Doug Champeau: The working grunts feel your pain

Commentary

It's hard not to be sympathetic with the state workers and teachers who filled the Wisconsin capitol, shouting to protect their collective bargaining rights.

Such energy. Such compassion. Such élan!

Just curious, though: Did they take vacation, sick time or personal days off to appear at the protests?

I'm envious. And aggrieved.

In days, I will undergo my annual employee review. I'm confident that after almost four years of sterling service, I will again receive a solid review and likely garner (can I hope!) at least the 4 percent salary increase I earned in 2010.

If so, my hourly wage will rise from $8.30 an hour to $8.60 or so. That's after health insurance premiums jump by 10 percent or more. As Target says, it's a competitive wage.

Perhaps that is the market for a cashier or customer service representative at a major retailer in Twin Cities. But as I watch with admiration the Madison protests that fill the airwaves, I bemoan the fact that American union activism is relegated to the public sector.

At my job, I take vacation and personal days to fill my paycheck when hours are cut. There are no paid sick days.

These are fallow days in the retail calendar. Projected sales are reduced, and as a consequence, efforts to restrain costs are apparent.

Add to the mixture rising shipping and food expenses resulting from uncertain oil prices, and you have strong pressure to constrain labor expenses to ensure shareholder value. You can visibly witness this at the longer lines at the East St. Paul Target store where I work.

There are fewer cashiers, and when customers pile up, floor staff are more often pressed to fill the void. In one recent seven-hour cashier shift, I calculated that I served more than 400 customers who had an average of 10 items or more -- scanning, bagging and ringing up at a frantic pace.

At the end of the day, I'm sure a corporate economist noted my performance as a rise in employee productivity.

As a result, I have developed a ganglia cyst on my wrist and worsening of my shoulder tendinitis. But more, I grumbled. Grumbled a lot. And so did many of my fellow employees.

I have a wonderful replica of what I believe is an early 1920s magazine ad for Scott paper towels. Keep in mind that it was an era of anti-communist hysteria. It shows a mustached man, with a growling face, wiping his hands.

The ad asks: "Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks? ... Employees lose respect for a company that fails to provide decent facilities for their comfort."

Sadly, in my multicultural, undereducated workplace, few if any of my fellow employees would know a Bolshevik. Sad, too, many are unaware of what is happening in Madison.

The salient point, though, is the grumbling. All feel the effect of reduced hours as demands increase.

A lowly cart attendant who recently completed his associate's degree in computer science and quadrupled his salary considers himself an escapee. Others here also feel shackled.

An acquaintance, a multiyear employee with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, once referred to the state as "mother," with ample breasts with milk for everyone. She was well aware of the special tenured protections and benefits of working for the government at all levels.

I'm sure Wisconsin public employees know that as well. I support them.

But I hope they and the public leave an ounce of sympathy for the millions of hard-working grunts in the private sector with no bargaining rights, smaller salaries and tenuous job security.

Where's George Meany when you need him?

Doug Champeau is a cashier and writer from St. Paul.