During Thanksgiving week last month, over 150 petitions were launched on change.org calling on retailers that are open on Thanksgiving night to instead open early on Black Friday to allow workers to spend time with their families on the holiday.
One of the most covered petitions was started by Target employee Anthony Harwick, calling on his employer not to open on Thanksgiving night. His petition received more than 200,000 online signatures.

Most of the petitions cited store clerks, grocery workers, and 24-hour fast food restaurant staff as examples of those forced to work on holidays while most others are given time off to celebrate with their families. Sure, we all need to shop but, the petitions claim, we don’t need to shop at midnight on Black Friday and create the incentive for companies to exploit their workers.
As our culture has become more hurried and expectant of immediate availability of goods, we have pushed retailers to deliver what the customers want; convenience.

The term “convenience store” was coined in the late 1920s after Dallas-based Southland Corporation began selling milk, bread, and eggs in addition to their staple product of ice blocks. Their ice docks became known for their convenience, especially because they were open later than general stores, and also on Sundays. That company later changed its name to 7-11 to reflect their new expanded hours of 7am to 11pm every day. Now, of course, we know 7-11s as being open 7/24/365. It’s unthinkable today that all stores were closed each night.
Black Friday has also expanded beyond its original scope. In the 19th and early 20th Century, Thanksgiving parades were mostly sponsored by department stores, as in the famous Macy’s parade in New York City. Retailers launched their Christmas advertising blitz after the parades. In fact, President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1939 official declaration of Thanksgiving being on the fourth Thursday in November instead of the last Thursday helped ensure a longer Christmas shopping period.

The majority of employees called to work on these holidays are in the service industry, mostly stores and restaurants. When stores open at midnight on Black Friday, for example, most employees are required to arrive at work at 11pm Thursday, cutting short their celebration dinners.  Last year, Macy’s opened at 6pm on Thanksgiving, basically eliminating turkey dinner for many employees.
These workers also complain that large retailers manipulate employee schedules to avoid overtime or extra pay for these holiday schedules. Most of these workers receive no extra pay during these high traffic periods.

Retailers must address these issues to fairly compensate these workers for missing important family time.
As understandable as these concerns for retail workers may be, however, the petitions failed to draw attention to another group of workers who will be on the job this holiday week.

The social media outrage forgot to mention the unsung workers on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve, that not only work, but, more importantly, keep us safe.

Let’s take a moment to thank the police, fire, emergency services, hospital workers, and military members that are on call and on the streets keeping us safe during this holiday season.

Every night in our neighborhoods, police patrol our streets and firefighters remain on duty. Hospital nurses and doctors are staffing local hospitals. Military personnel are on duty and deployed around the World. Emergency responders don’t get time off or close their operations during the holidays; in fact, most of them are on a higher state of alert on these days just as the rest of us are at home, cooking turkeys, lighting fireplaces, and eating too much.

We all feel safer knowing that police officers are patrolling the streets looking for criminal activity and drunk drivers. We all sleep better knowing firefighters are standing by to respond to fires, ambulances are close by for medical emergencies, and hospitals are staffed to treat us.  And we are all protected by the military members and government staff fighting terrorism.
But when was the last time we thanked these holiday workers?

This weekend, while we’re celebrating our holidays, let’s keep these public safety members in our thoughts. We are thankful for their work, even if we never get a chance to thank them in person.

Happy Holidays to all your families from ours. This is the last La Prensa San Diego for 2015.
See you next year!