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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2012)
Opinion Trashing Workers to Balance Budget “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. C ongress is on fire to bal- ance the federal budget, and they don’t care who they take as prisoners in the process. There are at least two proposals to freeze federal salaries for yet another year (they have been frozen since 2011), and to continue to demonize federal workers as do-nothing folks who don’t need raises. Meanwhile, President Obama has asked for a minimal half percent a year increase while many in the private sector are seeing wages rise. Of course, everyone is struggling with unemployment rates rising to 8.2 percent. Still, it is onerous that federal employees seem to be bearing the brunt of this budget crisis. It is even worse when we under- stand that African Americans make up 17.4 percent of the feder- al workforce, compared to 10.1 percent of the civilian labor force. Of course, the higher the pay grade, the fewer African Ameri- cans. Whatever the pay grade, it is clear that African Americans are far more likely to get proportional pay in the federal government than in the private sector. Thus, pro- posals to cut federal pay dispro- portionately affect African Americans. Somebody could per- haps argue that cuts are race neu- tral, but I’m not buying. The fact is that the federal government has been most open to African Ameri- can workers, and most willing to offer relatively equal pay. Too many would like to charac- terize government workers as inef- fective without looking at the fact that most federal government and B ENNETT C OLLEGE Julianne Malveaux private workers do their jobs and then some. Everybody can tell tri- fling somebody-done-me-wrong songs, but the real deal is most workers do their best. Those members of Congress that target federal workers ought to look long at hard and the results they get from the folks who process Social Security checks, manage veterans’ benefits, move money from the federal government to state and local governments, and manage the process. These folks need kudos not the killing remarks that suggest that they don’t earn their money. It’s a rough job market and many, including federal employ- ees, make the choice to take pay who have steady and well-paid employment, but at the same time, who wants to work without appre- ciation or a raise? Does our Con- gress cut off our nose to spite our face by targeting federal employ- ees? As a CEO, I’ve had to preside over the difficult task of imposing pay freezes and hoping that my staff would understand that frozen pay is better than no pay or lay- It is even worse when we understand that African Americans make up 17.4 percent of the federal workforce, compared to 10.1 percent of the civilian labor force offs. At the same time, I shudder when I think that our federal gov- ernment cannot appreciate, even in a small way, those who keep our trains running, our balls in the air, How can Congress push to maintain Bush tax cuts, but fail to raise wages for federal employees? freezes instead of looking for other work. Are we losing some of our best employees, though, when we impose a freeze for the third year in a row? It may be hard for some others to sympathize with folks federal employees? There are two reasons that I am passionate about this. First, although many federal workers earn more than $150,000 a year, too many, mostly Black women, are at the GS-1 to GS-4 level, earning less than $40,000 annual- ly. These women raise families, send children to school and over- come odds. They need a raise. They aren’t going to get it from a our elders compensated, our work done. Half a percent is a small amount, and it hits those at the bottom, not the top. How can Congress push to maintain Bush tax cuts, but fail to raise wages for Congress that demonizes govern- ment workers, and that is a tragedy. Secondly, African Amer- icans are more likely to get fair treatment from a civil service sys- tem than from the ordinary labor market, and it seems that this is a reason that some legislators seem to go after government employees. While Congress must be prudent about our budget, they shouldn’t take it out of the hide of govern- ment workers, especially those at the very bottom. There is no fair- ness in freezing government salaries while other salaries rise. Julianne Malveaux is a Wash- ington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Florida, Again, Center of Vote Suppression R ecent attempts to prevent voters of color in Florida from fully exercising their constitutional right to vote suf- fered twin blows last week. First, on Thursday, the Federal District Court in Miami granted a prelimi- nary injunction effectively block- ing several key provisions of Florida’s new and restrictive voter registration laws. Calling the new registration requirements “oner- ous,” the judge sided with the National Urban League, our Flori- da affiliates and a coalition of civil rights and voting rights groups who believe that these illegitimate and burdensome restrictions have only one purpose – to suppress the votes of millions of Floridians. A second victory for voting rights occurred on Thursday when the U.S. Department of Justice Voting Section informed Florida’s Secretary of State that the state’s current effort to purge voting rolls – allegedly to keep non-citizens from voting – was likely in viola- tion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Reg- istration Act. The state has target- ed about 2,700 so-called ineligible voters for removal from the rolls unless they provide proof of citi- zenship within 30 days. The effort is so flawed that hundreds of legal residents, including several heroic World War II veterans, have received insulting letters demand- ing proof of citizenship. In its letter challenging the Page 4 The Portland Skanner June 13, 2012 T O B E E QUAL Marc Morial state’s actions, the Justice Depart- ment said that Florida failed to comply with Section 5 of the Vot- ing Rights Act because it has not, as required, submitted any changes affecting voting to the federal court or the U.S. Attorney General for review. The letter also stated that under the National Voter Registration Act, any pro- gram to eliminate ineligible per- sons from the voting rolls must be completed 90 days prior to a fed- eral primary or general election and must be “uniform and non- discriminatory.” With Florida’s primary slated for Aug. 14, the state has clearly missed the dead- line. And with Hispanics compris- These federal rulings are a victo- ry for Floridians and for those of us on the front lines working to protect one of our most precious rights – the right to vote. Let’s not forget that because of voting irreg- ularities in Florida, including clear instances of voter suppression, a mere total of 537 votes and the ‘We must fight voter suppression, we must educate citizens so that new laws won’t catch them unaware on Election Day, and we must empower them to get to the polls’ — National Urban League 2012 State of Black America – Occupy the Vote United States Supreme Court decided the 2000 presidential elec- tion. The nation vowed to never let that happen again. But, Florida Hundreds of legal residents, including several heroic World War II veterans, have received insulting letters demanding proof of citizenship ing the majority of those targeted by this measure, we believe it also fails the non-discrimination test. across the country. The National Urban League’s “Occupy the Vote” campaign has made the protection of voting rights our No. 1 issue in 2012. We are calling on citizens to join us in the fight against voter suppression laws that are clearly designed to keep people of color, students, the has emerged as a key battleground in a new and unprecedented war on voter rights currently underway elderly and people with disabili- ties from the polls. We have also teamed up with the NAACP to sponsor a voter empowerment hot- line to enable callers to register to vote and report problems: 1-866- MYVOTE-1. Nothing will have a greater impact on the future of Black America in 2012 than the vote. That is why we will contin- ue the fight to remove barriers and empower all citizens to fully exer- cise this precious right. Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League
