[blind-democracy] Re: Movement to raise minimum, wage gains ground across US

  • From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2015 09:56:21 -0700

When do we turn the System right side up and put Labor in charge and
Management serving the Workers?
If, as Abe Lincoln said, America is "...of the people, by the people
and for the people...", Shouldn't the "People" be in charge? Doesn't
it make more sense to have "the people" owning the nation's industry
and hiring specialists to manage it for, "The People"? The managers
are paid a salary and the profits are shared by the People. Some of
those profits could be directed toward maintaining our infrastructure,
keeping a small military, providing an education to every child, to
the point they are educable, provide security for the nation's
retired, and provide real foreign aid to oppressed people around the
globe.
Sure makes better sense than lots of us living hand to mouth in order
that a very few can tuck all the money away in off-shore banks.

Carl Jarvis




On 8/2/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

And that $15 an hour which has been won in some places, like New York
State,
won't actually go into effect for about 5 years so when it goes into
effect,
we're already behind.

Miriam

-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2015 11:31 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Movement to raise minimum, wage gains ground
across US

Of course the $15 per hours wage minimum is what we need now, not some day
in the future. By the time $15 is reached, we will be looking for $20
minimum in order to barely survive.
While we must fight for the $15 wage minimum, we cannot lose sight of the
fact that it is only a temporary fix. If we are going to continue on the
track of raising the wage minimum to catch us up to the cost of living,
then
we need to find some neutral board that can measure honestly the rising
cost
of living. Even with the careful manipulation by our Federal Government,
the cost of living has risen.
I recall that in 1951 I was paid the minimum wage of 75 cents per hour.
That was 64 years ago. If we continue our present Capitalist system, in
the
next 64 years our wage minimum would be somewhere around $90 per hour, and
the poor would continue struggling to make ends meet.
We need a replacement for our Corporate Empire. A People's government
where
all citizens own all of our government and all of our business is long
overdue. And don't trouble yourselves trying to tell me it has been tried
and failed in countries such as the Soviet Union or Communist China.
Efforts in those, and other countries, were subverted by power hungry
mobsters masquerading as Party Members.
There are solutions that would transition power to the People without
leaving doors open for the Foxes to enter. But given our current state of
mind it is doubtful that any such transition could even begin.
Of course we are on track to solve many of our problems. Continuing on the
path of our growing Corporate Empires, we will soon see a huge reduction in
our Human Population due to starvation. As food becomes too expensive and
too rare, and as water becomes too polluted or non existent, mass
migrations
will begin in seriousness. Millions will be butchered as they fight to
cross borders in search of food and water.
Diseases will take the lives of millions more. Open war between Corporate
Empires struggling to grab off what is left of our Planet's natural
resources will level cities and all who dwell within.
That is the track we are on. $15 per hour wage minimum will be a fleeting
bit of relief, unless we can take control and take a detour toward a road
leading to a, "One Planet, One People" world.

Carl Jarvis


On 8/1/15, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2015/7928/792804.html
The Militant (logo)

Vol. 79/No. 28 August 10, 2015

(front page)
Movement to raise minimum
wage gains ground across US



Militant/Sara Lobman
Rally in New York July 22 after state wage board recommended $15
fast-food minimum wage.

BY MAGGIE TROWE
NEW YORK - After three years of growing protests against wages that
don't pay the bills, the fight of fast-food, Walmart and other workers
for $15 an hour scored a new round of victories and is gaining ground
across the country.
Cheers went up July 22 at a rally outside the hearing of the New York
State Fast Food Wage Board as participants watching the televised
proceedings on a big outdoor screen saw the board unanimously
recommend raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers in the state
to $15 an hour. Acting State Labor Commissioner Mario Musolino, who
spoke at the rally, is expected to accept the increase and implement it.

The increase to $15 for fast-food workers - a 70 percent raise from
the current $8.75 an hour state minimum wage - will be applied in
increments, reaching $15 for New York City workers by Dec. 31, 2018,
and for those outside the city by mid-2021. The wage hike applies to
all workers in outlets that are part of chains of 30 or more
restaurants that serve food and drinks paid for at counters by eat-in
or take-out customers. Some 180,000 people are employed at fast-food
restaurants in the state.

Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle have recently implemented $15
an hour minimum wage laws, also incrementally applied over several years.

University of California President Janet Napolitano announced July 22
that the minimum wage for direct and contract employees working more
than 20 hours a week will be raised to $15 an hour by October 2017, a
move that will have an impact on about 3,200 workers throughout the
state.

On July 21 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, in a room
packed with people, voted to increase the minimum wage for county
workers and those who work in unincorporated areas of the county from
$9 to $15 an hour by 2020.

In Washington, D.C., the Board of Elections gave the go-ahead to a
$15-an-hour initiative that will appear on the ballot next year if its
supporters gather 23,000 signatures. The minimum hourly wage in the
District of Columbia is currently $10.50.

The fight by fast-food workers for "$15 and a union" began in 2012 and
has gained support since then. Thanksgiving weekend "Black Friday"
protests at Walmart stores began the same year and also picked up steam.

On April 15 of this year thousands of workers in several hundred
cities and towns across the U.S. and around the world marched in
"Fight for $15" actions, with Walmart, airport, home health care and
other workers joining the fast-food fighters.

Activists from the growing "Black Lives Matter" actions have joined
the Fight for $15 actions, and "Black Lives Matter" is a popular chant
and T-shirt slogan at rallies to raise the minimum wage.

Feeling the pressure, Walmart announced Feb. 19 it would raise
starting pay to $9 per hour in April and another dollar by February
2016. Then on April 1 McDonald's announced it would raise wages to at
least $1 more than the local minimum wage for the 90,000 workers
employed directly by the company. Some other retailers, including
Target and TJ Maxx, have followed suit.

Union support
Unionized workers who earn more than $15 per hour have turned out in
force to support raising the minimum wage. Contingents of the Hotel
Trades Council, janitors from Service Employees International Union
Local 32BJ, health care workers with 1199SEIU and members of the
Laborers and Carpenters construction unions joined the march of
thousands April 15 and the July 22 rally here.
"I'm here to support the fast-food workers," Brandon Brigman, 29, a
porter in a commercial building in Manhattan and a member of Local
32BJ, told the Militant at that rally. "They need $15 an hour, and
they need a union, too. There's a big difference being in a union."

Many at the rally who are not fast-food workers were buoyed by the
increase and confident it can be spread to others.

"I get $10 an hour and I only get 36 hours a week," home health care
worker Oneka Rock, 37, told the Militant. "I couldn't pay the $950 a
month rent on the studio I share with my daughter, so we moved in with
my mother." Still, Rock is optimistic about the fight for $15. "My
friend works in fast food for $8.75. I'm trying to get her to come to
the protests, because only by doing that can we win anything."

On another front in the fight for unions and higher wages, airport
workers at Aviation Safeguard, a contractor that employs 1,200 baggage
handlers, wheelchair attendants and security officers at Kennedy and
LaGuardia airports, called off a planned one-day strike July 21 after
the company agreed to stay neutral in their drive to be represented by
Local 32BJ. Workers said they planned the strike to protest company
intimidation against those fighting for higher wages and a union.



Deborah Liatos in Los Angeles contributed to this article.


Related articles:
Steel bosses push for steep concessions in contract talks LA port
drivers advance fight for union, wage hike Verizon workers in 9 states
and D.C. authorize strike On the Picket Line



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