Vote Early!
Any Fargo voter can vote early. Early voting will be taking place June 2nd to June 6th from 11-6pm at the Doublewood Inn. 3333 13th Ave South in Fargo.
Must bring a valid North Dakota I.D. to vote.
Absentee Ballot
To download an absentee ballot application click here
“On nights where we allow our patrons to smoke, we make about $120 a night in tips. Last Monday we didn’t allow our customers to smoke. Our total sales were five dollars.”
- server at The Other Place, Turtle River, MN
“My tips have gone down from $70 or $80 a day to less than $20,” Tracy Willows said at the end of her shift, when she is shaking her head at the 20 bucks-if she’s lucky-in her pocket and wondering if her pay will be enough to fill her gas tank, much less put food on the table or buy gym uniforms for her two kids.
- Tracy Willows, Grand Central Casino waitress, Lakewood, MN
“I’m a full time college student who works at a local bar. I rely on the money I make, mostly from tips, to get myself through school. Since the smoking ban went into effect, I’ve had to more than double my weekly hours at the bar to make the same amount I was making a year ago. Business just isn’t the same and I can no longer rely on my tips from three nights of work to get me by. Now I try to manage six nights of work along with a full time school schedule. We’ll see how long I can last trying to pull that off.”
- Megan Saunders, student/cocktail waitress, Minneapolis, MN
“The environment may be better for my employees’ health, but they would have worked with or without the ban- It’s the money that they bring in from tips that’s more important to them. Since the smoking ban went into effect, they may be noticing better health, but what they notice first is their thinner wallets.”
- Mike Mulrooney, owner of Blarney Pub & Grill, Dinkytown, MN
“This ban is essentially going to kill small bars and restaurants. I’ve been to New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston where they all have similar bans in place, and the bar employees that I have spoken to all say that their income has significantly dropped since the bans have been in effect. I’d like to believe the same thing won’t happen to me in Minnesota, but I know that is wishful thinking.”
- Jonas Dahl, bartender, St. Paul, MN
One Response to “Employee Distress Quotes”
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June 9th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Im a bartender in Fargo… i choose to work in an establishment that allows smoking…I understand that my choice of working in a bar that allows smoking could have consequences to my health, but again I choose that, And I find people taking those choices away from me more frighting than any health problem that could come.. I see people over stepping their boundries inregards to personal choice and rights when it come to how an individual will run their Business. I am a college student as well… If The government is going to start dictating how businesses are going to be run and whats allowed and not, then I am not so sure I understood The definition of democracy accurately..In the dictionary definition, democracy “is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
My point here is that if Democracy wasnt meant to include the small business owners that make up the United States and Im sure millions of employees that work for small business owners even the ones in Fargo North Dakota, then seriously what is our society turning into…Taking rights away, Taking the rights of the freedom to choose how you run your own establishment, Taking my right away to choose what type of work enviroment I work in??? Then perhaps we should look at the whole Constitution… We have seen the statitics of other States and what has happened with Their smoking bans, We have seen the consiquences..none of which have been benificial to any one…