Low Wage Workers

The Trade Union Movement Must Organise Minimum Wage Workers

January 30, 2021 National Workers Union, Hood Communist. Organize! Low Wage Workers, Trade Union, Trinidad and Tobago, Worker Rights and Jobs

The twenty-first century has seen the Trade Union Movement in Trinidad and Tobago consistently under attack, severely criticized and victimized by the ruling economic and political elites. The thousands of sugar workers were the first group of organised workers this century to suffer mass retrenchment. This, of course, has had the effect of severely weakening a once powerful union. The Unions in petroleum and petrochemical industries have seen a steady decline in their workforce Thousands of direct and indirect Petrotrin workers have been thrown on the breadline as have hundreds of workers at Arcelor Mittal and hundreds at TSTT. Jobs are disappearing at an accelerated rate in the light and heavy manufacturing industry.

NYC Will Prohibit Major Fast Food Employers From Firing Workers Without ‘Just Cause’

December 19, 2020 Sydney Pereira, The Gothamist. Educate! Low Wage Workers, New York City (NYC), Worker Rights and Jobs

NYC fast food workers would get increased protections under two bills that passed in the City Council on Thursday. The two bills would increase protections for workers at large fast food companies, expanding upon worker protection laws passed in 2017. One measure would prohibit fast food employers from firing workers without "just cause," meaning showing the employee failed to meet job duties or has harmed the employer's business interests. Another would require that any layoffs occur by seniority, protecting workers who have been with a given company longer. Arbitration guidelines are laid out in the bills as well.

Fast-Food Workers Demanded — And Won — COVID Protections

December 18, 2020 Sophia Kasakove, Report for America. Organize! COVID-19, Low Wage Workers, North Carolina, Worker Rights

Durham, NC - In early September, Jamila Allen led a group of 18 co-workers out the front doors of Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers to protest the lack of safety measures taken by management in dealing with COVID-19. A coworker had tested positive for COVID-19, but the restaurant had refused to pay workers for time to quarantine. The strikers demanded a professional deep cleaning of the store, two weeks paid leave to self-quarantine, and $15 per hour hazard pay. Outside the eatery in West Durham, workers at the national fast-food chain were joined by dozens of supporters from the Fight for $15, the Poor People’s Campaign, and other local groups, who joined in chants of “I believe that we will win” and “Put some respect on my check.”

Unemployment Skyrocketing? An Evolved Society Would Celebrate

December 15, 2020 Lee Camp, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Capitalism, Low Wage Workers, Systemic Racism, Unemployment

Leaf blowers are everything wrong with capitalism. . . . I’ll explain that in a minute. We all know times are irredeemably grim, and they’re only getting worse. The unemployment level in America seems to be setting the record books aflame, and for some bizarre reason those numbers correlate nicely with the number of Americans under 40 living with their parents again. Understandably, the entire country is a little on edge. If I spend more than 30 minutes around my parents, one eye starts twitching, a dull ringing settles into my inner ear canal, and I start to think Rachel Maddow (which they leave on 24/7 as if she’s Christmas music at Macy’s) makes some logical sense.

The Daily Life Of Those Fighting For $15 And A Union

August 15, 2020 Al Neal, People's World. Organize! Fight for 15, Low Wage Workers, Racism, Worker Rights

The rank and file workers that came before us said a union was not the union hall nor the labor temple, nor was it the elected union officials that come and go. The union was its people—the honest, hardworking membership. Comrades of sweat and toil pushed and prodded too far for the sake of an industrial tyrant’s profits. Workers who reached a point and said, “enough is enough,” who joined together, demanded change, and organized. And in the current moment of economic turmoil and political upheaval, workers are experiencing quaint evocations of moments gone by—as if looking through an open window and scanning through the decades of militant union history, scouring the past to understand and confront today’s clear and present danger.

A Majority Of Workers Are Fearful Of Coronavirus Infections At Work

June 18, 2020 By Peter Dorman and Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! COVID-19, Low Wage Workers, PPE, Racism

The majority of workers and roughly 70% of Black and Hispanic workers who are currently working onsite at their workplaces, and not at home, believe they face considerable risks from the coronavirus. These workers are not being provided with sufficient protection on the job. Moreover, new polling commissioned by EPI shows that vulnerable workers are not receiving extra compensation proportionate to the risks they are being exposed to. Workers require and deserve both safety protections and extra compensation in these circumstances, and they should not be forced to choose between their health and having an income. There is widespread fear of risks from the coronavirus among workers who are working onsite at their workplace, instead of working from home, and these perceived risks are greater for those with the least power in the labor market.

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