This time of year, there is the annual controversy over
Black Friday. Do we need an event where
shopping is taken to such a ludicrous extreme with people standing in line
sometimes for days and battling over the limited number of doorbuster bargains? A previous posting some time ago, Tragedy
on Black Friday was about how people have actually been killed by stampedes through the front door.
But more recently, the controversy has been over the one-upmanship of stores opening earlier
and earlier on Black Friday until inevitably, the sales have now started on
Thanksgiving evening, ruining another holiday for people now forced to work
that evening. To make things worse, my
nearby McDonald’s announced on their sign “OPEN THANKSGIVING & CHRISTMAS”. And more
restaurant chains are following suit.
While it is good
that restaurants and stores are catering to consumers, does anybody care
about those who are now forced to
give up their holidays? To be sure,
there are a number of places that simply cannot close for the holidays such as
hospitals and police departments. But
anybody who works in such a place clearly knows ahead of time that holiday work
is part of the deal. And here, we are
talking about professionals like nurses, doctors, and policemen who likely make
a decent wage. But is it fair to make
those at the bottom rung at or near minimum wage also have to work holidays –
especially at no additional holiday pay?
For these workers, this is the latest adding of insult to injury.
Of course, not everybody cares about working on Christmas
or any other holiday. If someone wants the extra cash from working
holidays, there is nothing wrong with that.
And indeed, many places open on holidays say that they ask for
volunteers before making their work schedules.
For example, when my younger son worked as a food server in a nursing
home, he was offered double time to work holidays – an offer he gladly
accepted! But especially where there
isn’t any extra pay for working holidays, it’s hard to believe that there are
enough volunteers to run the business that day.
The disappearance of holiday days off is just part of a
disturbing trend faced by many American workers. Indeed, the US is the only
advanced country without
a national vacation or holiday policy.
So while most of those in say, professional and manufacturing jobs get some
paid vacation and holidays, those in retailing, restaurant, and hospitality for
example, are at the mercy of their employers.
At one time, this wasn’t such a big deal since many of those who worked
in the latter categories did so as temporary or second income jobs. But with the elimination of many professional
and manufacturing jobs in favor of retailing and restaurant jobs, more and more
Americans are forced to try and make do with these jobs to earn a basic living.
In addition:
- Those companies
that do offer health insurance, usually only offer it to full-time employees. Employees not offered full-time hours must pay
for or go without health coverage unless they have a spouse who is covered. Others who do have health benefits are
sometimes forced to stay in jobs they may find to be miserable to make sure
they keep that coverage.
- Some people
working part-time jobs want or need a second part-time job to try and make ends
meet. But all too often, employers force
their part-time employees to accept work schedules that are constantly changing
which makes accommodating a second job either impractical or impossible.
But while the
white-collar workers have it better than those at the bottom of the economic
ladder, they are not without their woes.
Companies seeking to maximize profits are constantly downsizing and
those who are left working often have to do the work that was previously done
by two or more workers. This often leads
to workers forgoing part of their vacation time since they know that without
someone to back them up while gone, the backlog of work they left will be there
to greet them upon their return. And more workers are now being given laptop
computers and/or smart phones to be able to respond to E-mails or other work
requirements during their time away from the office.
But what is most disheartening is that this is just the
tip of the iceberg if one is to believe
the accounts in The
Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven
Greenhouse, the labor and workplace reporter for the New York Times. The Amazon
link here includes an online preview of the book that is interesting, if not
disturbing reading about the hell that a number of workers have gone through. And check out this
link for an interesting list of Greenhouse’s most recent articles which
include coverage of recent labor protests against (believe it or not!) Walmart and the fast food industry.
It is obvious that
the recent financial collapse and its resultant high unemployment has made
things much worse for the American workforce.
In a normal thriving economy, if a worker was mistreated or underpaid, he
or she could look for and find a better opportunity elsewhere. But with jobs so scarce, employers know they
have most if not all of the leverage over their employees – and they are not shy about taking advantage
of it!
But even before this
recent financial collapse, wages and working conditions in America have been stagnating
or even declining in the last several decades even with greatly increasing
productivity and corporate profits. Many
who support unions feel that this trend started with The
Strike That Busted Unions when President Reagan fired nearly 13,000
air traffic controllers and continues to this day with Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker stripping public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights.
The article
concludes with this interesting observation:
With Mr. Walker’s militant anti-union views now ascendant within the party of a onetime union leader [Reagan], with workers less able to defend their interests in the workplace than at any time since the Depression, the long-term consequences continue to unfold in ways Reagan himself could not have predicted — producing outcomes for which he never advocated.
It doesn't have to
be this way. Companies like Costco
have bucked the trend in spite of investor complaints that the company could
make more profits by paying its employees less.
Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, [CEO Jim Sinegal] said. And Costco's customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers' expense. "This is not altruistic," he said. "This is good business."
It would be nice if
more companies would adopt this attitude.
But there is no sign of this happening, especially in a depressed job
market. It is nice to think that
employer-employee relations can work perfectly fine in a totally unregulated
environment without any governmental intervention. But the fact is that every other
industrialized country has felt the need to adopt basic labor standards for
their workers while America lags far behind to the detriment of many of its
workers.
Our government has done many things in the past to help
the American worker from the 40
hour work week to the minimum wage and yes, the right to collectively bargain. But in the pro-corporate, anti-worker
political environment we have in many parts of the US, these gains have been
severely weakened over the years and need to be addressed. It’s nice to have low prices and robust
corporate profits. But we also need to
think of the welfare of our workers to make sure our economy works for everybody
and not just those at the top!
Another nice thing about Costco, Tony, the owner graduated from Central Catholic and comes back to Pittsburgh frequently. I've complimented one of their workers on her cheerful disposition, and she said, "that's because we're happy inm our jobs. We are treated well". Wish it were always so.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn