‘We’ll Give You Whatever We Have:’ How Organizations Are Fighting to Bring Relief to Puerto Rico
‘We’ll Give You Whatever We Have:’ How Organizations Are Fighting to Bring Relief to Puerto Rico
The sixth-floor windows wouldn’t hold in the winds, they knew. So the doctors and staff at the University Pediatric Hospital in San Juan moved the entire neonatal intensive-care unit, the NICU,...
The sixth-floor windows wouldn’t hold in the winds, they knew. So the doctors and staff at the University Pediatric Hospital in San Juan moved the entire neonatal intensive-care unit, the NICU, down three floors as Hurricane Maria closed in. The predicted damage came. Windows cracked, water poured in. The air-conditioning units blew away.
Read the full article here.
“We matter”: Dozens with pre-existing conditions stage D.C. sit-in over GOP health care bill
“We matter”: Dozens with pre-existing conditions stage D.C. sit-in over GOP health care bill
Marthella Johnson was born with one kidney. At a young age, the 42-year-old resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, developed kidney stones.
Before the Affordable Care Act, many insurers...
Marthella Johnson was born with one kidney. At a young age, the 42-year-old resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, developed kidney stones.
Before the Affordable Care Act, many insurers considered kidney stones a pre-existing condition and wouldn’t insure people like Johnson. After it went into effect, Johnson said she was able to buy insurance through her state’s marketplace.
Read the full article here.
Center for Popular Democracy FOILs SUNY-Albany’s Rockefeller Institute Over Debunked Scaffold Safety Law “Study"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2014
Contact: Hugh Baran, 646-200-5331, hugh.baran@berlinrosen.com
Center for Popular Democracy FOILs SUNY-Albany’s Rockefeller Institute Over Debunked Scaffold Safety Law “Study"
FOIL Probes Debunked Industry-Funded Study That Rockefeller Institute Director Called "Really Just Awful”
Freedom of Information Request Seeks Original RFP & Other Communications with Front Group That Spent $82,800 Commissioning the Research
ALBANY — The Center for Popular Democracy announced this morning it has filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with SUNY-Albany’s Rockefeller Institute over their now-debunked study of the Scaffold Safety Law, as first reported in today’s Albany Times-Union.
The FOIL comes after Institute Director Thomas L. Gais recanted its study last week, telling The Chronicle of HIgher Education that the now-debunked study suffers from "really big weaknesses," that "he considers the report as not officially a product of his institute,” and that a key section is "just really awful” — yet insisting no bias influenced the report’s findings. Days later, the Institute released a statement insisting that, "The funder did not attempt to influence the development of the research design, collection or analysis of data at any time during the study."
CPD’s FOIL aims to force transparency about the creation of the original Rockefeller report. Read the full FOIL request here.
"When industry funds bogus research in hopes of undercutting New York's critical worker health and safety laws, the public needs to know” said Connie Razza, Director of Strategic Research at the Center for Popular Democracy. "We take very seriously the fact that industry dollars were used to finance a 'study' that puts forward the incredible assertion that New York's scaffold law, which protects workers working at a height, actually causes worker injuries. The Center for Popular Democracy and New York Committee on Occupational Safety & Health already issued one report that shreds the credibility of the Rockefeller Institute study. We are now turning our sights on the money trail that financed this bogus work. Industry should not be allowed to try to buy credibility from institutions like SUNY.”
Specifically, the FOIL seeks the following documents related to the Institute’s now-debunked study, The Cost of Labor Law 240 on New York’s Economy and Public Infrastructure:
All documents received by the Rockefeller Institute from the New York Civil Justice Institute (or the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of Nw York) in connection with a request for proposal for a research study on New York Labor Law Section 240 (the “RFP”).
All documents submitted by the Rockefeller Institute to the New York Civil Justice Institute (or the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York) in response to the RFP.
All other written and electronic communications between the Rockefeller Institute and the New York Civil Justice Institute (or the Lawsuit Reform Alliance), since the beginning of 2013, pertaining to New York Labor Law Section 240.
The Cost of Labor Law 240 on New York’s Economy and Public Infrastructure was released last month by the Rockefeller Institute at SUNY-Albany, commissioned by an $82,800 check from the "New York Civil Justice Institute," a front-group whose address is the same as the Lawsuit Reform Alliance, which has worked for years to weaken laws that make it possible for people to assert rights against abusive or negligent landlords, employers, and other business interests. The LRA itself has frequently been criticized as being a front group for the construction industry and other corporate interests.
The Scaffold Safety Law is a critical safety protection for construction workers, who are increasingly Latino and immigrant. In fact, an earlier review of construction site accidents by the Center for Popular Democracy, published in an October 2013 report entitled "Fatal Inequality," starkly illustrated how important the Scaffold Law is because of the ongoing rates of injury in construction in New York, and notably, how the risks are disproportionately borne by immigrant workers and workers of color:
In 60% of those fatalities, the worker was Latino and/or immigrant, disproportionately high for their participation in construction work.
In New York City, 74% of fatal falls involved Latino and/or immigrant workers.
CPD & NYCOSH also released a new one-pager last month explaining how the Scaffold Safety Law works. Read it here.
ABOUT THE SCAFFOLD SAFETY COALITION
The Center for Popular Democracy is a proud partner in the newly launched Scaffold Safety Coalition. The Scaffold Safety Coalition is a diverse group of workers, advocates and organizations committed to protecting construction workers in New York State, creating a unified front in the fight to defend New York’s Scaffold Safety Law from industry-backed efforts to gut the law. On behalf of more than 1.5 million New Yorkers, the coalition has also pledged to push for increased enforcement of New York’s construction safety standards. More information and a full list of partners in the Scaffold Safety Coalition is available at the coalition website: www.scaffoldsafetylaw.org.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR POPULAR DEMOCRACY
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda. More information is available at CPD’s website: www.populardemocracy.org.
Low-wage workers pick their next battleground
Just four years ago, fast food workers in New York City walked off the job, launching the first strike to ever hit the industry and a movement that has had rapid success. Calling for a $15 minimum...
Just four years ago, fast food workers in New York City walked off the job, launching the first strike to ever hit the industry and a movement that has had rapid success. Calling for a $15 minimum wage and the right to form a union, the Fight for 15 started staging strikes and protests in a growing number of cities — the last day of action reached 320 — that drew in workers beyond fast food, including adjunct professors, childcare providers, and retail workers.
That fight is by no means over, but it has led to surprising victories. Today, two states have passed increases to bring their minimum wages to $15 an hour, as have a number of major cities.
Now workers are pushing forward on a new demand: the right to consistent and predictable schedules.
In many ways, advocates see this as a natural extension of the Fight for 15. After all, higher hourly pay means little if you never know you’ll have enough hours to make ends meet or if a last-minute change disrupts your plans for childcare or transportation.
“Workers who have experienced their wage increase and then see their hours cut the next week more than anything know that their paycheck is their wages times hours,” pointed out Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy.
Erratic and unpredictable scheduling has become a more and more common problem. “The erosion of unions, compounded by the accelerated pace of change and the nature of work, has only increased the need for updating our standards around hours,” she said.
At least 17 percent of all workers have irregular schedules, including changing or on-call shifts or working two shifts in one day. Over 40 percent of workers don’t find their schedules out until a week in advance, while 40 percent say their hours vary week to week. It’s especially prevalent in service sector jobs; huge numbers of retail workers in New York City and food service workers in Washington say they don’t get enough notice of their hours each week.
“The fight for just hours is definitely the next movement for people trying to achieve security for their families.”
“The fight for just hours is definitely the next movement for people trying to achieve security for their families,” Gleason added. “New energy has been generated with the Fight for 15, and as policymakers have raised the minimum wage and passed paid sick days across the country, they’re turning their attention to the crisis around hours finally.”
The movement has already notched victories. In 2014, San Francisco became the first city to pass legislation regulating schedules, enacting a law that requires retail chains to give employees two weeks notice of their schedules, pay them if shifts change at the last minute, give current workers the opportunity to take on more hours before new hires are brought in, and to treat part-time workers similarly as full-time ones.
Then on Monday evening, the Seattle city council voted unanimously to pass a law that looks very similar. It will require large employers in retail and food service to give employees two weeks notice of schedules, extra pay for last-minute changes, and input into what their schedules will look like. It will also get rid of “clopenings,” or when employees work a closing shift one day only to come in early the next morning to open.
Seattle workers had already helped secure a $15 minimum wage increase in 2014. And it was after that victory that the conversation around scheduling began.
“It really became apparent during the 15 campaign that workers not only needed a higher minimum wage, but they needed more stable schedules,” said Sejal Parikh, executive director of Working Washington. After that campaign resulted in a victory, “workers started talking about what the next campaign would be: Making sure the minimum wage is enforced, and figuring out how to get to more secure schedules in the city.”
It’s “the natural other half of the 15 dollar campaign,” she added.
It’s “the natural other half of the 15 dollar campaign.”
That effort also coincided with one targeted at Starbucks. In the summer of 2014, shortly after a New York Times exposé on the company’s scheduling practices, Starbucks announced that it would make changes such as ending clopenings and posting schedules three weeks out.
But a year ago this month, Starbucks baristas in Seattle launched a campaign accusing the company of unevenly implementing these practices and still allowing workers’ schedules to be erratic.
Those two groups of workers got together and began talking to the city council late last year, and Parikh said they got a warm reception. The issue “really resonated with people,” she said. “Many of us have worked in retail or fast food or coffee and could recall times when we didn’t know what our schedule would be.” Workers were deeply involved in crafting the legislation, too: it was built around answers to surveys sent out to fast food employees and baristas asking them about their priorities.
It helped to be able to work with those in San Francisco who worked on the passage of the bill there and have been implementing it since. “Because San Francisco went first, we have a piece of policy where we’ve learned a lot of lessons,” she said.
“It’s really catching on,” she added. “I think it’s going to be one of the next pieces of labor policy across the country.”
It’s already reached the other coast. Seattle’s victory came just a week after New York City said it would start working on being the next. Last Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced that he, along with legislators and advocates, would begin crafting legislation aimed at improving scheduling for fast food workers. While the details will be hashed out in the months to come, he focused on two weeks advance notice, compensation for last-minute changes, and cracking down on clopenings.
“It’s really catching on.”
“It’s time for us to use the power of city government to make sure that people are treated decently,” he said at the press conference announcing the new effort.
New York City, home to the first fast food strike, now has a $15 minimum wage thanks to the state increase. “If [workers are] making 15 an hour, it doesn’t really matter if they don’t know when they’re actually making that money,” said Freddi Goldstein, deputy press secretary for the mayor. Scheduling “just felt like a natural next step.”
And as Seattle looked to San Francisco for guidance, New York will work with people in those two cities to see what worked and what didn’t.
The city is only looking at the fast food industry so far because, Goldstein said, it’s a workforce that is rarely unionized and “highly abused.” But it’s possible the focus could expand beyond that industry in the future, and as the effort to craft the legislation unfolds new planks could also be added. “I wouldn’t say we haven’t decided to do or not do anything at this point,” she said.
The scheduling movement hasn’t met with a totally unbroken string of successes: On Tuesday the D.C. city council voted to table a bill that would have addressed scheduling, killing it for the current session. Councilmember Elissa Silverman vowed to introduce a new version of the bill in the next one.
But the idea is starting to spread. It’s cropped up in Minneapolis, MN and Emeryville, CA. A scheduling bill has also been introduced in Congress, although it hasn’t advanced. “We’re already seeing policymakers step up across the country,” the Center for Popular Democracy’s Gleason said.
“The movement for the Fair Labor Standards Act was about wages and the 40-hour workweek,” she added. “It’s only natural that we’re seeing the demand for just wages and hours back again.”
By Bryce Covert
Source
Washington Wrap: Goldman Sachs under review over Panama Papers
Washington Wrap: Goldman Sachs under review over Panama Papers
New York's Department of Financial Services is seeking information from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., BNP Paribas SA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Standard Chartered Plc on shell companies...
New York's Department of Financial Services is seeking information from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., BNP Paribas SA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Standard Chartered Plc on shell companies established through a law firm in Panama, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The investigation came after the Panama Papers leak about global banks using law firm Moasack Fonseca & Co. to set up anonymous shell companies. The data behind the leaks was made public this week by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The massive leak put a spotlight on the possible use of shell companies for tax evasion and other purposes. The White House's Office of Management and Budget accepted the final review of a FinCEN Treasury rule last month that would require banks to identify owners of shell companies.
Rick Aragon, AML compliance manager at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said in an interview that the rule will increase compliance costs and complexity for banks. The new obligation for banks to identify and verify beneficial owners will affect system processes and could ultimately impact the risk profile of banks, he said.
"There's all sorts of different downstream processes that are going to be impacted by this," he said.
While offshore accounts are already considered high-risk, the publicity of the accounts will cause banks to re-evaluate whether or not they want to take on this type of business, he added.
The House Science, Space, and Technology's Oversight Subcommittee is investigating the FDIC's slowness to report data breaches that were later deemed as posing a major cybersercurity risk. The FDIC has reported seven security breaches since October 2015, all related to employees leaving the agency and downloading data on personal external devices. Lawrence Gross, chief information officer and chief privacy officer at the FDIC, testified at a May 12 hearing that the agency has taken steps to mitigate further breaches, but Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said he does not think the agency is taking the breaches seriously.
Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton said she supports increasing diversity at the Federal Reserve and removing bankers from the board of directors, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Her comments were made in response to a letter from 127 legislators, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, asking Chair Janet Yellen to improve leadership diversity. "As the Board of Governors embarks on its search for regional bank directors to serve beginning in 2017, and as you consider future regional president vacancies, we urge you to engage in an inclusive process to consider candidates from a diverse set of backgrounds, including a greater number of African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Pacific Americans, women, and individuals from labor, consumer, and community organizations," the lawmakers wrote. The group cited a Center for Popular Democracy study that found 83% of Fed head office board members are white and three-fourths of regional bank directors are male.
Chatter:
The argument between JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman, President and CEO Jamie Dimon and Independent Community Bankers of America President Camden Fine heated up this week after Dimon called Fine a "jerk" on CNBC. Fine retorted that Dimon's language was that of a junior high-schooler.
Dimon's comments were made in response to statement Fine made April 9. "Just because Jamie Dimon says 'let's sing kumbaya' doesn't mean community banks are going to just line-up like a Greek chorus," Fine said in response to an op-ed Dimon wrote, calling banks of all sizes to unite.
Legislation/regulation:
The Office of Financial Research outlined best practices for data collection by regulators, including the agencies composing the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Among common pitfalls it pointed out in regulatory data collection were a failure to use existing industry standards, missing or incomplete data requirements, inadequate instructions and preparation, and a lack of resources to support institutions reporting the data.
The OFR suggested more collaboration among data collectors and noted that regulators' collection processes should be designed to be comprehensive and attentive to detail while also having a foundation of simplicity.
The OFR also released a study in which it compared the reported credit standards in the Fed's senior loan officer opinion survey to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. It found that the survey results have "the expected relationships" with actual denial rates at banks and economic conditions such as delinquency rates and home prices in MSAs where credit tightening occurs.
The House Financial Services Committee could soon introduce a bill that would provide regulatory relief for community banks if they meet a certain capital threshold. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, said in an interview Wednesday that the bill would also include a dual mandate for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers and encourage access to credit.
The Treasury Department wants to work with Congress to pass legislation overseeing and providing protection for borrowers in the marketplace lending industry. In a white paper reviewing the industry, the Treasury stated that to ensure market soundness prudent loan underwriting, securitization transaction pricing, and robust governance and disclosures are necessary. The paper also recommended that online lenders should promote a transparent marketplace for borrowers and investors, ensure safe and affordable credit through partnerships, and support robust and effective oversight.
By Moriah Costa
Source
Liberal groups push Clinton on Wall Street 'golden parachutes'
In a letter sent to Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the groups pressed her to oppose “golden parachutes” given to bank executives when they agree to take high-...
In a letter sent to Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the groups pressed her to oppose “golden parachutes” given to bank executives when they agree to take high-ranking government jobs. Such a payment structure is not uncommon on Wall Street, but critics of the practice say it encourages a “revolving door” in Washington and undue governmental influence by the financial sector.
The groups asked Clinton if she supported the practice, while noting that two of her main primary opponents — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — have backed barring the practice.
"The revolving door between government and Wall Street helps the wealthiest few hijack our democracy for their own gain,” said Murshed Zaheed, deputy political director at Credo Action. “Americans cannot afford to have another administration from either party filled with Wall Street executives with multi-million dollar golden parachutes.”
Other groups signing on to the letter were Rootstrikers, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org Political Action, Center for Popular Democracy Action, The Other 98%, Friends of the Earth Action and American Family Voices.
The letter marks the latest in a series of pushes from the left to encourage Clinton to take a harsher stance on the financial sector. Whlie Sanders and O’Malley have hammered the financial sector as a key part of their campaign message, Clinton has taken a more measured tone.
Gripes about a heavy hand from finance in powerful government positions has become a particularly sore spot on the left of late. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped derail President Obama’s nomination of Antonio Weiss, a top executive at Lazard, for a top Treasury post. Warren argued Lazard’s long history on Wall Street should disqualify him for the position, urging someone else to fill the role without such ties. Weiss eventually took a separate post at the Treasury in an advisory role, where he did not need to be Senate-confirmed.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: The Hill
Sawant Effort to Bypass Voters on Hotel Workers Initiative Fails
Sawant Effort to Bypass Voters on Hotel Workers Initiative Fails
1. City council member Kshama Sawant tried to pass a last-minute motion at yesterday’s full council meeting to “release the clerk file” on the hotel workers’ union initiative I-124, an initiative...
1. City council member Kshama Sawant tried to pass a last-minute motion at yesterday’s full council meeting to “release the clerk file” on the hotel workers’ union initiative I-124, an initiative that mandates protections against sexual harassment of hotel housekeepers, workers who are predominantly women. (The initiative also seeks to improve workers’ health care coverage and protect unionized workers when their hotel changes ownership.)
Unite HERE Local 8, the hotel workers’ union that collected signatures for the measure, turned in more than 32,000 signatures last week, giving them more than enough to qualify for the ballot.
The council has until early August to send the initiative to the November ballot, and they planned to vote on it on next Monday July 25. By law, the council has three options when considering an initiative: they can send it to the voters, they can send it to the voters with an alternative, or they can simply approve the law themselves. However, they only have the option of approving a citizens’ initiative as law themselves one week after its introduced. In other words, they don’t have that option on July 25 when the the measure will be formally introduced. They could, however, approve it in its own right at the following full council meeting on Monday, August 2.
Sawant’s procedural move would have created the one week window, allowing the council to simply adopt the measure as an ordinance in its own right at the July 25 vote—something that would have saved the union an expensive fight at the ballot box fight.
Sawant said the law “was straight forward” and since “hotel workers have a hard life in general…I don’t think they need to spend the next several months” on a ballot fight.
Council members clearly weren’t comfortable approving a ballot measure in its own right without a comprehensive vetting and public process, something they don’t believe they can do in one or two weeks, and so, are likely, next week, to simply send the measure to the ballot next Monday.
Sawant’s motion failed 6-2 (Sally Bagshaw, Tim Burgess, Bruce Harrell, Lisa Herbold, Rob Johnson, and Mike O’Brien voted no) and Debora Juarez voted with Sawant.
Juarez made it clear that she simply seconded Sawant’s resolution to make it possible to vote on the law itself on next week and not necessarily to indicate that she supported bypassing voters. Sawant said the law “was straight forward” and since “hotel workers have a hard life in general…I don’t think they need to spend the next several months” on a ballot fight.
2. A new study on unpredictable work schedules called “Scheduling Away our Health” found that:
Hourly workers who received one week or less notice of their schedules are more likely to report their health as poor or fair (rather than good or excellent) than workers with more advance notice. About 20 percent of those receiving one week or less of schedule notice reported poor or fair health, compared to about 12 percent-13 percent for workers with more notice.
The study was done by a health care group called Human Impact Partners in conjunction with lefty group The Center for Popular Democracy.
Local group Working Washington is pushing the city council to pass a “secured scheduling” ordinance that would make employers give workers two weeks notice on schedules.
By JOSH FEIT
Source
FOMC Is Wrong to Plan Rate Hikes for 2016
03.16.2016
Today, the FOMC announced that it will not be raising interest rates this month, which is a good thing. But at the same time, via its dot plot, the...
03.16.2016
Today, the FOMC announced that it will not be raising interest rates this month, which is a good thing. But at the same time, via its dot plot, the committee showed consensus in favor of raising interest rates during 2016. Today’s projections threaten employment and salaries for working families, particular from Black and Latino communities, and will bring real harm if they come to pass. Last week, low-income people of color across the country took the unprecedented step of flyering outside their regional Fed banks before the regional presidents traveled to DC for the FOMC meeting, urging them to “Connect the Dots” and not predict rate hikes in 2016 on their dot plots.
Dushaw Hockett, executive director of SPACEs, a community-based organization in Washington, DC that is part of the Fed Up Coalition, released the following statement in response to the FOMC announcement:
“Over the past seven years, the Fed has repeatedly over-estimated the health of the economy and over-estimated the likelihood of rate hikes – and that has only served to make the recovery weaker.[1] This month’s dot plot prediction is more of the same: once again the Fed is ignoring the real signs of weakness in the economy, particularly for Black and Latino communities, who haven’t had a recovery at all.
“The Fed needs to connect the dots with reality: involuntary part-time work is still almost double pre-recession levels, labor force participation rates are still low, Black unemployment is more than double white unemployment and Latino unemployment and underemployment is still at crisis levels, and wage growth is almost non-existent. A dot plot that ignores these realities actually slows down the economy by tightening credit markets. Recent data shows that there is plenty of room for the economy to grow. Rather than slowing down progress, the Fed should do all it can to facilitate growth in 2016 and beyond.”
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www.populardemocracy.org
The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda. www.whatrecovery.com Fed Up is a coalition of community organizations and labor unions across the country, campaigning for the Federal Reserve to adopt pro-worker policies for the rest of us. The Fed can keep interest rates low, give the economy a fair chance to recover, and prioritize full employment and rising wages.
Press Contact: Anita Jain, ajain@populardemocracy.org, 347-636-9761
[1] See Ylan Mui, The economy never seems to be as good as the Fed thinks it will be, Washington Post (Sept. 15, 2015) and Narayana Kocherlakota, Dovish Actions Require Dovish Talk (To Be Effective), Blog Post (Feb. 4, 2016).
Puerto Rico en quiebra por culpa del Clan Botín
Según la abogado y directora de nuevos proyectos en Center For Popular Democracy, Xiomara Caro “una cosa es la ilegalidad, que se tendría que probar en un tribunal, pero que haya un conflicto de...
Según la abogado y directora de nuevos proyectos en Center For Popular Democracy, Xiomara Caro “una cosa es la ilegalidad, que se tendría que probar en un tribunal, pero que haya un conflicto de interés… Eso no requiere un doctorado. El mismo tipo que fue presidente de un banco, el Santander, que creció durante cierta época, luego es el presidente del Banco Nacional de Puerto Rico en el momento en el que se aplican las medidas de austeridad más ridículas”
Lea el artículo completo aquí.
Schedules that Work Act Reintroduced Amidst National Groundswell for a Fair Workweek
*For Planning Purposes Only*
Contact: Ricardo A. Ramírez, rramirez@populardemocracy.org, 202-464-7376
Congress will reintroduce...
*For Planning Purposes Only*
Contact: Ricardo A. Ramírez, rramirez@populardemocracy.org, 202-464-7376
Congress will reintroduce the “Schedules that Work Act,” which has increased support, reflecting a growing traction among leading legislators including Senators Warren, Murray, Baldwin, Murphy, Schumer, Brown and Franken and Representatives DeLauro and Scott.
The Center for Popular Democracy released the following statement:
“The Schedules that Work Act is path-breaking legislation in the national movement to update workplace protections with common sense solutions for the challenges faced by the majority of Americans who are working by the hour,” said Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy. “The introduction of this bill comes amid a growing national movement of working people in states and cities across the country who are declaring that their time counts. Working Americans increasingly struggle with unpredictable hours that change week to week and have too little say in the schedules that have become a moving target. In twelve states, legislators have responded to the needs of working families by introducing fair workweek legislation, including in cities like Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Washington DC. As political momentum grows for these new labor standards, employers are also facing increasing pressure to reform their scheduling practices with major retailers – like Victoria’s Secret and the GAP - facing scrutiny regarding their use of unpaid on-call shifts.”
"As a night student with two jobs, having to learn about my schedule with only a week’s notice is hard,” said Ciera Moran, a Starbucks worker in New Haven, Connecticut who is working with Make the Road Connecticut. “Often I get very little sleep, and sometimes I have to scramble to get enough hours and make ends meet. A fair workweek means that I get the advance notice I need to pay my bills, get an education, and plan my future. I deserve a fair workweek and I know that the only way we get it is if workers come together and speak out."
"Across the country, parents working hourly jobs, particularly women, are increasingly struggling to balance their families with the chaos of unpredictable work schedules they can't control," said Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change in Minnesota. “Here in Minneapolis, we are organizing to pass citywide fair scheduling policies before the end of the year. As this week’s event will show, our families are energized and won’t back down until we obtain a workweek we can count on.”
As the Schedules That Work Act moves through Congress, state and municipal campaigns are taking off across the country. On Wednesday, 200 workers with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and other labor and community groups will march to City Hall in Minneapolis to release a report highlighting the scheduling crisis in Minneapolis and the need for policy solutions. They will be unveiling groundbreaking new data about the effect of unpredictable scheduling in Minneapolis neighborhoods.
Workers involved with CPD’s community partners and the Fair Workweek Initiative in Minneapolis, Albuquerque and across the country are available to talk to the media. Interested reporters can request an interview by writing an email to press@populardemocracy.org.
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The Fair Workweek Initiative (FWI), a collaborative effort anchored by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), is bringing together leading worker, community and policy organizations across the country to raise industry standards and develop, drive and win policy solutions that achieve a workweek working families can count on.
The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda.
4 days ago
4 days ago