right. You get a 1.5 year contract as a temp worker, even if you are a manager. And if you complete your project, well chances are you're gone

[u/ChristmasinVietnam]

Didn’t watch it but iv worked beside temps the name should be disposable

[u/Clawsickle]

at Fedex they are called permanent part time. We got to protest. they all want 2000 part timers instead of 1000 full time employees. Why? greed.

[u/trackerFF]

Temp labor has absolutely exploded here in Norway the past 10 years or so, especially in the construction business. If you look through job sites for pretty much any position within the construction industry, I'd say that 70% of the ads are through recruitment and temp agencies.

Businesses also pay big bucks for these workers, but it's worth it for them if they just need people on a project-to-project basis - and they don't need to be involved in the recruitment phase, so that frees up time and resources.

There are some good aspects of this kind of work, which is more close to "gig" economy than anything else:

• You (as a worker) get flexibility to work on your own terms
• The pay is sometimes better than what companies themselves would pay. At least here, temp agencies et al. have a policy of matching salaries.
• You get paid every 14 days, whereas a new hire for a construction company may have to wait 6 weeks for first paycheck; So it's a good option if you're strapped for cash
• You can get hired by the client company, if you're a good worker, so it kinda lowers the barriers for entry
• If you don'y have any references, it's pretty easy to get a lot of references in a short time

BUT, there are some pretty bad aspects too

• Financial stability is almost non-existent. Good luck getting a mortgage
• You can't be picky, at the chance of getting blackballed for turning down too many jobs
• The social side to this kind of work sucks. It's very hard to build any "professional" network, as you only work with people from a couple of days to a couple of months max
• Riding on last point; Very little workplace inclusion.
• Very low threshold for being removed, for whatever reason. You could agree to take on a project which lasts 2 weeks, only to get removed on second day, and being replaced with some other temp. Then you're suddenly unemployed again, and probably spend a couple of days getting a new gig.
• Communication can also be bad. There was times where client management (i.e your manager on-site) would speak directly to your agency manager, which in turn relayed messages to you. Important things like feedback, which is best served on-site.

All in all, I can see why companies love using temps, and why some workers would rather work this way, but in the end I think this system both erodes workers rights, and destroys any financial stability.

[u/theFBofI]

The logical end result of the destruction of the labor movement in this country.

Also topical: Ending Temp Workers Is at Center of Auto Workers Strike

[u/tomsfoolery]

gotta have those steel toe boots

[u/[deleted]]

I hated going through agenices for comtracts that were only up to a year long. Taken a pay cut but got permanent in a different industry where my skills are transferrable. Couldn't handle the instability and inability to make a good network. As said elsewhere, you only work with people for a shirt time, and I found that cos youre temp, they couldnt care less about keeping in touch once you're gone, to be replaced by another temp/contract.

[u/[deleted]]

Uber, Lyft, Amazon flex. Grocery stores give shelf stockers special titles to keep from paying them overtime. Employees at least deserve a little lube while getting fukd so hard.

[u/mikman1001]

The company I work actually hires temps with the expectation of going full time within 3-6 months. We use temps to fill voids in production where the full time worker may be out on disability or where demand is high. To me that's truly the definition of a temporary worker.