"Thanks for Making America a Place Called Hope" are the words engraved on the Lenox bowl that President Clinton gave his cabinet secretary Donna Shalala, according to a recent profile in the New York Times Magazine.
Not that Shalala needs much hope to get by. The Times' almost satirical interview details her extravagances since leaving the trenches of the Washington battles over health care and human services to take post as president of the University of Miami.
Wonkette and other bloggers got wind of Shalala's lavish lifestyle, linking to quotes about her dog Sweetie's four beds, their 9,000 square-foot mansion in Coral Gables, 29-foot-motorboat, antiques including a1790 French country cabinet from the estate of the late Washington Post columnist Meg Greenfield, a Lexus hybrid S.U.V. and -- because it's "perky and whimsical" -- a red Volkswagen Beetle.
Let me back up. The Washington-whisperer types are not mocking Shalala simply because she's rich. One of the many ironies here is that the two-page spread appeared while Shalala fights off attempts by low-wage janitors at her campus to win a living wage. Under the headline "Nice Digs, Lousy Timing," the Washington Post's Reliable Source yesterday admonished the former Clinton appointee, "Note to the Haves: When involved in labor disputes, skip the luxury home profile," and zeroed in on her salary of $516,904 a year versus the janitors' $7 an hour with no health benefits.
Shalala, ostensibly a champion of social justice, deserves to be embarrassed for her hypocrisy. The university just announced it raised $1 billion from private donors in a single fundraising drive, but the Chronicle of Higher Education cited in 2001 that wages for the U of Miami janitors were lower than at just about every school surveyed.
What does that mean for Maritza Paz, who came to this country 13 years ago for a better life for her family? The 48-year-old Cuban immigrant has cleaned the Hurricanes' athletic center every day for over a decade, but still earns less than $6.70 an hour and lacks health care. She and her husband raised their two children in abject poverty.
Maritza needed surgery last year and is now struggling to pay $33,000 in hospital bills. Forming a union with her co-workers would provide a real chance to win a livable wage and benefits, just like her counterparts at Harvard University did a few years ago. (The janitors in Cambridge now earn $13 an hour with health care.)
Nevertheless, Shalala insists upon remaining "neutral," an egregiously irresponsible code word for allowing the affluent university's cleaning contractor to rack up profits by paying their workers crumbs. Maritza is still determined to have a better life:
"I'm trying to do my part to pay my medical bills, but I can't afford much. Janitors like me need health insurance. It's not that we want to live like rich people, but we need to be treated as human beings.
"For us, the American Dream does not exist right now...The cost of living is always going up, but our wages stay the same. Having a union will help families like mine in Miami."
This weekend, Maritza and her brave co-workers will vote to decide whether to authorize a strike over unfair labor practices committed by UNICCO, the company hired by the university to manage the janitors who clean the campus. A strike could come anytime after Sunday's vote and would have the overwhelming support of students, community organizations, and religious leaders.
Donna Shalala also has a choice: 1) Continue to turn her back on the low wage workers on her campus and re-brand herself as a rich liberal hypocrite, or 2) Stand up for good jobs and health care by returning to the values and leadership that made her a star in the Clinton Administration.
If Maritza Paz has not given up...then it's not too late to truly make America a place called hope.