More than 200 workers at Jim Beam distilleries in Kentucky are striking, protesting long work hours and what they say are unfair scheduling policies. This strike comes after the workers’ union rejected two deals from the company over the last couple weeks.

Jim Beam’s popularity has been growing in recent years, part of an overall boom in the sales of American distilled spirits.  Not only have the sales of distilled spirits increased in the U.S., but they’ve increased internationally as well. Fortune’s Jonathan Chew pointed out earlier this year:

Exports to overseas markets such as the U.K., Canada, and Germany have more than doubled in the past decade, from $743 million in 2005 to a projected $1.56 billion last year.

Bourbon specifically, which is almost exclusively produced in Kentucky, has seen a big uptick in sales. Production of bourbon hit a 50-year high last year, and as the world’s largest bourbon producer, Jim Beam was responsible for a large part of that.

But this increase in production added extra burden for the workers. The Jim Beam workers who are now striking claim that they had 60-80 hour work weeks. They also claim that the company has hired a lot of temporary workers and doesn’t pay attention to seniority or dedication when assigning shifts. The company has made an offer to the union that includes pay increases, and attempted to deal with the overtime and temporary worker issues, but it was rejected. Now the workers are striking until a new deal is made.

Jim Beam workers (@UFCW Local111D) are on strike in Kentucky. It’s not straight whiskey if workers are disrespected. pic.twitter.com/pSz61xcmzm

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) October 15, 2016

Jannelle Mudd, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 111D, said:

All through negotiations, we tried to make the point that what we were trying to change is the atmosphere. It was about the people, not so much about anything else. It kind of fell on deaf ears.

It’s unclear if the strike will affect availability of Jim Beam–the company said it doesn’t expect any shortages, but the workers say that there will be efficiency issues without them there. And who knows when this will get resolved, because it seems to have gotten more personal than just about pay. Mudd said:

Most importantly, we are seeking a better work/life balance and a return to the family values and heritage upon which the Jim Beam brand is based. All of us work hard and have earned and deserve a better life.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Nebraska may be making changes to its minimum-wage laws that affect a particular portion of the population–minors. A bill to pay minors below the new minimum wage that will be enacted next year is moving forward.

Nebraska voters voted to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour; however, the new bill would set the minimum wage for student workers under the age of 19 at $8 an hour, the same as the current minimum wage for all workers. The bill would, however, prevent a company from hiring only workers under 19 in order to take advantage of the lower wages that would need to be paid to older workers. It would allow businesses to pay the lower wage for only 25 percent of the total hours worked.

State Senator Laura Ebke is the sponsor of the bill, and she claims that it is to help small businesses such as family-owned grocery stores that often hire high school students. State Senator Lydia Brasch said regarding those small businesses, “What they are truly trying to do is to make ends meet and hire one more worker or two more workers.” The measure is supported by the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association.

There are plenty of concerns coming out of Nebraska about the bill, however. First of all, it applies to those under 19, so the vast majority of the people affected are not able to vote. A bill that disproportionately applies to these people seems unfair, and according to State Senator Adam Morfield, takes advantage of those young people. There’s also concern that businesses would want to hire young people they could pay less, to the detriment of older workers. Furthermore, given that the lower wage only applies to those who are in school, students could drop out in order to up their pay to $9 an hour rather than $8, meaning that the measure could end up being counter productive.

Some senators also worry that the bill could create financial hardships for students–after all, the reason that minimum wages are being raised is to keep up with the cost of living, and that cost of living can apply to young people as well. Some may be working to support their families or to save for college. As college costs continue to rise astronomically and many of our students suffer from extremely high levels of debt, the fact that some senators in Nebraska aren’t willing to give students every advantage is concerning. Some do agree–Senator Jeremy Nordquist said about the bill, “It’s an affront to our democracy.” We’ll see if those who feel that way will have enough support to prevent the  bill from passing.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Amazon is bigger than ever. As The New York Times reports, Amazon’s Kindle is at the top of the list for e-readers, the company launched new TV-streaming devices, and its Fire Phone was posed as a contender to the iPhone and other successful smartphones. But problems are piling up for the online retail giant. Wired Magazine declared the Fire Phone a failure and the new Fire TV Stick is backordered until January, according to CNET. Further, Amazon is in hot water with seemingly relentless criticism.

Literary agent Andrew Wylie recently denounced Amazon at a writers’ conference in Toronto, as the Guardian reports. Known to many as “the Jackal” for his business strategies, Wylie condemned Amazon’s powerful grip on distribution as being ISIS-like. A comparison of any organization to those radicals terrorizing Iraq and Syria is not an easy claim to substantiate, and hardly appropriate. Nonetheless, Wylie’s polemic rakes Amazon through the coals and foresees an end to its digital dominance. “I believe with the restored health of the publishing industry and having some sense of where this sort of ISIS-like distribution channel, Amazon, is going to be buried and in which plot of sand they will be stuck, [publishers] will be able to raise the author’s digital royalty to 40 percent or 50 percent,” Wylie said. While the Guardian writes that “Wylie said he believed Amazon’s digital monopoly could be weakened,” Amazon isn’t truly operating as a monopoly, or a seller with ultimate market power to set prices.

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote about Amazon’s power earlier this month. The company, Krugman says, is not so much acting as a monopolist as “it is acting as a monopsonist, a dominant buyer with the power to push prices down.” Rather than sucking as much profit as possible from consumers, Amazon keeps “prices low, to reinforce its dominance. What it has done, instead, is use its market power to put a squeeze on publishers, in effect driving down the prices it pays for books.” Amazon’s dominance lies in its ability to demand extremely low prices from publishing companies so that its own resale prices are low for online shoppers.

Around the world, too, the company is facing trouble. This year, a German union has had ongoing disputes with Amazon. This shouldn’t be taken lightly, as “Amazon employs a total of 9,000 warehouse staff at nine distribution centers in Germany, its second-biggest market behind the United States, plus 14,000 seasonal workers,” Reuters reports. The union, called Verdi, is demanding greater pay for warehouse workers while the company “regards warehouse staff as logistics workers and says they receive above-average pay by the standards of that industry.” The contention of which industry the workers even belong to is central to the disputes. “The crux of the issue is whether the workers are operating in logistics or retail capacities,” according to a CNET article covering strikes. Verdi wants its workers classified in the retail and distribution sector, in which standard labor wages would be higher.

Amazon will not be able to keep up with these publicity attacks no matter the new products it releases, especially when the products’ quality is also poor. Whether criticism is coming from the polemic—if grossly hyperbolic—Wylie, the analytic Krugman, or the tenacious Verdi, Amazon needs to respond to its critics as soon as possible. Further, it needs to change its corporate structure: there need to be fairer deals with publishers and fairer negotiations with laborers. Without these concessions, Amazon will fall by the wayside; either it will succumb to competition that treats other businesses and workers more fairly, or to government intervention that forces it to behave better.

Jake Ephros

Jake Ephros is a native of Montclair, New Jersey where he volunteered for political campaigns from a young age. He studies Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy at American University and looks forward to a career built around political activism, through journalism, organizing, or the government. Contact Jake at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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For a long time, a dominant narrative in the United States has been that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and that it just takes a little hard work to make it work. I’ve heard the argument more times than I can count that people on welfare are lazy, or that the minimum wage is fine the way it is. Based on just my personal experiences alone, I truly think that there are many Americans who believe that it’s easy to succeed here if you simply try hard enough.

That idea needs to be put to bed. Because for many people, that picture-perfect American life of prosperity really isn’t possible, even if you work incredibly hard.

Take the recently released story of Maria Fernandes, for example. The 32 year old from Newark, New Jersey, was recently found dead in her car. The woman was working four part-time jobs. She would go straight from job to job, so she would often nap in between shifts. She had pulled over for a nap on the side of the road early Monday, and left her car on. The fumes from her exhaust, combined with those from a gas tank that had spilled in the back of her car unfortunately led to her death.

Fernandes’s story is beyond tragic, and it’s certainly a dramatic example, but to me, it was unsurprising. Nearly half of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. According to a study published in April 2014, more than 25 million American families that are considered middle class fall under the paycheck-to-paycheck distinction. The middle class families included in this category have a median income of $41,000, yet still struggle to make ends meet. Many of them have very small rainy day funds, if at all. They’re not working four part-time jobs, sure, but the work they are doing is barely enough. There’s also the fact that the American dream also emphasizes the need for a college education, which now costs the average student more than it ever has.

And that’s just the middle class. Those who aren’t so fortunate have it even worse.  According to the Brookings Institution, roughly 12 million Americans live on $2 a day or less.

Then there’s the minimum wage debacle. It would be close to impossible to live on a minimum wage job in pretty much every state. Check out this amazing infographic from USA Today. It’s based on the question, “How many hours must minimum wage earners work to afford rent?” The answer ranges from state to state, but they’re all equally unreasonable. In Texas, you’d need 93 hours. California clocks in at 130 hours. New York is slightly lower at 124 hours. In order to survive on minimum wage in Hawaii, you’d need to work 174 hours a week, which is a bit difficult, given that there are only 168 hours total. But never fear, guys, in Arkansas and Montana you can get by on working a measly 69 hours of minimum wage work a week!

Of course, the argument can be made that minimum wage work isn’t intended to be a career, rather a stepping stone. But that’s pretty much a crock of bullshit at this point. When education is so expensive, families are living hand to mouth, and the unemployment level is only slowly getting better, it can be hard for people without educational opportunities to raise above minimum wage. In that environment, four jobs isn’t ridiculous, it’s pretty much understandable. It’s pretty hard to pull yourself up by your boot straps when the boots are so old that the straps are falling off.

Finally, let’s juxtapose all this uplifting news with how Americans feel about minimum wage jobs. More than three quarters of conservative Americans believe that the poor “have it easy.” Overall, when surveying all Americans, 44 percent think that the poor “have it easy.” When asked the question, “Why are people poor?” a majority of conservatives responded that people are poor because of a lack of effort on their part. And in case I haven’t made you too depressed yet on this beautiful Friday, check out these tweets that sum up how some truly spectacular idiots feel about minimum wage jobs:

Thanks PublicShaming

Thanks, PublicShaming

Ms. Fernandes, I’m so very sorry that your life had to end the way it did. You were just trying to provide for yourself, and we all know how truly hard that can be. You were not alone, but I do hope that someday we get to the point where stories like yours are a thing of the past.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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