What a lousy job, especially in the summer-time

The summer after I graduated from High School, before starting college, I lived in Henderson, NV with my friend whose father had been transfered from Salt Lake to Las Vegas. (I spent the summer working as a teller at the First Interstate Bank branch on Tropicana & Eastern.)

The heat, of course, was terrible outside. But generally people just go from an air conditioned house to an air conditioned car to work in an air conditioned building. (I didn't, but that's because the luxury pinto I drove didn't have functioning a/c.)

Anyway, what's the point? Well, it's HOT outside in the summer in Las Vegas. And so when I read about a rather strange protest tonight I knew that I definitely would not have wanted to earn only slightly more than minimum wage to stand outside in the heat and be a "professional" protestor.

That's exactly what a labor union in Las Vegas has hired cheap temps to do. The labor union pays these temps a miserly $6.00/hour and doesn't provide an benefits whatsoever. The temps have to stand outside all day in the sometimes > 104 degree heat, in front of a new Wal-Mart neighborhood grocery store in Henderson, NV to "protest" the fact that new entry-level Wal-Mart employees often get hired on at only $6.75/hour.

While a lot of people believe Wal-Mart is evil (I personally prefer to support local or regional merchants whenever possible), it seems rather hypocritical for a labor union to pay people less with fewer benefits than the evil corporation they're protesting against.

And, personally, if I were desperate enough to take a benefitless job from a labor union for $6.00 an hour, I'd head on inside and talk to the store manager and see if I couldn't "defect" from the protest and start working there. Better salary, at least no fewer benefits—possibly more—and air conditioning(!). At least one temp is apparently considering just that.

—Michael A. Cleverly
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 at 23:05