To the editor:
On May 20, you published an article about merchants struggling to find workers. I found it worrying that an article centered around unemployment in the Berkshires voiced only the opinions of people who are currently employed.
I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you from the perspective of someone who is unemployed. The tone of the article was that there is plenty of work but people on unemployment want free money and don’t want to work.
The truth is that we want to work, but we also need to pay our bills, we need to feel safe at work, as harassment and confrontation have become daily problems for retail and service workers, and we need affordable, safe child care. When companies you quoted say they are switching their employment pool to high-school workers, that gives real insight into the level of experience needed and the pay offered for these numerous open positions.
As someone who has worked in the hospitality industry for 15-plus years, five of those in the southern Berkshires, I can tell you there are not enough quality jobs open. For the head of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce to say, “Not one single person in Berkshire County should be on unemployment because there is an epidemic of people looking for employees,” is an inaccurate and uninformed statement.
I challenge her to take one of those open positions posted on a help-wanted sign in the window. Would she make enough money to pay her bills and where would her children go when she’s required to work nights and weekends?
I would also like to challenge state Rep. Smitty Pignatelli’s comments: “So if we can get off unemployment and get you back to work, it gets you off MassHealth and onto your company’s healthcare program.” The majority of jobs available — the more than 1,000 restaurant jobs that are open as quoted in the article — offer low pay and little in the way of benefits. Filling these jobs does not get anyone off of MassHealth.
From what I have experienced this past year, open jobs with benefits and good pay are being flooded with applications. If businesses are having trouble finding workers, they should first ask themselves why they’re not attractive to job seekers rather than assume the unemployed don’t want to work.
Thank you for your time and your ear.
Ashley Summers
Pittsfield
