As many of you may have heard, there was an outbreak of hepatitis A at the Cheese Cake Factory in Phoenix. This got me to thinking about a couple of policy issues that people do not like to talk about rationally. The first issue is related to immigration. This is precisely why you don't want to cut off healthcare services to anyone. Obviously, a sizable portion of the restaurant industry is run with immigrant labor. Guess what, the people that make and serve your food make minimum wage, do not have health insurance and do not get paid time off (and that is the American citizens). Forcing immigrants underground is dangerous from a public health standpoint.
The second issue is the problem of every worker in the economy not having paid time off for illness (let alone recreation). I for one would be willing to pay a few more dollars for my pasta and cheesecake to insure that the person serving it could stay home with pay when they are sick. The simple fact is that many restaurant workers are a few days wages away from losing their apartment or car. Given the choice between working sick or giving up a day's salary, most people will work sick.
This is just another reason for universal healthcare and increased workers rights. Rather than spreading to costs to a few unlucky patrons, perhaps would should rationally spread the costs across our society...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hello- I work at the Cheescake Factory in Phoenix and I dont necessarily agree with you article. The employee had no idea that he had it and only worked one morning shift. He was white and certainly not an immigrant. That is all.
I actually worked as a cook, waiter, bus boy, bartender and dishwasher over the years and I have seen far too many people forced to work sick because of financial reasons. I realized it was not necessarily the case here, but I thought it was a good time to bring up the problem.
I think I was very clear that there is a problem with immigrant labor (many immigrants work in the restaurant industry) and for non-immigrant labor. I don't know about the policies at Cheesecake Factory, but most of the industry is not known for their generous benefits (i.e. paid time off and health insurance).
The problem at Cheesecake Factory is illustrative of that point. Furthermore, Cheesecake Factory is a pretty nice place and probably more responsible than a lot the industry, so if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
At the end of the day, I want people to realize that this is an important issue and policies that cut off healthcare to immigrants and deny workers rights have consequences and in this case could have direct consequences. This is especially true of the affluent people that frequent places like Cheesecake Factory and may think that these issues do not affect them, so they should not care about them. I am trying to dissuade them of that notion.
Post a Comment