Houston building owners are up in arms at the very thought that the people that spend all night away from their families cleaning their buildlings should earn more than $20 per day.
Janitors in Houston went on strike yesterday for higher pay, more guaranteed work hours and health insurance. The 5,300 janitors, who currently earn $5.50 per hour, were organized by the Service Employees International Union last year in what was the largest union organizing campaign in the South in years. The janitors want their wages raised to $8.50 an hour, along with longer hours and health insurance. Currently they earn the lowest wages and benefits of any major city in the United States, according to the union.
Contract talks for more than 5,300 janitors ended last Tuesday after months of negotiations with Houston's five largest cleaning companies (ABM, OneSource, GCA, Sanitors, and Pritchard.) The union is targeting only a few sites at a time. 500 janitors walked off the job yesterday, and more are expected to join as the days go on.
Flora Aguilar, 51, said she'll rely on the fund and babysitting work to get by during the strike. "I'm prepared to be on strike until they take us seriously and negotiate, until we have a contract," she said.
Aguilar's story appeared on SEIU's webpage:
Flora Aguilar brings home $418 a month working as a janitor in a downtown Houston office building. Her monthly bills are more than her income: $425 for rent, $30 gas, $44 phone and $10 to pay the bus fare to take her to work. Her husband's income as a construction worker makes up the difference.
***
Flora was once forced to care for herself when she was injured on the job. One night during her shift, she cut her wrist while changing the toilet paper. She reported it to her supervisor, who never called an ambulance or offered to take her to the hospital – Flora was just supposed to cure herself. She did, and as a result she has lost feeling in her wrist.
Concepcion Landeros doesn't have enought money to go to the doctor
“and it’s a real problem because I’m a diabetic.
In fact, Concepcion regularly misses doctors’ appointments because she cannot afford to go to them. “It’s a constant worry for me that my medications are running out, that I need to see the doctor and I can’t,” Concepción says. “It’s also a big problem because of my daughters. Joana has problems with her teeth and my youngest daughter feels pain in her mouth – but I can’t afford to take them to the dentist,” she says. “It makes me feel terrible that I can’t provide my daughters with what they need.”
Houston employers are whining up a storm about the strike:
A statement from the Houston Area Service Contractors Association, which includes ABM Janitorial Services, GCA Services, OneSource and Sanitors Services of Texas, as well as Pritchard Industries Southwest, said they were not happy about the strike.
"We are extremely disappointed that the union elected this strike action particularly since there are a number of open issues to resolve. The union interrupted the discussion of non-economic items recently with the presentation of an economic proposal that called for wage and benefit increases in excess of 70 percent," it said.
"In our view, these economic demands are extreme, particularly since building owners and managers are continually faced with competitive pressures and utility, property tax and other increases," according to the contractors.
The union's first target is Hines Interests, a major property manager in Houston and other cities. Hines has contracts with three of the largest cleaning contractors in Houston, although Hines is not the janitors' employer. According to Cornell University labor professor Richard C. Hurd,
SEIU is focusing on Hines, which already has come out in favor of higher wages and benefits, because that's where it has the most leverage.
"I'm sure they're exerting escalating pressure on the other building owners to fall in line," he said.
It's essential for the union to get the building owners on board because they're the ones who control the budgets, he said. Once building owners agree to pay higher wages and benefits, they won't have the incentive to find cheaper cleaning companies.
SEIU has run similar campaigns in other cities across the country, including Miami earlier this year, Boston in 2002, and Los Angeles and Chicago in 2000.
The politics and legal issues surrounding the strike are also interesting. Houston Mayor Bill White, who had supported the janitors' organizing efforts, was attempting to limit the strikers' ability to protest during times when it can have the biggest impact, requiring permits for sound amplification devices, parading through streets and gathering in public parks. The restrictions were allegedly to protect public safety. But yesterday, U.S. District Judge Gray Miller issued an injunction ordering the city of Houston not to enforce the ordinances.
The union and its members have a lot riding on winning this strike. When the janitors won the organizing campaign, labor observers noted its significance. Steven Greenhouse in the New York Times declared the organizing campaign a tremendous victory of historic proportions:
In an era when unions typically face frustration and failure in attracting workers in the private sector, the Service Employees International Union is bringing in 5,000 janitors from several companies at once. With work force experts saying that unions face a slow death unless they can figure out how to organize private-sector workers in big bunches, labor leaders are looking to the Houston campaign as a model.
The service employees, which led a breakaway of four unions from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. last summer, has used several unusual tactics in Houston, among them lining up the support of religious leaders, pension funds and the city's mayor, Bill White, a Democrat. Making the effort even more unusual has been the union's success in a state that has long been hostile to labor.
"It's the largest unionization campaign in the South in years," said Julius Getman, a labor law professor at the University of Texas. "Other unions will say, 'Yes, it can be done here.' "
Another reason that winning this strike is important is that it's a first contract, always the hardest to win. According to Cornell University researcher Kate Bronfenbrenner, more than a year after voting for union representation, workers are unable to negotiate initial collective bargaining agreements 32 percent of the time. The Employee Free Choice Act, which I wrote about last May, addresses the problem of first contracts (in addition to card check organizing agreements instead of the traditional "secret ballot" election):
The Employee Free Choice Act provides that either employers or employees may request mediation of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) if no agreement on a first contract has been reached after 90 days of bargaining. If the FMCS is unable to bring the parties to agreement after 30 days of mediation, the dispute must be referred to binding arbitration.
Finally, as we approach the mid-term elections with visions of control of the House and Senate dancing in our heads, blogger Nathan Newman explained why the victory was much more significant than only 5,000 new members sounds, particularly because it took place in the underunionized (and increasingly Republican) South.
Just think of the Houston janitors as a beachhead in hostile territory. We can sometime look at the numbers and forget how significant even a small union presence can be in an area with very little organizing at all. Do these numbers– janitors pay dues of roughly $20 per month, or a bit over $200 per year. Multiply by 5000 and you suddenly have an organization with $1 million per year to promote organizing and political mobilization in the Houston area.
Add a few more around the region and you've added what will automatically become major new political and social institutions in regions that now lack them. Just by existing, the Houston janitors will be an example to other workers that they can organize and they can win even in the South– a key message for any hope of labor revival.
So yes, 5000 Houston janitors is a tremendous victory of historic proportions.
Win this campaign and let a few more Houstons bloom, and Democrats won't have to write off much of the South anymore.
Jordan Barab keeps track of who's been naughty and who's been nice in the world of workers' rights at Confined Space.
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Go Ned! Greenwich rocks!
Incredible post Jordan – as with all your posts, more to digest than to comment upon, but this part of a quote that you used:
The service employees, which led a breakaway of four unions from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. last summer, has used several unusual tactics in Houston, among them lining up the support of religious leaders, pension funds and the city’s mayor, Bill White, a Democrat.
made me think about an article in our small town newspaper this morning – where someone with religious ties had organized a peace and justice day and the speaker they had was an afl-cio officer. There is a lot of main stream religion that is very strong in its support of decent and equitable treatment of people and it is good to see some bonds forged.
I really appreciate your pieces – so much information and so well written.
Andy Stern is my hero. Does anyone remember him on The Colbert Report? Even Stephen was in awe of him and nearly dropped the ususal snark when Andy had a great answer for everything. It was impressive.
Sorry to go OT so early in the thread, but I wanted to mention that at My Left Nutmeg, a few clever people are brainstorming about the possibility of a fourth CT Senatorial debate hosted by MSNBC, with Olberman and Scarborough as the moderaters.
Intriguing to say the least.
Here’s a link:
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/sh…..aryId=4080
Jordan, this is a fantastic post and it and the issues you raise deserve much wider exposure.
The more people know about these issues the more likely they are to demand a minimum increase and a working OSHA.
Can you guess where I’m going folks? Yep. Please Spotlight this far and wide. Local media is probably more useful than the national outlets.
We know we are impacting the media because Jenny Medina and the NY Times is correcting their story about “stay the course” Joe. Lets see if we can help them pay attention to this important story.
Jordan,
Your posts are like a breath of fresh air here. So few even think about labor issues, let alone describe them so eloquently.
I lived in Texas for 13 years and my wife is from Houston. It is a very tough place for labor. It is a Constitutional “Right to Work” state which means that every union busting tactic is tolerated. It is the classic example of a place where racism is used as a way to separate working whites from people that they should be working with shoulder to should. But I see that changing. The old racist (in East Texas) or anti-immigrant (in the west and south) plays just aren’t carrying the day as much. Partially it is because growing up for poorer people is somewhat a more integrated experience. Another reason may be the fact that so many working people in Texas were in the military where they learned that everyone, regardless of race or place in society, can be counted on.
It is gonna take a while, but even Texas will fall to the realities of labor solidarity.
PS — Isn’t the SEIU making all the moves that a modern union needs to make? I would love to hear what you think about the big organizational struggles….
$8.50/hour is about half of what they OUGHT to be being paid. Seems the question “Had Enough?” is bursting out all over. I so admire these workers for their courage in striking and their committment to the union. May this be the start of a landslide of change for workers throughout the US. Thanks Jordan.
Great article, Jordan. It’s about time that these folks were paid a living wage.
One of the interesting things about our nation’s demographics is that where we are becoming more urbanized we are becoming more Democratic, in the political party sense. In the country, where people know each other pretty well, you probably don’t need things like unions. It’s a lot easier to treat people shabbily when you don’t know who they are.
*xyz at 4 — know you mean well, but there are a million Ned threads in the world….
Please show Jordan a little love and read his post.
I worked my way through most of high school and all of college in the service industry. Busting tables (bus boy) and pearl diving (dish washing). I feel for the people who ’serve us’. These folks are some of the most disrespected people on the planet. The plight of the working middle class and working poor must be addressed. These hapless individuals are a festering sore on the American scene, and they will be salved. And they will be assuaged.
it should be criminal to pay someone only $5.50/hr.
Huelga! Si, se puede!
Great post. I remember the Boston organizing.
SEIU rocks.
From Charlie Cook’s latest piece on the election:
Charlie Cook
——————————————————————————–
• E-mail
WASHINGTON – Another week has gone by and little has changed. The Republican Party still seems to be headed toward a very tough election.
In the House, Republicans are most likely to see a net loss of 20 to 35 seats, and with it their majority. In the Senate, the GOP could lose at least four, but a five- or six-seat loss is more likely. A six-seat change tips the chamber into Democratic hands.
Could the situation change? Could the trajectory of this election be altered if the spotlight shifts from Iraq, congressional scandals, budget deficits, Hurricane Katrina, Terri Schiavo, stem-cell research and immigration onto something else, like terrorism or national security? Of course it could. In the time it takes to read this article, something could happen. A confrontation at sea involving a freighter going into or coming out of North Korea, for example, could dominate the news and the public consciousness. But unless something of that magnitude happens, we have to go with the situation as it stands.
My first job, in Sacramento, at age fourteen, (I had a work-permit) paid $1.15/hr. No bennies. No overtime. The owners of the restaurant, who were raking it in, convinced me I was lucky to have such a job.
No janitors in Houston? Who will pick up Babs Bush’s soiled Depends?
Thanks, Jordan. I found this in the NYT article you linked to offer a way to perhaps stem the bleeding and turn the tide in union membership, by embracing what I believe is the fastest growing segment of our population:
And janitoring is one job they can’t outsource.
You need janitors in Houston to clean up after all the murders- Gore Capital of the Nation- What happens when ya combine the NRA- Gooper government- and two terms of Clusterfuck as governor.
Good post by Oscar in Louisville here
Why I’m Not A Republican, Part 1
(Regarding the Republican “minority outreach”, he’s not impressed…)
Welcome Back Jordan – another information packed post -
The organizing of the Houston Janitors was one of the few bright spots last year – and easily the most underreported story -
am encouraged by their solidarity and tactics
clarification:
Texas is a Right To Work you to death State
Oklahoma kiddo @
14
at fourteen? You probably were lucky that they just paid you to do your job, instead of molesting you or shopping your ass around to the clientele. How many other 14-year-old wage-earners did you know? I sure as hell couldn’t get paid to work in Michigan when I was 14.
Great post, Jordan.
My soft spot is for hospital housekeeping people. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with, and here in OH-18, paid at a tad over $6 an hour.
I remember the L.A. strike in 2000. Much whining from clueless yuppies and lawyers in Century City, but the janitors prevailed.
Best of luck in Houston!
cbl
Too true to laugh at, cbl
(How are you?)
punaise @
11
I’ll bet you $10 that after we take the house back, it will be criminal :-)
“Right to work”? Comes from the bowels of corporate America and is crafted by Republicanism.
That is an impressive series of achievements for the SEIU folks. From my cursory googling, they appear to be pretty strategic and flexible thinkers about what they need to do and how to do it. For example, this piece (pdf) on “Organizing Strategies for the 21st Century” by Stephen Lerner.
punaise @
11
Unbelievable! I couldn’t live with myself paying someone a wage that wouldn’t allow them to live. I pay my employees the max I can afford—I’ve been there, counting pennies to make it through the month, trying to figure out how not to need medical help. Criminal evil greedhead slimballs!
Jordan:
I grew up in East Texas, so this is of even more interest to me than it would be otherwise.
If we can get a minimum wage raise in the next Congress, would janitorial workers be covered under that, or is there an exemption for “invisible” work?
Forgive me if everyone already knows the answer to this.
smiley @ 20
“How many other 14-year-old wage-earners did you know?” Most of my age group, 14-17, worked in kitchens.
“I sure as hell couldn’t get paid to work in Michigan when I was 14.” I guess we were just plain lucky.
The students @ U of Miami held a fast and walked out on their classes to stand w/SEIU and the Janitors at U of M.
I only wrote letters to the editor and to my congress critters, but very proud of the kids because they stood up to the Admin until they renegotiated the contract.
What effect would a jump in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour do to organizing efforts of low wage workers? If it was me, lack of health c*re benefits would still be a powerful incentive. It also seems to me that the more unions can extend health ins*rance benefits, the sooner you would see employers pushing for a single payer system.
Great post, Jordan, although I confess that most of the time when I read your stuff, I have to go and smoke a cigarette and walk around outside to fight back the feeling of impotent rage. As a late night radio host, most of the people I see in my building are housekeeping and maintenance staff. Those people’s jobs are incredibly hard and they make a pittance, and the supervisors don’t seem to have any problem whatsoever just sacking them whenever they get out of line and do something crazy like ask for a raise or a weekend off.
It’s disgusting. Labor reform must be a top priority to the Democratic Congress, if Diebold lets us have one.
marksb @ 27
Sending good thoughts your way, Marksb.
Thanks for paying people a living wage, bless you!
Strikes are perhaps the answer. Especially in the retail and service industry. Maybe just a day or two per month. If that doesn’t do the trick, ratchet it up a bit. Sort of incremental like.
punaise @
11
HA!
Even purportedly progressive companies like Borders Books only pay $5.75 an hour in Athens, Georgia. I know. I had that job for six months. At the six month mark, I was supposed to get a pay raise and health insurance and they fired me on completely trumped up charges.
Bitchez.
TRex @
32
Damned straight.
Makes me sick.
Georgia is a right to work state too, consequently wages suck. When I arrived in Savannah in 1990 I interviewed for a job as executive secretary for the senior partner of one of the larger law firms in town. They offered me $7.50 an hour. I laughed out loud and left. That pay scale has crept up somewhat over the last 15 years, but you can take it to the bank that the people who clean banks and hospitals are working 2 jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.
There’s not enough extra food left over to “put food on their family.” (snarl… not snark, pure, crystalline SNARL.)
Op99 at 7:05. What a powerful speech that was by Stephen Lerner. Thanks for the link.
TRex @ 35
I’ve heard Borders is real big on union busting. Also, they donate to Republicans, ick! I shop at Barnes and Noble and Powell’s on line because of that.
Whatever happened to the Harvard Living Wage campaign – that involved janitors, right?
When you pay people non-livable wages, while your cash flow is good, you are living in sin. Bringing back corporate responsibility, should be at the top of a civilized agenda.
Old Sow @ 38
Yore Malcolm.
I’ve heard Borders is real big on union busting.
Yup. One store went union and they shut it down within a year and a half.
Jordan – another richly detailed and thought-provoking post. As always, it is so thorough, in fact, that I am at a loss to add a whole lot, other than to say that I just don’t understand the antipathy toward paying a living wage to people who do some of the worst kind of work. I would really like to get to a place where there is an overriding interest in the common good, things that benefit society as a whole, instead of this back-stabbing, me-first, I-don’t-care-that-you’re-starving-as-long-as-I-can-keep-putting-more-and-more-money-in-my-own-pocket mentality.
A society that is well-educated, well-fed, well-cared for and paid fairly, is one that benefits all the people.
I think people do not understand that as the middle-class slowly disappears, it will not be because people are rising to a higher class, but because they are falling into the have-not category, where there will be less and less opportunity to get ahead.
Why don’t people understand that we do not raise ourselves up by keeping others down?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 41
This is the issue that exposes the so-called “Christian” right for the imposters they are. Until they start marching in the streets with signs and rage against poverty — something Jesus cared about — instead of marriage rights and abortion — something Jesus said nothing about — they are not Christians at all.
I’ve heard Borders is real big on union busting. Also, they donate to Republicans, ick! I shop at Barnes and Noble and Powell’s on line because of that.
Okay – just stopped being a Borders customer
8.50 an hour won’t be a living wage until we have health care that costs nothing, public transportation that works in more than a tiny percentage of a percentage of the cities of the country, child care, teachers, (in houston, add cleaning up pollution so that the level is no longer that of china)
I know people that live in Houston and other big cities. I don’t get it? drive 2 hours to get 50 miles, and I am sure it is far worse in some places. why would you do that if you don’t have to? why breathe poison?
make the sacrifice, go where it would be better, it really is better, and you will never go back. nor will you ever look at it as a sacrifice again. many species become cannibalistic when confined to a space to small for their collective good.
but let’s at least get all of america on one standard as a minimum. one that rises beyond the level of decency and necessity. but one where the dreams become part of the plan. get people the food, the clothing, the heat, the help they need and we become, dare I say it?
like the countries considered advanced in this world. we are not currently one of these.
op99 @ 40
To answer my own question:
Another excellent post, Jordan.
SEIU and Stern impresses me more and more.
dab from CT @ 46
I’ve heard Borders is real big on union busting. Also, they donate to Republicans, ick! I shop at Barnes and Noble and Powell’s on line because of that.
Hurray!
Okay – just stopped being a Borders customer
LindaR,
You are absolutely right. I have never been able to understand why we have allowed the lunatic fringe of the Talibangelicals to hijack the entire concept of what it means to be a Christian. What happened to “feed my sheep,” and “what you do to the least of these you do to me?”
Just because you call yourself a Christian doesn’t make you a conservative tool. (Although we must admit that the Talibangelicals do have lots of tools and cranks…)
oldtree at 47, do NOT get me started on the pitiful state of public transportation in this country. Our shortsighted (or oil company owned) legislators, for example, insist on Amtrak being a profit making enterprise and balk at any subsidies whatsoever. Yet they think nothing of total subsidization of the cult of the one passenger private automobile, pouring hundreds of billions into highway maintenance.
Okay – just stopped being a Borders customer
It kind of sucks, because their store here has an incredible selection of books and music, but I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to spend my money there.
Now I just shoplift.
$10 an hour is about $20,000 per year.
It would be pretty tough to live anywhere in the US on that.
Two people living together makin $40,000 could get by.
Jobs below $10 per hour just don’t count. They are just a place to hang until ya can get a real job.
What oldtree at 47 said and said well.
When our government/IMF/World Bank goes into another country with loans and grants it does the same thing it does here. It makes things work so that the haves get the financial benefits from the loans while the have-nots pay the interest.
What would it take for us to get those who rule here to invest seriously in bringing along the less fortunate as a way of making our whole society more secure? Unfortunately to even achieve a modest wage increase it requires bringing some aspect of business to its knees. Fortunately the unions have a history of doing just that.
But just once wouldn’t it be nice to feel that government and business cared about us? Get out and Vote!! We have to start somewhere, and the next election is a good place.
Wal-Mart is one of the most dogmatic and glaring examples of anti-workerism. WalMart should be a prime strike target.
Anne @ 44
Cuba?
WOW !
you can blog and participate on Novmber 7th
SEIU is one of many sponsors of the
End the Blackout Campaign
http://www.americanblackout.org/find_out_why.html
The trouble with public transportation is that it doesn’t go where people want to go. It’s fine for the people living in the close in suburbs who work in city center- the trouble is that most cities don’t work like that any more.
Our cities and neighborhoods mostly developed AFTER the automobile- and people live and work in distant places.
Most of the time- it would take half a day and three transfers to get to where you want to go.
op99 @ 52
Amtrak is one thing, but what about reliable, reasonable bus service? Or light rail out to the outlying suburbs? Before I broke down and got a car (a hybrid, thank you) I had to constrain where I could live to where the bus ran. Or, more to the point, DIDN’T run.
Wal Mart is far from the worst offender among retailers. They’re just convenient targets.
TRex @
53
Be careful. Everyone around here will have spent their money on ActBlue candidates and wouldn’t be able to raise your bail…
op99 @ 57
Ha! Well, no…not really looking for socialism or communism – which I guess is how the GOP always makes us Dems out be aiming for – but people who, as Bill Clinton always used to say, “work hard and play by the rules,” should not have to struggle so hard just to stay afloat.
rwcole @ 59
Right, the bus routes are in a spoked-wheel pattern, so to get to the neighboring suburb, say a 10 minute trip as the crow flies, you have to go downtown, then transfer back out to Suburb B.
rwcole @ 54
I make just under $25K a year and am barely squeaking by. And I live in one of the cheapest cities in the southeast. My apartment is $450/mo. and I’m just feeding me and two cats, but still, if there’s any kind of emergency like car trouble, health problems, or veterenary emergencies, I’m totally dissed. One paycheck away from having to cash it all in and move home to my parents’.
And I SOOOOOOOOOOOO do not want to ever have to do that.
TRex @ 53
LOL!
This is sick
So labor expense should not increase with other fixed expenses? I guarantee that’s not how they (and their banks) run the pro-formas.
So then…we are to realize that the contractors expect that those additional cost savings accrue to the shareholders. Let me guess the contractors are republicans…
Ok, so these already inadequate and stagnant wages are supposed to absorb the difference in the janitors’ paychecks and the rising costs of life? Not going to happen.
Wonder which megachurches these contractors go to…
marksb @ 27
As one who started a paper route and mowing lawns at age eleven, moved to the country at thirteen and chopped cotton for 22.00 on many a long, long mf’in’ Summer day. I started my first business in my early twenties on a wing (left of course) a prayer and an old motorcycle (ever move furniture for resale on a motorcycle?). Many a pay periods came and went where my employees earned far more than I but it always paid off for all of us in the long haul, always. I never paid anyone an equivalent of 8.50 in todays dollars in my life. I never had an employee injury on the job or an unemployment claim. Shame on these people.
Thank you Jordan and all the people standing up for basic human decency! Goddess speed.
rwcole @ 54
All the low income folks I know, mostly Hispanic in my town, are working two or three jobs. Some people have kids, work all day and half or all night, and then work a gig or two on the weekend. And they still can’t afford medical care beyond the walk-in public clinics. I shudder to think what my customers—the guys who work on the roofing crews, or the women who drive and work in the lunch trucks, and oh so many others—would do if they had my medical issues. They’d take what the clinica would give them and die in abject poverty.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 41
Given “The Corporation’s” dominance over our history, I have strong doubts that “corporate responsibility” can ever be anything but an oxymoron.
A corporation’s only objective is the supremacy of their own corporate organism over any person and any other thing (including other corporations) that gets in their way.
As far as I can tell, “The Corporation” has far more rights than any American citizen, and for the life of me, I don’t once remember “corporation” being mentioned in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
The Corporatecracy’s legions of lobbyists, lawyers and their congressional, administration and judicial lackeys write and rule on most of our laws and have done so for the last several centuries.
Until the American public finally wake up to the realization that there is something fundamentally wrong with their very existence and it is called “Rule by Corporation”, we are but living on the whims of an Overseer without conscience or morality.
Oh yeah, another stellar post Jordan! And another life-saving reason for taking back our government!
LindaR @
50
Hurray!
Okay – just stopped being a Borders customer
=======
Please let me explain!! I wrote the “hurray!” as a comment on dab from CT deciding to forego Borders. I obviously put it in the wrong place. Then my computer froze and I couldn’t fix it — I got back on just now too late.
I am not a nitwit! (at least, not re this)
Please don’t get too sanguine about B&N. When they planned on moving into our mall, they had written into their contract that no lease contracts for existing bookstores could be renewed. Yes, their store is wonderful; but I’ll be damned if I’ll ever spend a penny there.
If I were king I would erect a wall akin to the wall between church and state, but it would be between commerce and state. No more lobbyists. No more Cheney Energy Bills. Governance for the people, by the people, and at the people’s consent. Period. Anyone caught trying to influence policy through corporate influence would be tried for treason.
I do occasionally shop at Borders or B&N. I buy the book, read the book, and then return it within the 30 day limit- and I try to be really careful not to spill coffee on it.
TRex @ 74
DAMN… What a wonderful idea…. But could the rest of us shoulder the welfare burden if we got rid of all the lobbyists? My basic assumption is that they’re lobbyists because they have no earthly idea how to earn an honest living, and no real marketable skills…
LindaR @
39
Actually, Powell’s did their best to keep the union out. I suggest that you shop at Powell’s through the Powell’s union page.
Target is on my no-spend list as well — and I used to love shopping there. Reason: they allow their pharmacists to decide what prescriptions they will fill–or not–as the case may be, based on their own (alleged) moral values. aaarrrgggghhhh
Valley Girl @ 75
Have you considered making use of your local public library? Some stores have taken to keeping a record of your returns, and if you exceed their limit, they refuse to take the stuff back.
But could the rest of us shoulder the welfare burden if we got rid of all the lobbyists?
Real taxes on millionaires and corporations will take care of that.
Late Nite is up!
Marion in Savannah @ 75
They could always be janitors (/snark)
yikes, kat! Where are we to go?
I started railing against wage slavery over twenty-five years ago when clothing started coming in from China. I refused to buy anything made in China. I was able to keep to that vow for a long time, but in the last few years resistance has been futile. And I don’t even trust labels that say “made in USA” because that could well mean the Northern Marianas.
Skeptic @ 78
I knew there was a reason I stopped shopping at Target, but couldn’t remember what it was. This is what it was.
Anne @ 79
Anne- yep, I do use the local public library. And I have a U library as well. I don’t do what I said very often- only for things that I can’t find elsewhere. But, thanks for the head’s up! I try not to be abusive of the services that bookstores provide!
TRex @ 65
You are one book away from everyone here buying it and suddenly *poof* you have a new income. One chapter a week. I’m sure you can fit that in, right?
Anne- p.s. the Public Library system is one of the greatest institutions that we have in the US, and I hope it endures. When I was growing up, the local public library was a great escape from life at home- I spent hours and hours and hours there.
Ahh… TRex, now maybe a celebration of public libraries would be a good topic for a Late Nite, if you are ever stumped as to what to write. When I lived in Britain (years ago) it was said that political researchers in Britain would phone US public libraries to get into that they couldn’t get in the UK- our “freedom of information act” and all that. Tho that was way pre-internet.
OH… TRex has Late Nite up…
rwcole @ 59
I’m saying this politely and with all due respect, but you’re full of it my friend. :-)
Don’t get me started about the century-long battle between “public” transporation and “private” transportation.
Do you remember “What’s good for General Motors is good for America”? Guess who wrote the laws that built our Interstate Freeway system?
And in the process deliberately and with malice aforethought, killed off the more effective, efficient and economical “public transportation” capabilities we should have had.
If you stop and really think about it, no Urban Planner (who hasn’t been bought out by the corporate system) would have any problem at all putting in an effective, efficient and economical public transportation system.
I remember my parents telling me how they and their parents got around everywhere just fine by streetcars.
I remember growing up and watching our “bought-out” Urban Planners rip up those very same “public transporation” streetcar tracks to make “left-turn” lanes for “private” automobiles.
Cities like New York, Chicago, Boston could not function without their subways with their millions of daily riders.
Dozens and dozens of European cities still depend on public transportation. And a great many of them were either built from scratch or totally rebuilt after WW II.
If you really thought about it, there is almost no street or roadway that couldn’t handle a streetcar.
No, the reason we do not and won’t have effective, efficient and economical public transportation system has nothing to do at all with the layout of our cities and suburbs.
It has everything to do with who runs the show and how they can profit by taking the most money from the rubes (us) that they can!
What have Democrats done for unions… lately?
Oklahoma kiddo @
29
Hey, I just read that again, and it did not sound at all like I wanted it to come out. I was trying to work in some foleygate snark, and it just didn’t happen.
I apologize for my comment if it seems like I was attacking you, your willingness to work, or the legitimacy of what you were doing. I waited tables while I was in college and for part of the following year, so I have a very healthy respect for busboys. They can make a waiter’s job a whole lot easier… or they can make sure that nobody leaves a tip for you at all.
Most of my peers had a hard time working for money anywhere other than family business (dad runs the local McDonalds, so you can be a cashier… for no pay) before we turned 18. Maybe Kalamazoo just didn’t have enough restaurants…
Mad Dogs @
88
Don’t forget San Francisco and DC. And you know that real estate prices take public transit into account- if you live outside of SF, you can just about draw your own map of BART stations by plotting apartment rents on a street map.
However, I think the argument that you’re missing is DENSITY. Population density is one of the factors that makes public transit a viable option for a given city- it solves the chicken-and-egg problem, which is this: If you don’t have enough people to make the system profitable when you run the trains every 10 minutes, you just run the trains less frequently so that you can still break even. But if you don’t run the trains frequently enough, it’s too inconvenient to take the train, because you have to wait too long for the next one to come.
The easiest solution is to just add people. So if city planners and developers can create concentrations of density localized within walking distance of transit stations, you are providing a guaranteed customer base for that transit system. And as I think readers from the SF bay area will agree, when gas prices go up, more people will ride the trains.
but the key component of this kind of density is high-rise apartment buildings, or lots of houses very close together. And when you get right down to it, lots of Americans don’t want to live like that- they want a huge lawn, and a 10-acre lot with fruit trees and a fish pond and a cactus garden, and a 4000-sq foot detached house with a 4 car garage and hot and cold running White Zinfandel on the mini-golf course. Think Plano, Texas- where the rich people from Dallas go to live, because Dallas is too dense. Everything is two, or at most three, stories high, there are NO sidewalks ANYWHERE, and if you wanted to build a light rail project they would probably just as soon laugh at you as shoot you in the face.
But you can’t have a viable system if the density doesn’t exist first. You can’t force the density by building the system first- the money just doesn’t work like that.
smiley @
91
expensive energy anticipates density
The one thing that simply amazes those of us in other countries is “How, in the richest country in the world, can people work for wages as little as 4 and 5 dollars and hour?”
The richest nation on Earth and it has a working poor. It’s a fucking disgrace.
From the Boston Globe
The war will be on Lamont’s agenda again Wednesday when he campaigns with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and a strong anti-war voice.