Inustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

We love being on the forefront of providing safer salons for guests and salon owners alike. We just got off the phone with the Department of Licensing to discuss recent law changes and to find out how the public and salon owners can keep up to date.



Rose at the DOL says, "We have news updates on our listserv that owners can subscribe to."

Listserv? a flashback comes across our heads. we tell rose, "That's great. it reminds me of my college days. listservs. ftp's. rss feeds. tell me rose, how many salon owners understand how to use this technology?"

"well, our advisory committee comes up with the new changes and we are required by law to send them out to all of our licensees. we have quarterly updates in Olympia, Bellingham, and East of the Mountains that any member of the public is welcome to attend where we discuss new law changes."

we interrupt, "wait. law changes are being made quarterly in our industry and the only way to get the latest changes is to attend public hearings in Olympia or subscribe to your listserv?"

"yes."

okay. wow. we continue, "we noticed on your website that over 20 salons were fined in just 2 months. over 50% of those salons represent a minority that speak languages other than english. how many members of the DOL advisory committee understand the demographics by which they are trying to protect? in other words, how are you communicating with them?"

"our information is published in multiple languages on our website located at http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/cosmetology/whatsnew.html"


intereting rose.

we chat for a few momets with the DOL. "you know it doesn't matter to us that your information is difficult to obtain. we received great scores on our last inspection. but we're deeply concerned that new law changes are being made and they are not effectively being communicated with the rest of the industry. it's almost strange to think that we want to help our competition.

creating new laws does not change anything if no one knows about them. the salons that are being fined deserve those fines if they're not staying current with safety standards.

you know rose, it's better for us to see you shut them down and impose stricter fines. but it's not the right thing to do."

rose says, "if you'd like you are welcome to partake in our next meeting in Bellingham to discuss how we can work together."

okay rose. we'll see you there in Bellingham.