Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Interned Servitude

What's wrong, in a microcosm: Corporate America violating laws & exploiting people, the rich (after working w/o pay for a while) getting richer & the poor getting degrees but no real chance at employment, & there should be a third thing, uhh ... well, this all appears questionable, to say the least, yet no gov't. agencies seem to give a shit, so we are screwed six ways from Sunday.*
The odd thing about the suit, which Wagoner and her team hope to turn into a class action, is that it’s necessary at all. Most unpaid internships flagrantly ignore the rules set out by the Labor Department. A storm of newspaper articles have chronicled the abuses interns endure and cried repeatedly for reform. Since 2011 at least three books have anatomized the injustices of the intern phenomenon. Last September, Outten & Golden filed a similar complaint against Fox Searchlight Pictures on behalf of two unpaid interns who worked on the movie Black Swan. The suit is awaiting a hearing at a federal court in New York.

If there is widespread agreement that unpaid interns are being exploited—and that it’s against the law—why is nothing changing? Why, in fact, does it seem that there are more unpaid interns than ever? What’s holding back the intern revolution?
OK, going for four: People are scared to resist.

Note also that it's "left-biased" media conglomerates being sued for these practices. No wonder entertainment is worse than ever.
*We have no idea either, but it's funny because hicks say it.

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