It isn't just the sweat shops in Jordan that are making cheap products for local garment titan Victoria's Secret; they are being made right here in the Columbus area. The international clothing (or lack of it, as VS models seem to be mostly naked) company that is such a sensation on the runway, in their own stores and in their sales volume has at least four factories working round the clock (literally!) to make the skimpy clothing that is supposed to entice sufficiently horny men into getting their women to remove even these last refuges of their modesty.

The factories here are nowhere near as notorious as those in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and China, but by American and Midwest standards, they are still sorely lacking. Would you like to work in a place where before you even start working you have to pony up $45 to an iffy temp agency for your own background check (something that is traditionally fronted by the company hiring you), then drive, take a bus, carpool or hitchhike to a building way out in the boonies surrounding Columbus, stand in a line to see if they need you even after coming all the way out there, and then have to return home after they realize that they have too many people for the days quotas? If you are let in you have to go through a scanner and a turnstile that checks your time to get to the production floor where you work on your feet in constant motion the whole day. You do get one break that is supposed to be 15 minutes long but they are calling you back to work after only 8 minutes. Lunch in the crowded eating room is only 20 minutes after waiting in line just get in, microwaving your food and scarfing it down before they call you back 5 minutes early. Heaven forbid should you need to go to the restroom at any time. It will be recorded and the time it takes duly noted. If you need to go more than once in a shift it will go down as a demerit in your record book. Any protests could mean a firing.

The pace is fast and constant. Changes in work location happen often and one must respond quickly. Every ounce of work is squeezed out of you to meet the demands of the public for the VS products. 

Most of the work is done by foreigners of all nations and races. I even saw Argentinians there; a nationality I have never seen before having myself worked all across the U.S. So are the capos they get to work as managers. Some are fair many not. Some, not surprisingly, see the elevation in their status as meaning they are making strides forward in getting a bigger piece of the American pie. I hate to tell them their slice ends there and is thinner than they expect. Also these institutions are not the ideal place to be learning about the wonderful democracies America is supposed to embrace. It is more about the wage slave driven oligarchy we have become.

Woe to those who do not follow the check in, check out procedure exactly. A mistake could cost you a days pay or perhaps more as happened to me. A glitch in checking in my first day at one of the sweatshops caused that whole day not to get on my paycheck. After contacting 8 different people in charge by all modern means of communication possible I still was left empty handed. In fact, none of the 8 ever contacted me back to ask me about the discrepancy. I, as a common worker, was dispensable. It probably cut into their profit time to deal with me It definitely cut into mine as I never got the money owed and never will.

These New Albany salt mines are making a big profit with their three shift a day schedule and the hordes of easily replaceable worker drones they are supplied with by LGS Staffing, a questionable staffing firm out of Atlanta. It is one that doesn't answer your calls and requests for why your paycheck isn't right.