Mono County service industry employees call out workplace exploitation
Some residents pay a very high price
News analysis by Caelen Mcquilkin
Intern
Photo illustrations by Julie Garrison
This is Part 1 in a two-part series. Part 2 will run next week.
Over three years writing for the Mammoth Times and a lifetime living in the area, I have felt that coverage addressing the experiences of service industry employees in the Eastern Sierra has been missing from local media.
After beginning to report on this story idea this past summer, it quickly became clear that what employees had to share would not fit in a traditional article using the Times’ standards for anonymity and fact-checking. All of the employees interviewed for this article asked to remain anonymous in name, occupation, and the name of the business they work for, due to fear of retaliation from their employers. Even a phone call or visit to one of these businesses to interview the owners, fact-check, or ask to see specific records could jeopardize the employees who, if identified, could lose their jobs, housing, or other forms of livelihood. You will notice that many pieces of information in this article are described broadly, due to the fact that specific stories could also lead to the identification of employees. And so, I’ve come to realize that the fact that an article like this can’t be published in the news section of the paper shows some of the deep running problems in the labor system in this region. In ways such as this, exploitation and the modes of control used by businesses here in Mono County are swept under the rug, not often officially recorded, and, it seems, almost never publicly reported. But as the employees who speak in this article said, the exploitation does not go unrecorded. Through means very different than what makes up a traditional news article, means such as word of mouth, stories passed between employees, or by the kinds of wordless understandings that develop between people who work together, there is a lot said and understood about what goes on behind the doors of the local service industry businesses that keep this county’s ecotourism economy running. I personally believe that sources like this (Ed. note: all the anonymous sources in this article have been verified by the editor) should be considered more valid in journalism, but in this moment, I just think it’s time that local media uses
Análisis or Caelen Mcquilkin Interna para los Fotos por Julie Garrison
Esta es la Parte 1 de una serie de dos partes. La Parte 2 se ejecutará la próxima semana.
En tres años escribiendo para The Mammoth Times, y una vida en el condado de Mono, he sentido que la cobertura sobre las experiencias de los empleados de la industria de servicios en la Sierra Oriental ha fallado localmente.
Después de empezar a formar la idea de este reporte este verano pasado, quedó muy claro que la información que los empleados y el estándar del Times para el anonimato y la verificación de hechos no ajustaban. Todos los empleados entrevistados para este artículo pidieron permanecer en el anonimato en cuanto a su nombre, ocupación y el nombre de la empresa para la que trabajan, por temor a represalias por parte de sus empleadores.