Our website was created to showcase the importance of worker’s rights and the violations of those rights that occur on a day to day basis. We presented solutions and external media within our website in order to persuade people to push these issues as well. The major topics our website talks about are: Wages, Vacation Time, Maternity Leave, Employee Termination, and Health Benefits.
On the “Wages” page of our website, we described what rights workers have about their wages and we talked about how historically the government has had to add legislation to protect these rights. We felt that this was effective in showing that in the United States there have always been problems about wage violations emphasizing the importance of continuing to protect the rights of our workers rights. The major wage violations were presented in a list to give a clear indication about what employers are doing to suppress the rights of their employees further supporting the need for change. We then gave our solution to the problem and contrasted it with the movement in America that's pushing for the problem to worsen. This was done to show that there is pushback that could cause the rights of workers to worsen and that it’s important to not let this issue be put on the back burner. A video was embedded into the page that took a more indepth look into wage violations and the importance of protecting worker’s rights and we feel as though this backed up our argument and added credibility to our claims.
In the “Vacation Time” section, we used mostly statistics to support our claim and persuade our audience. This was effective because it illustrated how behind the US is in paid vacation time from the rest of the world. Comparing the statistics to other developed nations proves that workers in the US do not have the same rights as workers in other countries, which supports our claim. We used a news story for the video support because it helped to explain the issue and establish it as a credible issue in business in our country. We used a graph to visually demonstrate how far behind the rest of the world the US is when it comes to this issue. We also addressed potential criticisms of paid vacation time by acknowledging them and then refuting them. For example, we addressed that some people believe that paid vacation time would be bad for business, and refuted it by citing claims that vacation time can increase workers’ productivity levels.
While addressing “Maternity Leave”, we decided to focus on emotions to persuade our audience. We briefly addressed the statistics of the US compared to other countries, because it again solidifies our claim that workers rights in the US are lacking. Then, we moved to focusing on the reasons that the US should have paid maternity leave, which are all centered around supporting healthy family and financial lives for new mothers. Making the connection between maternity leave and the result of a more stable life for a baby is very important in persuading our audience towards supporting and taking actions towards this issue. We included a video of a woman explaining to other expecting mothers how they can plan for and afford maternity leave. Our audience will watch this video and know that this issue is one that many expecting mothers face. We finished this section off with a call to action. We believe that there will be paid maternity leave in the US soon due to the direction that our country is heading, but we still needed to call people to give their support and make it happen. When the audience sees the video of the expecting mother, and then reads the call to action, they will be more likely to support the issue because seeing the woman talk about the issue deepens their connection.
For the “Unjust Firing of Employees” section of our presentation we focus on showcasing all the ways that it could happen to anyone. We used visual aids from a video in order to showcase all the examples of how someone could be wrongfully terminated. Making it clear and concise for all those who watched the video that it can happen to anyone for the mildest of reasons if the one doing the firing wants to. With the video there are suggestions under it in the form of words on how we can improve the situation and it goes into more detail on wrongful termination and possible solutions. Making the reader read this hopefully gives them a connection they didn’t know existed so that if they’re ever in the employers position they’ll think twice before firing someone.
On the “Health Benefits” page of the site, we broke it down into two parts, the first is “Employer provided Healthcare” and the second one is “Workers’ Compensation”. Within the first section, we chose to provide the most recent statistical facts true to the US. This was done in hopes of enlightening the reader to the truth of healthcare access between unions and nonunion corporations. In addition to that we attempted to make the reader feel like there are jobs which offer healthcare or possibly better healthcare that they are currently receiving at their job. We also brought to light reasoning behind why workers choose to not accept healthcare plans provided by their employer. This was done both to teach the reader something new and to make those who fall under this category to feel like they are not alone. At the end of this section we provided the reader who could possibly be in need of healthcare with a link to a community health plan to their benefit, and maybe those who did not know about these kinds of health plans they could run the word to people they know could be struggling.
In the second half of this page titled “Workers’ Compensation” we inform readers about the ways that companies avoid paying money in workers’ compensation. We listed these so that the reader could question if the company they work for does this as well. We also provided a video in which a lady testifies against Amazon for her unfair treatment after being injured on site. Here we had to take into consideration what Dan Gillmor presents in We the Media to choose how to go about presenting a testimony. In choosing to provide a video versus text, a news video would be more reputable than a typed out testimony from an online forum, and as Gillmor states we must select resources from sources we trust, in this way we do not spread misinformation resulting in our website coming across as more convincing. We searched for various testimonies, some were outdated and those companies were either nonexistent in the present or had changed their policies for the better. Of those recent testimonies the one with the most recognizable name was the Amazon video. Over all when it comes to the narrative the interviewee in the amazon video, as mentioned by Kirkwood, relating to the audience makes the audience feel involved, and as the interview ends the final question asked to the victim is "What do you want people behind order to feel when they order off amazon?" this fully reaches out to the audience because even if they do not find themselves in her position they are emotionally triggered by this final question. Additionally video was embedded in hopes to make the reader realize the reality of many workers in the US and also to show other victims that they are not alone. We also attached a link to a nonprofit organization that helps workers in similar issues. This was also done in hopes of getting the reader if affected by this subject to be able to reach out to someone for help.