It's Tough In Northern Arizona

[Jeff Colburn]

I moved from Southern California to Sedona fourteen years ago. I grew
up in a town much smaller than Sedona, so I was used to dealing with
small town issues, but living many years in Orange County gave me a
taste for the finer things that larger cities have to offer. So when I
was offered a state job in Flagstaff, I jumped at the chance.

I do love Flagstaff. The scenery, the weather, Old Town, the people, I
just love it all. But as others have said, it is "Poverty with a
view." Being my first experience with a "Right to work state," I
quickly learned why it's also called a "Right to starve state." While
I have had some good jobs while in Northern Arizona, I have never
experienced so many problems. While in California, I never had a
reason to file a grievance with the labor board, yet out of my first
four years, I filed three grievances. Once against a company that
didn't want to give me my earned vacation time, one that fired me
three days after I gave two weeks notice that I was leaving because
they were mad that I was quitting, and one where a supervisor had me
fired because he was afraid the owner was going to replace him with
me.

On this last one, the complaint worked its way up to a Labor Board
Judge. The manager said he was changing everyone's shifts and the only
shift he had left to fill was 11:00 p.m. to7:00 a.m., yet my shift for
two years had been 2 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and I had seniority over
almost every one of the 12 employees. I told the manager I couldn't
work those hours as I had tried it before and I couldn't stay awake.
He said if I fell asleep I would be fired. I told him that's why I
couldn't work that shift. He said if I didn't work that shift I would
be fired. So I was fired. The Labor Board Judge asked me if I had gone
to a doctor to get prescription drugs to keep me awake all night. I
informed her that I couldn't afford a doctor's visit or medication.
And why would I take unnecessary prescription drugs? She said that
since I wasn't taking drugs to stay awake, my employer was justified
in firing me. What ever happened to the "Just Say No To Drugs"
campaign?

Other job related things I've experienced is having an employer drop
my pay by $1.00 an hour, just because he wanted to. Also, I was
promised a job in Flagstaff with the state for $25,000 a year, only to
find out that on my first day of work they decided to pay me only
$14,000 a year. After a lot of arguing we settled on $22,000.

While housing is a problem in Flagstaff, low paying jobs, arbitrary
drops in salary, no health insurance and broken promises comprise
another huge problem. Many employers in Flagstaff are just making ends
meet. But, on the other hand, they feel that $10.00 an hour is a great
wage, and you should be willing to work all hours. I still can't get
used to this, considering that when I left California 14 years ago, I
was making $13-$15 an hour, and every employer had health insurance,
yet my first job in Sedona paid $5.50, while the cost of living was
the same as in Southern California.

One job I had in Flagstaff had me running a three-person office by
myself for about two months, with one day of training. After two
months a manager was brought on board, but he spent all of his time
out of the office, and after 9 months, a second person was finally
hired. After I was hired I was informed I would be on call 24/7 and
carry a pager. I would open the office at 5:30 in the morning, and
work until 6:00 at night. On several occasions I would get a page and
have to go back to the office for 1-3 hours. I was also told that the
company wanted me to stay in Flagstaff when I wasn't working,
including weekends, so I could immediately go to the office when
paged. I didn't receive any extra pay for being on call or staying in
town. On one occasion I was threatened with termination if I left
town.

Another employer decided to lay me off 8 days before my one year
anniversary, when I would have qualified for a raise, a week of
vacation time, and been vested in the company's retirement plan.

I've also encountered constant problems with being over qualified. I
have education and several years of experience in police work,
management, marketing, writing and photography, yet I seldom even get
called in for an interview when I apply for jobs in these fields. A
friend applied for a job at a trade school in Flagstaff, and the
director told her that he couldn't hire her because she had more
schooling and experience in the field than he did, and she would have
his job in a few years. I have been told that many people in
management are marginally qualified, and when well-qualified people
come along they aren't hired because they have more experience than
the manager.

It's also common in Northern Arizona for a person to work 2-3 jobs
just to make ends meet because the pay is so low, and the cost of
living is so high.

And I won't even go into the fact that I've only had health insurance
for three of my thirteen years in Arizona.

Dealing with these kinds of situations make owning a home almost
impossible. I remember hearing about 5 years ago that the average two
income household in Flagstaff qualified for a $225,000 home, yet the
average price of a home at the time was $250,000. Today, salaries have
not increased, but the average price of a home at the end of the first
quarter of 2007 was $473,000. More and more people from out of town
are buying second homes in Flagstaff. I have friends that own homes in
Flagstaff, but have no neighbors because all the homes around them are
only used a couple of times a year as vacation homes.

I honestly don't see a solution to the housing problem in Flagstaff. A
friend of mine is a Realtor, and he says that Flagstaff is now
considered a resort town. Out of town money keeps driving the prices
of houses up, yet salaries for locals is staying the same. I believe
this trend will continue until, like Sedona, most workers can't afford
to live in Flagstaff and will have to move out of town and commute
every day.