Plastic Peanuts? McDonald’s Wants to Pay You With Plastic!

shortlink here http://wp.me/p2w2NH-nA

mnemonic here:  http://urlet.com/tougher.wanting

via NY Daily News:

She asked for paper – but all they offered was plastic.

A Pennsylvania woman is now suing the McDonald’s franchise that refused to pay her by check and instead insisted on employees using payroll debit cards.

“I’m looking for the pay I am owed and for them to understand there has to be an option,” Natalie Gunshannon, 27, told the Citizen’s Voice newspaper.

Gunshannon worked less than a month at the Shavertown McDonald’s location  when she learned that the franchise required employees to accept payment on a  J.P. Morgan Chase payroll card. But the card, she contends, imposes fees on  virtually every transaction, creating a monetary and physical barrier to her  hard-earned cash. Among the costs, according to her lawsuit: $1.50 for an ATM  withdrawal, $5 for over-the-counter cash withdrawals and $1 to check the  balance. There’s even a charge to pay a bill online or if the card is lost or  stolen.

Gunshannon is one of several plaintiffs in the class action, filed last  week, against Albert and Carol Mueller, the owners of 15 McDonald’s stores in  Pennsylvania.

Such a payment option has been embraced by large corporations like Wal-Mart  Stores Inc., Lowe’s Cos. Inc., The Home Depot and FedEx Corp.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mcdonald-owners-sued-wage-debit-card-article-1.1375287#ixzz2WX6EtcfE

Walmart Workers Launch Strike Action in Three Cities

shortlink here: http://wp.me/p2w2NH-nh

mnemonic here:  http://urlet.com/instituting.sounds

Walmart  Workers Launch First-Ever ‘Prolonged Strikes’ Today

Josh Eidelson on  May 28, 2013 – 10:57 AM

Walmart employees are on strike in Miami, Massachusetts and the California  Bay Area this morning, kicking off what organizers promise will be the first  “prolonged strikes” in the retail giant’s history. The union-backed labor group  OUR Walmart says that at least a hundred workers have pledged to join the  strikes, and that some workers walking off the job today will stay out at least  through June 7, when Walmart holds its annual shareholder meeting near  Bentonville, Arkansas.

Organizers expect retail employees in more cities to join the work stoppage,  which  follows the country’s first-ever coordinated Walmart store strikes last  October, and a high-profile Black Friday walkout November  23. Like Black Friday’s, today’s strike is being framed by the union-backed  labor group OUR Walmart as a response to retaliation against  worker-activists.

Update (5:30 PM EST Tuesday): Dozens of Southern  California Walmart retail employees plan to join this week’s strike starting  Thursday. According to organizers, the employees will rally on Thursday morning  in Pico Rivera with supporters including US Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA), and  warehouse workers employed in Walmart-contracted buildings in the region. The  retail workers will take part in the “Ride for Respect,” traveling from  California to Arizona and New Mexico before arriving in Arkansas. Their caravan  will also include two fired warehouse employees, David Garcia and Javier  Rodriguez, who allege that their activism cost them their jobs.

Read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/174551/walmart-workers-launch-first-ever-prolonged-strikes-today
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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

Rep. Jason Metsa Lives on Minimum Wage for A Week

For minimum-wage earners in Minnesota, ‘a constant juggling act’

By Michael Moore, St. Paul Union Advocate

April 12, 2013

The state legislator spending a week on minimum wage met Thursday with three Minnesotans for whom the minimum-wage challenge is an everyday reality. Four days into his five-day walk in the shoes of the state’s lowest-paid workers, Rep. Jason Metsa listened as three minimum-wage earners related the experiences Metsa wouldn’t have during his five-day experiment.

Things like health care, housing costs and the unpredictable nature of most low-wage jobs – those are the challenges Avita Samuels, Janiece Watts and Robert Schiff shared with Metsa, the DFLer from Virginia, Minn., who accepted Working America’s challenge to live a week on Minnesota’s minimum wage of $7.25.   A bill in the Minnesota House would boost that minimum wage to $9.95 per hour. Seeing it become law, Samuels said, would mean more than a bigger paycheck; it would mean respect for the work she does.

“I take pride in my job. I want to do the best I can,” the 23-year-old retail worker told Metsa. “I don’t want to have to ask for a higher minimum wage, but I have to.”

40-hour week no guarantee

Metsa’s minimum-wage budget of $290 assumes a 40-hour workweek, but that’s rarely a reality for retail workers like Samuels and Watts.

Samuels, a student at the University of Minnesota, juggles work with school. Watts, who works in a grocery store, found herself in a similar situation until she graduated last year.

Now she juggles work with trying to find another job. “Every so often I pick up some extra hours, but most of the time I work 24 hours per week,” the 24-year-old said.

 

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/04/12/minimum-wage-earners-minnesota-constant-juggling-act

Answer To An Abusive Anti-Worker Post on A Blog

The below is my personal expression of opinion, it is not an official statement of the Eureka Fair Wage Act.

Bill Holmes

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/p38Pt0-7W  mnemonic:  http://urlet.com/mend.graveyard

Anonymous Coward: “You can train monkeys to run equipment these days. They work for bananas, and are probably smarter than most unskilled workers.”

You just keep thinking that way.  Go ahead, go on dissing young workers.  The Republican Party and its war on workers is now below 20% in statewide registrations.  The GOP is California’s newest third party. Decline to State is the new second party.  Demographics – and time – are on my side.

Meanwhile back in Realityville I can tell you that young workers – and I have talked to a shitload of them in the last year – like the idea of making more  money, and they know how hard they are working and under what conditions.

Forty years ago when I was young working in a convenience store was a pretty shitty job.  I did it.  Lots of people do it.  I don’t hold myself above people who are forced to or who choose to work at these kinds of jobs.   These days these kinds of jobs are far shittier than they used to be, to the point of abuse.   For one thing, as technology has progressed, the productivity of each worker has multiplied over the last few decades, thus each dollar paid in wages is producing more wealth for the owners of businesses.  What this means in Realityville is that each worker is now doing the work of five people.   Walk into CVS, each employee there wears many hats.   Checker.  Shelf Stocker.  Janitor.  Manager.  Assistant Manager.  Photo processor.  Health consultant. beauty consultant,  Banker.  Security. oh and my favorite one of you gets to wear a headset and answer phone calls from the public while you are doing your other stuff.  You can multitask can’t you? Oh and be sure to be helpful and pleasant or we’ll can your ass.

And the scheduling is inhuman these days.   Back in the day you would get hired for one of these jobs they would give you a full time schedule – which back then mostly meant 5 days and 40 hours – or they would give you a part time schedule if that was the agreement and that would usually be static.  Same hours and days every week.  Now this is where technology comes into it especially about 10 years ago.  People developed scheduling software to optimize crew sizes for all kinds of businesses, but especially for large fast food and retail employers.  This software enables an employer to statistically estimate future business expectation in the near future on a day by day and hour by hour basis, whiich enables the employer to optimize her crew size (and wage expense) by use of part time workers and the use of split shifts, double shifts and double backs.  It is a practice that is efficient for the employer but one that has no regard for the human workers.  Constant change in working shifts can have severe effects on the physical and mental health of the workers.  Constantly changing shifts make it impossible for even the ambitious worker to go out and find a second job, as they cannot commit to any hours with a second employer.

And of course even full time employees are often scheduled for 6 days a week, but only  5 or 6 hours a day.   Does any reader here need to ask why?

I often hear the labor movement celebrate the 40 hour workweek.  But the 40 hour week  has come and gone.  It is time to either mourn it or bring it back to life.

have a peaceful day, Bill

http://humboldtherald.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/eureka-fair-wage-act-what-do-people-think/#comment-194350

284,000 College Graduates Had Minimum-Wage Jobs Last Year

284,000 College Graduates Had Minimum-Wage Jobs Last Year

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Posted: 03/31/2013 4:27 pm EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 10:27 am EDT

A college degree doesn’t guarantee anyone a big paycheck anymore.

About 284,000 Americans with college degrees were working minimum wage jobs last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s 70 percent more college grads working for the minimum wage than 10 years ago. Still, the number is down from its 2010 high of 327,000.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/college-graduates-minimum-wage-

Basic Math on the Minimum Wage

shortlink: http://wp.me/p38Pt0-6I  mnemonic:  http://urlet.com/charm.marked

People say that a minimum wage increase to $12 an hour in 2014  is a “massive increase” but in fact it represents a mild 4.48% annual rise over the 46 years since 1968 when it stood at $1.60. At $10 an hour the “mass” is reduced to 4.07% annually. At today’s $8.00 an hour that increase is a decidedly mild 3.56% over a 46 year period, including the massive inflationary periond we endured post-Vietnam War. (See WIN, ie “Whip Inflation Now”)

You can do the math yourself, just massage the figures, 46 periods, set the interest and the future value and try it til you get it right. Its an estimation technique familiar in numerical analysis.

Really at this point the issue that the raise has gone unaddressed for so long overshadows the interest rate. Because although these are numbers on a screen, it is our brothers and sisters who are feeling the pain in real life. And they will go on suffering until we raise their wages.

hxxp://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/present-value-calculator/

Right Wing Dark Money Steps into California Minimum Wage Fight

By Adolfo Flores, Los Angeles Times   March 27, 2013

shortlink here http://wp.me/p2w2NH-m5   mnemonic:  http://urlet.com/similarly.ax

Proposed legislation to raise the state minimum wage could eliminate tens of thousands of jobs and harm the California economy, a small-business advocacy group said.

The measure, AB 10, could wipe out more than 68,000 jobs over 10 years and cost $5.7 billion in lost production of goods and services, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business.

The bill, introduced in December by Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Salinas), would increase the minimum hourly wage to $8.25 in 2014 from $8 now. The legislation would further increase it to $8.75 in 2015 and $9.25 in 2016.

In 2017 and annually thereafter, the minimum wage would be adjusted to keep up with inflation.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nfib-minimum-wage-20130327,0,5034816.story

Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The same group that exposed the previously little-known American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as a dominant force advancing corporate interests at the state level has now turned its sights on exposing the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

NFIB is hardly operating in near-secrecy, like ALEC was. The organization, which describes itself as “the voice of small business,” was the lead plaintiff in the ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, taking it to the Supreme Court.

The left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy has posted on  NFIBexposed.org, its new website, a study that reveals how consistently the NFIB lobbies on issues that favor large corporate interests rather than small-business interests; its thoroughly partisan agenda; and the millions it receives in secret contributions from groups associated with Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/nfib-exposed_n_1917262.html

wikipedia:

On its website, the National Federation of Independent Business states that it is a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943″ and “represents the consensus views of its members in Washington and all 50 state capitals.”^[2] Its PAC is called Save America’s Free Enterprise Trust (SAFE).^[3] The organization’s donations tend to strongly favor Republicans.^[4]

In 2010, 25 of its members, all Republican, were elected to the 112th Congress.^[5] A number of them, such as Rand Paul, Jeff Duncan, Paul Gosar and Kristi Noem, are affiliated with or endorsed by the Tea Party movement. The same year, the NFIB opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act health care reform legislation while some other small business advocates supported the measure.^[6] The organization joined 26 states in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Act. The case was picked up by the Supreme Court, which issued its ruling on National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius on June 28, 2012, upholding most provisions of the Act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Federation_of_Independent_Business

Sourcewatch:

National Federation of Independent Business

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is a lobbying group that calls itself “the voice of small business.”[1] However, the group has been shown to lobby on issues that favor large corporate interests and run counter to the interests of small businesses.[2][3] News reports have also found that NFIB, which claims to be non-partisan, engages in partisan politics, and receives millions in hidden contributions.   Small business owners run the gamut politically. For instance, 33 percent identify as Republicans, 32 percent as Democrats, and 29 percent as Independent.[4] However, NFIB accepted a $3.7 million gift in 2010 from Crossroads GPS, a group affiliated with Republican political operative Karl Rove that overwhelmingly endorses and financially supports Republican candidates.[5] According to new data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), in 2010 the NFIB Small Business Legal Center (SBLC) received $1.15 million from “conservative 501(c)(3) conduit group” Donors Trust, a major contributor to the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Other contributions include the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which gave to a wide range of conservative groups including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[6][7][8][

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Federation_of_Independent_Business

crossposted to:  http://wp.me/p38Pt0-6x or:

http://humboldtactivist.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/right-wing-dark-money-steps-into-california-minimum-wage-fight/

 

My Word: Workers’ pay should be tied to inflation: Back the Fair Wage Act

Kimberly Starr and James Decker/for the Times-Standard

Posted: 03/20/2013 02:39:27 AM PDT

We are long overdue for a raise in the minimum wage. Working class people  of Eureka need a victory that will improve their lives — and the Fair  Wage Act will be that victory. The minimum wage must be indexed to  inflation to insure that those at the bottom share in the growth of our  economy. We must reverse the trend of 2 percent of the people in the  U.S. solely capturing all the benefits of improved productivity and  innovation. It is theft of peoples’ time, labor and ideas.In  Eureka, we cannot rely on politicians. We’ve come together and created  an ordinance to strengthen our community by giving the lowest paid  workers a long overdue raise.

The federal minimum wage was  first established in 1938 when FDR signed the Fair Labor Standards Act,  which also established the 8-hour day, paid overtime, and child labor  protections. The FLSA emerged, over the violent opposition of  businessmen, due to strikes, pickets and other actions of brave working  people. In 1938, and with every worker-benefiting amendment to the FLSA  since, politicians, business leaders, and think tanks have opposed the  minimum wage, claiming myriad suffering the “minimum wage horror” would  cause the fall of the American empire, devastation of businesses, “more  misery and unemployment than anything since the Great Depression” (Ronald Reagan, 1980). However, the minimum wage and its increases  improved economies of all sizes, holding only benefits for employers and workers alike.

From 1938 to 1968 , the purchasing power of the minimum wage increased by  over 140 percent. Minimum wage workers saw a positive upgrade in their  living standards as wages rose in step with productivity growth.

If the federal minimum wage kept pace with improved productivity of  workers it would now be over $20 an hour. Had it increased with the  rising cost of living, even by conservative calculations, it would be  over $10.50. California is a high cost-of-living state with the lowest  minimum wage on the west coast, $8 an hour. It’s time to raise wages and tie them to inflation.

As we circulated the Fair Wage Act  throughout Eureka, the responses were no surprise: People want and need  to bring home decent pay. People know their time and labor are valuable. Corporate profits are at record highs; it is past time for those  profits to be shared with the workers who produce them.

Forces  that oppose higher wages say they’re concerned about job loss — never  considering job loss when it comes to raising CEO pay. Increasing the  minimum wage, especially during high unemployment times, has been found  throughout various geographical areas and time periods, to either have  no effect on employment or, more often, stimulate job growth. We have 75 years demonstrating that as wages rise, employment rises.

Humboldt folks might find relevant a study by Princeton economists comparing the effect on employment in New Jersey to employment across the river in  eastern Pennsylvania, after New Jersey raised the minimum wage and  Pennsylvania did not. The border there is slight, neither a barrier to  commerce nor employment. Employment rose in New Jersey when wages rose.  Employment stayed the same in Pennsylvania with the stagnant minimum  wage. This pattern happens throughout the U.S. where one county raises  wages and the neighbor county does not. Employment improves where the  minimum wage is higher.

Recently, calling for too small a  raise, the president nevertheless spelled out a strong case to the  nation for raising the minimum wage: “ … our economy is stronger when  we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. … still liv[ing] below the poverty line. That’s wrong. Tonight, let’s declare that in  the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have  to live in poverty … . It could mean the difference between groceries  or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting  ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with  more money … . Let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so  that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.”

People and the economy need a boost in Eureka. Most minimum wage workers, a majority  of whom are women, support households. Too many households are  struggling on low wages to meet rising food, housing, transportation and health care costs, with no retirement fund. A higher minimum wage is  just. It will help start an economic surge in our communities,  increasing spending, business viability, and creating new jobs. Support  the Fair Wage Act.

Kimberly Starr and James Decker, Eureka residents, are signatories to the Fair Wage Act initiative. For more information, visit fairwages.org.

http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_22829946/workers-pay-should-be-tied-inflation-back-fair