[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Newt Gingrich Thinks School Children Should Work as Janitors The GOP presidential candidate wants nine-year-olds to work as janitors. It's not merely a crazy plan (although it's plenty crazy). It's also evidence of a deep disrespect for and ignorance of American work. ______ Last Friday, during an event at Harvard, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich offered up a modest plan for alleviating poverty in the United States. It was time, he said, to relax our "truly stupid" child labor laws. In particular, schools should fire their unionized janitors, and hire children as young as nine to do the work instead. Per The New York Times: This suggestion is, on its face, insane. It sounds like a bad Stephen Colbert joke. But if you stop and consider its merits for a minute or two...well no, it's still quite insane. And if you spend an evening researching the nitty gritty of what public school custodians actually do for a living, it turns out to be downright cruel. It's not really worth engaging Gingrich's idea as a serious policy suggestion. I just don't see the buckets-and-books plan getting much traction in Congress. But his comments are worth dwelling on for a moment, because they're a jarring illustration of Gingrich's casual disdain for American workers. My assumption is that Gingrich disagrees with the critics who quickly called his plan "Dickensian." Instead, he probably believes that janitorial work is a relatively safe, mindless occupation on par a paper route or neighborhood car wash. Otherwise, there's no reason to think a child could handle it. So what do janitors actually do? It's a lot more than mopping. To get a sense, look over this job description for a New York City public school custodial engineer--a "master janitor," as Gingrich would put it. He and his team of cleaners and handymen are responsible for cleaning, yes. That part involves hazardous chemicals like hydrochloric acid. They also operate the school's heating system, do electrical repairs, maintain the school grounds, take care of the HVAC equipment, and handle basic plumbing fixes, among other assorted jobs. I ask: What parent wants a nine-year-old, or even a thirteen-year-old, toying with the HVAC in her school? None. Because this is hard. It's adult work. It can also be brutal on your health. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, janitors miss work due to on-the-job injuries more often than almost any other occupation. They rank in the top seven on that statistic, along police officers and construction workers. Janitors get splashed with corrosive chemicals. They injure their backs bending over mops and toilets all day. These aren't concerns you take lightly. It would be easy to chalk Gingrich's comments up simply to his well-known animus towards unions. But I don't think that quite explains it. Rational people can argue about how much someone should be paid to clean. An average school janitor makes $12.45 an hour. It's not an extravagant amount, but it approaches a living wage for a single person living in some areas. In some places, the unionized janitors may well be making too much. There are plenty of school districts that outsource their cleaning to private firms. But that decision starts from the respectful assumption that maintaining a school is something worthwhile for an adult to spend their lives on. That's not the case in Gingrich's worldview. Forget that an adult might need that job to put food on the table for their own children. Forget that he's suggesting we flood an ailing job market with part time, minimum-wage-earning students. This isn't about labor economics. It's about respect, and the fact that the leading Republican presidential candidate doesn't have a spit's worth of it for manual labor. In his eyes, a janitor's job just doesn't mean much. It's so easy, a child could do it. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 24.
#1. To: GreyLmist (#0)
Enough for me. Custodians do Not do electrical or HVAC work.
Right again, my friend. Basic duties may include swapping readily accessible (those that don't require a scissor lift) light bulbs and fluorescent tubes and perhaps replacing wall switches. They may also change filters in HVAC air handlers and plunge and perhaps run a hand snake through a clogged toilet. They don't pull squirrel cages or replace fan motors or bearings, and they certainly don't change gas or oil valves or burner assemblies. And any electrical troubleshooting beyond a tripped breaker that resets without tripping again would require a qualified union electrician to respond. The hospitals here even hire electricians but they don't do anything but show the outside contractor electrician where the problem seems to be. You can bet that the unions in New York don't allow a custodian to do any work beyond what a home owner would do before calling qualified mechanics and techs for service problems. And, another thing. When I was about 10 yrs old I lived across the street from the first integrated school in Norfolk, and I used to go over at night and sit with the "negro janitor", and I sometimes went with him as he attended to the notes left for him. (e.g., melted roofing tar on the gym floor that leaked down in hot summer weather) He let me try working a mop and a bucket with wringer, and I busted my ass trying to work that heavy wet mop and wringing it in the bucket. Is Newt proposing that scaled down mops be made for 9 yr olds? Are we to return to the era when high speed looms and weaving machines were built low enough or had steps to accommodate child labor? (and no guards over dangerous moving parts) Can you imagine a 14 yr old requiring surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome after 5 years of arduous, repetitive labor?
Newt and his Contract had his chance and TOTALLY screwed the pooch on us. Newt will not do in '12.
Newt will not do in '12. He really is a dented can, isn't he?
There are no replies to Comment # 24. End Trace Mode for Comment # 24.
Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest |
||
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|