The Worker Thread

[Vrede too]

Hold your Rep accountable: Demand a vote on $15 nationwide.

[Vrede too]

... This week in New Jersey, the Fight for $15 scored a huge win as the governor signed a $15 statewide minimum wage into law — a change that will give 100,000 workers a raise. And in Illinois, the state Senate passed a $15 bill, getting us closer than ever to making Illinois the first midwest state to win $15, while Connecticut and Pennsylvania are considering $15 statewide bills of their own.

Our momentum right now is unstoppable — and that's all because of you. Thanks for keeping up the fight until EVERY worker makes enough to pay our bills, feed our families and live with dignity.

Onward,
Terrence Wise, McDonald's
Kansas City, KS
Fight for $15

[Vrede too]

Urge Congress to pass the Fairness for Farmworkers Act

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Teacher strikes made 2018 the biggest year for worker protest in a generation

About 485,200 workers were involved in major work stoppages in 2018, new Labor Department data shows. It’s the highest figure since 1986.

The trend is striking.

The labor unrest wasn’t a result of prominent unions in manufacturing, such as United Automobile Workers, or transportation, such as Teamsters. It was driven by a wave of teacher strikes that spread from West Virginia (35,000 workers) to Oklahoma (45,000) and Kentucky (26,000). Within months, 267,000 more teachers in Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina staged walkouts.

Looks like more in NC than any other state. Cool, though the reason it was necessary is sad.

...



... It’s a return to prominence for a profession that took the lead in the late 1960s and ‘70s, when educators fought for basic bargaining rights and, later, against budget cuts stemming from an economic downturn, said Jon Shelton a historian at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and author of “Teacher Strike! Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order.”

He ranked the 2018 strikes among the most important labor victories in more than a century.

“Perhaps the only time in history we’ve seen things of quite that magnitude was in the late nineteenth century when you had spontaneous revolts of working-class people,” Shelton said.

I'm hoping the kids learned some important lessons from this.

[Vrede too]

... we just won $15 in Illinois. It's the fifth state to win $15 and the first midwestern state ever — and we're just getting started.

They once laughed at us for fighting for $15. Now more than 1 in 5 workers are covered by a $15 minimum wage, and 22 million workers have won $68 billion in raises since our movement began in 2012. One by one, states are wising up to what we've known all along: that all workers need $15, and that a decent wage is good for workers, good for business, and good for the economy....

But our work's not over. It's time for the rest of the country to catch up. And that means $15, everywhere.

... On the heels of our victories in Illinois and New Jersey, workers are fighting to win $15 in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Maryland.

We won't stop until every worker in America has the life and dignity they deserve. And that means $15 from coast to coast. Sign the petition: Congress, pass a $15 national minimum wage, NOW >>

... We're going to keep fighting, and it gives us power to have you with us.

Solidarity,

Tyree Johnson
McDonald's Worker
Fight for $15

[Vrede too]

Wage gap between top employees and everyone else is 'off the chart'

... The study looked at hourly wages for all workers 16 years of age and older.

Elise Gould, a senior economist for EPI, noted to Yahoo Finance that the increase is “off the chart — when you look at that particular figure, you see the top 0.1% rises [343.2%] and that’s not even shown on the chart. Because you wouldn’t be able to see any of the other lines.”



Labor productivity has risen by 75% since 1973, yet wage growth has not met that rate. So where did this “excess” productivity go? According to EPI, “a significant portion of it went to higher corporate profits and increased income accruing to capital and business owners. But much of it went to those at the very top of the wage distribution.” ...



... Gould doesn’t see policies enacted any time soon to change this current trend.

However, “one of the things that I’m optimistic about is as the economy get closer to full employment and as it gets tighter,” she said, “employers begin to see they didn’t have to pay more to attract and retain the workers they want, because workers become more scarce.”

Ideally, according to Gould, that would translate into a situation where “a greater share of the population was working and they were reaping the rewards of a growing economy.”

She added that it’s possible to get there, “but it’s going to take a lot to reverse the growing inequality that we’ve seen over the last 40 years.”

[O Really]

It would be interesting to plot the percentage of union membership among workers in the same time period.

[Vrede too]

It would be interesting to plot the percentage of union membership among workers in the same time period.

There may be figures in the report, certainly elsewhere on the EPI site. The article says:

... “What’s happened over the last 40 years is we’ve seen intentional policy decisions that have given more power and leverage to those who have more, versus those who are typical American families.”

These decisions, she said, include new tax policies, weakened labor standards, right-to-work laws, and trade deals that lack protections for working people.

Right-to-work laws were established so “that no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union,” according to the National Right to Work Foundation. There are currently 27 states with these laws. However, unions like the AFL-CIO argue that these laws make it harder for employees to collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

“We’ve seen things like the decline in unionization, which again has been because of intentional policy decisions or actions by employers to make it harder to workers to form unions,” Gould said. “And that has meant there’s been more inequality that’s associated with a growing concentration of wages and incomes at the top.”

Bastards.

[O Really]

Companies fought unions for a long time, tooth and nail, and almost always eventually lost. Then they wised up and the non-union companies started providing generally comparable pay/benefits to the unionized competitors, thus taking away the most obvious reason for joining a union. Gullible employees went along with it and gave up their bargaining power. Then add "right to work" and you have a situation where the union can negotiate wages and benefits, but can only collect dues from those who actually sign up to be members, leaving a lot of freeloaders. So even in unionized companies, there was little incentive to join and actually support the union. So still, gullible workers went along. (here's me, playing a very small violin)

[Vrede too]

Wage growth for low-wage workers has been strongest in states with minimum wage increases

Trump Labor Department proposal, released today, would prevent millions of workers from getting paid overtime

... Despite the painstaking determination of the threshold in the 2016 rule and the fact that that threshold is well within historical norms, the Trump administration is about to publish a rule with a dramatically lower threshold. A preliminary calculation suggests that well over half of the workers who would have gotten new or strengthened overtime protections under the 2016 rule would be left behind by this rule. That means this administration is effectively turning its back on millions of workers. Trump and his cabinet are again siding with corporate interests over those of working people....

There’s nothing radical about Elizabeth Warren’s proposal for universal childcare

[O Really]

(From the overtime article)... "DOL does not need to undertake a new rulemaking—they just need to defend the 2016 rule, and support middle-class workers who badly need a raise." Seriously?! This is Trump's Labor Department we're talking about here. The one that tried to dump the entire work of the former administration. And after losing in court, for them to come up with this much of an increase in the minimum exemption level is just short of miraculous. Be shocked and (somewhat) happy for today - work toward a new President tomorrow.

[Vrede too]

(From the overtime article)... "DOL does not need to undertake a new rulemaking—they just need to defend the 2016 rule, and support middle-class workers who badly need a raise." Seriously?! This is Trump's Labor Department we're talking about here. The one that tried to dump the entire work of the former administration. And after losing in court, for them to come up with this much of an increase in the minimum exemption level is just short of miraculous. Be shocked and (somewhat) happy for today - work toward a new President tomorrow.

Yeah, saw that, it's unrealistic and just odd. The whole point is to screw workers. I can only hope that the author had some not-fully-formed aim with that line - shaming any remaining in DoL with a conscience, appearing to be nonpartisan, clumsy way of expressing what we wish to force DoL to do, idk.

[neoplacebo]

Hold your Rep accountable: Demand a vote on $15 nationwide.

A few days ago I got a mailer from my "representative" Phil Roe, who also is or was an MD. Anyway, his mailer intimated that a $15 minimum wage would be certain death and utter doom for the nation. His reasoning for this position was the standard GOP boilerplate nonsense; that it will kill jobs, hurt workers by increasing unemployment....I can't remember what else he mentioned. In any case, I felt obliged to write back to him. The last two sentences in my reply were "You disgust me. Fuck you." It should be noted that my reply in no way involved collusion or obstruction. Nobody assisted me in my reply, and it did not obscure anything; it was crystal clear. I await his reply.

[O Really]

... a $15 minimum wage would be certain death and utter doom for the nation. His reasoning for this position was the standard GOP boilerplate nonsense; that it will kill jobs, hurt workers by increasing unemployment....

Exact same yammer they've had since the original FLSA was passed in 1938 - and they never learn, do they? The only difference is that in 1938 some also argued that all society would crumble if the "negroes" had to be paid as much as the whites. Not that they've changed their minds about that, either, but they just no longer say it out loud in a speech to Congress.

[Vrede too]

... a $15 minimum wage would be certain death and utter doom for the nation. His reasoning for this position was the standard GOP boilerplate nonsense; that it will kill jobs, hurt workers by increasing unemployment....

Exact same yammer they've had since the original FLSA was passed in 1938 - and they never learn, do they? The only difference is that in 1938 some also argued that all society would crumble if the "negroes" had to be paid as much as the whites. Not that they've changed their minds about that, either, but they just no longer say it out loud in a speech to Congress.

Formatting flub. Since you turned neoplacebo into me and yourself into neoplacebo, I'm letting you know as if I am you.

"Welcome to the twilight zone." Rod Serling

It is pretty much what they say out loud in speeches to Congress about undocumented immigrants, though.

[neoplacebo]

damn, now I don't know who I am or what to do, but at least my politics hasn't changed

[Vrede too]

According to Fight for $15:

In a letter to the National Restaurant Association McDonald's announced "that they will no longer lobby or fund lobbying against raising the minimum wage".



"... lawmakers in Maryland overruled the governor's veto to pass a $15/hr bill into law. Our hard work has already meant $15/hour raises for 30% of U.S. workers."

Voters in battleground districts support $15 minimum wage proposal, survey finds

As congressional Democrats advance a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, they’re encountering skepticism from party centrists dubious of the plan’s merits. But a new poll finds that likely voters in Democratic-led swing districts overwhelmingly support efforts to more than double the hourly minimum by 2024. And they say they’re more likely to support the lawmakers who vote that way.

The Raise the Wage Act, introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and co-sponsored by 204 Democrats, would gradually raise the federal minimum from its current $7.25 an hour. It hasn’t changed since July 2009, making this one of the longest periods without a wage increase since the federal minimum was established in 1938....

[O Really]

EEOC Discrimination Charges Fell To 12-Year Low In FY 2018

Law360 (April 10, 2019, 6:21 PM EDT) -- Workers filed fewer discrimination charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the last fiscal year than they have in more than a decade, even as the #MeToo movement spurred a surge in sexual harassment reports, new agency data released Wednesday shows.

The agency, which fields charges of workplace discrimination from workers and brings suits over a fraction of those, released an enforcement and litigation report showing it took in 76,418 charges in fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30. This was down about 8,000 charges from last year’s total and is the lowest tally since 2006, when the agency took in a little under 76,000 charges.

Workers complained about retaliation more than anything else, filing about 39,000 such charges compared to a little over 41,000 retaliation complaints in FY 2017. The agency fielded about 24,600 charges each of sex-, disability- and race-based discrimination. This represents a sharp decline from last year’s more than 28,000 race complaints, and more modest declines of about 2,000 and about 1,000 disability and sex discrimination charges, respectively.

Sexual harassment complaints made up a little less than a third of all sex discrimination charges, or about 7,600 in total. This is about 900 more such complaints than the agency fielded last year, and the most it’s seen since 2011, when about 7,800 of the nearly 100,000 complaints it took in alleged sexual harassment. The agency brought in more than $56 million for sexual harassment victims, it said.

The agency fielded 16,911 age-based complaints, 7,106 national origin discrimination complaints, 3,166 claims of color discrimination and 2,859 claims of religious discrimination. It also fielded 1,066 claims of sex-based pay discrimination under the Equal Pay Act and 220 claims under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which blocks employers from discriminating against workers based on their or their families’ genetic information. All of these numbers save those for the EPA and GINA figures represent declines.

Barnes & Thornburg LLP partner John Maley speculated Wednesday that the overall decline in charges may stem from high demand for workers and a low unemployment rate, leading to fewer job rejections and firings for workers to challenge.

But “for employers, the takeaway is that a steady volume of charges across all topic areas continues, and best practices remain important to avoid or successfully defend charges,” he said.

The agency resolved about 90,500 charges in FY 2018 to drop its backlog of pending charges to fewer than 50,000, it added. The majority of resolved charges — about 64,000 — were dismissed as lacking cause, while the agency resolved nearly 14,000 charges on their merits and closed about 13,000 for administrative reasons.

The new data also breaks down charge source by state. The EEOC said Texas workers complained about discrimination more than those of any other state, filing a little fewer than 7,500 charges, or about 10% of the total. Florida workers filed about 6,600 complaints, and California, Georgia, Illinois and Pennsylvania each saw more than 4,000 charges filed. Workers in Wyoming filed the fewest complaints at 21, U.S. territories notwithstanding.

And the report breaks down the 199 discrimination lawsuits the agency filed last year. Of these, 117 challenged bias against an individual, 45 challenged bias against a group and 37 challenged systemic practices across an organization, the agency said. It also trumpeted preliminary data the agency released last fall, including that it secured about $505 million for workers in FY 2018 and handled about 550,000 calls and emails and 200,000 field office visits.

“The EEOC had a remarkable year working on behalf of those who came to the agency having experienced discrimination in their workplaces,” acting EEOC Chair Victoria Lipnic said in a statement.

[Vrede too]

Petition to Congress:

"Co-sponsor and support the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act, which would end the Trump Tax Scam provisions that give corporations incentives to outsource jobs."

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Stand with low-wage workers: Demand shutdown back pay (Petition to Congress)