To the Editor:

Re “Reviving the American Working Class” (editorial, Aug. 30):

I am a 65-year-old hourly employee at a hotel in Durham, N.C. At the end of each workweek, like many millions of low-wage earners in America, I nervously wait for the next week’s schedule to post. Because then I will know if I may attend Sunday’s church service and if I can take that second job across town. And then, too, many parents will learn they can’t be home to make their children’s dinner and have to scramble for child care. And then, many of us will learn our desperately needed 40 hours have been trimmed and the coming paycheck slashed.

Every week this pernicious labor practice is leveled at millions of America’s lowest-paid workers. And you know why? Because of a dehumanizing labor concept called “just in time scheduling” and a shameful greed that keeps piling up the dollars for corporate executives.

Each month the Labor Department releases a new job report. After which, like clockwork, our president takes the opportunity to preen and revel in the numbers. I begrudge no man and want everyone to do well. But that rosy portrait of job creation and increased wages is not borne out by the realities many of us live with. Certainly not in my hometown and certainly not among the millions of workers waiting for next week’s schedule to post.

So the next time our president boastfully touts his record for job creation, I beg someone to ask him to be transparent on these few things:

1) Just where in America can these jobs be found?

2) Will these jobs allow a person to buy a little house and raise a family?