The Dignity of Work
The Dignity of Work
The new Ohio Democratic Chairwoman starts her reign by stabbing workers in the back.
I celebrated when David Pepper finally stepped down as the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. Yes, Pepper made an easy scapegoat. We have a demographics problem on our hands, unlike Georgia or Arizona or other places. However, there had to be consequences considering we got swept in partisan statewide races throughout his tenure.
I felt something I don’t often feel when it comes to Democratic politics in this state when ODP nominated Summit County Council President Liz Walters as Pepper’s replacement: Hope. I had no problem that Senator Sherrod Brown basically handpicked her by endorsing her early in the vetting process.
Brown is in for the toughest fight of his career in 2024, but at least he has a track record of winning statewide elections as a Democrat.
Those things, along with Walters not tweeting Russian conspiracy theories, water paintings or disgusting Subway Philly sandwiches like her counterpart was enough for me to give her the benefit of the doubt. I felt like, for once, we had an adult in charge of the state party.
Oh, how fleeting those feelings can be.
From Liz Skalka of toledoblade.com, a reporter you should definitely follow on Twitter:
Employees were laid off with no more than a week's notice and no severance, sources say, and the staffers being let go are expected to be replaced with independent contractors in a bid to save money.
Ms. Walters told The Blade the party would not be using independent contractors, but declined to say whether it would use consultants to fill some of the permanent positions in the future, and what positions the party would seek to eventually bring back.
"I have a bunch of information to share with stakeholders before I comment to the press," said said.
I understand that a newly elected leader is entitled to select their own employees. There is apparently a lot of bad blood between Brown and Pepper, so it makes sense that Walters would feel the need to clean house. It’s not like the state party has lit the world on fire after all.
I also understand that Pepper’s father, a financial lifeline for the party during his tenure, probably won’t be writing the same amount of checks now that his son has been deposed.
What I do not understand is why these workers were tossed onto the street with a week’s notice and no severance pay in the middle of a pandemic.
I often wonder how in the Hell the Democrats lose working people to the Republican Party, the party of corporations and suburban car salesmen. But then I see how the party treats it own workers and suddenly it makes a lot more sense.
We are rapidly heading towards an economy where the bosses and executives line their pockets with fat salaries and benefit packages while the rest of us work as independent contractors, a tax avoidance scheme for employers that allows them to get away with paying lower wages and zero benefits.
How is the Democratic Party supposed to say it will take care of workers when it won’t even take care of their own?
Consider Sam Malendez, the former director of the party's Main Street Initiative. For the unfamiliar, Sam was in charge of recruiting and training Democratic candidates at all levels of government. It did not matter if you were a certified rising star or a candidate on a suicide mission like myself in 2018, Sam would always answer the phone and treat you like a star.
His job allowed him to forge connections with grassroots leaders across the state, and many credited his training as giving them the edge they needed for an electoral victory.
How do you think they will respond seeing their mentor tossed out onto the street like a trashcan awaiting collection? Is that really the kind of message party leaders want to send to local leaders? “The firings will continue until the morale improves!”
Walters can talk about “having bunch of information” that she needs to “share with stakeholders” before she speaks with the press. That’s corporate speak I’ve heard my entire life. She wants to cut costs and using contractors to do that is a time-honored technique in our post-New Deal economy that has seen workers’ rights peeled like an onion since we elected that demon, Ronald Reagan.
Sherrod Brown often talks about “the dignity of work.” He loves saying that, as if he has worked a day in his life and isn’t a career politician who won his first election as a state representative while attending Yale.
He hasn’t said diddly shit about his handpicked chairwoman treating workers as if they’re disposable, with no severance and a week’s notice. I don’t know, that seems like something that should righteously piss him off if his “work is cool” nonsense were his actual principles and not an attempt at branding. He pays numerous people to write press releases, after all.
I’m sure party leaders did their calculus. They know by the time 2022 rolls around, 95% of Democratic voters will have forgotten about the party putting a dagger in the back of loyal workers whose names they didn’t even know and will be excited at the three percent chance of beating Mike DeWine or electing a Democratic Senator in a state that Trump won by eight points. They know we collectively have the memory of goldfish, and it’s not like any of us are going to vote Republican.
It’s shitty and I hate it. And it certainly didn’t have to be this way.
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