January 29, 2009

I can't tell if he's joking…

By: Sonny Bunch

Over at The Plank, they linked to Jon Chait’s 1997 story about Chait’s evening as a coat checker at the Omni Shoreham during a trio of inaugural balls. In it, he agitates for unionization amongst his fellow “underpaid” coat checkers ($6/hr, plus tips). It’s humorous, in its own way, mostly because of the way things turn out: due to disorganization among Mr. Chait’s brethren, everyone’s coat get thrown into a big pile and a near-riot breaks out when they aren’t dispensed in an orderly fashion as the evening winds down.

It’s a pretty fantastic microcosm for the mindset of unionizers: we do such a crappy job, and at such low wages too! Would they have done a better job if they were paid more? Doesn’t seem like it. Sounds like they were probably paid more than they were worth in the first place.