By Ned Resnikoff of NBC:
Detroit—a city under emergency management in a state that has recently adopted harsh right-to-work laws—on Friday joined the wave of cities across the nation to see fast food workers on strike for the right to form a union and receive a higher base pay.
read more »
By John Upton of Grist:
If there’s anything darker than coal, it’s the hearts of coal company executives. They ask workers to risk their lives to extract the filthiest of all fossil fuels — and then they screw over those workers.
On Thursday, police arrested 14 people in St. Louis, Mo., during the latest in a series of large union-organized protests against such dark-heartedness by Peabody Energy. Workers say the company robbed them of desperately needed retirement health benefits through a cynical corporate maneuver.
read more »
By Arturo Garcia of the RawStory:
Hundreds of fast food and retail employees in Chicago began a mass walkout Wednesday morning, calling for the city’s minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour.
read more »
Pictured above: business and economics correspondent for Slate, Mathew Yglesias, standing under what appears to be a fire alarm.
A response to Matthew Yglesias‘ musings on Bangladesh, outsourcing, and the murder of 87 garment workers.
“Where’s my mother? Where’s my mother?” cried Rana Ahmed as she rushed through Enam Medical College and Hospital.
Mosammat Khurshida wailed as she looked for her husband. “He came to work in the morning. I can’t find him,” she said. “I don’t know where he is. He does not pick up his phone.
An arm jutted out of one section of the rubble. The lifeless body of a woman covered in dust could be seen in another.
Only 4 months after a factory fire in Dhaka killed 112 workers, another 362 have died in the collapse of a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh; and in a compassionately timed piece put out by Slate this week, business correspondent Mathew Yglesias explained to us why “it’s entirely appropriate for Bangladesh to have different—and, indeed, lower—workplace safety standards than the United States.”
read more »
By Dave Jamieson and Saki Knafo of the Huffington Post:
Labor groups are predicting that hundreds of Chicago-area fast-food and retail workers will walk off the job for a one-day strike on Wednesday, just weeks after similar strikes hit New York City.
The would-be striking workers are affiliated with the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, which has launched a campaign calling for a living wage of $15 per hour in the city’s fast-food and retail stores. Many such workers earn the Illinois minimum wage of $8.25 per hour or close to it, often without health care coverage or sick days due to scheduling practices that leave them with too few hours to qualify for those benefits.
read more »
From The Organizer:
On Saturday, April 6th, passers-by were treated to the sight of a large picket outside of Minnesota’s highest volume liquor store, Chicago-Lake liquors. Picketers held signs and chanted slogans of support for the workers of the store, five of whom were fired after asking for higher wages as a part of a union drive with the Industrial Workers of the World.
read more »
In a new study put out by the National Partnership for Women and Families, an analysis of the most recent census statistics available has found that Seattle has one of the highest disparities in pay between sexes.
read more »
From the Portland Industrial Workers of the World:
On January 18th, a group of workers from Yaw’s Top Notch Restaurant took a stand. Leading the delegation into the restaurant, the group of 10 workers were accompanied by 30 community members from We Are Oregon and the Industrial Workers of the World. To the shock of bosses and customers (and to the smiles of kitchen staff) a worker publicly read a letter addressed to the owners and management demanding over $1,200 in back wages that Yaw’s has refused to pay. Less than a week later, with signed checks in hand, these same 10 individuals celebrated victory won through solidarity.
read more »
I never knew Trevon Cole. I have never met his girlfriend, and, like Trevon Cole himself, I have never met his child. This is because he was murdered by Officer Bryan Yant of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department during a drug raid.
Cole, unarmed, was shot in front his girlfriend while on his knees in his bathroom. His girlfriend, Sequoia, gave birth to a baby girl only five days later.
The pig that shot Trevon Cole was punished with a desk assignment. Cole was the third fatal shooting he was involved in.
read more »
From RT:
While it’s no surprise that nearly 50 million Americans live below the poverty line, new statistics from the US Census show that almost 100 million others are counted as low-income citizens, making half of the population of America officially poor.
The latest figures out of the US Census Bureau show that in addition to the 49.1 million Americans who fall below the official poverty line, those that rake in enough to be between that level and the income equitable to double it fall into a new “low-income” category, which counts an additional 97.3 million people. Altogether, that clump of nearly 150 million Americans living in dire economic standing accounts for around 48 percent of the US population.
read more »
