Doctor’s Letter Spells End of Job for Pregnant Employee

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/nyregion/doctors-letter-spells-end-of-job-for-pregnant-employee.html?_r=1


The amount of lowing in the comments section is astounding.

Angelica Valencia put the doctor’s note in her pocketbook and stepped out of her apartment in the early morning darkness. Then she started praying.

She prayed on the crowded buses and on the subway train that carried her from Queens into the Bronx to the potato-packing plant where she worked. “Please let me keep my job,” she repeated during her two-hour commute. “Please let everything work out.”

She punched in at 7:30 a.m. and handed her manager the note. Then Ms. Valencia, who was 39 and three months pregnant, went straight to work. Last year, she had a miscarriage. This time, her doctor said, she was once again high risk. No overtime, he ordered, just eight hours a day.

But it was the busy season at the Fierman Produce Exchange and her bosses had already told her she had to work overtime. So as Ms. Valencia sorted potatoes on that Aug. 8 morning, she worried: How would her supervisors respond to the doctor’s note? At the end of her shift, would she still have a job?

So her husband is a bus driver, and she earns $8.70 an hour at the potato factory. And they live in one of the highest cost-of-living cities in the US.

Maybe the solution to the problem here is to not get pregnant. Having children is not a constitutional right, and the idea that poor people are somehow entitled to our sympathy when they get knocked up is a total fallacy.

Priorities. Food, shelter and other necessities, or a baby. She and others like her have a choice. Making the wrong one and lowing to the media shows responsibility and profound intelligence Cows, at least, get the job done in the pasture with only grass and water.

But having a baby when you're poor means government handouts.

So of course they can "afford" it.eyes2

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I miss my little feather baby.

Well, if her ass doesn't want to get fired for being knocked up when that job is so crucial, all she had to do was not stay pregnant. I'm sure NYC has a women's clinic she could have gone to that would work with her income to suck the clump out.

I'd be firing the piggo too. I mean, it's at least good to see a Moo who doesn't think she deserves to kick her feet up and be a fat, lazy walrus for nine months and making zero effort to move in any way because OMGmiscarriage. But if something happens to this cow on the job or she injures the clump or miscarries (again), that's gonna be a lawsuit against her employer, not to mention bitching in the media about the assholes who worked the poor widdle piggo into a premature clump descent.

Failing the higher chance of injury or medical emergency on the job that Moo can blame on the employer, pignant heifers are LAZY. When they're normally pregnant, they will do half as much as normal (if that) but expect the same pay. High risk heifers are worse. Oh they'll claim to work hard because they're working for two or some shit, but it's their co-workers who have to pick up the slack while Piggo is in the toilet barfing every 15 minutes or taking her third nap in the break room.

New York City is fast-paced in every way, and employers have no room for slackers. Moo seems like she's willing to continue working, but it sounds like she works at a shit job where everyone busts their asses for minimum wage. Such jobs are usually not interested in people who want to work less... especially if those people are too much of a risk to keep them employed.

Moo should consider going to a place where the rent is more affordable if she wants to keep the clump and still be able to eat.

When I read an article like this, I think: Just what am I, the reader, supposed to do about the situation? It's almost as if this article is a form of bragging? What is the purpose of this report?

What exactly is she bitching about? If OT is required, it's required. Besides, any fast food place will take her on at about the same amount of $, and they hate paying overtime. Her piggo ass will be shuffled out the door at 39:59:59 every week.

I hate how all articles that highlight the dangers of free-for-all capitalism without worker protections choose pregnancy to highlight the story. It is completely reasonable for an employee to only work 8 hours a day. It is completely reasonable to have vacations and sick time. We have these things in Europe and companies still make profits.

However, why not try to highlight the injust situation awaiting the poor person who slipped and fell and broke her wrist, and then lost her job because she couldn't perform the work, and got no worker's compensation because it happened off the job? Or the plight of someone whose work was shut down due to flooding and now has to unexpectedly make due without a paycheck for a month or more while the building is fixed? What about someone who lives in an "at will" state who is fired with no reason given, although everyone knows it is for rejecting the boss's advances?

There are so many ways that this problem could be illuminated which highlights that the problem is the system rather than the workers, but they always choose to use people who have voluntarily put themselves in the position. Either it's pregnant women or women who can't find childcare. I'm not sympathetic and I'm a liberal; is that really going to resonate with the people you're trying to convince? Why not talk about people who are dedicated, organized, and make good choices and still suffer?

There we go again! eyes2

I have the feeling that several significant details have been omitted from this story in order to portray moo-to-be as a 'victim'.
She already miscarried once, so what are the chances it might happen again? Plus she's 39, so I guess the risk is even higher. It says in the article that they live in a studio apartment, how do they plan on raising a loaf in such a confined space?
It just seems to me that moo is after a quick payout, nothing more. Breeders always expect special treatment in all situations, it's ridiculous.

She makes (made) $8.70 an hour, babby-daddy is a bus driver, and they live in NY? These people have no business sluicing. If they want to feed themselves and Clumpleigh they should move somewhere with a lower cost of living. I hear Camden, NJ is nice, and the people are just their type…

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This month is the first anniversary of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which was signed into law by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Oct. 2, 2013. The law, which went into effect in January, represents a big step forward for working women.

No. This is not a working women's issue. This relates to working mothers. I am a woman and this has nothing to do with me. I hate when woman/mother is conflated.

Like yurble, I wish these stories would concentrate on worker exploitation without pulling the "P" card. There are plenty of garden-variety cases of shitty companies and shitty bosses and frankly, I have a lot more sympathy for people who aren't complicating their lives due to a CHOSEN condition.

If you are going to have a kid, you should climb out of poverty first. And you should have a skill.

For $8.50 an hour or whatever she's making, the company doesn't have to accommodate her. There are plenty of other people lined up for her job. And she's 39 freaking years old? What happens when she starts demanding time after her elderly body cranks out what will probably be a premature and unhealthy loaf? She's just crippled her ability to support herself and her loaf.

Older doesn't mean wiser.

Mandated overtime is just a shitty, shitty practice. They don't have to throw in pregnancy. ANY worker should not lose their job for leaving at the end of a scheduled work day instead of staying late. That's terrible.

As for the specific worker they profiled...that sounds like exactly the wrong time to be pregnant. She and the father are working minimum wage jobs with zero chance at advancement. They don't have the space or resources to raise a child. Best option for all involved: abortion.

Yeah, she's 39 and this might be her last chance to have a baby. True. But I personally think that people should accept that they missed the window, and move on with their lives. You have to have all the pieces lined up: right partner, right age, enough $$$, enough time, good health, stable life. That's a lot. Honestly it's okay for people to miss that window. There will be enough people who're ready in time. Human race won't die out from it.

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yurble
However, why not try to highlight the injust situation awaiting the poor person who slipped and fell and broke her wrist, and then lost her job because she couldn't perform the work, and got no worker's compensation because it happened off the job?

This is exactly what's going on with a cousin right now. She's a super hard worker, who gets paid squat, and has next to no benefits. It was the only job she could find. A week and a half ago, she tripped and fell at a friend's apartment complex, and completely tore her rotator cuff off the bone. She desperately needs surgery and can't afford it, even with insurance. Her copay is nearly 2 grand. Even if she manages to have the surgery, her company won't hold her job for the amount of time it will take her to recover, even with FMLA. The company has turned her down for both short-term and long-term disability, even though she paid into them, and because it happened off the job, no worker's comp to pay for it. Her job is incredibly physical, and she can't perform it right now. She is completely fucked, unless we can find a hospital willing to take her on as a charity case.

So, the woman who fucks her life up over a completely voluntary predicament? I have no fucks to give for her. Too bad, should have thought of it before. :bedmadelie

And a Pignant workers Fairness Act? WTF! How about a Non-Pignant Fairness Act - you know, where all the people who aren't moos don't get fucked six ways from Sunday up the ass without lube. But to these morons, woman=moooooo. Fuck that and fuck them.

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde

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amethyst114
Her job is incredibly physical, and she can't perform it right now. She is completely fucked, unless we can find a hospital willing to take her on as a charity case.
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Hill Burton Act

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“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

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thom_c

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amethyst114
Her job is incredibly physical, and she can't perform it right now. She is completely fucked, unless we can find a hospital willing to take her on as a charity case.
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Hill Burton Act

Thank you! I see a couple of them on the list within driving distance, so we'll be going and seeing what they say.

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde