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Living Wage

Protesters Slam Wall Street Elites: Profit Off ‘Misery Of Workers’

April 15, 2015 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org , , , ,
A union-supported activist group known as the Hedge Clippers disrupted a hedge fund conference in Manhattan on Monday to call out financial investors they say support poverty wages. The Hedge Clippers describe themselves as "working to expose the mechanisms hedge funds and billionaires use to influence government and politics in order to expand their wealth, influence and power." Roughly 20 protesters entered the main room of the Active-Passive Investor Summit, where a panel on shareholder activists was taking place, and marched in front of the stage for about 20 minutes, chanting, "Hedge fund billionaires, pay your fair share!" "Bill Ackman, show me $15!" the protesters shouted, referring to the billionaire founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital, who was not present during the panel.

Connecticut Bill Would Fine Corporations For Low Wages

April 14, 2015 Nina Liss-Schultz, www.rhrealitycheck.org , ,
Connecticut lawmakers are moving forward with a proposal that could effectively raise the minimum wage of many of the state’s low-wage workers to $15 an hour. The bill, SB 1044, would subject for-profit companies with 500 or more employees to a fine for every employee who is paid less than $15 an hour, essentially forcing those companies to raise wages or pay if they refuse. The bill would be the first of its kind in the country. Connecticut has in the past few years enacted other first-of-its-kind laws to support low-wage workers in the state, among them a 2011 law mandating paid sick leave for the hundreds of thousands of service employees in the state.

Seattle’s Fight For 15 Carries On

April 13, 2015 Steve Leigh, www.socialistworker.org , ,
NEARLY A year after the Seattle City Council passed a $15 an hour ordinance, thousands of Seattle workers got a raise on April 1. According to the ordinance, which passed after a grassroots campaign of actions demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage, Seattle workers will now get a minimum of $10 an hour. This is part of a long phase-in until all workers get at least $15 an hour by 2021. With a built-in cost-of-living clause, all workers are expected to make $18 per hour by 2025. The state minimum wage is currently $9.47. Businesses employing fewer than 500 workers and providing health care or tips have to pay $10 an hour. Businesses employing more than 500 workers nationwide and smaller businesses that don't provide tips or health care must pay $11.

Who Benefits From Univ.Of California’s New ‘Global Campus?’

April 11, 2015 Steve Early, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
AFSCME rank-and-filers are campaigning, with student and community allies, for a different kind of “CBA.” At meetings on campus, in local churches, and other venues, they are pressuring the university to sign a “community benefits agreement” that would apply to the “Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay” (BGC) that UC-plans to build in partnership with private developers and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL). The new mayor Tom Butt, urged “UCB to reach a legally-binding agreement with community stakeholders” that would commit the BGC to local hiring, job training, and “living wage” standards; use of unionized construction labor; respect for collective bargaining rights of campus workers; use of local businesses as vendors; and creation of an “anti-displacement fund to subsidize the development of affordable housing units and protect low income tenants” from gentrification of adjoining neighborhoods.

Imagine Coalition Of Black Lives Matter, LGBT Equality, Fight For 15

April 7, 2015 Ian Reifowitz, www.dailykos.com , , , ,
Silos are dangerous. I’m not talking about the kind that house nuclear missiles, but rather the metaphorical kind, the kind that divide people who could and should be working together toward a shared goal. Too often, progressives have found themselves divided into these kinds of silos, for example, with women—themselves typically divided by race and ethnicity—fighting for gender equality, LGBT folks fighting for gay rights, unions and workers fighting for labor rights, and on and on. To some degree, these divisions are understandable. Part of the way a marginalized group empowers itself is by creating a movement in which its members play a predominant role.

Newsletter: Austerity, Debt & Environmental Degradation

April 4, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , ,
Last week, we wrote about the epidemic of neoliberalism. This week, as major protests erupt in Canada, Mexico and Belgium, we discuss its sister, austerity. In neo-liberal economics, wealth is funneled to the top through increasing privatization of the public and cuts to social services. This can only occur if those who are not at the top are subjected to austerity measures. Those at the bottom are squeezed, suffer financial insecurity and the inability to meet basic needs. Rather than these realities weakening our ability to stand up we must stand together in solidarity to take care of each other and build our power in the struggle. People are becoming more aware that their individual struggles are against system-wide problems and are seeing that when the people are united, they can win. Let’s keep building solidarity and unity of action so the muscle of people power grows.

Small Percentage Of McDonald’s Workers Get Pay Raise

April 2, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , , , ,
McDonald's plans to raise the average pay of about 90,000 of the 750,000 McDonald's US workers to around $10 an hour, but the increase will not benefit workers at the vast majority of the restaurants, because they are operated by franchisees, who make their own wage decisions. The pay increase, for workers at roughly 1,500 company-owned U.S. restaurants, will take effect on July 1. Starting wages at the restaurants will move to $1 above the locally mandated minimum wage. Workers groups said the move by McDonald's, which is also adding benefits such as paid vacations, fell short of their goals. The raise is only at "company-owned restaurants," only about 10% of its 14,350 stores nationwide. The rest are owned by franchisees, who "operate their individual businesses and make their own decisions on pay and benefits for their employees." The National Labor Relations Board general counsel ruled differently on Dec. 19 that the Oak Brook, Ill., company "engages in sufficient control over its franchisees' operations...to make it a putative joint employer with its franchisees, sharing liability for violations of our Act."

The Fight For $15 Is The Fight For A Livable Planet

March 31, 2015 350, www.350.org , ,
Prioritizing profits is warming our planet and growing economic inequality. That’s why 350.org is supporting the Fight for 15, a new effort calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. We believe that a new, prosperous clean energy economy should be one that protects the planet, protects the people who live on it, and generates millions of good jobs that pay livable wages. We can help jumpstart that economy on April 15. here’s no way that our civilization can survive in a 6 degree future — one that we’re all but assured if fossil fuel companies dig up and burn all the fossil fuels they have on the books. And there’s no way our country can thrive if the wages we pay 3.3 million of our workers means they can’t afford decent housing, food or education.

Hundreds March In Atlanta Seeking Boost In Minimum Wage

March 23, 2015 Helena Oliviero, www.ajc.com , ,
Hundreds of people marched from Ebenezer Baptist Church to a McDonald’s restaurant a mile away Saturday afternoon demanding fast-food restaurants and other businesses lift the minimum wage. Carrying signs that said, “People and Planet over Profit,” the crowd of close to 500 flooded the fast-food restaurant. They chanted, “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Robertson Anderson, 23, who has worked at McDonald’s for about two and a half years in the maintenance department was so moved, he walked off the job. Outside, he seemed visibly shaken, and he said he wasn’t sure whether he would return to his job.

Why A Mass Movement Is ‘Payment’ For Progress

March 6, 2015 Rev. Rodney Williams, www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org , , ,
The wages of the laborers who run your stores, who feed your customers who make you rich so that you can send your sons and daughters to private schools. The ones whose wages you have stolen, are crying out and their cries have been heard. They have reached the ears of our lord, our God. Although you live in the lap of luxury, God is about to flip the script. I’m here this evening as a result of a moral issue which is concerning the income gap between the rich corporate executives and the everyday laborers that make them rich. Today, everything is like it was in the days of James. Much of the wealth of this nation is still the result of exploitation and unfair compensation of the workers, especially in the fast-food industry.

Adjuncts Deem Nat’l Day Of Action A Success

February 27, 2015 Colleen Flaherty and Kaitlin Mulhere, www.insidehighered.com , , ,
It started as a simple question on social media: What would happen if adjuncts across the country walked out on the same day, at the same time? That question got answered Wednesday -- sort of -- on the first-ever National Adjunct Walkout Day. There were some big walkouts at a few institutions but, for a variety of reasons, adjuncts at many more colleges and universities staged alternative protests, such as teach-ins, rallies and talks. Still, the movement led to unprecedented levels of conversation on many campuses, in the media and elsewhere about the working conditions of the majority of college faculty (those off the tenure track). And as a result, adjunct activists declared the day a success -- while wondering what comes next.

About 2,000 Protest Against Right-To-Work At Wisconsin Capitol

February 25, 2015 Scott Bauer, www.AP.org , , ,
About 2,000 construction workers, electricians, carpenters and other union members rallied at the Wisconsin state Capitol on Tuesday, pushing back against a fast-tracked right-to-work bill backed by Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker. The gathering was larger than most at the Capitol, but paled in numbers and intensity to the protests seen four years ago when Walker pushed through his measure that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers. Rallies then lasted for weeks and grew as large as 100,000 people. “Let’s be loud today and let them hear us,” Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said at the rally where people sang, chanted and booed references to Republicans pushing the issue. Right-to-work laws, in place in 24 states, prohibit private-sector companies from reaching labor agreements in which workers have to pay fees to the unions as a condition of employment.

Wal-Mart, Under Pressure, Boosts Wage To $9/hr

February 20, 2015 Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Nathan Layne, www.reuters.com , ,
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) said it would raise entry-level wages to $9 an hour, a 24 percent increase from the U.S. minimum wage that some employees now earn, succumbing to longstanding pressure to pay its workforce more. The world's largest retailer said the increases would cost it $1 billion and impact 500,000 employees, or about 40 percent of its workforce, although the hike falls short of what some labor groups have been agitating for. The move comes amid a growing debate in the U.S. over the widening gulf between the rich and low-income workers. Wal-Mart has been a prime target of critics who say its low-wages and inflexible scheduling are a big part of the problem. The White House praised the move, pointing out that 17 states have already moved to boost their minimum wages above the federal level of $7.25 an hour and renewing its call on the Republican Congress to boost the wage on a national level.

Workers Finding New Ways To Advocate In The Workplace

February 17, 2015 Sarita Gupta, www.prospect.org , , ,
At the heart of this struggle is the reality that we’re no longer working in traditional, family-sustaining careers. As the way we work continues to change in this country, isn’t it time that the rules and standards governing our workplaces do too? If we’re going to rewrite those rules, we need to give everyone a seat at the table. When the powerful few get to decide which wages, benefits, and workplace standards the rest of us deserve, the economic picture goes wildly off-kilter. But what if we all had a stronger voice at work? What if we all had the ability to share our ideas, negotiate on behalf of the collective good, and stand up for issues that really matter? Isn’t that voice a critical piece of helping us restore the good, family-supporting jobs that seem to keep disappearing?

Increasing Wage To Poverty Wage Is Not Enough

January 27, 2015 LeeAnn Hall, www.otherwords.org , ,
On New Year’s Day, 20 states raised their minimum wages. That leaves a lot of states that aren’t increasing the minimum wage — along with the federal government. Even some of those employees who are getting increases don’t have much to celebrate. Workers in Florida might barely notice their 12-cents-an-hour raise. And the extra 15 cents an hour in Montana, Arizona, and Missouri will be wiped out with inflation and climbing costs before the first paycheck is deposited. U.S. legislators have refused since 2009 to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour — not even close to enough for full-time workers to make ends meet.
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