Tag Archives: $15 minimum wage

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15 Now MN: Sick Days Victory Shows Minneapolis Can End Poverty Wages

After a two year movement of rallies, strikes and actions, low-wage workers in Minneapolis won the first Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) policy in the Midwest. By passing ESST, City Hall unanimously agreed to take responsibility for workplace conditions, as a result of increasing pressure from escalating demonstrations by low-wage workers and a powerful coalition. This further shows City Council can pass our campaign’s proposal for $15/hour as an ordinance at any time.

Sick time was one issue in a suite of workers’ rights demands, including $15, that City Hall hesitated against taking action on in the fall. In response, workers organized and forced the city to take action, with escalating demonstrations demanding sick days, a $15 minimum wage, and an end to wage theft, including one rally of hundreds that brought downtown traffic to a halt back in February.

Pro-business policies have left Minneapolis with some of the worst in the nation racial equity gaps, despite also also having the highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country. “City Hall felt urgency when big business lobbied for the Vikings Stadium,” said Ginger Jentzen, Executive Director of 15 Now Minnesota. “City Hall should feel the same urgency to pass $15 as they did to strike a deal for the Wilf brothers.”

Mayor Hodges has said she does not support raising wages at a city level but stood with workers on sick time, and City Attorney Susan Segal has raised questions of bringing $15/hour as a charter amendment. “Passing sick time shows it’s legal to put a $15 minimum wage to voters in Minneapolis, and we aim to get the signatures to show that 20% of our win number in the fall supports putting the $15 decision back into the hands of Minneapolis workers,” said Ginger Jentzen.

Minneapolis taking the initiative on paid sick days has spurred other cities to follow suit. St. Paul and Duluth are now considering their own paid sick time policies. Demonstrations in Minneapolis have raised workers’ confidence in cities across our region.

82% of Minneapolis voters support a phased in $15/hour minimum wage. This widespread support can be seen in the fact that In just five weeks, over 10,000 people have signed the ballot initiative for a $15/hour minimum wage. The $15 for Mpls campaign is working to verify signatures collected to ensure it meets the threshold of 7,000 to qualify. Over 400 individual donors have contributed a median donation of $6 — that’s how much more, per hour, minimum wage workers will earn if we win $15/hour

But it took a movement and powerful organization of working people in Minneapolis to win safe and sick time. By linking pro-worker policies and increased membership in unions to win $15, we’re building a method to reverse the economic devastation working people have faced under decades of waiting for big business to voluntarily enact policies which benefit workers. Pascual Tapia, CTUL member and retail janitor said, “I am happy to see that my work helped open the space to win paid sick days in Minneapolis.”

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A Few Highlights: #15Now #15forAll50 on November 10th

Thousands of workers across the country took action to demand a $15 minimum wage and other workers’ rights issues, for fair schedules, union rights and paid sick time.

In many cities, workers squarely addressed the political inaction of elected officials. Hundreds flooded into city hall or rallied in front of government buildings, to demand that local and state governments, who’ve been under enormous pressure from these rolling and escalating demonstrations and strikes, take urgent action on $15.

Here are a few highlighting reports from 15 Now members organizing across the country:

15 Now Philadelphia
Today in Philly dozens of fast food workers walked off the job at 6am. After a 6am strike line at a North Philly McDonalds, workers staged actions at fast food restaurants across Philadelphia. At noon, fast food workers joined janitors organizing with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to march on Comcast to demand $15 and a union for all Comcast workers. They attempted to enter the Comcast tower but were denied entrance by police.

The main action was a large march from City Hall to a McDonalds in Rittenhouse Square. About 400 people, including progressive City Coucilwoman-elect Helen Gym and State Senator Daylin Leach, who had introduced a statewide $15 minimum wage bill, were joined by teachers union and service worker union leaders. We took over the open-air center of City Hall and marched down Broad street. The march was high energy.

15 Now member and Temple student Zoe Buckwalter closed the rally with a call on Philadelphia’s incumbent Mayor and City Council to take immediate action as soon as they take office to introduce binding $15 minimum wage legislation January 2016 and talked about the ongoing campaign at Temple to win $15 for security officer, cafeteria workers, and student workers.
Watch Video of Lancaster, PA Subway worker #15Now
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15 Now NJ
A few weeks after two county legislatures, the Essex and Hudson Boards of Chosen Freeholders, passed a resolution calling on the New Jersey State Legislature to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, the momentum to fight for $15 was strong in Jersey City.  Despite the rain, dozens of workers and students gathered at Jersey City’s City Hall for a rally.  Later, Jersey City’s City Council voted to support a statewide $15/hr minimum wage and Mayor Steve Fulop came out in support of the measure.  Local organizing and the national #Fightfor15 movement has seriously shifted the conversation about poverty and inequality in New Jersey.
Check out this article covering the demonstration

15 Now PDX (click for full article)
In Portland, OR hundreds of people marched and rallied for $15 and a union as part of the national day of action. The rally highlighted local janitors and homecare workers, who raised their voices to demand a $15 wage. There are about 9,000 janitors and homecare workers in the Portland area who still don’t make $15. They are being supported by the Portland Area Campaign for $15, a coalition made up of Portland Jobs of labor and community groups, including 15 Now PDX, that is working to raise wages to $15 for 30,000 Portland area workers by 2017 through contract negotiations, voluntary commitments, and new organizing campaigns.

At today’s Dia de Los Meurtos themed rally, workers and allies marched around the Pittock Building chanting to draw down good jobs with living wages. Earlier this year the Pittock Building began hiring out it’s janitorial services to a low-wage, non-union contractor. The building has been the site for other $15 and union protests over the past year.

15 Now Northwest Wisconsin 
At 4:00 pm on Tuesday, November 10th, the Eau Claire Area School District’s Hourly Compensation Committee met at the school board office. The school district’s recently completed compensation study showed that many workers are underpaid, well under $15 an hour, though the administration has decided to withhold the annual inflationary wage adjustment of 1.67% to it’s lowest paid workers.

Members of 15 Now Northwest Wisconsin attended this meeting to demand that the ECASD administration grant this inflationary wage adjustment to all workers making less than $15 an hour.

More reports to come…
15 Now Minnesota

 

Jenna Pope / @JennaBPope

Snapshot of the movement – the Fight for $15 in 7 major cities

On April 15, over 60,000 union members, students and low wage workers in 230 cities across the country walked out of their work places and classrooms to march, rally and occupy for a $15/hour minimum wage and the right to a union. SEIU played a key role in providing organizing resources, organizers and mobilizing it’s membership to come out for the day of action. With its focus on building a broader campaign, 15 Now also played a critical role in mobilizing, organizing and supporting the strikes and direct actions.

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15 now campus group

15 Now Northeastern Wins

On April 6, students at Northeastern University made history by winning a student referendum vote to implement the nation’s first campus-wide $15/hr minimum wage.  The initiative passed with 76.4% of the vote.

Not only did these students break ground nationally by becoming the first campus to demand $15, they broke ground at Northeastern by smashing all previous election records.  While the referendum does not immediately raise wages for campus workers, it shows a clear mandate to address the issue of income inequality on campus and forces the Administration to act.

15 now nu memeHelp spread 15 Now to campuses nationwide. Chip in $15, $50, or $100 today!

With a coalition of 9 progressive student groups on campus, 15 Now Northeastern is poised to put their university on the front lines of the fight for wage equality nationwide. Northeastern students are speaking out and fighting back against wage inequality on their campus.

unnamed“There’s an unusual buzz on campus,” says Elan Axelbank, a Northeastern student and one of the main organizers of the campaign.  “You’d be walking around campus during voting week and just hear random groups of people talking about 15, it was awesome.”

The president of Northeastern, Joseph Aoun, is the second highest paid university president in the country, earning over $3.12 million in 2011.  In the face of many campus workers earning poverty wages, this is unacceptable.  With the support of the student body, and along side campus workers, 15 Now Northeastern will be demanding public negotiations with the school’s administration.  This will be a difficult and heated process, considering the antagonistic history of Northeastern’s administration towards progressive campaigns on campus. Nonetheless, Northeastern students are ready to take on their administration and demand $15 for all campus workers!

 15 now nu signsWe need to build on this victory by spreading 15 Now to every campus, city and neighborhood in the country.  The movement for a living wage is growing and winning more and more victories every week.  On April 15th, workers, students, and community members will be marching in over 200 cities nationwide to demand $15/hr for all workers.

Join 15 Now in marching on this national day of action – RSVP here.

Want to start a 15 Now chapter on your campus or in your neighborhood?  Contact 15 Now Northeastern at 15nowNU@gmail.com or 15 Now national at info@15now.org.

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$15 wage law begins in Seattle with resistance from UW, Metro

By Kailyn Nicholson

40,000 Seattle workers got a raise on April 1 (from $9.47/hr to $11/hr, $10/hr for employees at small businesses who receive tips and/or health benefits), but the University of Washington administration is claiming exemption from the city’s new minimum wage.
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Photo by Elliot Stoller

“Hip hip hooray! Seattle’s getting a raise!”

Bringing the good news – and the party – to workers

by Patrick Ayers

“Congratulations to you all and to us all on this phenomenal historic victory… Let’s make sure that all workers know they are getting their rightful legal wage and they know we are on their side and we have their backs if they challenge their bosses against wage theft. Let’s make sure that we will fight for them if they are intimidated, threatened, harassed, or fired for asking for their rights.” – Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant

15 now, in coalition with unions and supporters, brought the good news to low-wage workers on Saturday, March 28: Seattle’s getting a raise!
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Seattle – King County Metro’s April Fool’s Joke?

Bus ad rejected by King County Metro
Bus ad rejected by King County Metro

For Immediate Release

CONTACT:
Jess Spear, 15 Now Seattle Organizing Director
Email: Jess.Spear@15Now.org

WHAT: Press conference unveiling the bus ad rejected by King County Metro, with action at low wage workplaces immediately following

WHERE: Westlake Park, 4th and Pine

WHEN: Thursday, April 2, 11:15am

WHY: A bus ad to educate workers about the minimum wage increase sponsored by Councilmember Kshama Sawant, Teamsters 117, Unite Here Local 8, IBEW 46, Casa Latina, and 15 Now has been rejected by King County Metro on the basis that it promotes Councilmember Sawant as a candidate for office.
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We Won! Steps to $15 begin today in Seattle

Seattle’s Getting a Raise!

Last year Seattle made history by becoming the first major city to pass a $15 minimum wage for all workers, raising the wages for 100,000 workers. This historic victory kicked open the door for other major cities like San Francisco to follow, with communities rising up and demanding a $15 minimum wage in cities near and far from Portland to Minneapolis.
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DANIELLE PETERSON / Statesman Journal

Fight for $15 in All 50

Major Victories Possible If Labor Launches a National Campaign for a $15/Hour Minimum Wage

by Ty Moore, 15 Now National Organizer

On April 15, fast-food strikers and other low-wage workers are planning their biggest protests yet for “$15 and a union.” The driving force behind these actions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), reportedly aims to turn out 60,000 workers and supporters in over 200 cities across the country.

Chapters of 15 Now are going all-out to build for the April 15 demonstrations, to demand union rights and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

According to a January Hart Research poll, 63% of the country now suppors a $15 federal minimum wage. Support is even higher in most big cities. The time is right for the big unions to help launch an all-out national campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage. Let’s use April 15 to kick things off!

Everywhere, anger at corporate greed – and the extreme wealth and racial inequities – is reaching a boiling point. The fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage has the potential to become a powerful mass movement uniting low-wage workers demanding union rights, people of color standing up against racism, and young people facing a dead-end future.
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