The struggle for workers’ rights and fair pay feels like an unending one, while the list of billionaires grows. Here’s Vicki Larson’s Perspective.
I had a long-scheduled appointment at Kaiser just as many of its health-care workers were going on strike over pay and staff shortages, so I called first. Yes, I was told, my appointment was still scheduled so come on in.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the recent strikes by writers and actors, auto workers, teachers, baristas, health-care workers and others, and the efforts to unionize in the Bay Area and across the country. I thought about how that’s played out in my own life.
Years ago, I worked at a union newspaper, where I made top scale given my 20-plus years as a journalist. But I was only working part time. When I divorced at midlife with two young children I needed a full-time job ASAP. When I joined a non-union paper, I was hired at $8 an hour less—and much less than the men who had nowhere near the experience I had. I figure that has cost me more than $100,000 over the years and who knows how much in reduced Social Security benefits, not to mention all the bounced checks and sleepless nights wondering if I could pay my bills.
When I left after 19 years, I discovered, thanks to California’s new pay transparency law, that I was making the least possible for my position despite winning numerous awards.