Eaglecrest, Juneau’s government-owned ski resort, recently saw its indentured servants of color leave to go home to Latin America, after serving the resort’s customers at below-market wages over the winter ski season.
KTOO’s Katie Anastas, writing for Juneau’s premier government media outlet, filled us in last year on the plan to bring colored indentured servants from Latin America to work for below-market wages at the Eaglecrest ski resort. We follow up on the story.
C&BJ Councliwoman Constance Wishingham gave us the background. “We all know that Eaglecrest could never make it on its own, financially-speaking. But as we also know, as an overwhelmingly white and affluent city with a proud heritage of government dependence and utter unaccountability, there is just no way that Juneau could be expected to exist without a decent ski resort, so it just makes sense for the local government to provide one.” She continued, “the problem is, we can’t get anyone to work there unless we pay market wages, which is simply out of the question.”
The facts back her up. While the ski resort has little trouble hiring for all the fun jobs, the janitorial and food service positions remain stubbornly vacant. “Sure, unemployment is high, especially among Native Alaskans, but who wants to go mop up pee in the smelly restrooms up there?” said Neil Spader, Assistant Director of Human Resources Recruitment for Eaglecrest. “We would have to pay people the fair market rate for their labor, which would cost our overwhelmingly white and affluent taxpayers more that they’re willing to pay” The alternative is even less reasonable. “Some people think the skiers who come up here should pay more for their recreation in order for us to be able to pay our people fair wages, but survey after survey shows that our patrons would much rather see us bring in the colored help, than to charge them more to ski.”
So, enter the J-1 Visa program, which was created to allow educational opportunities for foreign students, but which has been co-opted for years to get indentured servants to work at Eaglecrest. The mechanics of the program are uncomplicated; people of color in brownish countries who are willing to work for less money than Americans, are contracted to come to Juneau where they are employed and housed under the guise of an educational program. In reality, they get paid below-market wages to mop up pee and beer and to cook chicken tenders for the much more fortunate and substantially paler Juneauites.
“It is a win-win situation” said Juneau Vice Mayor Don Brinkman. “We get the benefit of their labor and they get to take home a few real American dollars to show off to their buddies.” While he is strongly opposed to wage manipulation in the private sector, he just as strongly supports wage suppression in city-owned resorts. “It is one thing for a business, like a hardware store, to focus on keeping wages down in order the help the bottom line. That’s just greed, pure and simple. If a hardware store can’t pay what the workers demand, the store should just shut down. But the city has an urgent need. I mean, we just spent $6.5 million on a gondala that isn’t working. We just blew $10 million on our school budget. Our city-owned hospital is bleeding millions and millions every year. We tossed a couple of million down the drain on electric buses that nobody rides. Our budget is only half a billion dollars a year. How are we supposed to come up with five extra bucks an hour to pay market wages? HUH?”
With the end of the season behind them, the nearly two dozen colored indentured servants shuffled off to begin the long road home. While the city could not afford to give them a parting gift, or even a ride to the airport, a couple of the ski instructors pitched in to buy a discounted piñata and the administration staff put together a last-minute taco party. “We understand that our colored indentured servants come from Brazil, not from Mexico, but tacos was the closest we could get to Brazilian food at Costco” said Cindy Whitebread, Assistant Manager of Eaglecrest’s Office of Divisiveness and Inclusion. “And who doesn’t like a piñata ?” she said. “We don’t understand much of what these guys are saying, but it sure is fun to watch them wandering around with the blindfold on whacking each other with the stick. They are naturally funny people, those coloreds. Those guys will do anything for a few Tootsie Rolls!” she said with a laugh, before turning reflective. “This was a good group. They knew their place, did what they were told to do and they kept quiet. I hope the next batch of coloreds doesn’t give us any trouble.”
We attempted to speak with the indentured servants before their flight home, but their limited English made us feel uncomfortable, and given both the lack of urgency and our dwindling interest, we gave up and went to Freddie’s to pick up dinner. But next year awaits, and as long as economic disparity can be found somewhere among the colored people of the world, and as long as the federal government continues to let Democrats import colored indentured servants, Juneau residents will be able to continue to ski at the right price.
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