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Hospital Wage Hike Indicated
News Post Editorial
(September 22, 1959)
Refusal of the Johns Hopkins Hospital management to recognize an
AFL-CIO unit as bargaining representative of some 1,100 of its
nonprofessional employees is fully understandable. Direction by any collective outside influence in so vital an area as
services to the sick and injured opens undesirable vistas. This despite the union's assertion of the willingness of workers to
enter into a binding agreement never to disrupt work schedules. But the hospital's statement that average pay of those in the group
is 90 cents an hour and that 85 of them are getting the beginning wage
of 75 cents an hour attracts notice. It cites fringe benefits it values
at between 6 1/2 and 15 1/2 cents an hour.
The hospital says the scale "compares favorably" with the
pay of those in similar occupations. It gives no figures in
substantiation and none readily are available. We hope the comparison is erroneous, for the hospital's scale does
not indicate even near adequate living wages. At 90 cents an hour for
the 40-hour week the gross cash pay is $36. At 75 cents it is $30.
Fringe benefits are valuable, but they do not provide basic home
necessities. Modest pay increases were granted for the current year. The fact that
the hospital is operating at a deficit does not mitigate the personal
financial situation of the workers. Perhaps a more substantial pay scale is indicated by the hospital's
own figures.
The dispute between Hopkins and Local 491 has thus far been carried
out by . . . Long Distance . . .through official and rather barbed
letters. In a situation that could drastically affect the community,
there has not yet been a personal meeting between the two primary
figures -- Dr. Russell A. Nelson, director of the hospital, and Oliver
W. Singleton, director of the AFL-CIO regional council. They have never
met, yet the strength of their wills--representing two vastly different
philosophies--may ultimately decide whether there is to be a hospital
strike in Baltimore. A private, quiet meeting between these two individuals--both
intelligent men of integrity--would go far to clear the air. A
controversy of this magnitude needs at least mutual understanding
between opponents. It cannot be achieved through the mails.
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Jubilee: The Emergence of African-American Culture
By Howard Dodson
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies. As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately. Authors include
Amiri Baraka ,Gail Lumet Buckley, Henry Louis Gates
Jr., and Annette Gordon-Reed
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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