Nerd is my Gender

What's yours?

- 3
- Nov 23
The week of Thanksgiving, several employees at two hotels owned by the St Louis Roberts Brothers say they are without paychecks.

It’s true. I live with such an employee, and times are tough around here. He wasn’t one of the informants, because he’s afraid of being identified and losing his job, but it looks like he’s not the only one with such fears:

An employee called News 4 Tuesday afternoon, saying some fellow employees were going without medication, or wouldn’t be able to afford Thanksgiving meals because their most recent paychecks are several days late.

We went to two hotels to talk to employees. Two, contacted by phone, who work at the Comfort Inn on Lindell Boulevard in the Central West End say they were supposed to be paid November 15th. By November 22nd, there were still no checks. They say it’s happened nearly every pay period for the last several months.

Two other employees at the Mayfair downtown gave a similar story. One employee, when approached, said he didn’t want to give detail - but he couldn’t say he was paid on-time. Another employee, off camera, said he doesn’t remember ever getting paid on time in the six or seven months he’s worked for the company.

All say they fear going public with their complaints because they worry about losing their jobs.

“I don’t want to lose my job. At least I’m getting a check. Yeah, it’s not on time. It runs a week to two weeks late, but we do get it. But, it’s difficult to find work,” said an employee.

Complaints to the state don’t yield many results, according to an employee.

The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations says the Roberts Brothers don’t have any violations. The state can fine a company for paying employees 16 days late (if those employees are paid semi-monthly).

When asked, the employees News 4 spoke to said they are always paid before the 16 days.
This week, they say they’re struggling with the holidays coming up.

“I have some friends of mine who can’t go out of town because they don’t have any money. They can’t put food on the tables for their families for Thanksgiving.”

A call to the Roberts Brothers office was not returned on Tuesday afternoon. News 4 went to the office on North Kingshighway, but the front doors were locked. A receptionist said the company would not comment. She refused to take a message. News 4 saw her hide under a desk when she saw a news camera through the glass doors.

As of Tuesday night, it’s unclear why the checks are late and when employees will be paid.
- 12
- Sep 14
The new conceit is that the animals conscientious people eat are “humanely raised and slaughtered.” There is a verdant, wildflower-filled meadow somewhere out there where the animals gambol and the noble farmer dwells with his family in a farmhouse. This is what all those who are conscientious meat-eaters consume. All of them. It just so happens that despite smaller farms representing a very, very small percentage of the industry – the USDA’s own census shows that more than 99% of animals come from industrial settings - somehow, as if wishful thinking made it true, humanely procured animal products is all that everyone eats. In the house and out of the house. For breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Why have people bought into the lie of humane slaughter so fully that they are willing to sacrifice the integrity of their critical thinking? Because it benefits them to maintain their privileges and to not think that they are jerks in the process.

I don’t think that omnivores are all jerks, I really don’t. That’s silliness. To me, the steadfast clinging to fairy tales tells me something refreshing about the core of humanity - that we want to believe that we are good people because we want to be good people - and it tells me something positive about what we think about eating animals as the status quo. It tells me that people are uncomfortable with the act of eating animals at its root and this kernel holds a lot of hope for me.

The human urge to believe in false narratives when presented with an ugly truth is just too alluring for most to resist. When the rest of society is deeply invested in maintaining the fabrication, critical thinking short-circuits so quickly you can practically hear it happen.

Vegan Feminist Agitator: The Persistence of Fairy Tales…

I do hear this a lot! And besides the reasons she gives, it brings to mind another ugly truth: that if all meat in the USA [since I live here] were raised “happy”, it would become so expensive that it would be a luxury item - a status symbol. Instead of focusing on re-purposing our agricultural resources to create a sustainable nutritious food supply that even the poor have ready access to, they want to instead place priority on their “elite meat”.
- #vegan
- #vegetarian
- #povety
- #privilege
- #kyriarchy

Nerd is my Gender

What's yours?

The week of Thanksgiving, several employees at two hotels owned by the St Louis Roberts Brothers say they are without paychecks.

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