SeaTac’s $15 an Hour Wage Initiative Achieves Sig Threshold Quickly

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/p2w2NH-n3 mnemonic here:  http://urlet.com/sincere.brainier

“Less than two weeks after filing a City of SeaTac initiative that would assure better wages and working conditions for thousands of low-wage SeaTac Airport workers, backers have announced that they have already surpassed the signature threshold.”

The initiative if passed will raise the minimum wage for these 5,000 workers to $15 an hour along with other reforms.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/21/backers-pass-signature-threshold-on-seatac-measure-to-require-living-wages-for-airport-workers

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https://www.facebook.com/itsourairport

http://itsourairport.org/

About

There are thousands of poverty-wage workers at our airport. Let’s make every airport job a good job.

Mission

Let’s make every job at Sea-Tac a good job.

Description

These baggage handlers, fuelers, passenger service workers, ground transportation workers, taxicab drivers, and cargo workers do work critical to the successful operations of Alaska and other airlines at our airport. However, they do not actually work for these large corporations.
Instead their jobs are contracted out to the lowest bidder. Most of these airline contractors pay poverty wages.
Workers across the airport report that benefits, if offered at all, are usually unaffordable for workers bringing home at or near the minimum wage for the long and onerous hours worked. And most of these workers are immigrants that have come from Africa, Asia, and Latin America to pursue a better life in Seattle. Their work is vital to keeping Sea-Tac running and providing good service for the more than 32 million passengers that pass through our airport. They work hard – sometimes holding down two or three jobs.
They deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and to a make a living wage.

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http://www.seatacblog.com/2013/05/13/seatac-committee-seeks-higher-minimum-wage-employment-standards/

SeaTac Committee seeks higher minimum wage, employment standards

 by Jack Mayne

“For the past several days, a proposal by an outside group to raise some minimum salaries almost $6 an hour above the state minimum and impose mandatory paid sick leave for transportation and hospitality workers in have caused some concerns in the city.“

“The proposed ordinance would raise minimum wages from the state’s current $9.19 per hour to $15 an hour for all workers defined to be in the hospitality and transportation businesses inside SeaTac.”

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PDF of the Initiative:

http://www.ci.seatac.wa.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=7321

Chicago Fast Food, Retail Workers Go On Strike, “Fight for $15″

shortlink here: http://wp.me/p2w2NH-mQ  mnemonic here: http://urlet.com/anyway.too

Chicago Fast Food, Retail Workers Go On Strike For Higher Wages

Photo credit: Ryan L. Williams
Hundreds of retail and fast food workers went on a coordinated strike this morning to call for a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to unionize without interference.

http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/24/chicago_fast_food_retail_workers_go.php

Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago issues new report:  A Case for $15:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/115415149/A-Case-for-15

Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago / Fight for 15 – Lucha por 15 WOCC: https://www.facebook.com/Fightfor15

Fast Food Forward (NYC):  https://www.facebook.com/FastFoodForward

#strikefor15, #fightfor15, #fastfoodforward

Occupy Oakland Brings Fast Food Workers “Fight for $15″ to Oakland

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/p2w2NH-mJ   mnemonic here:  http://urlet.com/gamblers.purely

Recently hundreds of fast food workers participated in a wildcat strike in New York City to demand $15/dollars per hour. Now it looks like workers in Chicago are going for it as well. We need to Fight for Fifteen in Oakland!

Rampant gentrification and exploitation abounds in Oakland, with stores run by massively profitable corporations thriving off the labor of workers barely making minimum wage or more, but we know we can’t survive in this town on $8/hr. Bring this class tension to the forefront by fighting for a livable wage!

The May Day Fight for Fifteen assembly is planning for and publicizing a noise demo through downtown Oakland on May 1st aka May Day, the traditional holiday to commemorate workers’ struggles.

http://occupyoakland.org/ai1ec_event/on-may-day-fight-for-15/?instance_id=253364

Fight for 15 – Lucha por 15 WOCC: https://www.facebook.com/Fightfor15 Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago

Fast Food Forward (NYC):  https://www.facebook.com/FastFoodForward

NYC Fast Food Workers Strike for $15, Smeared by Fox & Friends

Fox Smears Striking NYC Fast Food Workers While Pushing Minimum Wage Myths Blog››› April 5, 2013 11:17 AM EDT ››› REMINGTON SHEPARD

Fox News campaigned against New York City fast food workers who are striking to secure higher wages by attacking their work ethic and pushing falsehoods about the minimum wage that they are paid.

On April 4, hundreds of fast food workers in New York City walked out of their workplaces, striking against their current wage of $7.25 an hour and pushing to be paid a livable wage of $15 an hour. The New York Times reported that many of the striking workers “say they can barely get by on the $7.25, $8 or $9 an hour that many receive.”

On April 5, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade responded to the strike by claiming that the minimum wage many fast food workers are paid was never supposed to be a “career wage” and if workers wanted to earn more, they need to get an additional job or work harder in order to earn a pay raise or promotion. Co-host Steve Doocy followed by hyping a restaurant industry group claim that raising the minimum wage would prove ruinous for the industry and for workers:

Despite the restaurant industry’s position that Doocy read on-air, increasing the minimum wage would not kill jobs. According to a February CEPR report, most of the evidence from recent studies on the subject show that there is “little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage” because employers shift the cost of the pay increase and the pay increase would decrease costs associated with high turnover in low-wage jobs.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/05/fox-smears-striking-nyc-fast-food-workers-while/193491

Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago issues new report: A Case for $15 Minimum Wage

Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago issues new report:  A Case for $15.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/115415149/A-Case-for-15

Democracy Now Reports on New York Fast Food Workers Struggle VIDEO

Democracy Now! was there when workers at dozens of restaurants owned by McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell and others went on strike Thursday and rallied in a bid for fair pay and union recognition. Organizers with the Fast Food Forward campaign are seeking an increased pay rate of $15 an hour, about double what the minimum-wage workers are making. Workers and their allies demanded a wage that would let them support their families. Martyna Starosta filed this report.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/30/hundreds_of_fast_food_workers_strike

Fast-food workers walked off the job in New York City Thursday to hold a series of rallies and picket lines in what has been called the largest series of worker actions ever to hit the country’s fast-food industry. Hundreds of workers at dozens of restaurants owned by McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and others went on strike and rallied in a bid for fair pay and union recognition. Organizers with the Fast Food Forward campaign are seeking an increased pay rate of $15 an hour, about double what the minimum-wage workers are making. Workers and their allies demanded a wage that would let them support their families. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González spoke to many of the striking workers for his latest New York Daily News column, “One-day strike by fast-food workers at McDonald’s, Burger King and other restaurants is just the beginning.” [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/11/30/video_on_strike_fast_food_workers_in_nyc_call_for_right_to_unionize

No One Owes You A McRestaurant…..

“When a restaurant/hospitality worker complains about not making a living, they are often told things like “no one is forcing you to work in a restaurant” or “it is your choice where you work” or “you just need to improve your working skills to make your work product more valuable and businesses will pay you more” or sometimes even “no one owes you a living.”

You see and hear comments like that all the time.

Why doesn’t that apply to business? Aren’t you choosing to run a restaurant? If the margins are so low in food, why don’t you open a bank or a gold mine? It’s your choice you know. Or maybe if you just brush up on your entrepreneurial skills you can think of a better business to invest your capital in. How about “no one owes you a restaurant?”

I am not trying to be harsh, but I am applying the same logic and the same free market analysis to you as a business owner that is often applied to the working poor”

http://humboldtherald.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/nyc-fast-food-workers-strike-for-higher-pay/

VIDEO from Chicago – Fight For 15

While boisterous protests targeted Chicago-area Walmarts Friday, a new local union formed in mid-November coordinated a second wave of actions calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour, well beyond a gradual statewide increase to $10.55 that may be approved next year.

The Illinois minimum wage is currently $8.25 per hour.

The activities were part of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago’s “Fight for 15” campaign. The committee says it already includes employees at more than 100 businesses. After supporting the Walmart rallies, committee members marched down Michigan Avenue and rallied both outside and inside Water Tower Place.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-v-santore/illinois-minimum-wage-protests_b_2204531.html

Josh Eidelson On Fight for 15 in New York and Chicago

“NYC isn’t the only place fast food workers are in revolt. Today’s strike follows a founding convention held earlier this month by an linked organization, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago. WWOC claims 200-some members in fast food and retail. Its most dramatic actions took place on Black Friday, when workers leafleted and demonstrated at major companies and dropped a banner inside of Macy’s (they also joined pickets in support of local Wal-Mart workers). “We’re getting all the workers together and we’re standing up against CEOs,” said WOCC member Brittney Smith. “Because there’s more workers than there are CEOs.” Smith, a college student who recently quit her job at the retail chain Express and took a similar job at American Apparel, said she now makes $8.75 an hour. “Some of the time I luck out and I can eat two meals a day,” she said. “But most of the time, I’m eating one.”

Like FFWC in New York, WOCC is a new independent union made up of workers tied together by a shared city and similarly low wages, not a single employer. Both FFWC and WOCC are backed by unions and labor community groups, and so far aren’t recognized by any employers. And they’re making the same demands: allow a fair process for unionization and start paying $15 an hour. Organizers say that could be achieved through union contracts with individual companies, or through joint bargaining with several employers at once. Either way, it’s a heavy lift.

The New York and Chicago campaigns evoke two strategies that have been long debated but infrequently attempted in U.S. labor. First, “minority unionism”: mobilizing workers to take dramatic actions and make demands on management prior to showing support from the majority of employees. Second, “geographic organizing”: collaboration between multiple unions to organize workers at several employers and win public support for raising a region’s standards through unionization. This campaign is also the latest example in which community-based organizing groups, which unions have long leaned on to drum up support for workers, are playing a major role in directly organizing workers to win union recognition.”

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/in_rare_strike_nyc_fast_food_workers_walk_out/singleton/

Fight for $15 Spreads to New York – McJobs Should Pay, Too

McJobs Should Pay, Too: It’s Time for Fast-Food Workers To Get Living Wages

By Sarah Jaffe

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/mcjobs-should-pay-too-its-time-for-fast-food-workers-to-get-living-wages/265714/

As low-wage service jobs become the new normal for millions of families, it’s time to rethink the balance of power between fast-food workers and their corporations

The term “McJob” has come to epitomize all that’s wrong with the low-wage service industry jobs that are growing part of the U.S economy. “It beats flipping burgers,” the cliché goes, because no matter what your job might be, it’s assumed to be better than working in a fast-food restaurant.

Today in New York City, though, hundreds of workers at dozens of fast-food chain stores are walking out on strike, demanding better of those jobs. At McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, Taco Bell, and Domino’s Pizza locations, workers have been organizing, and today they launch their campaign. They want a raise, to $15-an-hour from their current near-minimum wage pay, and recognition for their independent union, the Fast Food Workers Committee.

Saavedra Jantuah, who works at a Burger King on 34th St. in Manhattan, explained that the $7.30 she makes per hour after two years on the job doesn’t pay her enough to support her son. “I’m doing it for him, I’m going on strike so I can bring my family together underneath one household,” she said. “A union can help us get to where we can make it in New York.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that seven out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage fields. And these jobs are not being done by teenagers. Across the country, the median age of fast-food workers is over 28, and women — who make up two-thirds of the industry — are over 32, according to the BLS.

Fast food weathered the recession, and the biggest names are seeing big profits. Yum! Brands, which runs Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, saw profits up 45 percent over the last four fiscal years, and McDonald’s saw them up 130 percent. (After Walmart, Yum! Brands and McDonald’s are the second and third-largest low-wage employers in the nation.)

read the rest of the artlicle at link above….

In rare strike, NYC fast-food workers walk out

After a Black Friday action at Wal-Mart, NYC fast-food workers walk out, challenging a nearly union-free industry

By Josh Eidelson

At 6:30 this morning, New York City fast food workers walked off the job, launching a rare strike against a nearly union-free industry. Organizers expect workers at dozens of stores to join the one-day strike, a bold challenge to an industry whose low wages, limited hours and precarious employment typify a growing portion of the U.S. economy.

New York City workers are organizing at McDonald’s, Burger King, Domino’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Papa John’s. Organizers expect today’s strike to include workers from almost all of those chains, with the largest group coming from McDonald’s; the company did not respond to a request for comment.

But employees were clear about their reasons for walking out. “They’re not paying us enough to survive,”

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/in_rare_strike_nyc_fast_food_workers_walk_out/singleton/

attribution: Laura Clawson

Hundreds of New York City fast food workers are staging a one-day strike against many of the biggest fast food chains, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Domino’s, Papa John’s. The attempt to organize dozens of fast food restaurants within a single city is something new, a big step beyond efforts to go restaurant by restaurant, and Steven Greenhouse reports that the campaign has 40 full-time organizers.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/29/1165629/-Hundreds-of-New-York-City-fast-food-workers-strike

more from googlenews http://urlet.com/intelligent.makes

fight for 15 spreads to ny  http://fightfor15.org/2012/11/30/nyc-workers-join-the-fight-for-15/

¡La lucha por $15 dólares la hora se está expandiendo más allá de Chicago! Ayer, el Comité de trabajadores de Comida Rápida marcharon para exigir un salario digno. En alianza con Comunidades para el Cambio de New York, los trabajadores de los restaurantes McDonald’s, Burger King, Domino’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Papa John’s se están organizando. Lee todo sobre la protesta que realizaron nuestros compañeros y compañeras trabajadores de New York en este articulo de expansion.com aquí:  “Empleados de cadenas de comida rápida reclaman salarios dignos en Nueva York” (Expansion.com | 29 Nov, 2012)

http://fightfor15.org/2012/11/30/nyc-workers-join-the-fight-for-15/#espanol