An unenlightened St. Augustine City Commissioner in 2005 said to Folio Weekly, "we (sic) don't have an oar in that water" when asked about a local tour train company cutting hours and benefits just before the holidays. Yes we do.
I reached out by phone to the Canadian billionaire who owns Ripley's "Believe It or Not," and wrote about his reaction for The Collective Press: his son hadn't told him, he said.
Too many local employers threaten employees that they will be fired if they join a union. (In 2006, one employer bragged as one of the "Anonymice" on The St. Augustine Record.)
Too many local employers chisel employees out of their wages, some paying in cash under the table.
Too many employers chisel their employees -- Nickled and Dimed, in the words of author Barbara Ehrenreich. St. Johns County Commissioners' economic development office touts a profile of our county by The Jacksonville Business Journal, crassly entitled, "Where the money lives."
That wealth is not distributed equitably.
We've got millionaires and billionaires paying ditch-digger wages and getting away with "nickeling and dining" hard-working Americans.
As the two stories below document, employees are having trouble keeping up. Part of the problem is what our local Chamber of Commerce a/k/a "Chamberpot," calls the "Low union profile." The Chamberpot now shares offices with The St. Augustine Record.
It's time for St. Augustine to have a Living Wage ordinance for all City employees and all employees of City contractors and City franchisees. It's time and it's right. I first proposed this in December 2005, to eye-rolling from our Commissioners (all gone now).
As JFK said, "A rising tide lifts all boats." Those who prosper from the brains and sweat of our residents must pay higher wages. Now.
Hotels, restaurants, bars and tourist attractions will follow the City's example, raising wages after City employees, City contractor employees and City franchisee employees hourly wages are raised to $15/hour -- it's simple economics.
See letter to the editor and article below: our tourism workers are highly valued and underpaid. Our Tourism Development Council and Visitor and Convention Bureau doesn't even report on wages, preferring to chortle about internet "impressions" or room occupancy. Worse, St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce uses low wages and the low percentage of unionized workers here as a recruiting tool! Why recruit low-wage and anti-labor employers? This isn't Alabama. We don't need more low-wage employers looking for docile workers. We'd like to recruit intelligent employers paying good wages for good jobs -- jobs with meaning.
We don't want to go the way of Key West, where employees can't afford housing, with some taking busses from two hours away.
Rose Kennedy's favorite Bible verse was "to whom much is given, much is expected."
St. Augustine and St. Johns County deserve a Living Wage and free democratic trade unions to preserve, protect and defend worker rights.
What do y'all reckon?
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