The Baltimore Orioles announced that they will pay employees for the 6-days of lost work due to the civil unrest in Baltimore (the week of 4/27).

Due to the extraordinary circumstances that led to several cancelled or rescheduled games, the Orioles organization will compensate all hourly employees for hours that would have been ordinarily worked the week of April 27. This adjustment will be added [sic] will be added to your 5/29 paycheck.

The Orioles has seemingly made all of the right moves in light of the protests/riots. During the unrest, Orioles COO John Angelos (son of owner Peter Angelos) responded to critics of the protestors

my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.

Many have applauded the Orioles referring to them as a “Class Act” for paying their employees for games that were either cancelled or moved. But is this REALLY a “Class Act”?

I know, I sound like ‘Mr Negative’ but just hear me out on this one.

The Orioles like any other  business has a spending budget they set every year. They are able to track money spent/made to forecast how much money they will make or lose in a season. Some where in that budget they track pay for employees for an 82-home game schedule (162 games in a season).

Those 6-days of lost games were already accounted for dollars going out the door to pay employees in their budget, it’s not like the employee’s pay is based on money made on those days by the organization. The Orioles are not doing anything special in this case, and this is far from a sacrifice for the organization.

If the Orioles want to do something impressive, how about they pay the remainder of the loan that was used to build Camden Yards that the city of Baltimore is currently paying. That would free up money for Baltimore to reinvest in neighborhoods on the west side.

 

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!