Taking The Good With The Bad, Or Not?
My children (ages 4 and 2) are children. They think like children. They act like children. They speak like children. And like all children, they view every situation through a paradigm of short term, knee jerk reactions. If my daughter snatches a toy from her brother, it's cause to push her into the fireplace, even if he really doesn't want the toy and even if she could be seriously injured. But he's not thinking about that because he wants his toy NOW. He's not thinking about all the good things he gets from his sister, like how she saves him a lollipop every Friday after school, or how she taught him how to spell the word "blue" the other day. To him, it's all about what's in it for him now, and to you-know-where with the long-term consequences. We expect children to behave that way, but you'd think that adults --particularly the ones running huge corporations that put their workers at risk everyday -- would focus on long and short term results. You know, take the good with the bad for the long-term benefit of all? Well, if you thought that way, you'd be wrong.
While many of the questions posed to the new Chief Justice of the United States at his confirmation hearing dealt with privacy issues, a lot of the cases he will address in his first term have to do with employer/employee relations. One of the biggies is IBP v. Alvarez, where employers argue that employees who wear protective clothing should not be paid for the time it takes for them to walk from the changing area to the work floor. While this is an issue in many types of work places, the work place at issue here happens to be slaughterhouses, where employees (largely Hispanic immigrants who make between $9 and $13 per hour -- gross) put their lives at risk every day, and where their employers are by law required to provide them with protective clothing they don't want to pay them to wear.
And who do you think should win this case? The employers, represented by the Well Suited Ones in the corporate office? Or the employees working in sweaty, oppressive conditions around blood and gore all day, and without whom the Well Suited Ones would not have a job (not to mention beef and pork at dinner) since I don't think we'll find them in the chopping areas if the workers go on strike.
It is a privilege, not an entitlement, to run a business. And along with the privilege comes the responsibility to make sure that those who work with us (notice I did not say "for" us) are treated with dignity and respect for the value they bring to the table. If companies want to make billions, they should be happy to pay their employees to make it possible. The nickel-and-dime approach is appalling. Which is why I am determined to help small business grow so they can create new income opportunities for people who are working hard to provide for their families and not getting an ounce of respect in return.
Grow up Well Suited Ones! You should have to take the good with the bad. I'm no employment expert but I've been around long enough to know that what you should do and what you must by law do are not necessarily the same. A recent Census Bureau report indicates that Hispanics are leading the pack in terms of small business growth, and the pack as a whole is growing tremendously as well.
So keep it up, Well Suited Ones. While you're busy looking right in front of your noses, your workers and the children they are raising are looking -- oh, say 15 years down the road -- at a very different world. But don't worry. I bet those protective suits come in a variety of sizes and colors, and there's one just waiting for you.
