[cross-posted, adapted from my blog,
Peace Tree Farm]
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Usually thought of as a moderately conservative newspaper -- certainly to the right of the Post-Intelligencer, the city's other daily -- the Seattle Times has shown some positive attributes recently. It was, for example, one of the first newspapers to endorse Kerry, way back on September 9, 2004.
Before that, publisher Frank Blethen made his flagship a leading voice in the battle against the Federal Ccommunications Commission and their efforts to consolidate media conglomerates. It may have been self-serving, and perhaps even a weapon in his extended battle against the P-I, but still it was valuable support in the battle against Michael Powell and his FCC. Also, while sometimes spotty, the Times did a reasonably good job of covering the Gregoire-Rossi contest.
Today's Seattle Times gives us two more reasons to think well of Blethen's paper -- a comprehensive multipart report (yes, actual journalism!) on the trials and tribulations of US Army chaplain James Yee, and an examination of a couple of corporate good guys.
Details below the fold...
The more important of the two is Ray Rivera's nine-part series
Suspicion in the ranks, an exhaustive review of the James Yee espionage investigation. While I have not read the entire series in depth, it seems evident that the primary impetus for what happened to Captain Yee arose from an extremely inexperienced, newly-arrived intelligence officer whose simplistic views were magnified by the atmosphere of paranoid xenophobia fostered by the Bush fundamentalists. While reading portions of the series, I was reminded of
The Drumhead, an episode from season 4 of
Star Trek: The Next Generation. Change a few names and a few circumstances in the episode synopsis, and you're talking about Yee at Gitmo:
When an explosion rips through the U.S.S. Enterprise's warp engine, a visiting Klingon officer is suspected of causing the disaster by providing the Romulans with schematics of the engine. An investigation begins, and Admiral Norah Satie, renowned for exposing an alien conspiracy against Starfleet, comes out of retirement to help. Based on evidence compiled by Worf, Satie quickly extracts a confession from the Klingon, J'Ddan, regarding his participation in smuggling diagrams off the ship, but he denies responsibility for the explosion. Satie's Betazoid aid Sabin confirms that J'Ddan is telling the truth, which implies to Satie that there is a co-conspirator aboard the ship.
While questioning crew members who had contact with J'Ddan in search for his co-conspirator, Sabin uses his Betazoid powers to detect that one crewman, Simon Tarses, is lying. He concludes that Tarses is one of the saboteurs. Satie insists that Picard restrict Tarses' activities aboard the ship, but the captain refuses to do so without more substantial evidence that he was actually involved. Data and Geordi later conclude that the warp engine explosion was an accident, but Satie still believes that Tarses is a traitor.
After forcing Tarses to confess that he is in fact part Romulan, Satie enlists Worf's aid in conducting a comprehensive investigation of the crewman's activities and associates. Picard is increasingly uncomfortable with the investigation and meets directly with Tarses himself. A conversation with the shaken but dedicated crewman convinces Picard of his innocence, and he appeals to Satie to stop the investigation. Satie refuses, however, informing Picard that the investigation will expand as Starfleet is sending an admiral to observe.
Angered by Picard's reluctance to aid in her search, Satie summons the captain to be interrogated as a possible traitor in a hearing observed by the Starfleet admiral. During the hearing, Picard makes an impassioned plea for her to give up the witch hunt, invoking quotes regarding freedom made by Satie's late father, a respected Starfleet judge. Consumed with finding the traitor, Satie denounces Picard for quoting her beloved father and then turns vehemently on the captain.
Satie begins to recount some of Picard's past experiences to illustrate her point that he might be a traitor. When her groundless accusations turn into an uncontrollable tirade, the room full of spectators are shocked into silence, and the Starfleet admiral walks out on the hearing in disgust. Soon afterward, the interrogation is recessed, and Worf informs Picard that the admiral has called off the hearings and that Satie has left the ship. Worf apologizes for participating in the debacle, and Picard forgives him, explaining that the price of liberty is constant vigilance.
The other valuable piece of reporting is the cover story of the Times's locally-produced Pacific Northwest Magazine section. In Good Business: Two local companies are proving it pays to do well by workers, reporter Lynda V. Mapes and photographer Tom Reese delineate the contrast between such companies as Costco Wholesale and Dick's Drive-In Restaurants, and the standard model of American corporatism.
Whether huge, public, and internationally known (Costco) or small, family-owned, and operating solely in the city of Seattle (Dick's), these two firms are linked by the way they treat their employees and their customers. Both appreciate that workers need a living wage, that workplace benefits can and should be provided to all who toil in a wealthy society, that corporate executives aren't all that different from the rest of us.
Many people have heard about the gulf between the corporate philosophies of Costco and the evil Wal-Mart. But it doesn't require the immense resources of a multi-billion dollar corporation to be able to offer generous benefits and opportunities to your employees. Dick's, which has been selling takeout burgers, fries, and shakes in Seattle for 50 years, operates in just five locations. Yet their benefits package includes:
- Lowest pay level $8.25/hour, more than a dollar above Washington's highest-in-the-nation minimum wage
- 100% employer-paid health insurance and 75% employer-subsidized dental insurance for every employee working at least 24 hours a week (over 3/4 of their employees)
- Paid community service -- they pay their workers for up to four volunteer hours per month
- Educational scholarships and childcare assistance for employees who work at least 20 hours a week for six months
- New high school grads receive college scholarships if they work full-time in the summer and 20 hours/week while in college ... $2000 the first two years, $4000 in years 3 and 4
The more I read about Dick's, the more amazing the company seems. They sell logo merchandise, and all profits from last year's 50th Anniversary Memory Book went to the company's chosen charities for the homeless. Dick's places collection boxes for those charities next to their cash registers ("Change for Charity"), and the company matches whatever is collected there.
My point, and the point of the Pacific Northwest Magazine article, is that companies can do well -- in fact, exceedingly well -- while simultaneously treating their workers as worthy and valuable human beings. It may cost Dick's and Costco somewhat more than their competitors in benefits and support for each employee, but they more than make up for that expense by retaining their workers. Recruitment and training of new employees can cost appreciably more than employee benefits. Furthermore, a stable employee pool is, almost by definition, happier, better prepared, more knowledgeable, and in all ways superior to one with constant turnover of underpaid and underappreciated newcomers. In the end, paying people equitably, supporting their efforts to better themselves, and treating them as human beings will help the workers, help the company, and help the community.