Printer-friendly version
East County News Service
November 25, 2014 (San Diego)--In recent years, ‘Black Friday’ shopping deals have increasingly spread into the Thanksgiving holiday, forcing workers to miss out on celebrating the holiday and spending time with their families in order to keep their jobs. In some cases, this work has become mandatory, forcing workers to give up their Thanksgiving holiday or risk losing their jobs. Many of these business practices have also been carried over to Christmas as well. The increasing commercialization of the holiday season has created significant public backlash, including petitions, media criticism, and worker protests.
On the day before the Thanksgiving holiday, San Diego Assemblywoman Gonzalez announced that she is introducing legislation to require that employees in California receive double pay for giving up time with their families during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in order to work. Gonzalez made the announcement in front of a Wal-Mart Store at Stonecrest Plaza in San Diego, where she was joined by Mickey Kasparian, President of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and by a Wal-mart employee.
Assemblywoman Gonzalez’s proposed legislation would ensure that those workers who sacrifice their holiday receive double pay for their work on Thanksgiving. Gonzalez, a Democrat, states, “Thanksgiving and Christmas have traditionally been celebrated every year as times that all of us can connect with our families and reflect on the blessings in our lives, but each year it seems like we lose more and more of these family holidays to the demands of work.”
Gonzalez concludes that workers who lose out on their Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to boost their boss’s profits should be paid fairly for that sacrifice.
Comments
Back in the 1970s I was paid double time for holidays,
Different?