The model second from left may appear on Wet Seal's website, but apparently
she wouldn't be welcome as a store manager.
Wet Seal is just one of a number of clothing chains dealing in poorly made clothes for teenage girls you're likely to find at your local mall. But Wet Seal distinguishes itself by being the one currently facing a federal lawsuit alleging an actual company policy of racial discrimination in hiring and promotions. Steven Greenhouse
writes:
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., includes a copy of a March 2009 e-mail sent by the company’s then senior vice president for store operations to lower-level managers after she had inspected several stores, saying “African American dominate — huge issue.”
One plaintiff, Nicole Cogdell, the African-American former manager of a Wet Seal store in King of Prussia, Pa., said the company terminated her the day after that e-mail was sent. She said that she had heard the senior vice president, Barbara Bachman, tell a district manager that she wanted someone with “blond hair and blue eyes.”
Yes. In 2009, a high-level corporate executive told her underlings as a matter of policy that there were too many black people working in the company's stores. And at least one store manager was fired immediately after that message was sent. That seems like a pretty good basis for a lawsuit, dontcha think?
But, but, but, what about our post-racial society?
A fair day's wage
- The Columbia Journalism Review rounds up several more cases of small business owners who get an awful lot of press ... because of their typically unmentioned ties to business lobby groups. The article makes a key point about the "businesses want to hire but can't find qualified workers" genre we're seeing so much of these days:
These businesspeople are supposed know how markets work: If you want to buy something, but nobody wants to sell it to you, raise your bid. In other words, if you can’t find someone qualified to work for $15 an hour, maybe you need to pay $20 and/or train somebody yourself.
- More than 1,500 New York home care workers won a $1 million settlement for unpaid overtime. New York state law has stronger protections for home care workers than federal law, which excludes them from minimum wage and overtime protections.
- Are employees abusing sick days for summer fun, or are employers the real culprit? This is one where I'll lose a lot of respect for you if you guess wrong ...
- Whirlpool has closed its Arkansas factory.
- Chicago cabbies are organizing for fare increases after going seven years without a raise. Meanwhile, New York cab drivers, who have been struggling to make even minimum wage, are going to benefit from a 17 percent increase in fares.
- What's (still) the matter with Walmart.
- The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Los Angeles has a program helping to bring people from underserved communities into union apprenticeships. The IBEW offers classes and mentoring to prepare applicants for the apprenticeship test and interview.
(Via)
- Charter school teachers talk about how joining a union has helped reduce teacher turnover, bring greater stability to their schools, and give them the power to advocate for their students.
- Black lung is back.
- The Steelworkers have successfully mobilized to save and protect jobs at Philadelphia-area oil refineries.
State and local legislation
- Awesome. Florida Democrats sell out to school voucher lobby. Privatization all around!
- With the Speaker of the New Hampshire House, William O'Brien, suggesting a state law preventing people from spending welfare benefits on tobacco, alcohol, or lottery tickets, Nashua-area blogger Livia Gershon writes about how the time she wouldn't let her husband quit smoking reminds her to have empathy, and how many of the biggest forms of welfare are invisible:
Most of us have worse excuses than that for our drinking and smoking and junk food habits. Certainly that’s true of me, and, as it happens, I’m a welfare recipient too. In at least one recent year, my family made little enough money that we got an earned income tax credit—free money from the government. After we bought a house two years ago, we also got an $8,000 first-time homebuyers credit. That’s $2,000 more than the average participant in the state’s cash benefits program gets in a year, and four times as much as the average food stamp recipient gets. But, since the money went straight to our bank account, not into a distinctive card, I don’t get dirty looks when I pick up a 12-pack of microbrew at the supermarket.
- Tea partiers in Tennessee are outraged about International Baccalaureate schools.
Miscellaneous