Campaign News

Fourteen national organizations boasting more than 10 million members are calling on the Democratic National Committee to end the use of superdelegates to elect the presidential nominee.

The move to end the use of superdelegates was pushed vigorously during the campaign by Sen. Bernie Sanders but many of those supporting the effort include backers of Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

DNC Rules Committee member and Rhode Island State Representative Aaron Regunberg has pledged to introduce language to end superdelegates, and several other Rules Committee members have agreed to support the effort at the Democratic National Convention at the end of July.

The organizations said in a joint letter that the superdelegates, who are typically party officials, are not elected by voters and can skew the nominating process. They say the superdelegates carry as much as the combined weight as pledged delegates from 24 states, the District of Columbia and four territories.

Organizations signing on to the letter include: Courage Campaign, Credo, Daily Kos, Demand Progress/Rootstrikers, Democracy for America, Center for Popular Democracy, MoveOn, National Nurses United, NDN, The Other 98%, Presente.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Progressive Democrats of America, and Social Security Works.

Simon Rosenberg, the president of NDN and a former DNC staffer, who supported Hillary Clinton during the primary, said the use of superdelegates is “discordant with broader and vital efforts by Democrats to modernize and improve our democracy. If we want the voice of everyday people to be louder and more consequential in our nation’s politics, it must also be so in our Party.”

Another Clinton supporter, Joe Trippi, who ran Howard Dean’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004, said a key party goal is to “empower voices from the bottom up. The top down idea of superdelegates is obsolete and is a good place to start.”

Sanders’ supporter Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a superdelegate and former DNC official, also condemned the practice.

“The nominee of our party should be decided by who earns the most votes —not party insiders, unelected officials, or the federal lobbyists that have been given a vote in our nominating process. The current system stands against grassroots activists and the will of the voters,” she said. “We’ve seen a historic number of new voters and activists join our political process in the past year, many of whom are rightly upset at how rigged the political system can seem at times. If we want to strengthen our democracy and our party, we must end the superdelegate process.”

By MARK JOHNSON

Source

If you’re a huge fan of shopping at Zara, the Spanish fast-fashion franchise, you may want to start spending your money elsewhere.

The fashion brand has been outed for its deeply engrained racist hiring and customer service practices in arecent survey conducted by the Center for Popular Democracy, a racial, economic and labor justice group. A random sample of two hundred-fifty one out of Zara’s 1,500 Manhattan employees participated in the survey and confided that Black customers are profiled as potential thieves seven times more frequently than white shoppers.

The study, entitled “Stitched with Prejudice: Zara USA’s Corporate Culture of Favoritism” and written by Chaya Crowder, also revealed that Black customers were also more frequently denied exchanges and returns than Whites. Customers weren’t the only people that were racially discriminated in Zara’s stores. Black employees claimed that they were given dissatisfactory hour assignments and stricter surveillance from managers.

“It’s kind of weird to me how they can make millions of dollars but are not able to pay people properly for their time, let alone give people the amount of time that they need in order to support their family, in order to keep a roof over their head, in order to, you know, just feed themselves.” One employee said:

The study had also found that darker-skinned employees were also less likely to promoted to managing roles and were often given less-prestigious roles. Sixty-eight percent of employees that were assigned roles in the back of the store and away from the public had darker complexions. Managers were generally White, and generally gave preferential treatment or were less lenient to subordinates of the same races and ethnic groups. The extent to which Black employees were profiled in their own work environment were sometimes highly disturbing, as portrayed in this incident:

“[O]ne Black employee even detailed an instance in which he had come in a hooded jacket to pick up his check. A sales associate not only identified him as a special order, but he was physically stopped as he was walking into the back office, where checks are kept.”

The study’s findings are not particularly surprising, given Zara’s history of being infamous for racial bias in the brand’s various operations. Just earlier this month, the franchised was served with a $40 million lawsuit from a former worker  citing discrimination, unlawful discharge, retaliation and a hostile work environment. The brand also received bad press last year for racist images on its merchandise: pajamas featuring swastikas, a necklace with blackface designs, shirts with gold stars resembling those worn by the Jewish people once held in concentration camps in the Holocaust and a shirt with the words printed saying, “White is the New Black.”

According to Forbes, Zara featured the following statement:

“Zara USA vehemently refutes the findings of the Center for Popular Democracy report which was published without any attempt to contact the company. The baseless report was prepared with ulterior motives and not because of any actual discrimination or mistreatment. It makes assertions that cannot be supported and do not reflect Zara’s diverse workforce.

“Zara USA believes that the report is completely inconsistent with the company’s true culture and the experiences of the over 1,500 Zara employees in New York City. We are an equal opportunity employer, and if there are individuals who are not satisfied with any aspect of their employment, we have multiple avenues for them to raise issues that we would immediately investigate and address.

“Approximately half of all Zara USA employees are Hispanic or African American. In the most recent round of internal promotions at Zara USA, approximately half were Hispanic or African American employees. In addition, approximately half of all hours are regularly allocated to Hispanic or African American employees. These facts clearly demonstrate that diversity and equal opportunity are two of the company’s core values. We are a global multicultural company serving valued customers across 88 countries, and do not tolerate discrimination of any form.”

Welp. I know Zara won’t be seeing my money again anytime soon. It’s a shame, their pencil skirts fit me in all the right places…

Source: New Pittsburgh Courier

03.23.2016    

SEATTLE –Starbucks workers staged a protest at the company’s annual shareholder meeting today to call for better scheduling practices, a day after the Seattle City Council held a study session on proposals that would require employers like Starbucks to raise standards for work hours. Starbucks baristas at the protest were members of Working Washington, a statewide workers’ organization that has led the fight for secure scheduling at the company and in the City Council. As part of the demonstration, baristas called attention to a national petition signed by more than 20,000 supporters calling on Starbucks to end clopenings and provide 11 hours of rest between shifts.  

Scheduling problems at Starbucks were unveiled in a 2014 New York Times feature, which found employees were often given notice about their shift just hours in advance and often forced to both close a store and open just hours later – a practice known as “clopening.” Though the company vowed to introduce reforms in response, a report from the Center for Popular Democracy’s Fair Workweek Initiative a year later found many workers were still struggling with erratic hours. Starbucks workers in Seattle have continued protests across the country from Seattle to Atlanta to Connecticut and have delivered a letter to the company calling for a meeting.  

With no meaningful changes in sight, workers have taken their case to the Seattle City Council, which is currently considering legislation that may include provisions to ensure flexibility and advance notice, adequate rest between shifts, on-call pay and access to hours for part-time workers. Recent polling found overwhelming support for such policies. Similar protections are already on the books in San Francisco and Santa Clara County, and are being considered by a growing number of cities and states around the country, including Washington, DC, San Jose,  Maryland, Massachusetts and Minnesota.  

Darrion Sjoquist, a barista at Starbucks, released the following statement:  

“Even after asking for changes again and again, workers at Starbucks still face constant uncertainty about something as simple as when they need to come in to work. Unpredictable schedules are harmful to workers, and make it incredibly hard for people like me to plan our lives. We can’t wait any longer for real change to come.”  

Leila Kopcic, a barista at Starbucks, also released a statement:  

“It’s really hard to live your life when your priorities are, ‘what’s my schedule? How many hours am I getting?’ Basically you get off at 7:30, go home, get ready for bed, wake up at 4 AM and go to work. It’s not enough time to rest and recharge yourself. I have to skimp on groceries. Sometimes skip meals. Just to be able to live where I want to live and afford that. A lot of people have it worse than me and I just want to make a difference for everyone.”  

Carrie Gleason, Director of the Fair Workweek Initiative, also released a statement:  

“Starbucks baristas have put the national spotlight on the crisis hourly workers face in their workweeks. Starbucks would not let its customers wait endlessly for a latte, and it should not let its employees wait a day longer to meet with them to find a long-term solution for better hours.”  

Sejal Parikh, Executive Director of Working Washington, also released a statement:   “This is a venti-sized problem that deserves immediate attention from corporate executives. For more than a year, Starbucks workers have been demanding schedules that let them actually plan their lives. We will continue to push for change in local laws and corporate policy until every Starbucks barista has a schedule that respects that their time counts.”    

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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.fairworkweek.org The Fair Workweek Initiative, anchored by the Center for Popular Democracy and CPD Action, is driving the growing momentum to restore a workweek that enables working families to thrive.  

www.workingwa.org

Working Washington is a statewide workers’ organization that fights to raise wages, improve labor standards, and change the conversation about wealth, inequality, and the value of work.

 Contact: Asya Pikovsky, apikovsky@populardemocracy.org, 207-522-2442 Anita Jain, ajain@populardemocracy.org, 347-636-9761  

WNYC - December 4, 2013, by Stephen Nessen - Across New York City, small groups of pro-union activists, supporting various causes, are holding flash demonstrations.  What they have in common is a belief that the pro-labor momentum that began with Bill de Blasio’s election will lead to higher wages for workers and a union-friendly administration.

Customers sipping coffee and reading the paper at the Grand Café, outside of Grand Central Terminal had their quiet morning smashed by a dozen protesters and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra marching band.  They claimed four workers were unfairly fired for organizing.

Over at the High Line, where condos can sell for millions of dollars, another labor group that represents building workers, unfurled a banner that read: "High Line Living, Low Wage Workers," in front of a building they say pays its workers a starting wage of $13.37 an hour.

And on the Upper East side, protesters inflated a nearly 2-story, bloated, top-hat-wearing, cigar chomping pig outside the home of Cablevision director Vincent Tese. They complained about Cablevision's alleged anti-union busting tactics.

Buoyed by Bill de Blasio’s narrative about income inequality in the city , protesters claim on their website that “The sun is setting on a city run by the and for the 1 percent.

While protests are planned for the rest of the week, any changes that might happen will have to wait until after the new mayor takes office in January.

Source