Minimum Wage

Dan Lemon; your arguments about the Minimum Wage don't hold water.

First of all, your concern about small business. Here are the facts:

1. Not one single small business has ever gone out of business because they couldn't afford to pay their employees real living wages. Minnesota State Senator Tom Bakk made the exact same argument you are making. I asked him to provide proof... he can't provide such proof.

2. The reasons small businesses don't survive are many but here are the main reasons:

a. They can't compete with monopoly price fixing of the huge corporations.

b. Small business partners cheat and embezzle from one another causing the business to collapse.

c. High rents and mortgages.

d. High utility bills.

e. High legal expenses.

f. High insurance premiums.

I can document all of this based on actual reasons small business people have provided through bankruptcy proceedings and the records of the Small Business administration, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the National Association of Manufacturers and other trade groups.

In all of my research on why small businesses fail, I have not found one single documented case where wages are the reason for failure.

If you have such documentation by way of spread sheets or other financial records bring this documentation forward to prove your point.

The bottom line when talking about wages is that each and every worker doing a job the employer requires to be done is ENTITLED to a real living wage which means a wage that is tied to actual "cost-of-living" factors.

I don't understand why you or anyone else would take the position that any worker is entitled to any less in return for her/his labor... be it a casino worker or someone working in a convenience store or at Wal-mart or Target or McDonald's or Burger King?

If politicians or anyone else are sincerely worried that small business will suffer from the government imposing a real living wage on all employers, the solution is really quite simple.

Just exclude small businesses from Minimum Wage legislation--- allow the employer to do the work themselves or hire their spouses, grandmas and grandpas and their children to work for whatever wages they want to pay them.

Now, we have crooked and corrupt tribal politicians like Carri Jones and crooked and corrupt state and federal politicians all being bribed by corporations to keep the Minimum Wage down... paying workers a real living wage will not put any casino out of business nor will it put Wal-mart or McDonalds out of business... what will happen is their profit margins will be slightly less. These businesses are reaping super-profits from paying workers poverty wages.

Leech Lake just raised the Minimum Wage to $10.25 an hour which is now the highest legislated Minimum Wage in the United States. But, what is $10.25 compared to the profits being made by the rich white mobsters who own each and every slot machine on the floors of Leech Lake's three casinos?

Link to Leech Lake increase of Minimum Wage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOJXiX5pE2Y

Carri Jones has the gall to talk about poverty when she is only raising the Minimum Wage to one more pathetic miserly poverty wage.

What causes poverty? Poverty wages. Pay a worker poverty wages and their family is going to live in poverty. Any school child understands this--- the understanding is probably a little better if the child is going to school hungry and dressed in rags.

The energy monopolies raised the price of propane this winter. Now wages have to be increased so people can pay their propane bills. Certainly no one can claim wages are in any way responsible for propane going from $1.45 a gallon last summer to over $4.00 a gallon this winter.

Fact: most wages have been going down.

Go to the grocery store--- everything is going up in price.

Been robbed at the gas pumps lately?

Paid an electric bill lately?

Wages going down--- prices going up; your argument holds no water.

Why does Carri Jones refuse to disclose what the "take" is, the cream being skimmed off the top, by the mobsters who own the slot machines and table games and the interest rates being paid to the "investors" who put up the funds to build these casinos?

How come everyone is entitled to profits but workers are not entitled to real living wages based on what it cost them to live?

Why does Carri Jones refuse to sit down and discuss wages and working conditions and engage in discussion about a union contract?

I would be willing to sit down and discuss all of this with Carri Jones in a public forum at any time and place of her choosing.

And, by the way; what price are casino workers paying for working in these loud, noisy smoke-filled casinos? Does their health amount to anything to these corrupt creeps like Carri Jones or Archie "the come back kid" LaRose?

Casino workers get poverty wages and ill health, lousy, substandard housing--- ever taken a ride out to see how John McCarthy lives? Here is his address. Go out and see how this wealthy, rich white guy who heads up the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association lives as a result of forcing casino workers into poverty:

8925 Cove Dr NE, Bemidji, MN 56601

By the way... if you or anyone else wants to engage me in a public debate on this Minimum Wage issue, just let me know the time and place and I will be there.

By the way, why does Leech Lake gaming fire casino workers for discussing wages and working conditions? This doesn't seem too much like democracy to me.

And why does Leech Lake continue this disgraceful "At-Will Hiring and Firing" practice?

Let's get wages up there where they really should be for all workers everywhere.

You say worker's wages should be tied to profits... I assume this means you support wages for casino workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry being around $80.00 to $90.00 an hour? Come on Carri Jones... bring out the books so everyone can see how much is being made by whom in this gaming industry.

Alan L. Maki, Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council