"Serving, Scrubbing, Selling: A Sojourn Among the Working Poor"

Back in 1998, when times were still good, 

journalist and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich

undertook a modest experiment.

For three months she lived on the wages

of an entry-level unskilled worker.

She found employment as a waitress in Florida,

a housekeeper in Maine,

and a Wal-mart clerk in Minnesota.

 

Living only on her earnings of $6 or $7 an hour,

she could pay for housing and meals -

if you call a room without a kitchen housing

and fast food a meal -

so long as she worked seven days a week,

or two shifts a day.

She calculated that she could sustain this self-sufficiency

so long as she did not need medical care

or car repairs,

or lapse on her frugal disciplines.

And after three months, 

she had gathered enough information

to tell her story:

you can find a job,

you can work hard,

and you can even be an exemplary employee,

and still not make it.

Barbara Ehrenreich did not have to make it for long.

Proud of her stamina at fifty-plus years,

relieved that she did not incur any work-related injuries,

and very, very glad to get back to her comfortable home

and writer's life in Key West,

she had only the smallest taste 

of what life is like for the working poor.

 

In these not so good times,

life has become much harder for everyone.

Few of us have escaped the belt-tightening realities 

of the new millennium.

A scary war and a shaky stock market have resulted in lay-offs

at all levels of employment.

 

Hardest hit, as always, 

are the low-wage workers 

in industries dependent on a good economy

and a sense of security.

In Santa Monica,

service workers at hotels and restaurants keep the tourism industry alive.

Yet they work for low wages,

often without benefits or recognition of their seniority.

 

And they cannot afford to live near where they work.

Already commuting long distances

from more affordable living quarters far away,

they are dependent on a fragile series of arrangements

for transportation and child care.

They have few choices, 

even in times when jobs were plentiful.

And now jobs are not so plentiful.

One report has calculated that since September 11,

one-third of tourism workers across the country 

have lost their jobs

or are down to working one or two days a week.

One hotel here laid off 25 housekeepers in one day 

just this past week.

Eviction notices may follow.

 

The plight of the working poor had already become

a human rights issue before September 11.

Now amid the anguish and anxiety of current events,

their lives are the first to fall apart,

and the last to be noticed.

Their suffering has faded into the background.

 

In a time when one grim reality presents itself after another,

we now see that the working poor

have become poorer.

They fall through the cracks;

they have no protection.

And here in our own community, 

the situation is dire.

 

A growing movement of citizens, activists and people of faith

has recognized the inequities 

inflicted upon low-wage workers.

They have formed alliances 

with labor unions and city councils

to call for a living wage,

humane working environments and affordable housing.

As those of you who live in Santa Monica already know,

there is a contentious campaign against the living wage ordinance,

and another vote still to come.

The economic issues are complex,

but the human rights question is clear:

workers deserve respect.

 

While Barbara Ehrenreich was working as a low-wage employee,

she experienced some of the indignities 

others must endure simply to have an income.

"What surprised and offended me most," she wrote,

"about the low-wage workplace...

was the extent to which one is required to surrender

one's basic civil rights and -

what boils down to the same thing -

self-respect.

I learned this," she continued,

"at the very beginning of my stint as a waitress,

when I was warned that my purse could be searched 

by management at any time.

I wasn't carrying stolen salt shakers 

or anything else of a compromising nature,

but still,

there's something about the prospect of a purse search

that makes a woman feel a few buttons short

of fully dressed."

 

It's legal, too, "if the purse is on the boss's property."

And there are other intrusions as well:

drug testing - often under embarrassing conditions;

rules against discussing grievances;

"unexplained punishments" against those 

who organize union drives.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich summed up her critique

with this arresting tirade:

"When you enter the low-wage workplace -

and many of the medium-wage workplaces as well -

you check your civil liberties at the door,

leave America and all it supposedly stands for behind,

and learn to zip your lips 

for the duration of the shift.

The consequences of this routine surrender

go beyond the issues of wages and poverty.

We can hardly pride ourselves on being the world's preeminent democracy,

after all, 

if large numbers of citizens spend half their waking hours

in what amounts, in plain terms,

to a dictatorship."

 

Think about the erosion of self-respect and personal dignity

that comes with such conditions of employment.

What happens to our human character

when we are systematically mistrusted?

We begin to see ourselves as untrustworthy

and deserving of low status.

That is not right.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich did not make deep friendships

during her short stints at low-wage jobs,

but she observed other people keenly.

What she saw was worth reporting:

"While I encountered some cynics 

and plenty of people who had learned to budget their energy," she wrote,

"I never met an actual slacker or,

for that matter, a drug addict or thief.

On the contrary, I was amazed and sometimes saddened

by the pride people took in jobs that rewarded them so meagerly,

either in wages or recognition."

 

And she also realized that what many consider unskilled work

is actually far from it.

Every job required concentration and energy,

and the need to "master new terms,

new tools,

and new skills -

from placing orders on restaurant computers

to wielding [a] backpack vacuum cleaner."

Her days ended in physical and mental exhaustion.

 

Low-wage workers do not deserve

the low status

and loss of privacy

that are the conditions of their workplace.

They deserve - as all people do -

respect,

dignity

and freedom.

That is why the plight of these workers

has become a human rights issue

and why for people of faith

it is also a religious issue.

 

Over the years I have participated in many demonstrations,

delegations to hotel managers 

and rallies in support of the hotel workers

at LAX and here in Santa Monica.

Whenever I have to make a speech or offer a prayer 

at one of these events,

I almost always say the same thing.

Our first Unitarian Universalist principle affirms

"the inherent worth and dignity of every person."

I stand with the workers to witness 

to the worth and dignity they do possess,

but which the world takes away.

And I ask the world to give back

what it takes away.

 

I am not an expert on economics or labor.

My workplace and conditions of employment 

are the best in the world.

All I have are the principles of our faith

to guide me in addressing economic injustice.

But I do know how important work is

to self-identity and self-worth.

So much of who I am is grounded

in my sense of vocation,

as it is for many of you 

who are fortunate enough

to do work you love.

I wonder how long I would last

as a housekeeper,

or waitress,

or retail clerk.

I might make it if I had a plan -

if I were saving for school,

or expecting a promotion,

or writing a book on the side.

But without a hope for the future,

I would quickly become disorganized and depressed.

Add to that a breakfast and lunch of employer-provided donuts 

because that was all I could afford,

and I would crash faster and fall farther

than it is comfortable for me to imagine.

I am grateful for my life,

my freedom

and my work.

I think everyone should have what I have -

a reasonable income,

self-respect, 

hope.

 

Carole Pateman, a distinguished political scientist on the faculty of UCLA

and a member of our congregation - 

offered a radical and humane view of income and democracy

in an important talk she gave last spring.

UCLA gave Carole the honor 

of delivering the 90th Faculty Research Lecture,

the major faculty address of the year.

In her talk, Carole proposed the concept 

of a basic income as a fundamental right in a democratic society.

Her carefully constructed argument

made a plausible case

for what sounds like a fantasy:

a basic income to assure equity in our society.

Imagine a society in which no one went hungry

and no one was demeaned by their work.

Isn't that what a democracy should look like?

 

A living wage may not even achieve the "modest but decent" income

that Carole Pateman proposed in her lecture.

But her proposal makes the living wage

look like the least a few big hotels could do

to lift up the lowest paid workers

and honor the mutuality of their need for each other.

Once again the voters can decide 

if that is the way to address economic injustice in our city.

It's a complex issue.

But however complex it may be,

the point is simple:

the first step towards economic justice

is the respectful treatment of workers 

and the protection of their rights.

 

These difficult times place new adversities before all of us.

I find hope in the vision of unity

that sees people standing together,

ordinary working people who have made a difference

with their service and selflessness.

May that unity include all the people

whose labor deserves adequate compensation,

and whose dignity commands our respect.

References for this sermon include Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001); reports from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Los Angeles, California; and UCLA Faculty Research Lecture: April 2001, The Equivalent of the Right to Land, Life, and Liberty?: Democracy and the Idea of a Basic Income, by Professor Carole Pateman.