Raided Sweatshop Full of NYPD Uniforms!

"I hope heads ROLL! Fucking despicably corrupt NYPD."

No heads will roll at the NYPD, because this really has nothing to do with the police department. They weren't even customers of this business, it was just one of a handful of firms authorized to sell uniforms to retail outlets where individual officers could purchase them.

Yeah, Forest City violates neighborhoods, zoning codes and good taste.

SP, your only replies to comments are insults. I would like to know why you think child labor laws and other labor laws advance our society? I would argue that they don't, and that regulation in the workplace has set us back as a nation.

Our country can't only be Googles and Yahoos. We need blue collar jobs as well.

Unfortunately, the entitlement system of federal student loans has made college a perceived necessity.

"why you think child labor laws and other labor laws advance our society? I would argue that they don't, and that regulation in the workplace has set us back as a nation"

Please tell me that you are just joking, right? If not, you need to go back and study your history, specifically the industrial revolution.

Are you trying to make my point for me?

The industrial revolution created the greatest wealth this country had seen at its time. It took blood, sweat, tears and lower life expectancy...but it was done.

The labor laws today are absurd. Companies are already burdened enough as it is with payroll taxes, I hope we don't move toward a mandate on work weeks for adults. I don't imagine that happening anytime soon, but within 20 years anything's possible.

Actually, it's you that just made my point for me: blood, sweat, tears, and wars, creating wealth for the the top 2% while everyone else, the workers, suffered from tuberculosis, cholera and malnutrition. That's what you are advocating? Labor laws have allowed for the workers to have decent lives, make a decent wage so that they can save, get education and have upward mobility. Labor laws have strengthened our economy by creating a healthy workforce. You are, at best, grossly misinformed. And I'm being generous right now, since you are so sensitive.

That's what you are advocating?

I'm advocating for voluntary contracts. If I am offered a job that pays for $4 an hour, I should be able to take it.

TB and cholera are unenviable for any company as it will create higher costs to re-train new workers. Therefore it's in their best interest to keep the buildings and water clean.

As for malnutrition, many Americans could use what you may term malnutrition. I'm watching a lot of these workers walking out of Chrysler factories who---without their sweet benefits package---should be dead by 50 from congestive heart failure and/or type II diabetes.

Labor laws have strengthened our economy by creating a healthy workforce.

Labor laws haven't made any healthier. We may be safer, and I certainly don't mind states and cities creating building codes if they so desire, but it's been modern medicine that's improved our life expectancy, SP. Am I wrong in noting a bit of an implication that labor laws have done more than modern medicine?

Again, you are grossly misinformed, need to learn history, and you are also trying to steer the argument into another direction. Here is a good little synopsis of the interaction between exploitation of workers, poverty and disease:

http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/TBANDTYP.htm

You can smugly spout your bs till you are blue in the face. The facts are the facts. Without regulations of industry and protections of workers, what results is disease, famine, and exploitation, benefiting only the rich.

Not sure who to reply to because the sentiment is the same: We need regulation.

No, you don't.

The heavy hand of government never seizes its grip. More and more jobs will be choked off, and more and more people will need the generous hand of government to survive.

There's no sense in citing facts or history or empirical evidence with an ideologue.

I can say the same to you all who think there's a magical piece of regulation that no one has come up with yet that will pave a road made of gold for us all. There's no magic bullet to poverty. The best way we can have the fewest amount of impoverished people is by employing them. That's achieved by little to no regulation in the private sector. If you want the welfare and food stamp rolls to grow and grow and be paid for with debased currency, keep making it impossible for the private sector to succeed.

The claims that we'll have widespread disease are laughable as the flu, smallpox, and other viruses plagued the era. I'm still amused at you all somehow forgetting that vaccines exist today and can be found for free or low costs.

Ever hear of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire?

Of course. And the mills in various NE towns were unsafe, too. Maybe we can see this as a lesson learned, and towns and cities are well within their right to zone a building for x-people. Though, I may even disagree with that, I agree that towns and cities should be allowed to regulate that. It's the federal mandates I detest first and foremost if you understand why federal v. state powers is a contentious topic.

You all think I'm advocating going back to the 1800s. It's a strawman. We're in 2009. I'm just asking for people to be allowed to enter voluntary contracts.

I'm amusing at you guys making this out to be a sentence to hell if we allow $x-wage.

Everyone is an ideologue.

stop wondering and remember that these illegals who undercut Americans' wages will one day be loyal Democrat voters,

But isn't this what Republicans want? Free market capitalism? Less govt interference in running business? In a free market, you don't care who is doing the work as long as it gets done profitably.

Labor Department Commissioner Patricia Smith told reporters yesterday that the company has been cheating its 16 employees out of nearly $500,000 in overtime pay: "While the fake timecards show employees working 35 or 40 hours in a given workweek, the real ones told a much different story. Employees were found to be working 70 to 80 hours a week, sometimes without a day of rest."

The facts seem hazy, but it appears they were paid but not paid the overtime pay.