4.8.21 Bee-otches of the Day: those against a $15 minimum wage

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Name: various
Age: various
Occupation: various
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: keeping people in the poorhouse

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In my old stomping grounds of Traverse City, MI, a local Wendy's served its last Baconator a few years ago. 

Located by East Bay, the Wendy's closed due to the old "remodel or close" clause in their contract with corporate. It originally opened around 1989 and lasted about 30 years. Today, the Grand Traverse Region only has one Wendy's, located on Division St. between Meijer and Tom's Food Market. That location was a rebuild of another Wendy's that opened in the 1970s. When the East Bay Wendy's closed, the owner claimed that they were scouting for a new location. Two years later, nothing's happened. 

But, one thing is for sure: the East Bay Wendy's will soon end up seeing the same fate as the sit-down Little Caesar's, Pizza Hut and the Hooters down the street: the bulldozer. 

Yep! That Wendy's will be demolished for a new four-story, 92-unit Avid Hotel. The 43,540 square-foot hotel will be owned by IHG, which owns several hotel chains. Two of them, Holiday Inn and the upscale Hotel Indigo, have locations in the Cherry Capitol. IHG also once owned a Holiday Inn near downtown Traverse City, but it was sold to Delamar Resorts a few years back. 

IHG's other brands include Crown Plaza, Intercontinental and Staybridge Suites.

Granted, Traverse City is a tourist trap and is loaded up the ass with hotels go range from chic to roach-infested slums that need Dan Bell's attention. After all, people need a place to stay when they go to the Traverse City Film Festival or see some has-been rock group like Trapt at the National Cherry Festival. 

However, the employees need to get paid, too.

For years, East Bay seemed to be the most-neglected part of Traverse City aside from the remains of Cherryland Mall. Aside from the abandoned Wendy's, there was an abandoned Hooters that opened in 2007 but closed seven years later and sat abandoned until it was raised a few weeks ago. The property will become a new luxury car wash complete with food trucks.

Granted, it's nice that a city of 15,000 souls can handle all the restaurants and hotels in the world. For such a small town that's 150 miles from civilization, there's a ton of places to sleep and eat. However, the dilemma is, what about the pay?

Traverse City is a town where $200,000 might either get you a dinky condo or a trailer 20 miles out of the city. Here in Grand Rapids, $150,000 will get you into a decent, livable home. I've even talked to people who moved here in Grand Rapids from northern Michigan because it's a helluva lot cheaper. As someone who couldn't get a decent job up north, I sometimes shake my head and wonder what type of person could afford to work at a hotel.

When I was a kid, my mother and I would drive along M-72 by Grand Traverse Resort. Sometimes, we would see Jamaicans walk along the road and we'd pick them up to send them to work. It's no secret that northern Michigan has had a long history of seeking aid from immigrants for Summer work, whether it's working in the orchards or even the hotels. Simply put, people don't want to work at the hotels, restaurants or gas stations because the pay sucks. 

In the past few years, Denny's in Traverse City went from being open 24 hours to being only open for breakfast and lunch. The downtown KFC was closed for months and a Speedway gas station had to close all because of one thing: staffing shortages.

It wouldn't shock me if many of the establishments in Traverse City pay squat for their workers. I remember seeing a sign for a McDonald's there not long ago where they were saying that they beginning pay was $11 per hour. If you're getting paid $11 per hour in TC, chances are that you're still living with your parents, living with roommates or in a van down by the river.

It's sad that in Australia, the minimum wage there is $14.19 per hour, including for fast food workers. One can afford to live on that. Here in America, we have companies that fight tooth and nail to protect their profits, so they lobby the government to keep our minimum wage at $7.25 per hour. The good news is that the app known as Goods Unite Us reports that IHG mostly gives to the Democrats, so maybe, maybe, maybe they pay well. Fingers crossed.

At least it ain't Drury Hotels. Them boys are Repukes.

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