The great labor battles are written in largetype across American history ? the Haymarket riots, the railroad strike of 1877 ? even the battles between miners and mine owners in Harlan County, Ky.
But Camden Yards?
Yes. The new great battleground for the labor movement is the stadium, and the rallying cry isn?t some Depression-era slogan about dimes. It?s the far pricier “living wage.”
Day laborers who clean up trash for the Maryland Stadium Authority want more money and have protested and even announced an 11-person hunger strike for “justice.”
It?s organized by United Workers, a self-described “human rights organization of low-wage workers and others in poverty.” The group?s goal, according to Communications Organizer Greg Rosenthal, is a “living wage” of $9.62 per hour. That would replace the roughly $7 an hour day laborers earn as part of working for what the group?s Web site calls “institutional slavery.”
Rosenthal claims that the state has a responsibility for using the “public?s money” to pay $9.62, or nearly $4 an hour higher than the minimum wage. That?s nearly 65 percent higher than companies have to pay for skilled labor.
For picking up trash.
Now, don?t let anyone tell you we?re talking easy labor here. Cleaning trash is hard work. Picture yourself in 100-degree heat cleaning up smelly garbage and constantly bending over, picking up more and more trash.
It?s also about the least-skilled labor you could ever imagine outside of the General Assembly. You don?t have to train workers. Heck, you shouldn?t even have to explain to them what constitutes “trash.” You just hire them and set them to work.
Even at $7, this job pays more than some retail or fast food jobs. If United Workers has its way, $9.62 would mean its workers would be substantially better paid.
For picking up trash.
I checked the classified ads on The Examiner?s Web site. Ifyou have skills ? computer know-how, nursing, whatever ? you can earn good wages. But the fewer skills you have, the fewer dollars you earn ? unless some misguided government official mandates otherwise. (Thanks Gov. O?Malley!)
One ad showed a restaurant looking for a dishwasher and paying $8 an hour. Another firm was looking for a fiscal accounts clerk and paying just $12.55 an hour. While that?s more than the stadium, the clerking job required two years? experience. Even the Maryland Zoo was paying just $7.25 to $8 an hour for part-timers.
All of those companies and organizations would have to compete under a new pay scale if United Workers wins. Too bad, according to Rosenthal.
“That?s an issue the state would have to figure out,” he said.
Those companies would have to compete against ridiculously high wage scales for totally unskilled work. Many might go out of business or fire low-wage earners, creating more homeless people and, possibly, more day laborers.
The United Workers might mean well, but it labors under the misconception that government should make unskilled labor something it?s not ? high-priced employment.
Dan Gainor is a career journalist, media commentator and The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow at the Media Research Center?s Free Market Project. He can be reached at [email protected].
