Headlines should reflect facts about DDS
By Abraham Clayman
Published on Thursday, March 2, 2006
To the Editor:
The Dartmouth's March 1 article ("Living wage drives up DDS costs, prices") incorrectly places the blame for DDS's financial woes on the shoulders of its employees. Both the original headline and the headline after the jump imply that the wage that DDS pays its workers is the company's primary business problem.
However, as the article points out elsewhere, Dean [Martin] Redman and the outside consulting group Ricca Associates both recognized that DDS's business structure was at fault. According to those two sources, DDS operates too many venues, too many meal plans, offers too much variety and lacks a long-term business strategy. Reactionary headlines targeting workers earning a living wage betray an anti-labor bias that has no place at a responsible newspaper.
Paying a living wage is more expensive than paying the minimum wage (a non-living wage), but it is obvious to any intelligent observer that DDS's problems lie elsewhere and the article as well as the headlines should reflect this fact.