Most Prosperous Companies GUILTY! … of Wage Theft

JUST SAYIN’-According to Judeo-Christian Old Testament teachings, “You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers” or “Woe to him who makes his neighbors work for nothing.” Islam repeatedly enjoins us to look after all the orphans and also commands, “Withhold not from people the things that are their due.”  These are some of the religious references that opened the recent Forum on Wage Theft—a conference which I and many other advocates attended. 

Thou shalt not steal! 

So why are so many of our biggest, most prosperous companies ignoring these precepts (and yet on Sundays claiming to be good Christians)? 

On the other hand, you don’t have to be religious to want positive change and to work for it.  You can be an atheist or agnostic, but we should all know the difference between right and wrong and that means taking care of the people who take care of us. 

There is an anecdote that points out the ironies in our various behaviors, “When you say, ‘Help the poor,’ you call me a Christian, but when I ask, ‘Why are there poor?’ you call me a Communist.”  We must not only work together from the bottom up, but from the top down as well!  Then the question and the answer will be moot points. 

We must educate that top 1% and encourage them to work with the rest of us (who have less power but do have moral authority on our side) to achieve what is right.  Those who talk about class struggle must understand that the impoverished class is part of that equation.  

There are already a number of business owners who see the wisdom in reducing or eliminating the pay disparities that separate us and find that they can make a profit that is beneficial both to the owners and their shareholders, and, at the same time, can place their employees on an even playing field.  Joe’s Auto Parts, a co-sponsor of this event, is also a leader in this community for establishing positive labor relations—it serves as a role model worthy of emulation by other businesses. 

There were recurring themes at this forum.  As current Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the LA Federation of Labor, Rusty Hicks, stated, “There is a wall and there is a ladder.” 

Our nation’s history has built an economic wall that keeps the standard of living down for all but a very few of us.  We cannot deny the domino effect of poor wages:  The people who earn a below-poverty wage generally live in poorer neighborhoods with antiquated schools which suffer from a lack of resources.  Because these families have so little, the prospect of their children even finishing high school is dim (many have to drop out to help pay family bills) and yet most jobs today (even in the military) require a high school diploma or at least a GED.  

To further emphasize the point, the communities in which these job-seekers live generally receive fewer public services, are often food deserts (so that health issues are more pointed), and crime rates are higher because there is such high unemployment—all of which add to the magnitude of the problem.  What is the chance of these children eventually extricating themselves from this quagmire of poverty and hopelessness?!  

Thou shalt not steal! 

If workers received a wage commensurate with what they do, they can enjoy a standard of living whose benefits redound to all of us.  For instance, reduced subsidies can allow tax dollars to be used for libraries, safe play areas, more schools, and more accessible health services. 

The ladder, on the other hand, is the way out of the trenches.  The ask is really quite basic: 

●$15 an hour minimum wage (indexed thereafter)
●Enforcement of wage rules and regulations (with penalties for defaulting)
●Protections against employer retaliation
●Earned paid sick leave (5 days)—the new City contract with hotel workers provides 12 paid sick days a year 

Let me point out, there is a difference between wage theft and wage depression.  One steals hours worked; the other pays workers poverty wages; and some employers can be guilty of both transgressions. 

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In addition, the matters relating to immigration, Proposition 47 (reducing penalties for minor crimes, thus eliminating felony status for affected offenders), and affordable housing are part-and-parcel of resolution to the wage issue.  This struggle for workers’ rights also has an environmental component—if people work under unhealthy and unsafe conditions, our families and the larger community will be negatively impacted as well:  water, air, food, health, safety. 

The problem is that many of California’s employment laws are antiquated.   The average low-wage worker in Los Angeles is robbed of about $2000 of earned wages from a yearly $16,500 salary—that amounts to about $1.4 billion a year in lost wages for the millions affected in our City alone (8 out of 10 workers are so affected in LA alone).  Furthermore, when claims are made and won, 83% of the victims receive nothing or at most a dime on the dollar. 

What we have, said one speaker, is “modern-day sharecropping!”  Workers are being forced to work at starvation wages and if they attempt to organize, they often are victims again with cut hours or termination altogether. 

It was heart-breaking to hear what one McDonald’s employee shared:   Workers don’t know about the laws to protect them that already on the books.  Often the boss makes them work through their break time, or if they take advantage of their 10-minute break and check back in even one minute late, they are docked in pay by 10 minutes.  Sometimes, these employees are forced to work 8-9 hour days without a break at all.  Complain?  Grieve?  Retaliation! 

This young man is working for $10.25 an hour after 20 years on the job.  He was full-time until he began working with the Raise the Wage Campaign.  Now he works 18 hours a week.  It is humiliating for a man to witness such disrespect.  It robs him of his dignity.  We, from the greater community, can no longer tolerate such mistreatment.  We cannot allow this to continue into another year.  Change must come and it must be realized now! 

Restaurant workers at bigger establishments?  Even though the staff “in the back of the house” makes up the backbone of the restaurant’s success, those workers often labor under tougher conditions than those we encounter out front.  Wage theft, unclean and unsafe conditions, irregular and/or reduced hours—all of which are commonly found at such businesses. 

Thou shalt not steal! 

A worker from Pacific 9 (one of the many Port companies) shared his story:   His work designation has been misclassified (one of the critical contract issues at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports).  He shared the ordeals with which he and his colleagues are faced every day.  Among them is the draconian policy of wage theft.  In fact, we saw an actual a copy of his pay warrant (he is paid by the day): 

Gross Pay:                                                                $497.80

 

            minus 5 fuel deductions for a total of     $185.85  

            minus auto and occupant insurance        95.00

            minus truck lease                                     50.00

            minus parking                                           10.00

            minus DD insurance PD                            60.00

            minus Permit and License Fees                64.00

 

Net Pay:                                                                          $6.10 (not including any applicable Fed/State taxes)         

Incredible, but true!  That fact is that people want to be self-reliant but they can’t accomplish that goal with take-home salaries like these!!  They don’t want to be patronized but they do seek simple justice and not to be in fear of losing their jobs for asking for it.  

Thou shalt not steal! 

Yet too many employers that represent the wide swath of American commercial and industrial fields—from restaurants, hotels, manufacturing, aircraft to healthcare, private education, and food processing--often reply quite flippantly about wage dynamics.  As the Billy Holiday song goes, “You may help yourself but don’t take too much.”  Workers must take the power we have to bring about the change we need.  As one speaker stated, workers are “the sleeping giant.” 

It is our turn to put pressure on the employers instead of worrying about retaliation from them.  Then change can happen, but only as long as there is singularity in thought and solidarity in purpose.  

Actually, we are beginning to see some of the fruits of our labor.  Walmart recently announced that a half million of its U. S. employees would receive $9 an hour to be raised to $10 next year.  As many of us predicted, “so goes Walmart, so goes the nation,” and sooner than many of us expected, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Home Goods (one corporation) have announced they would follow suit in the near future.  

It might be time to celebrate, but there is far more that must be done before we are through (and then it might be time to start all over again).  We must get the Los Angeles City Council to vote for the demands we have made (similar to what the City granted to the hotel workers only months ago). 

Sometimes we forget to remember the plight of immigrant workers since the beginning of our country’s history.  A hundred years ago, there was the memorable but horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Lower Manhattan New York City when 146 people were burned to death (most of whom were Jewish immigrant teenage girls and women).  It took the indifference of the employer regarding work conditions and the tragedy that followed as a consequence that eventually led to 30 labors laws regarding child labor, minimum wage, and safety (followed a decade later by labor laws passed under FDR’s New Deal). 

Will it take more tragedies before the powerful and powerless can work together to produce what, by any reasoning, is the right thing, the practical and pragmatic thing, to do?  

The conference closed with the prophetic words of John Lennon, “I hope someday you (employers) will join us (labor) and the world will be as one.” 

Treat thy neighbor as thyself! 

Something for us all to think about. 

Just sayin’.

 

●The next LA City Council Rally is on Wednesday, March 4, 2015, from 2-4 p.m.  Please join us: 

Los Angeles City Hall

200 North Spring Street 

Meet at South Lawn (facing 1^st Street)

Parking available at various locations (usually a charge)

 

(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written A Quick-and-Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition, Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts.  She also writes for CityWatch. Views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of CityWatch.)  

-cw

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 18

Pub: Mar 3, 2015