{"id":8899,"date":"2008-02-12T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T01:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/02\/12\/schenectady-barbers-want-mondays-o"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:32","slug":"schenectady-barbers-want-mondays-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/02\/12\/schenectady-barbers-want-mondays-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Schenectady barbers want Mondays off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CautionBadHairN\"<\/font><\/em> A<\/em><\/strong>s Carolyn Elefant<\/a> has been saying for years (and argues in her acclaimed new book Solo by Choice<\/a><\/em>), one of the great advantages of owning your own small business as a sole proprietor is having greater control over “quality of life” issues, such as which days and hours you will work. Of course, most solo lawyers don’t have perfect control of their time — court schedules, client emergencies and deadlines, and tasks that take much longer than expected to handle diligently, can at times make it quite difficult for a solo lawyer to keep to a rigid schedule.<\/p>\n

[image from BarberPole.com<\/a>] <\/font><\/p>\n

The same cannot<\/em> be said, however, for barbers. If you own a barbershop, you can pretty much call the shots when it comes to when you’re open for business. A customer’s bad hair day or important social engagement poses no big social expectation or ethical obligation to provide your services during designated off-hours. You post a sign and expect your patrons to abide by it. If you want to make an exception for a loyal client, you do. Sure, there will be marketplace forces that tempt you to increase your hours to attract or keep some customers, but each barbershop owner has to decide for himself or herself which values are most important, and whether work-life balance wins out over financial needs or desires.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With those assumptions in mind, along with my usual pro-consumer and pro-competition biases as a former antitrust lawyer, I was rather bemused seeing the lead business-section article in the Schenectady Sunday Gazette<\/em>, with the headline “Clash of barbers: Should shops be closed on Mondays?<\/a>: Unionized barber waging battle to keep traditional day off” (February 10, 2008). As reporter James Schlett explains, Richard DiCristofaro, owner of Wedgeway Barber Shop<\/a> in Schenectady, considers it a “cardinal sin” that a barber in neighboring Rotterdam was open on the Monday before Christmas, and decries the “greed” of those who violate the 60-year agreement of local barbers not to work on Mondays, which allows them to all have a five-day workweek. The article explains:<\/p>\n

“At least in Schenectady, Mondays are turning into the latest front in unions\u2019 battle against the global and corporate forces that are trimming away the benefits organized workers fought for during much of the 20th century. At his 96-year-old shop on Erie Boulevard, [Richard] DiCristofaro is mounting a spring campaign designed to turn union supporters against barbers who offer haircuts on Mondays.<\/p>\n

“For the past few weeks, DiCristofaro \u2014 the former president of the Schenectady Barbers\u2019 Union Local 176 \u2014 has become more vocal about the Monday issue. He has run advertisements criticizing the practice in The Daily Gazette<\/em> and sought support from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1.<\/p>\n

\u201c ‘They\u2019ve always done as they please, which is fine. What we want to do is make people aware that they\u2019re not union,’ DiCristofaro said.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"BadHairDayG\" <\/font>Perhaps the legal experts at Antitrust Review<\/em><\/a> or the Employment Blawg<\/em><\/a> will let me know if my analysis is off, but here’s my reaction to Mr. DiCristofaro (which I also made in a comment to the online Gazette<\/em> article):<\/p>\n

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