opinion@dailylobo.com
When I was growing up, I was taught the rule of law is necessary in a democratic society. Our teachers explained that the laws by which we choose to be governed are simply a set of rules agreed upon by the majority of our fellow citizens. We learned that if we ever thought a law was bad or a new law was needed, we could write to our congressional representative, or whomever, to have it fixed.
You’ve heard the spiel before. All laws start out as bills. A bill is introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, it goes to committee, and then on the floor it is debated and voted on. If one house of Congress approves the bill, it is sent to the other house for alterations and a vote. Once both houses approve versions of the bill, they must reconcile their versions so that they match. Finally the bill goes to the president to sign. Of course, if the president doesn’t like the bill, he can veto it. The House and the Senate can overturn the veto with a two-thirds vote.
The process is essentially the same in state and local politics, except that the governor or other local representative signs the bill. The federal government only gets involved if the law is determined to be unconstitutional.
The point is if you don’t like a law, as a citizen in a democracy there are legal means available to you to change it — if enough people agree with you. The system is set up that way. A democratic society cannot exist if citizens pick and choose which laws they intend to obey. Under those conditions, the concept of democracy is irrelevant. That scenario is more akin to anarchy. Good community members can’t simply ignore the laws they don’t agree with. Case in point: I can foresee many difficulties if I suddenly decided that I didn’t like all of those stop signs in my neighborhood.
A new minimum wage law was recently passed by 66 percent of voters in the city of Albuquerque. The law took effect in January.
Controversy erupted last month when a whistle-blower came forward and publicly accused local business owner Eric Szeman of forcing the whistle-blower and his fellow co-workers to sign agreements stating they would continue to work for the old minimum wage, in violation of the new city ordinance.
Kevin O’Leary, former employee at Eric Szeman’s Route 66 Malt Shop, made the allegations in February, after he complained to his bosses and saw his work hours cut. Eric Szeman admitted to reporters that he was still paying his wait staff the old tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour instead of the legally mandated $3.83.
At first, Eric Szeman and his son Andrew were defiant. They derided O’Leary and tried to characterize him as nothing more than a disgruntled employee. They made a variety of excuses to justify the illegal actions to the local media, first saying it was the workers’ idea to take the pay cut, then blaming the economy and finally claiming it was because of Lent. Eric Szeman admitted the malt shop would go bankrupt if it was forced to comply with the new city ordinance.
A protest was quickly organized by community activists, and when picketers showed up in front of the malt shop, the Szemans confronted them. Andrew Szeman dismissed the protesters as “anti-business.” He told the Daily Lobo, “When they saw the workers are not getting paid what they deserve, they just rallied their Marxist ideology.”
The real trouble began when Andrew Szeman allegedly showed up later at O’Leary’s house, waving around a machete and a baseball bat, demanding to know why O’Leary wanted to destroy his family’s business.
Finally the city got involved. When the story first broke, it appeared that Mayor Richard Berry and the city attorney’s office were unwilling to uphold the city’s own laws. Officials originally claimed they didn’t have the resources to enforce the ordinance.
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After a week of increasingly bad press and a looming public relations nightmare, City Hall relented and reversed its position on the matter. City attorney David Tourek explained that he and Berry had dragged their feet for so long because they assumed a private attorney would pick up O’Leary’s case. To the ultimate shame of Albuquerque’s legal community, no one did.
Eventually, Tourek stepped in to represent O’Leary against Eric Szeman and his business associates. He filed a damning, 13-page complaint in state District Court at the end of February, seeking unpaid wages and accusing the restaurant of retaliation. The suit includes a laundry list of charges detailing the toxic work environment at the malt shop. It claims the owners verbally threatened employees and forced them to sign illegal contracts to work for less than minimum wage. It also accuses the Szemans of engaging in a “pattern of illegal and wrongful actions” toward O’Leary. This month the city served the lawsuit at the Route 66 Malt Shop in Nob Hill.
When Eric Szeman realized the city was not going to allow him to continue breaking the law, he quickly backed down. Josephine Martinez de Nuñez, spokeswoman for the malt shop, said the restaurant now fully intends to comply with Albuquerque’s new minimum wage ordinance. In a classic case of too little, too late, she said the malt shop has offered to pay O’Leary triple his back wages in order to settle the dispute. She also claimed that all along her client simply didn’t understand the new wage ordinance.
The malt shop’s attorney Charles Lakins says he plans to challenge the ordinance’s validity.
I may not be an economics major, but it seems to me that if you need to break the law in order to stay in business, you probably shouldn’t be in business. If you can’t afford to pay the legal wage to your employees, then it’s time to shut your doors, simple as that. Laissez-faire capitalism at work. What’s the problem?
As the city’s lawsuit claims, a higher minimum wage benefits the entire community. In my experience, when you put more money into the hands of working people, they spend it locally on items such as food and clothes. When you give more money to the wealthy, they send it offshore to private bank accounts. They don’t even pay any taxes on it.
I would like to know where they teach business owners that it’s better to treat your workers like crap instead of simply paying them a decent wage. Independent research has conclusively shown that happy, well-paid workers are far more productive than those who are exploited. No wonder the economy is in such terrible shape.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure this stuff out. It seems Eric Szeman could afford to pay his employees the legal wage all along, but he just refused to do it, for ideological reasons. It’s a perfect example of everything that is wrong with American business today.
