Robert's House of Hamsters

Somewhere between Sacramento, the Oregon border and that tingly feeling in your toes.

3.11.2006

My latest hate mail...

This was a good one. But first, some background information.

I've written several stories concerning an ongoing labor dispute between Butte County and the local In Home Support Services (IHSS) workers. IHSS just came under the jurisdiction of a new union, the California United Homecare Workers (CUHW).

The county hasn't recognized them yet, saying that they're received distinctly different signitures on letters authorizing CUHW to be able to negotiate.

Well, a week or so ago, CUHW held a press conference at the county government center in Oroville. A couple of weeks prior to this, I requested from CUHW's press contact some information concerning the pay given to IHSS workers in other counties.

To be specific, I requested the 12 counties that Butte County used in a survey to determine recent pay raises for county employees. IHSS workers aren't county employees, but the county pays their salaries and are then reimbursed by the state.

Well, I got those 12 counties. But on official press information (the stuff they hand out and was reported in other local publications) only had the six highest-paying counties. The other six counties paid at least $1.50 less.

So I wrote a story with that information in it.

Didn't take long for some hate mail to show up. So, in my true sarcastic, smart-ass style, I'll respond to different points:

It's ironic that your most recent article "blaming the victims" (IHSS) appears on the same page as "State Sues Pleasant Care Corporation."


I didn't really see the irony, but OK, whatever. And if I was "blaming the victims," wouldn't I have said they didn't deserve a raise? I just provided the salaries of all 12 counties in the study, instead of just the six CUHW was passing around.

Bunch of personal information that had nothing to do with the subject of my story.


I was going to post all this (about three long paragraphs), and make you all read it, but then I decided that was just mean. It was torture enough for me trying to read through it.

Statistics I have seen in the past few years show a CNA/HHA turnover rate of over 100% per year in facilities and home health agencies. I would hope that if you ever have a sick or disabled loved one who requires care, you would try to keep them at home as long as possible, and that you would not begrudge their caregiver a living wage, as you apparently do.


Rule #3 of attempted censorship: try to turn the issue around. For not writing an article that glorifies IHSS as near sainthood and instead present basic neutral information on an issue, this somehow equates to me hating senior citizens.

I mean, if I'm going to gun for somebody, I'll go after Veterans' Services. Talk about incompetence. I just disqualified myself from covering anything at a VA hospital, by the way.


You keep trying to make a big deal of the fact that the same letter, signed by two different people, was sent regarding CUHW's bargaining authority -- how unusual is it in any bureaucracy that two individuals might be authorized to sign such a letter? In any case, chances seem excellent that at least one of them (rather than none of them) would be appropriately designated.


First off, something wrong in this claim. It's not two different people that signed these letters, it was supposed to be the same person, but the county's HR department said the signitures were distinctly different. So they said they want to verify one of those signitures was authentic. Don't like that? The issues with the county, not me.

I can't imagine what investment you could possibly have in attempting to "criminalize" and demean IHSS workers


Rule #4 of attempted censorship: Say that those who oppose you are evil and want to destroy you. Frankly, It makes it easier to critize, and if you tell yourself it's true enough, it must be true, right?

Sorry, but I'm not benefitting from either side.

although a friend who is a CNA overheard the administrator at a local facility refer to the CNA staff as "trailor trash". It sounds as though that is your attitude, as well. The consistently contemptuous, derogatory, and demeaning tone of your articles is reprehensible and you should be ashamed of yourself.


See Rule #4 of attempted censorship.

By the way, what's a CNA? We're talking about IHSS. I'm a county government reporter, not a health reporter, I don't know what these abbreviations stand for.

And, as someone who was raised in a double-wide trailer and whose parents still live in said trailer, I am offended by the term "trailor(sic) trash." We prefer "Middle-class manufactured home occupants," thank you very much.

2 Comments:

  • At 10:22 AM, Blogger Knuckles McMason said…

    CNA= Certified Nurses assistant...they run the scut (the grunt work) of a nursing home. usually overworked, under paid burned out...meaning that they work in medicine.

     
  • At 2:15 PM, Blogger Robert said…

    I still think journalists are underpaid worse.

     

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