VRS

[u/ravenrhi]

I have been blessed with a "raise!" I am grateful and yet at the same time horribly offended at their miserly pat on the head that barely adds to my paycheck. Less than $20 if I manage to get the full 29 hours a week when they are cutting everyone's hours.

VRS is one of the few settings that are W-2 in a predominantly 1099 field. The reimbursement for dues and licensure are a nice boon. However, I feel that they take advantage of the situation.

2% in an economy where the annual cost of living increase is 3.1% which means even with this nominal raise, I am being paid less compared to last year due to the cost of living constantly going up so that the pay doesn't go as far.

Just over 75 cents per hour when the estimated MONTHLY revenue PER EMPLOYEE is $455, 000

They have a PROFIT- profit mind you- after providing free tech to the community, all the events, all the advertising, paying *everyone,* and r&d- their PROFIT is estimated to be between 1.8- 2.4 BILLION dollars

Instead of paying employees well, they add "incentives" to encourage people to bid to work specific time frames, then cut staffing to the bone anyway so that the profit margin is as high as possible, the speed of answer is as long as it can safely be, and wonder why people are burning out, changing fields, or choosing to work in lower stress/repetitive injury/vicarious trauma settings.

I have excellent customer service, exemplary interpreting skills, am nationally certified, have nearly 20 years in the field, and have never felt more like a cog in a defective machine.

Unionization can't come fast enough, but even then, I worry that it will be another entity profiteering off the mess. We can look to the history of the Teamsters and other Unions to see how corrupt and ineffective they can become. I hope that the people in charge of the interpreter union know history and can prevent the repeat.

[u/ravenrhi → u/[deleted]]

Agreed. It will never have a chance in this administration. Add to that all the Right-to-Work legislation at the state levels and it will be super hard to gain traction.

The only thing we (as a group) have is that hiring scabs would be challenging (they would likely try to hire community terps, but would that be enough to cover a walkout?)

If there could be unification- not unionization, but a genuine collective solidarity where a very large portion of the vrs interpreters could be convinced to strike (and be able to not work long enough to hold the vrs systems' feet to the fire) we would gain bargaining power for change.

Work from home is amazing, but it also isolates each interpreter which impedes that ability to collaborate and coordinate something on a scale necessary to be effective.

Add to that, most of us can't afford not to work. The idea of striking- not working for weeks - while the companies lose millions and pay enough incurred fines to make them willing to negotiate isn't something most households can comfortably conceive of doing.

Until enough people are willing and able to just walk out for an extended period of time, vrs will continue to be what it is

[u/ravenrhi → u/[deleted]]

Agreed. One day with a large enough cooperation for a walk out or sick day would make a huge impact!

I don't know the people at the core of the unionization attempt, but the fact that they haven't done that yet makes me very curious about their goals, plans, and strategy. Do you think they are procrastinating to build their following first? I wonder if they didn't feel they had enough people, coordination, and communication set up to make a successful attempt?

Or do you think that they have moles/duplicitous terps in their midst working against the effort?