UPDATED May 28th - If you've already been here and just want the updates, scroll down.
Forgive me Kossacks, for I have sinned. It has been 5 years since my last diary. I'll try to be better. I don't live in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York anymore, but I'm keeping the handle for nostalgia. I actually moved to Holland 2 months ago: an upcoming diary will be about what its like to be a progressive American living in Western Europe.
But first: The big thing you need to know about if you didn't see it already:
The Price of Nice Nails
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Manicurists are routinely underpaid and exploited, and endure ethnic bias and other abuse, The New York Times has found.
By Sarah Maslin Nir
Thursday, May 7th, 2015
UPDATE: Eternal Hope here at DK has already diaried this article, while I was drafting: http://www.dailykos.com/.... Eternal Hope's diary makes amazing points about the immigration issues, whereas my comments below deal with the labor/wages issues.
A few of my thoughts on the NY Times article - just 3ish - below the fold.
This amazing article is by Sarah Maslin Nir, a woman I was very lucky to meet about 12 years ago. She was a great writer then, she's a great journalist now. There are so many industries across America where wages are being pushed down, and the people who make the profit are exploiting the unemployed and under-employed. In the case of nail salon workers, throw in uncertainty about being deported, minimum wage laws regularly broken, and the fact that they are considered tipped workers, and its a truly sad situation. But there's hope!
A few thoughts before you go over and read the whole thing:
1. This is the kind of journalism that saves lives. And its not cheap. Translators need to be employed, research isn't free, etc. etc. Another reason we probably need to get comfortable paying for content.
2. How to be a Responsible Manicure Consumer?
Glad to see the NYS Dept. of Labor is involved. But we can also make progress here as consumers. The question is how. According to another must-read article by Stephen Lurie at VOX, though we have labels for organic, cage-free, and other qualities, "There isn't a stand-alone certification out there that certifies good labor practices." http://www.vox.com/... The fair trade label - which I have been supporting through my huge coffee consumption since 1999 - tells me nothing about the wage of the cashier in America who might sell me fair trade coffee. Lurie points out that workers at health food stores are asked all kinds of questions about the ethics and quality of the products in their store, and nothing about the wages of people who work in the store. I see the irony, but I'm going to defend the consumer here. I consider myself an ethical (if imperfect) consumer, and I can't imagine walking into an organic food store and asking someone who works there if the employees are paid a fair wage. This may be because I'm a WASP and therefore inclined to avoid rocking the boat in interpersonal communications.
But lets set aside my WASP excuse and break it down a little. First, it's like I'm asking the person how much they make, and that seems rude. Second, they may not know and be embarrassed to ask their manager. Third, they - or their manager - might lie to me. This has happened to me with fair trade coffee before. But I think there's one big thing that would change my mind: A movement. If I could be assured that others were asking this question and not just me, I would have the chutzpah to ask about wages and labor practices.
Back to Nail Salons:
Could their be a movement to ask the manager at a nail salon how the workers are treated, maybe hand them Sarah Maslin Nir's article, and log their reaction - both verbal and non-verbal - into an app/database/something? I've only gotten a manicure once in my life, but I would do it more often if I knew where to go. For certification, maybe B-Corp is the way to go? http://en.wikipedia.org/... Also, maybe a nail salon app based on ROC's app for diners to choose restaurants that treat their employees well: http://rocunited.org/... Just throwing out ideas here. I live in eastern Holland now, but I consider myself a New Yorker for life, so I am ready to participate in any good projects on this.
3. Sidebar: Tippy Hedron
Apparently, one of the reasons so many women in the nail salon industry are Vietnamese is that Hollywood actor Tippi Hedron (Hitchcock: The Birds) met a group of Vietnamese women war refugees in the 70s in California: https://www.takepart.com/...
Ms. Hedron then started a very entrepreneurial-philanthropic project to teach them a marketable skill. This seems to have been a great success for the relative economic well-being of these women. However, reading the whole article about Tippy, there's an implication that it worked because the Vietnamese woman could compete by having lower prices for consumers. That's not in itself wrong; its capitalism in a democracy. But from a broader macroeconomic perspective, the pushing down of prices for the manicure consumer seems to a big part of the problem of exploitation of the manicurist. On the other hand, we can't just assume that a higher consumer price means that workers are being paid better. So reliable oversight is needed.
Once again, here's the link to the New York Times article by Sarah Maslin Nir: http://www.nytimes.com/...
I'm not sure if I am supposed to link or copy and paste. I'm a little rusty on Kossack writing culture, but I'll get it together soon.
Groetjes from Nijmegen, Holland!
Thu May 28, 2015 at 1:10 AM PT: I am joyfully overwhelmed with how much traction this story has been getting. Mayor de Blasio's office has been on this: Julie Menin, NYC's consumer affairs Czar, sent an email seeking volunteers to help educate nail salon workers. It was a huge success - here's Sarah Maslin Nir's follow up article in the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Gov. Cuomo is also involved. Laura Clawson here at DK has posted updates in DK Labor, including the effort to make nail salons "bonded" which would improve workers access to lost wages:
http://www.dailykos.com/...