The former presidential Republican candidate argues that the GOP should believe in better wages for all, and, essentially, opposing a reasonable, occasional increase, in effect, is opposing minimum wages altogether. Please see:
On the Faith and Justice Service and Rally, Riverside Church
Low Wage Workers And Clergy Walk To Riverside Church In Harlem
Read more at http://www.harlemworldmag.com/low-wage-workers-clergy-walk-riverside-church-harlem/#ltK1xf7irXyvg1Sm.99
Fast Food Workers: We Will Strike for Wages, Union
From The New York Daily News:
Fast food workers from across the boroughs skipped their shifts Wednesday and brought their beef to Sixth Ave. in Manhattan, promising another citywide walkout next week to highlight their growing frustration.
“The economy is so tough right now,” said Elizabeth Rene, a Kingsborough College student from Flatbush who has worked at multiple McDonald’s in the city since 2006, including the W. 28th St. store that served as the site for Wednesday’s rally.
“It’s really difficult,” she added. “I have experience. I’ve worked at other locations, and I’m still taking home $7.25 an hour after taxes.” Continue reading
The Faith and Justice Walk at Riverside Church, NY
All throughout history, clergy of all faiths and denominations have been deeply involved in the fight for civil rights and for fair and just treatment for all people.
Here in the United States, priests, ministers, rabbis and clergy of other faiths took part in — or supported — the lunch-counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, and later as they spread to South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi and all through the South.
Faith leaders of all stripes joined hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others as they marched on Washington, D.C., in 1963 and then through the streets of Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham where, in September 1963, four young black girls attending Sunday School were murdered when racists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church. Continue reading
Workers on the Paid Sick Day Issue
Please visit these links provided by Ellen Bravo, a long-time activist for working women. She began working for 9to5, National Association of Working Women in 1982, when she helped found the Milwaukee chapter, and served until 2004 as its national director. Ellen Bravo directs Family Values @ Work Coalition, a network of state coalitions working for paid sick days and paid family leaves. She has provided these interviews with these workers about that subject.
Income Inequality is Theme for Film Festval
The Workers Unite Film Festival s opening in New York City with income inequality as a theme. A full schedule is available at the website here
Andrew Tilson, executive director, describes it: “Our focus this season is on income inequality and how workers by organizing and uniting into unions can fight back against this widening income gap. The Workers Unite Film Festival team has been hard at work previewing films, setting up new venues, organizing partnerships and building the best worker/labor film festival we can for our third season.
Our themes of equal pay for equal work for women, dignity and legal status for immigrant workers, a living wage for all, including fast-food workers and workplace rights and justice for every employed person every type, be they on a shop floor, driving a taxi or working in the old and deadly garment sweatshops of Bangladesh, or the new high-tech sweatshops of the social media industry.”
Minimum Wage Hike: Senate, No, Seattle, Maybe yes
This week has become pivotal for the minimum wage debate. Forces to improve the minimum wage descended on Washington as the U.S. Senate took up the issue, but Republicans blocked the bill. President Obama reacted quickly, click here, while Democrats now are seizing on making that divide an important part of midterm elections in November. Click here.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, the mayor and local officials are now moving towards a $15 minimum wage in the city. Click here. And on Friday, Hawaiian legislators moved to raise that state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Click here.
While his predecessors did sign bills to increase minimum wages, one analysis stressed that President Obama lacks a Republican partner. Click here.
And a poll may explain that while 71 percent of those surveyes supported raising the minimum wage, many of those same people said it has little to do with their vote. Just 58 percent said they would punish someone electorally for opposing the minimum wage. Click here.
Still, the debate goes on –on the effects on workers, clearly, and on business. The New York Times editorialized that raising the rate is good for business, click here, while The Washington Post explored the split between big and small business reactions here.
How One Older Fast Food Worker Gets By
Alan Feuer of The New York Times detailed the life of Eduardo Shoy, a deliveryman for KFC and Pizza Hut, who epitomizes the life of older workers in the fast food industry. Click here
From LA, a Retail Worker Asks for a Raise
In a Department of Labor video.William Fletcher, a retail store worker from Los Angeles, shares why he thinks it’s time for a minimum wage raise. Please click here
Barriers to Escaping Poverty
New York Times reporter Steve Greenhouse discusses the difficulties of low-wage workers in getting sufficient hours, steady schedules and enough money to live.
Please See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/business/economy/low-wage-workers-finding-its-easier-to-fall-into-poverty-and-harder-to-get-out.html?_r=1 or click here
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