OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2017
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
LEFT: Workers navigate scaffolding underneath the Astoria Bridge as repairs which began in 2009 continue to be made to the structure. MIDDLE: Jesse Trott, with the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program in Cannon Beach, is just one of a group of volunteers who spend time providing information to visitors about how to responsibly admire the iconic location.
RIGHT: Joe Sheamos makes repairs to boat parts at West Coast Propeller Service in Warrenton.
Workplaces change, but labor
makes the world go ’round
W
hen Labor Day was born in 1883,
the holiday was a big deal for work-
ers. And that was an America rife with
large factories and their assembly lines. In
ways we can hardly imagine, industrialists
including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison
introduced innovations and new techniques
that transformed an essentially agrarian
society into an urban one.
Compare old photographs of workers
from a century ago with people today and
it becomes apparent that Americans our-
selves have changed in amazing ways,
growing both upward and in circumfer-
ence. Today, even the poorest among us are
better fed and far more advantaged than
average citizens were at the start of the
modern labor movement.
Positive changes don’t occur spon-
taneously. Individual men and women,
working with intelligence and tenacity,
deserve our gratitude for incrementally
making the United States a nation which,
for all its flaws, is still the wonder of our
age. Last year’s contentious election, what-
ever one thinks of the outcome, brought a
sharp focus on problems faced by work-
ing Americans and the ways in which we
need to renew our commitments to ensur-
ing decent pay for decent work.
While all manner of things have
changed, the idea of honoring labor
remains an honorable aspect of this nation.
Ultimately, those toiling in anonymity are
far more worthy of our thanks than the
famous captains of industry. Our families
exist because of the labor of our parents
and grandparents.
H
ere on the Lower Columbia River, the
Columbia River Fishermen’s Protec-
tive Union was perhaps the most visible of
several active organizations that struggled
to level the scales of economic and politi-
cal power on behalf of laborers. It wasn’t
unusual for multiple men to die each sea-
son in the small, open fishing boats of
that era. Meanwhile, fishermen vied with
salmon packers over a penny or two per
pound for the big Chinook that were the
foundation of our economy.
The power of local companies and
workers ebbed and flowed over the years.
In bad times like the 1930s, many compa-
nies failed and the jobs they provided dis-
appeared. Firms that survived were often
the ones with the best long-term partner-
ships with fishermen and canning workers.
These companies looked after employees
and their employees returned the favor.
This collaboration between labor and
capital in bringing about success is still
robust in places like the communities of
the Lower Columbia. The owners of com-
panies on the scale that prosper here under-
stand that good workers are absolutely
indispensable. And workers here are close
enough to the front lines of capitalism to
seldom take their jobs for granted.
These partnerships between employ-
ers and employees are at risk in the giant
corporations that wield so much power in
the nation beyond our cherished coast. The
thought of companies transferring their real
or symbolic headquarters to foreign nations
in order to deprive the U.S. of tax revenue
should revolt us all. Citizenship — whether
by individuals or corporations — is a two-
way street. Those who prosper thanks to
the advantages created by our great nation
must in turn be willing to help pay for it.
Corporations that enjoy the protections of
American laws, shouldn’t wiggle out of tax
obligations by moving their symbolic legal
residence to another nation. President Don-
ald Trump and other leaders are right to
speak out about the need for better corpo-
rate citizenship — but must match mean-
ingful actions with their stirring rhetoric.
O
ur economy has been transformed
in recent decades. Economic recov-
ery has been uneven, delivering far more
wealth to a few, while most Americans
work within the context of a globalized
labor market that tends to keep wages
down. This has created feelings of anger
and insecurity that were greatly reflected
in last year’s presidential politics. Now, we
must take steps to address these concerns.
Even so, working conditions and job fair-
ness are a quantum leap better than they
were in our grandparents’ time. All Amer-
icans living today still benefit from the
transformations in labor laws and attitudes
that came to permeate 20th-century society.
Although you don’t have to look far
to uncover derogatory attitudes toward
unions, the fair-employment initiatives that
were led by organized labor groups are key
to everything from minimum wages, bars
on child labor, safe working conditions,
employer-provided health insurance and a
host of other things we take for granted.
In good times, some Americans con-
sider labor rights and organizations to
be sort of expensive extravagances. But
even as the overall economy continues to
improve, it still behooves Americans and
our leaders to empower labor in ways that
ensure future economic health, and a bal-
ance of power between corporations and
everyday citizens.
Families struggle to pay for the educa-
tion children require for the technologically
demanding jobs of the future. Health care,
once one of the near-certainties of mid-
dle-class employment, remains a source of
worry. In the aftermath of the Great Reces-
sion, personal financial well-being still
seems less secure than it was half a cen-
tury ago. For these reasons and more, it’s
important we always pay attention to the
details of working life.
The victories of the past can leak away
when we’re not watching.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Traveling is easy, escaping is hard
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
F
olks love to remember the
words of former Mayor Don
Larson, who shaped the
tone and tenor of
Seaside during
his long and
productive time in
city government.
A “Don Larson
meeting,” for
example, is a city
meeting run with efficiency and
timeliness, without the baggage and
verbiage some cities endure.
I remember the former mayor
commenting that although he loved
Seaside’s events — Hood to Coast,
the beach volleyball championship
— the crowds here in Seaside set
his vacation time in motion. I can
relate.
After settling in Seaside this
spring, I saw firsthand the transition
the city takes when June turns the
corner into July and visitors swell
the city’s streets and fill the local
eateries. A confluence of events —
including the 90th birthday of my
father — took me out of Seaside
for my summer vacation, a vacation
bookended by national, local and
planetary events.
I arrived in Saugatuck, Mich-
igan, a little tourist town on the
eastern side of Lake Michigan,
as events in Charlottesville, Vir-
ginia, were unfolding. My father, a
longtime civil rights activist, was
surprisingly calm as we shuffled
from the news channels — CNN,
MSNBC, Fox — and watched the
hate unfold, culminating in the
violent death of Heather Heyer. I
think I was more worked up about
it — he a veteran of the March
on Washington for Jobs and Free-
dom in August 1963 and at the side
of Martin Luther King Jr. again in
Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
My father was immersed in a
book on the French Revolution and
as the latest words of our presi-
dent wound up my internal coil of
outrage, I was surprised by his rel-
ative calm. “People shouldn’t be
surprised,” he said, only barely
raising his eyes above the top of his
book. “They knew what they were
getting.”
Juggling act
After a bit of pique, I decided to
follow his lead and enjoy the vaca-
tion, which with every political
turn seemed to be more and more
of a juggling act. My most recent
Seaside Signal piece showcased
Seaside’s newest entertainment
venue, the Inverted Experience,
subtly influencing me to feel that
the world right now is somewhat
upside down. Even the beach book
I had chosen, “Submission,” by
Michel Houellebecq, was painfully
intense and profoundly political, a
dark comedy about a world where
the Muslim Brotherhood accede to
power in contemporary France.
Yet vacation time it was and
time to soldier on. Fortunately, Sau-
gatuck — a sort of amalgam of
beach tourist communities from
Cape Cod to Cannon Beach, with
a heavy emphasis on weekenders
from Chicago — offered the per-
fect respite, in fact, one of the local
coffee bars in nearby Douglas was
called Respite. Acclimating myself
to humid summer clime for the first
time since my debarquement on the
Oregon Coast, I put down my dou-
ble shot Americano and strolled the
streets, bouncing from boutiques to
sandwich joints and always looking
for an authentic Chicago-style hot
dog. I took a riverboat with 80 of
my new best friends up the Kalam-
azoo River to the mouth of Lake
Michigan, drinking a Leinenkugel
Lemon Shandy under the beating
sun. I found a hot dog place in Hol-
land, Michigan, that served the Chi-
cago dogs, but these couldn’t hold
a candle to Ruby’s in Seaside or
Mudd Dogs in Manzanita. Dad had
the TV tuned to the Detroit Tigers
games; they were dropping a series
to the Rangers. Apparently they’re
not having much of a season.
I read the local paper, The Com-
mercial Record, which was headlin-
ing a spat between the city govern-
ment and the district fire chief over
concerns from the that city officials
were “subverting” his authority. In
turn, officials responded: “There
was no give and take on anything.”
And world news kept seeping in
as I lingered on the deck of the
Uncommon Coffee Roasters drink-
ing Americanos and reading the
Chicago Tribune and Grand Rap-
ids Press.
Reconnecting
As family began to arrive for a
celebration of Dad’s 90th, I recon-
nected with John, an in-law and
former suburban cop injured in the
line of duty. He had been patrolling
Highway 41 in Lake County, Illi-
nois, and pulled over a suspect who
attempted to flee. The suspect was
apprehended, but not without resis-
tance; John was to face three back
surgeries, and remains on disabil-
ity. After my own running accident
in May, I was familiar with the pain
scale. I asked John what his pain
level — a scale from one to 10,
with 10 being the highest — was
on a day-to-day basis. Was it a two?
No, he said. Four? He shook his
head. Six? He nodded. I couldn’t
imagine living with that kind of
pain on a daily basis. He blamed
illegal immigrants and lax policy
DAVID F. PERO, Editor & Publisher
for his pain — the suspect had been
an undocumented immigrant. The
conversation stirred some complex
if controlled discussion from other
visitors, including family mem-
bers Bill and Susie from Charlotte,
North Carolina, who had lived
through riots after the shooting of
20-year-old Keith Lamont Scott
was killed by a city police offi-
cer. Both the victim and the officer
were black. The shooting led to two
nights of increasingly violent pro-
test. Protesters threw rocks and bot-
tles; police deployed tear gas. Three
TV reporters were assaulted, one of
whom ended up hospitalized.
As in Charlottesville, the narra-
tive becomes increasingly clouded
depending on what news chan-
nel you have on. Bill urged a
more nuanced view than John, but
clearly no minds were going to be
changed.
It was a good thing the tele-
vision remained muted as we all
gathered together to salute my dad.
Among his guests was a 104-year-
old woman: “And she came to visit
me,” he later said sheepishly.
I closed out my visit with some
St. Louis style baby back ribs at
Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill
before setting the alarm for 4:30
a.m. to board the Delta flight from
Grand Rapids to Portland, with a
layover in Minneapolis.
I felt momentarily relieved
— I had accomplished my mis-
sion. It hadn’t been easy but I had
lost myself for a week and finally
turned off the cable news.
There was an eclipse here in
Oregon, and with it, I knew, the sun
would shine again.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Can-
non Beach Gazette.
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