Down with poverty wages! YES on Measure R!
All photos here taken by Craig Spjut of UA Local 290 Plumbers and Steamfitters Thanks Craig!
August 22 Updates
Very Important: We have an immediate need for volunteers to help us CANVASS in Eureka. No experience required! And you don’t have to live in Eureka to help. We have been knocking on doors every day, and we need more people. We will prepare you to canvass for Measure R, provide simple outreach supplies, and pair you up with a person who has experience. Then we’ll hit the streets, talk with Eureka residents about the fight for $12 in Eureka, and register more voters. We’ve registered about 350 Eureka residents so far!
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO RAISE WAGES
Endorsers of Measure R, the Eureka Fair Wage Act, we thank you:
(*We hope Natalie Arroyo and Kim Bergel will be Eureka City Council members in the near future)
Help us get the vote out for Measure R!
Fair is fair! We need this!
For the people,
The Fair Wage Folks
shortlink here: http://wp.me/p2w2NH-la mnemonic here: http://urlet.com/simplicity.buying
It is said that we don’t need a minimum wage, that a minimum wage causes unemployment, that if the minimum wage were lower – or completely eliminated – then employers could afford to hire more workers. It is said often that this is “supply and demand” and an ironclad “law of economics.” It is of course an argument designed to appeal to the simpler minded half of the gene pool.
Yet two facts confront us.
One, the real purchasing power in constant dollar terms of the minimum wage has declined for 45 years, so there has been a de facto “lowering” of the minimum wage, and Two, we currently have a very persistent and high level of unemployment.
The laboratory of life has proved this favorite Chamber of Commerce meme to be a fabrication that is nowhere near real life economics.
We conclude that the theory that lowering the minimum wage increases employment is FALSE.
shortlink here: http://wp.me/p2w2NH-la
Eureka Fair Wage Act Meetings EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT
People welcome to the meetings even if you live outside of Eureka.
The Fair Wage folks urge you to get involved in passing the Eureka Fair Wage Act, also known as the Minimum Wage Ordinance. If passed through a popular vote, the Act would require large employers with 25 or more workers in Eureka to pay a $12 dollar minimum wage. A higher minimum wage, with a small business exception, will improve lives, make Walmart reconsider its presence in Eureka, boost the local economy, bring employment up, and allow individuals who work full time to rise just above the federal poverty level.
Meetings for the Eureka Fair Wage Act are now every Wednesday at 6:15pm at the Eureka Labor Temple, 840 E Street. More information can be found and questions answered by visiting the Eureka Fair Wage Act website, fairwages.org, or by calling 707-442-7465. If you are interested in helping the campaign in any way, wherever you live, please get in contact.
Wage Hike Proposal Headed to Eureka City Council
North Coast Journal, Ryan Burns, Mar. 8, 2013
Here’s a ray of hope for people working at Eureka’s Taco Bell. Or Wal-Mart. Or any other business in the city that pays workers as little as the law will tolerate:
A petition to boost Eureka’s minimum wage to $12 an hour has received enough valid signatures to be presented to the City Council at its March 19 meeting.
http://urlet.com/games.leading or:
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/blogthing/2013/03/08/wage-hike-proposal-headed-eureka-city-council/
http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_22751562/fair-wage-act-go-before-eureka-city-council
Do more than the minimum on minimum wage
Monday, February 18, 2013 |
Posted by Jim Hightower
podcast http://jimhightower.com/sites/jimhightower.civicactions.net/files/5-21_m_show.mp3
story http://jimhightower.com/node/7962
“In the wealthiest nation on Earth,” President Obama declared in his State of the Union speech, “no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.” Right! Not only does his call to raise America’s minimum wage put some real pop in populism, but it could finally start putting some ethics back in our country’s much-celebrated, (but rarely-honored) “work ethic.” Kudos to Obama for putting good economics and good morals together – and for putting this long overdue increase on the front burner.
But then came the number: $9 an hour. Excuse me, Mr. President, but that means a person who “works full-time” would nonetheless “have to live in poverty.” Yes, nine bucks is a buck-seventy-five better than the current pay, but it’s still a poverty wage, and it doesn’t even elevate the buying power of our wage floor back to where it was in 1968.
~VISIT LINKS ABOVE FOR THE REST OF IT~