Old school (Jack Bog's Blog)

Yesterday I had another one of those dead-tree media moments. Out of my usual routine, I grabbed a stray hard copy of a paper, and wound up getting stuff out of it that the online version wouldn't match. Particularly from the ads.

I was over at the Convention Center Burgerville enjoying a Diestel turkey burger -- truly one of the best sandwiches around. (No cheese, hold the mayo, add onions.) Finding nothing in the front section of the O worth reading, I picked up a copy of the Portland Observer. The eclectic news coverage was interesting, but there were a couple of full-page ads that caught my attention even more.

One was a pretty effective ad from the union for several categories of workers at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. It complained that the cheapskate wages being paid to union members are making it hard to retain good help and diminishing the quality of care that patients receive at that institution. I had no idea.

Then there was an ad from the Portland Development Commission telling the world that that agency does indeed provide loans, grants, training and contracts to minority businesses, and inviting said businesses to come on down and get theirs. It was all pretty vague -- as I understand it, there hasn't ever been much love between the PDC and the African-American community at whom the Observer is targeted -- but hey, it's a nice gesture.

Comments (7)

Cry me a river about the "crummy" union wages at Legacy Hospital. Yawn......

Talk about pandering!

Posted by Livin la vida Suburbia | August 28, 2008 9:23 AM

Does that say $200/mo for "family" coverage in that first ad? Wow, what a deal. Just a few months ago I was paying over $600/mo.

Posted by Jon | August 28, 2008 10:05 AM

Hold da onions! Onions are healthy food, dude. I Freakin love onions. I also hear they're a popular device for teaching Democratic politicians such as Bill & Hiliary Clinton how to cry at the drop of a hat. I think Al Gore didn't learn well or he would have cried more in his presidential bid. Al eats too much red meat, and I'm guessing not enough onions. Just some food for thought.

Posted by Bob Clark | August 28, 2008 12:36 PM

Hey, suburbia, I'm not yawning about crummy wages at Legacy Hospital. I don't live in suburbia, I live in NE Portland right by Emanuel Hospital, and I actually do care whether the people who take care of me are paid a decent wage. I want to know that if I take my kid to the emergency room, that the person who's taking care of her is fairly paid and at least got a lunch break that day.

Posted by Emmett | August 28, 2008 3:27 PM

My wife had to spend three days in Emmanuel recently.
It was an eye opener for us.
First there is a LOT of staff.
Some staff members are very good but the majority do not instill confidence. After the first night I was seriously considering moving her to another hospital but the next morning an excellent nurse turned it around for us.
My final impression is they have more employees than they need and if they got rid of the poor ones they could afford to pay the good ones more.
And my guess is the biggest obstacle to achieving this going to be the union.

Posted by James J | August 28, 2008 3:46 PM

The full ad is here.

Posted by Jack Bog | August 28, 2008 4:49 PM

how do you get good staff to come and stay if your wages are lower than everyone else? legacy is a billion dollar corporation and one of the largest employers in the portland metro area. seems like they could afford to do better.

Posted by broken health care system | August 29, 2008 11:34 AM

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Old school

Comments (7)

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