Browse Primary Sources
"I Was a Slave in Puglia" - Fabrizio Gatti - L'Espresso (Italy)
"The boss wears a white shirt, black trousers and dusty shoes. He's from Puglia, but he hardly speaks Italian. To make himself understood he seeks the assistance of his bodyguard, a Maghrebin who is in charge of keeping everything under control in the fields. "Find out what this guy wants. If he's looking for work, tell him we don't need anyone, today." The boss speaks in dialect and drives away in his SUV. . . ."
L'Espresso 2006-09-04
VIA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"He concludes that of the total number of violations of the minimum wage law, 'whether we get half of them or one-third of them is difficult to say, We just don't know.' The figures are not realistic, the government men say, because many employees either don't know they are being illegally underpaid or are afraid that complaining will cost them their jobs."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-06
VI-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"Throughout the Atlanta Constitution's examination of the underpaid, reporters found people like Mrs. Raines whose words and work habits suggest that the old-fashioned American work ethic survives at the lowest-paid level of the work force."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-06
V-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"The Atlanta-based conglomerate, whose holdings lie throughout the Southeast and beyond, changed both its primary business and its corporate name over these decades. It first grew into one of the nation's largest manufacturers of ice; then, when that market soured, it innovatively entered the emerging field of convenience stores and became a national leader in that endeavor."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-05
IVB-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"After her first three days on the job, Agnes had worked a full 24 hours. Her total pay, as recorded on her check, came out to $69.50, or $2.90 an hour, the minimum wage. No money was taken out for income or state taxes; there was, however, a $4.27 deduction for Social Security."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-04
IVA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"My husband bought this place, it will be three years ago in February," Mrs. Love said. "We had three flower shops in Michigan, then the next thing I knew we were here. It didn't bother me, though. Georgia's my home."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-04
IIA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"The uses of the gum have changed. But to a remarkable degree, the naval stores or turpenting industry has not changed. Centuries after its founding in the colonies, the industry still is virtually without mechanization and almost totally dependent on hand labor. The laborers, almost all of them still black, work for pay often below current standards."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-02
II-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"The money paid in turpentining is not much when matched against contemporary pay standards, even the minimum wage. Turpentining is one of America's oldest industries—started soon after colonization, then flourishing in the woods of the Southeast under slavery—and, to a remarkable degree, the industry has resisted both mechanization and social change. . . . "
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-02
IA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected"- Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"At a time when wages are at an historic high, hundreds of thousands of American workers laboring in menial jobs are underpaid."The federal minimum wage standard holds little value for these workers. The underpaid work quietly in industries hidden from view of the overburdened agencies charged with enforcing the minimum wage, in jobs which fall out of reach of the wage-hour laws, or for employers who brazenly disregard minimum wage standards. . . . "
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-01
I-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution
"Brackish swamp water rises above Clifford Giles' ankles, and thorny brush pulls at his broad shoulders and back as he makes his way from one towering pine to another, bucket in hand. It is midsummer in the south Georgia woods, hot — very hot — and steamy. Giles, with an irritated grunt, slaps at his face to chase away the swarming mosquitos and horseflies. Sweat pours from his body."
Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-01