If Amazon Wants New York, Make It Unionize
If Amazon Wants New York, Make It Unionize
The Center for Popular Democracy awarded Walgreens its “worst employer” prize because of its treatment of the retail...
The Center for Popular Democracy awarded Walgreens its “worst employer” prize because of its treatment of the retail chain’s employees.
Read the full article here.
Scarlett Johansson organises all-star performance of Our Town to benefit Puerto Rico disaster victims
Scarlett Johansson organises all-star performance of Our Town to benefit Puerto Rico disaster victims
Scarlett Johansson used her real superpower – an all-star contact book – to assemble an incredible cast for a...
Scarlett Johansson used her real superpower – an all-star contact book – to assemble an incredible cast for a performance of Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town at Atlanta's Fox Theatre.
She was joined by Avengers workmates Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo for a rehearsed reading of the 1938 play. All proceeds from the performance went to The Hurricane Maria Community Relief & Recovery Fund.
Read the full article here.
Más ciudades deben tomar las riendas sobre el salario mínimo
Source:...
Source: El Diario
Ete mes, el alcalde de la ciudad de Nueva York Bill de Blasio anunció un sueldo mínimo garantizado de $15 para todos los empleados del gobierno municipal para fines de 2018. Esta es una gran victoria para más de 50,000 empleados en toda la ciudad que pasan apuros para mantener a su familia, incluidos aquellos directamente en planilla y decenas de miles que trabajan en organizaciones sin fines de lucro contratadas por la ciudad.
A diferencia de Seattle y Los Ángeles, donde los funcionarios municipales tienen el poder para aumentar el sueldo mínimo de todos los empleados de su ciudad, el alcalde De Blasio no puede aumentar los salarios de todos los trabajadores de la ciudad de Nueva York unilateralmente. El gobernador Andrew Cuomo y la legislatura estatal tienen ese poder. Los esfuerzos del gobernador por incrementar el salario mínimo a $15 se están viendo obstaculizados por el Senado estatal, que está controlado por los republicanos.
La decisión de De Blasio de aumentar los sueldos de los empleados municipales es un paso independiente crucial hacia una ciudad más equitativa y debe inspirar a otras ciudades en el país. También refleja el poder e ímpetu de un movimiento revolucionario encabezado por los trabajadores que exigen salarios más altos en todo el país.
Incluso mientras los gobiernos estatales y el gobierno federal arrastran los pies con respecto al asunto inevitable de un salario mínimo decente para las familias trabajadoras en los Estados Unidos, el audaz paso que dio De Blasio muestra que las ciudades pueden y deben tomar las riendas del problema.
El aumento del salario mínimo por el alcalde se produjo poco después de su anuncio el mes pasado de que a los 20,000 empleados no sindicalizados de la ciudad se les otorgaría seis semanas de licencia remunerada por maternidad/paternidad y hasta 12 semanas, cuando se combine con licencias existentes. El alcalde ahora ha pasado a negociar los mismos beneficios con los sindicatos de la ciudad. Nuevamente, los trabajadores del sector privado de la ciudad de Nueva York deben esperar a que Albany o Washington, D.C. tome medidas con respecto a licencia familiar pagada para todos.
Las medidas recientes del alcalde De Blasio apoyan su objetivo de sacar a 800,000 neoyorquinos de la pobreza durante los próximos diez años. Más de 20 por ciento de la población de la ciudad vive en condiciones de pobreza, un enorme sector de una ciudad normalmente relacionada con extraordinaria riqueza.
En los dos últimos años se ha visto un ímpetu sin paralelo de parte de los propios trabajadores exigiendo sueldos decentes, desde la ciudad de Nueva York hasta Los Ángeles y Chicago, lo que resultó en aumentos salariales para los trabajadores de negocios de comida rápida y otros grupos.
Los trabajadores no esperan pacientemente a los funcionarios públicos; se están organizando de manera sin precedente. Alcaldes progresistas como De Blasio están respondiendo con políticas sensatas, mientras los funcionarios que no desean responder ya saben lo que se viene. Ciudades como Los Ángeles, Nueva York y Chicago están preparando el terreno y mostrando que es posible actuar independientemente de gobiernos estatales y el gobierno federal.
Además, varios estados han promulgado leyes que aumentan el salario mínimo por encima del mísero estándar de $7.25 por hora. Actualmente se realizan campañas en 14 estados y cuatro ciudades para aumentar el sueldo mínimo y los estándares a favor de los trabajadores. El ímpetu se está convirtiendo en una avalancha que tendrá consecuencias profundas en las elecciones presidenciales del 2016.
Casi la mitad de los trabajadores del país ganan menos de $15 por hora y 43 millones se ven forzados a trabajar cuando están enfermos o tienen la necesidad urgente de cuidar a alguien, o de lo contrario, ponen en peligro su empleo. Es el momento de que las ciudades escuchen a sus trabajadores y pasen por encima de la pasividad estatal y federal a fin de permitir que millones de estadounidenses que trabajan muy duro mantengan a sus familias.
-JoEllen Chernow es directora de la campaña a favor del salario mínimo y licencia pagada por enfermedad en el Center for Popular Democracy.
Why Are Homeowners Being Jailed for Demanding Wall Street Prosecutions?
A two-day long housing protest outside the Department of Justice this week has resulted in nearly 30 arrests and...
A two-day long housing protest outside the Department of Justice this week has resulted in nearly 30 arrests and several instances of law enforcement unnecessarily using tasers on activists, according to eye-witnesses. The action – which was organized by a coalition of housing advocacy groups, including the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes – called for Attorney General Eric Holder to begin prosecutions against the bankers who created the foreclosure crisis.
"Everyone here is fed up with Holder acknowledging big banks did really bad stuff but [saying] they're too big to jail," says Greg Basta, deputy director of New York Communities for Change, who helped organize the event. Holder has previously suggested that prosecuting large banks would be difficult because it could destabilize the economy. The attorney general recently tried to walk those comments back – but the conspicuous lack of criminal prosecutions of bankers tells another story, one that Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has written about extensively.
Alexis Goldstein, a former Wall Street employee and current Occupy Wall Street activist who was also at the event on Monday, agrees. "I want Eric Holder to uphold the rule of law, regardless of how much power the criminal has," says Goldstein. She says the lack of criminal prosecutions has created a "culture of immunity" that only gets further entrenched by the small settlements that banks now consider a cost of doing business. "There's no risk," she says, adding that the DOJ is effectively "incentivizing breaking the law."
Around 400 homeowners and 100 supporters took part in Monday's actions outside the DOJ, according to Basta. One of them was Vera Johnson, of Seattle. "I've been dealing with foreclosure issues for three years," says Johnson, just minutes after being released from the jail where she was held for over 24 hours for participating in this peaceful protest. Bank of America recently granted Johnson a loan modification after the media picked up on a Change.org petition that she started to save her home; this reprieve turned out to be a time bomb, as her rates were set to return to their original levels after four years. It's an all too common story, and Johnson went to Washington, D.C. to "join in solidarity" with others in similar situations.
Many of this week's protesters have been black and Latino homeowners, who were hit particularly hard by the foreclosure crisis. Mildred Garrison-Obi – a black woman from Stone Mountain, Georgia – was evicted from her home in 2012, though with the help of Occupy Our Homes she was able to return to it after four months of facing homelessness. "It was devastating," says Garrison-Obi, who was arrested today in a related action held outside of a law firm where Holder was once a partner. "But I'm not alone."
Activists note with dismay that the government has been significantly harder on people who stage nonviolent demonstrations against Wall Street than it has on the crooked bankers responsible for the housing crisis. Goldstein and Basta both say they witnessed law enforcement using tasers on multiple protesters this week. Johnson says that several hours before her arrest, as she and others sat on planter boxes outside the DOJ, a Department of Homeland Security officer asked, "Do you want to get arrested?" and then, "Do you want to get tased?" Later, when she refused to unlock her arms with another protester after three warnings – hardly a violent act or a threat to public safety – she says she was tased from behind on her left arm. She turned around to see the same officer, who she recalls telling her, "That's what you get."
Carmen Pittman, an activist with Occupy Our Homes in Atlanta, suffered similar treatment at this week's protests. In video footage of her arrest, Pittman appears to have her arms interlocked with another protester.
Lawyers familiar with police codes of conduct note that this kind of passive resistance generally does not meet the official standards for when an officer can use a taser. "In a study of regulations around tasers, the National Institute of Justice found that most police departments do not allow taser use against someone who 'nonviolently refuses' a police command," says NYU law professor Sarah Knuckey, who co-authored a report on the suppression of the rights of Occupy activists. "The incident needs to be thoroughly investigated, there must be a public accounting of what happened and why, and any wrong-doing must be punished."
A spokesperson for the Washington, D.C. police department directed requests for comment to the Federal Protective Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security. Scott McConnell, an FPS spokesperson, said that "a number of individuals" had "breached a security barricade after repeated warnings to leave the area" and that there had been 27 arrests as of Tuesday morning; he declined to comment on the video of Pittman getting tased or on FPS's taser policy generally.
Monday and Tuesday's actions came as the DOJ falls under increasing criticism for its investigations of journalists – first seizing records that cover dozens of Associated Press reporters, and now targeting Fox News' James Rosen. Many media observers have found the Rosen case especially troubling, due to the fact that he was investigated under the theory that he engaged in a conspiracy with Stephen Kim – his source – to leak government information. This is the same theory that U.S. officials have used to go after Wikileaks, and if applied more widely, it would effectively criminalize the basic act of investigative reporting. Some see the Obama DOJ's war on whistleblowers and leakers – and now journalists – less as a means of protecting national security than a way to crack down on who controls information.
As journalists start to get the feeling that their profession is under attack by Obama's DOJ, that department is saying something entirely different – though just as clearly – to the nation's financial elite. "The message," says Goldstein, "is that you can get away with anything."
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A puzzle for central bankers: Solid growth but low inflation
A puzzle for central bankers: Solid growth but low inflation
Against a backdrop of strengthening growth but chronically low inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and other...
Against a backdrop of strengthening growth but chronically low inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and other central bankers are taking their measure of the global economy at their annual conference in the shadow of Wyoming's Grand Teton Mountains.
With the prospect of new leadership at the Fed within months, investors will be listening for any hint of shifting interest rate plans from the policymakers. The most watched events will come Friday, when Yellen and Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, will each address the conference.
Read the full article here.
D-FW activists travel to annual Fed summit in Jackson Hole, Wyo., to spread their message
Lemlem Berhe is one of a handful of activists from the Dallas-Fort Worth area visiting Jackson Hole, Wyo., in hopes of...
Lemlem Berhe is one of a handful of activists from the Dallas-Fort Worth area visiting Jackson Hole, Wyo., in hopes of getting their message heard. That message: Raising interest rates now would stunt wage growth and hurt working families and communities of color.
“Fed officials think the economy has recovered enough to raise interest rates, slowing down job and business growth, but working families like mine in Dallas know otherwise,” Berhe said. “That’s why we’re in Wyoming this week, to ask them to prioritize job growth and higher wages.”
As part of the national FedUp Coalition, local members of the Texas Organizing Project and the Workers Defense Project are in Wyoming for the Federal Reserve’s annual summit, where the world’s most powerful central bankers discuss economic policies that affect people everywhere. The top U.S. banker — Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen — is not attending the event, which began Thursday and ends Sunday.
This is the first time anyone from either group has traveled to the Fed’s annual summit in Jackson Hole.
This year’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium comes as the Fed faces a difficult decision on when to start raising interest rates, rising debates on income inequality and wages, and worries about slowing Asian economies, most notably in China.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at 5.3 percent in July, some say it’s time to raise interest rates, which have been near zero for nearly seven years. Recently, some economists and one Fed banker have called for a delay given concerns about slower global economies.
On Friday, the organizing groups in Jackson Hole held a public demonstration and teach-ins on topics such as full employment and the selection process for regional bank presidents, with renowned Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz. Today, he wrote an op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times about why the Fed should not raise interest rates.
In addition, the Texas Organizing Project also made a second request in a video posted to its Facebook page and in a tweet to meet with Robert Steven Kaplan, the newly named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, soon after he starts his new job on Sept. 8. Kaplan is attending the summit.
Kaplan will replace Richard Fisher, who retired in March after a decade leading the Dallas Fed. Last week, immediately after the regional bank named Kaplan, the Texas Organizing Project suggested he meet with some of its members in Dallas once he arrives.
Earlier this year, the group and the FedUp Coalition asked to meet with Dallas Fed board members to seek more openness and participation in the search process for Fisher’s replacement. Their request was denied, but a meeting was arranged with two bank officials. I wrote about it.
FedUp claims that full employment is when the nation’s unemployment rate is 4 percent or lower. If that was the case this year, the Dallas economy would be $19.9 billion stronger at $476.8 billion, it would have 204,300 more workers employed, which would mean 162,500 fewer people would live in poverty.
In addition to Berhe, two other Texas Organizing Project representatives in Jackson Hole are from Dallas: member Nayeli Ruiz, 21, and community organizer Kenia Castro.
The Austin-based Workers Defense Project has two D-FW representatives in Jackson Hole: AdanArostegui andElliott Navarro.
“We believe that our members should be involved and learn what the Fed does,” said Diana Ramirez, a community organizer for the Workers Defense Project in Dallas. “No one really knows.”
Source: Dallas Morning News
If Black Lives Really Matter, We Gotta Stop Hitting Repeat
If Black Lives Really Matter, We Gotta Stop Hitting Repeat
There’s a black man. Police confront him. Police kill him, and we watch the video. There’s an investigation, protests...
There’s a black man. Police confront him. Police kill him, and we watch the video. There’s an investigation, protests and calls for justice. A community grieves, and we all hit repeat.
Alton Sterling, repeat. Philando Castile, repeat. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Willie Tillman, David Joseph, repeat, repeat, repeat.
I’m tired, y’all. I’m effing tired. I’m tired of hearing about these families who have lost fathers and sons, listening to simple platitudes about thoughts and prayers, or the pretzel-like explanations for how it’s all the dead guy’s fault.
And then nothing changes.
I welled up watching Sterling’s 15-year-old son break down and wail “I want daddy” at a news conference. Sterling was killed Tuesday while selling CDs and DVDs outside a store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The police say they were responding to a report of an armed man.
The tears spilled down my cheeks as I watched the video of Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, begging, “Please officer don’t tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir.” Meanwhile, Castile is slumped over, bleeding and with his arm at a terrible angle. These killings have to stop.
After watching the video of Sterling, one of my black high school friends role-played with his sons, ages 8 and 12, on how to respond if they are ever confronted by a police officer. He even had them lie down and simulate being handcuffed. Another friend talked about how she hated that she was scared her husband, a hospital administrator, or her 16-year old son could someday be gunned down by a police officer.
This morning I told my husband, “I’m glad we now live in a country where I don’t have to worry about our sons getting killed by the police.” I love America, but damn, these killings and the muted effort to change is gut-wrenching.
It feels like the country that my ancestors helped to build with blood, sweat and tears, the place that I call home and miss terribly now that I live in Norway, just doesn’t care about me or those who look like me. Me and my brothers are all criminals, mere statistics or people waiting to become a statistic.
Fixing this epidemic feels like such an insidious behemoth, but we can’t keep going like this.
It’s easy to grow numb to the drumbeat of bodies piling in the streets from guns, drugs and other societal ills. Believe me, I get it. I’d rather scroll through the images of Paris’ fashion week than see Castile’s blood drench his plain white tee.
But I can’t. That would be just like hitting repeat.
What can I do?
First, I won’t pretend to have the answers, but through the magic of the interwebs you can find some very pertinent and well-researched information. One that I especially liked was a report from the Center for Popular Democracy and Policy Link. The two non-profit advocacy groups developed 15 possible solutions to curb police brutality. The ideas include increased police training and funding, treating drug addicts and the mentally ill instead of incarcerating them, and my personal favorite: Make the policy makers see their own racism.
Look, let’s be honest. We all have -isms, we’re not proud of them because we know it’s wrong to judge people based on looks, money or education, but it happens, and refusing to recognize the elephant in the room helps no one.
Check out the link to the report for how to push for such changes.
I care, but I don’t have any free time
We are all busy people. Work, school, kids, friends, life, and there are only 24 hours in a day. However, you make time for what you feel is important. Are you all caught up on what’s going on with Olivia Pope? Have you binge-watched “Orange Is The New Black” or something else on Netflix? How about my “Game of Thrones” people? Yeah, so it’s all a matter of priorities.
You gotta do what works for you, but please, don’t just sit there and hit repeat.
By MELANIE COFFEE
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The New York Times Comes Out Against Fed Interest Rate Hike
Progressive activists opposed to a Federal Reserve interest...
Progressive activists opposed to a Federal Reserve interest rate hike gained an influential new ally on Labor Day: The New York Times editorial board.
In a Monday editorial, entitled “You Deserve a Raise Today. Interest Rates Don’t,” the Times argued that if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates in the near term, it could slow job creation at a time when there are still too few jobs to generate substantial wage growth.
“Wage stagnation is a clear sign that the economy is not at full employment, which means it needs loose monetary policy, not tightening,” the Times wrote.
The Times called the Fed a “crucial player” in efforts to undo the decades-long trend of worker wages not growing in sync with the broader economy. The paper noted that from 1973 to 2014, median worker pay rose 7.8 percent while overall productivity increased by 72 percent, a finding published Wednesday in a report from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
An interest rate hike would exacerbate, rather than reverse, this trend by slowing wage growth, the Times editorial suggested. The paper also said that an interest rate hike would send “the wrong signal of economic health,” undermining efforts by advocacy groups to raise workers’ wages through measures like increasing the minimum wage.
It is unclear what impact the Times’ editorial will have on the Fed’s decision-making, but it is a high-profile boost for progressive activists and economists, who have long argued that a Fed interest rate hike should be tied to wage growth that is about twice as high as it is currently.
These activists, led by the Center for Popular Democracy's Fed Up campaign, note that even as the official unemployment rate declined to 5.1 percent in August -- its lowest level since April 2008 -- wages have grown 2.2 percent in the past 12 months, only marginally outpacing increases in living costs. Since wages rise when demand for workers is high enough that businesses must compete for labor, many economists attribute ongoing sluggish wage growth to the number of people who are underemployed or have given up looking for work -- figures masked by the low official jobless rate.
The Fed Up campaign sent a memo to newspaper editorial boards across the country on Sept. 1, asking them to oppose an interest rate hike in 2015. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Huffington Post, employs arguments that resemble those used by The New York Times. The memo warned that an interest rate hike in 2015 would "leave millions in considerable andunnecessary economic distress and would exacerbate troubling longer-term trends in wages and incomes for the vast majority of American workers and their families."
Fed Up campaign director Ady Barkan celebrated the editorial, but stopped short of claiming credit for it.
"The New York Times Editorial Board is right," Barkan said in a statement. "Workers do deserve a raise! The data is crystal clear – stagnant wages and the lack of inflation mean that the Fed shouldn’t raise rates anytime soon. The Fed Up campaign is of course glad that the Times and other leading voices are speaking up about this issue."
Fed officials have signaled for months that they plan to raise the current near-zero interest rates before the year’s end, but William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recently indicated that a September increase may be too soon in light of market fluctuations. The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank body charged with adjusting key interest rates, will report on whether it plans to raise rates on September 17.
Supporters of an interest rate hike argue that it is necessary to head off excessive price inflation, which, along with maintaining full employment, is part of the Fed’s dual mandate.
Source: Huffington Post
School Voucher Opponents Ready for Fight as Bill Advances
The Tennessean - March 3, 2015, bt Jason Gonzales - Anti-voucher groups are digging in for a fight as the second of two...
The Tennessean - March 3, 2015, bt Jason Gonzales - Anti-voucher groups are digging in for a fight as the second of two almost identical voucher bills easily passed the House Education and Planning Subcommittee by a 7-1 vote. State Rep. Kevin Dunlap, D-Rock Hill, was the lone dissenter.
The proposed legislation that passed Tuesday is sponsored in the House by state Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, and has considerable backing from pro-voucher groups and legislators alike. A separate bill sponsored by state Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, narrowly passed the Senate Education Committee.
The legislators hope to provide low-income students a voucher program to pay for private school tuition with a state-funded scholarship. The program targets students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch who attend a public school ranked in the bottom 5 percent of the state in academic achievement.
Several groups have publicly voiced opposition to the bills, including the Tennessee Education Association. The teacher's union has been against proposed voucher legislation for years. In past years, opponents have been successful in their fight, as bills have continually struggled in the House and Senate finance committees.
Between the two bills, Haslam said the administration agreed to fund the measure from Dunn and state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga. On supporting the Dunn-Gardenhire bill versus Kelsey's, Haslam said Tuesday morning the bill most resembles the one he supported last year.
Kelsey is a sponsor of both bills, and House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, recently told The Associated Press the plan could survive in the House this year.
Volunteers with Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence were the visible face Tuesday of the anti-voucher group at Legislative Plaza. They were there to pass out brochures and stickers that said, "No School Vouchers."
Anne Marie Farmer, a volunteer with the public education advocacy group, said the group argues vouchers don't have the desired effect in a time when schools need more resources. The group also contends vouchers only give private schools a choice, not parents.
"We don't believe it is an effective way to raise student achievement," she said
Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition have also voiced opposition to the bill.
A recent poll by the Public Interest and the Center for Popular Democracy, however, says Tennesseans are not concerned with school choice. The TEA sent out a Tuesday media release weighing in on the poll.
"When Tennesseans were asked to rank important issues facing the state's public schools, school choice came in dead last," said Barbara Gray, Arlington Community Schools administrator and TEA president, in the release. "This poll shows that legislators need to redirect their attention to the issues that really matter to Tennesseans, like parental involvement, over-emphasis on standardized testing and cuts to programs like physical education and music."
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By The People: Promoting Democratic Participation Through Comprehensive Voter Registration
America suffers from disturbingly low voter registration and turnout rates. Almost 50 million eligible people were not...
America suffers from disturbingly low voter registration and turnout rates. Almost 50 million eligible people were not even registered to vote in the 2012 election, and another 12 million had problems with their registration that kept them from voting. What’s more, many of these millions were low-income, youth, and people of color, all of whom are less likely to be registered. In order to strengthen our democracy, the United States must take dramatic and innovative steps to remedy our anemic voter turnout and registration.
“By the People: Promoting Democratic Participation through Comprehensive Voter Registration,” identifies Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) as the critical transformative policy that can result in the registration of millions of new voters. By shifting the responsibility of voter registration from the individual to the government, AVR ensures a more robust democracy. Automatic Voter Registration should be part of a suite of reforms including pre-registration of 16- and 17- year olds, portable registration, and other policies that make election administration more efficient.
Download the full report here
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