I’d say it’s the latter is where Rhode Island’s marketplace of ideas misses the mark. Case in point: Mark Patinkin’s column this morning on worker versus management rights.
He chose to focus on the spat between college buddies Rob Rainville and John Feroce, who it turned out didn’t enjoy working together as much as they liked partying together. Rainville was the attorney for Alex and Ani and Feroce the CEO. When the business and/or personal relationship turned sour Rainville, a lawyer, filed suit. Alex and Ani is under intense scrutiny as of late, and this is certainly a newsworthy topic. But it’s not an example of labor versus management rights – it’s an example of what can happen when longtime friends add loads of money and a law degree to the equation.
Better examples of the tension when employees and employers part ways exist in Rhode Island, and Patinkin would have had to only read the newspaper he works for to find about them.
One from yesterday’s Providence Journal described how the owner of a Warwick tree service fired an worker when he got hurt with a chainsaw on the job. And when the employee stood up for his worker’s rights, management had him deported. A judge awarded the employee a $30,000 settlement and then the state fined the owner $150,000 when he failed to make good on the restitution.
I’d like to know, since it seems to be a topic worthy of debate, what Mark Patinkin thinks of this situation. To me it seems pretty obvious both the employee and employer would have fared better if the employee enjoyed the full rights of American citizenship, probably would have saved us taxpayers money too.
Or how about this one from last week, in which a former Hasbro employee says she was fired for being gay and a woman. According to the ProJo, the woman “alleges that her open commitment to the cause of women’s rights, her gender and her sexual orientation led Hasbro to falsely accuse her of misconduct and subsequently fire her last January.”
If his Twitter timeline is any clue, I would expect Mark Patinkin to be even less empathetic to workers’ rights when the worker in question is a female.
How come, instead of ordering their own dessert, women say they’ll just take a bite of yours, and then eat half of it?
— Patinkin, Mark (@markpatinkin) February 6, 2014
And admitted to being a sexist in a January tweet:
Am I the only sexist who wonders why Jennifer Aniston doesn’t get married but cheers on George Clooney for avoiding capture?
— Patinkin, Mark (@markpatinkin) January 21, 2014
No, Mark Patinkin, you are not the only sexist who wonders such things. But it is good that you can admit to being a sexist. That’s the first step. You ought to also admit that your most recent column about employee versus employer rights does more damage to this important discussion than it does service.
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I saw my ideological nemesis and neighbor John DePetro on Main Street here in East Greenwich the other day. “What’s going on, John?” I said to him. To which he replied, “I have nothing to say to you.”
Then he added as he walked away, “I’ll see you in court.”
I’m assuming he means for the sexual harassment suit our former colleague Dee DeQuattro has filed against him, but who knows. Experience tells me the truth is usually the opposite of what John DePetro says it is, so perhaps I won’t see him in court. Though I do know he appeared before the state Human Rights Commission for the allegation recently. So on the other hand, maybe I will see him in court.
Either way, I plan to see him tonight night when he hosts a panel discussion with former governor Don Carcieri, Catholic priest and State House lobbyist Bernard Healey and former GOP state senator and Alix and Ani CEO John Feroci at the Odeum Theater, also on Main Street in East Greenwich.
This is a pretty tight-knit group. The evening is being sponsored by Besos, a new local restaurant. The owners are very good friends with both Feroce and the Carcieri family (in fact, they bought the former governor’s downtown mcmansion from him). All of participants belong to the local Catholic church, where Healey is the priest.
Coincidentally, these conservative Catholics were booked by a liberal Jew. Frank Prosnitz, former ProJo and Providence Business News editor, has been leading the local effort to revitalize the Odeum for years. He’s managed to get the doors open, but with renovation bills now due he’s turned to this conservative cabal to help bring in some revenue. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of crowd this group attracts.
I don’t know Feroce too well, though I did meet him years ago when I was in college and he was in the state senate. Bernie Healey is best known for lobbying State House leaders against marriage equality. Carcieri used his two terms as governor to advocate against immigrants, equality, poor people and the public sector. Few Republicans have been willing to defend him since he left office and his infamously failed scheme to give his friend Curt Schilling public money to make a video game has rendered him one of the least popular local politicians in recent memory. DePetro is widely regarded as the most mean-spirited and dishonest person in Rhode Island politics and/or media.
Alex and Ani aside, it’d be hard to put together a trio that has done more damage to Rhode Island than Carcieri, DePetro and Healey. I wish the local theater much luck, but this seems like more evidence things aren’t going well for the Odeum.
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