To understand rising inequality, consider the janitors at Kodak and Apple, then and now

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | September 3, 2017 | Neil Irwin

[artichokegrower]

Gail Evans and Marta Ramos have one thing in common: They have each cleaned offices for one of the most innovative, profitable and all-around successful companies in the United States.

[artichokegrower]

There is little chance for building connections at Apple. "Everyone is doing their own thing and has their own assignment, and we don't see each other outside of work," said Ramos in Spanish.

Interesting article showing the difference in corporate culture that has developed in America. This little excerpt shows the difference between the opportunities offered Gail Evans and Marta Ramos. Ramos is an unmarried mother of four that does not speak English. What does the future hold for her, regardless of how hard she works, not much.

[dynachrome]

Another illegal?

[OttawaFreeper]

I got a little chuckle out of this when remembering that Rochester tended to be fairly Republican leaning back in those days, but the woman at Kodak got these much nicer benefits than the woman at Apple today who works in the heart of Democrat Kalifornia.

[9YearLurker]

More labor law unintentional consequences—plus, of course, illegals.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Here's a good way to never advance in your career in America: never learn English.

[artichokegrower]

Shows why the ultra liberal power brokers of Silicon Valley are such big supporters of Obamacare. They contract out all of the services such as janitorial don’t provide any benefits and demand that the taxpayers pick up the tab.

[Zathras]

Back 30 years ago in Silicon Valley, this is where SEIU was born.
It all began with “Janitors for Justice” with the same sob story.
Now Janitors are unionized under SEIU and they still have no future.

BUT SEIU is now the most powerful Union in the country.
This was the REAL reason for “Janitors for Justice”

[Alberta's Child]

I give them credit for admitting something so obvious in this article:

Perhaps the biggest indictment of the more paternalistic approach taken by an earlier generation of corporate behemoths is that Kodak is a shell of its former self. After a bankruptcy and many years of layoffs, the company has only 2,700 employees in the United States and 6,100 worldwide.

It's becoming more and more clear over time that this is one of these things that gets put into the "unsolvable problems" category.

[Chode]

maybe try learning ENGLISH!!!

[Fungi]

Two bedroom apartment, four children. No husband? The SF Chronicle is always short on facts with sob stories such as this. How did she get into this predicament? After having four children, you would think she would pick up a little English. No sense to go on with the obvious.

[txrefugee]

Can’t wait for the robots to take over Ramos’s job. No more sob stories by Lefty newspapers that a single mother of four who doesn’t speak English is not thriving in the USA. Robots don’t get pregnant.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

The point of the article is clear.

Ramos should quit her job, move to Rochester, NY, and work as a janitor for Kodak.

[Chode]

[erlayman]

Pay for janitors fell by 4 to 7 percent, and for security guards by 8 to 24 percent, in U.S. companies that outsourced, Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Ethan Kaplan of Stockholm University found in a 2010 paper.

_____________________________________________________
But at least both jobs and pay are rising today. Even by admission of the article, janitorial pay is comparable to Kodak.

[TADSLOS]

Bingo.

[KarlInOhio]

Nice anecdotal article. Pick the one Kodak janitor who got an education and moved up in the company and compare her to the woman who has to answer questions in Spanish. How many Kodak janitors stayed as janitors their whole career?

Also I noticed that no mention was made of the increase of immigration. Vastly increase the supply of no-skill labor and don't be surprised that the wages and benefits for them decline. I don't know whether Ramos is a citizen, legal immigrant or illegal, but even if she is a citizen the value of her labor is driven down and the price of her housing is driven up by the huge amount of immigration. Don't demand an open border and then in the same breath cry about wage stagnation.

[artichokegrower]

” Before overtime and taxes, her $16.60 an hour works out to $34,520 a year.”

In the liberal utopia of California Ramos is provided a Section 8 housing subsidy, Covered California medical insurance, EBT food subsidy, WIC program, free education for the kids, free day care at the school. I wish Apple would quit contracting out jobs such as hers, provide benefits and stop pushing off operating costs onto the taxpayer.

[OttawaFreeper]

I wonder if the author of the article would care to study how and why companies like Kodak and Xerox got their starts in Rochester. I bet (particularly in Eastman’s day), businesses and people gave way considerably less to government back then and as a result, those and other businesses elsewhere in upstate New York could develop and grow to where they were by my lifetime (as a kid in the 1970s and 1980s watching Rochester TV stations in my locale).

[Fungi]

Excellent points.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Kodak had an American custodian and Apple has an illegal alien.

That’s the big change from America to Amexico.