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Date Posted: 13:02:01 11/06/13 Wed
Author: Buc2
Author Host/IP: 23.25.106.209
Subject: Why stop at retail?
In reply to: New CeebŪ 's message, "So that's it, then?" on 12:51:23 11/06/13 Wed

>
>>My daughter works in the retail industry. Why doesn't
>>she deserve to be able to take the holiday and spend
>>it with her family? For retail workers, there is no
>>choice. There is no, "take the day off". There is
>>"be here or be fired".
>
>There's no alternative than shaming campaigns,
>boycotts and legislation?
>
>Here's what I did, when I was pulling holiday shifts
>twenty years ago:
>(Mind you, there were other reasons why the
>noon-to-4:00 window was difficult on Thanksgiving
>Thursday...like divorce-split families and travel
>time. In other words, this situation is nothing at all
>new...nor is it outrageous and egregious.)
>
>First, at retail, we split shifts into 4-hour
>increments. Or some of us bargained for Christmas over
>Thanksgiving in a "rotation" sense. There was
>flexibility to a certain extent. We worked together to
>help each other. (Plus it was a double-time wage day!
>I requested the Turkey Day shift on occasion.)
>
>Next, our family simply postponed the meal or held off
>desserts. We played around with timing so everyone
>could be included in the "gathering" sense of it one
>way or another. A few times (and again this year,
>consequently) we held a Thanksgiving feast on Friday
>to accommodate schedules.
>
>Finally, and most importantly, we didn't forget the
>spirit of the thing. If we missed the first helpings,
>we were still thankful for the re-heats. Somebody
>making you a plate and warming it for you is perhaps
>the most gracious behavior of all. People choosing to
>sit in the kitchen whilst I ate over the sink, to
>converse with me, was every bit as important a
>Thanksgiving moment as any.
>
>Hell, a carload of us took a dinner plate to a working
>relative one year! Is that not, in its own way, even
>more memorable?
>
>Radical capitalism can't take away any of that unless
>you somehow let it. It can be made to work. I've seen
>it.

First of all, what you said was the same in my family. My mom was a server (we called em waitresses back then). Do you think she EVER got a Thanksgiving or Xmas day off? Pfft! Maybe if she happened to be between jobs when one of those 2 holidays rolled around. In other words, very rarely. There was no dad in the picture, so us kids just had to get things down during hours she wasn't at work. After that, I was in the navy. How many holidays do you think I got off then?

Anyway, as I was saying, why stop at retail? How 'bout our police, fire and doctors? How 'bout our military and the folks at the power companies? Tons of people have to work on these holidays. It's not just retailers. If the people don't want the stores open, THEY have the power to stop it. That's all I was saying. I certainly do not want to see some sort of government buttinsky laws legislating it.

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