THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090025
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 37 lines
Regarding ``Mostly bad news'' (editorial, July 25):
What a delight that the director of economic services believes a ``wake-up call'' has been received by Hampton Roads officials! What a shame that the ``call'' has been so many years in coming. The fact that ``earnings per worker are very, very low . . . compared with other regions in the country of our size'' is not new news.
The dependence of the region's workers on the Department of Defense and military contractors for their paychecks since the 1960s certainly contributed to ``what went wrong here.'' What did our esteemed Hampton Roads officials and planners do to improve the region's economic news and reduce this dependence? One thing the city of Norfolk did (back in 1973 or 1974) to attract employers to the region was to take out a full two-page advertisement in a business magazine enticing companies to bring their business to Norfolk. The two pictures were identical - each page showed a secretary (naturally a woman) sitting at a desk in an office. On the first page, the caption indicated that secretary No. 1 had certain skills, worked in a city other than Norfolk and was paid X number of dollars for her labor. On the second page, secretary No. 2 had the same skills, worked in Norfolk and only had to be paid -X number of dollars for her labor!
What kind of employer were we trying to attract with this advertisement?
Now in 1996 we are looking for answers to why the kinds of employers attracted to the region are those seeking cheap labor and why our wages fall farther behind those in competing metropolitan areas!
We do indeed need, and have needed for many years, to create an environment able to attract high-wage employers. That can never be done by exploiting our low-wage employees.
PATRICIA A. PETTY
Virginia Beach, July 25, 1996 by CNB