New group advocates for $45B to fight opioid epidemic
Advocates from around the country are working to pressure lawmakers to provide billions of dollars in funding to...
Advocates from around the country are working to pressure lawmakers to provide billions of dollars in funding to address the opioid epidemic.
Read the full article here.
Progressives Choose Wrong Target in Opposing Prospective New York Fed Head
Progressives Choose Wrong Target in Opposing Prospective New York Fed Head
“Of course not," Shawn Sebastian, co-leader of the Fed Up coalition of advocacy groups and labor unions, told Politico...
“Of course not," Shawn Sebastian, co-leader of the Fed Up coalition of advocacy groups and labor unions, told Politico he opposes Williams in part because Williams has occasionally favored interest-rate hikes. Instead, Fed Up recommended a whole slate of “diverse” candidates for the New York Fed job, though their diversity is mainly limited to gender and skin color, not ideas. Many of them work or have worked for the Fed, while others served in various positions in the Obama administration; one is an economist for the AFL-CIO.
Read the full article here.
OPPOSING A MINIMUM WAGE HIKE COULD COST THE GOP THE SENATE
Labor Day has started the sprint to the November election. And with more than 40 percent of U.S. workers struggling on...
Labor Day has started the sprint to the November election. And with more than 40 percent of U.S. workers struggling on less than $15 an hour, our economy’s tilt toward low-paying jobs has become a top economic issue this year.
Now, as GOP leaders fret that Donald Trump may drag down Republican incumbents, turning more U.S. Senate races into toss-ups, the Republican majority’s stonewalling of any action to raise the federal minimum wage could cost the party control of Congress.
New polling shows that close to 70 percent of voters in key swing states want an increase in the federal minimum wage—and that 60 percent or more support a $15 minimum wage in six of the seven states polled.
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Even more, the polling shows that candidates’ positions on raising pay could play a pivotal role in this year’s electoral battles for control of the U.S. Senate. The results show that the incumbent Republican U.S. senators locked in close races could lose critical support—and even their seats—over opposition to raising wages for working people.
In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire, Democratic challengers Katie McGinty, Russ Feingold and Governor Maggie Hassan strengthened their leads over incumbent Republican Senators Pat Toomey, Ron Johnson and Kelly Ayotte when voters were made aware of the senators’ opposition to raising the minimum wage.
And in Arizona, Missouri and North Carolina, Democratic challengers Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, Jason Kander and Deborah Ross pulled ahead of Senators John McCain, Roy Blunt and Richard Burr, flipping those contests on their heads, when voters learned of the senators’ track records opposing raises.
For example, in Arizona—where John McCain has just emerged from his toughest re-election primary ever—a 43-43 tie turns into a 44-38 lead for Kirkpatrick once voters hear about McCain’s opposition to raising pay.
The polling comes as the National Employment Law Project Action Fund, the Center for Popular Democracy Action, the Working Families Organization and other grassroots groups in seven states begin to mobilize voters.
The coalition plans to engage in canvassing, hold candidate forums and wage debate protests, among other actions, to educate and energize voters around candidates’ positions on the raising the minimum wage.
While Donald Trump, who has been all over the map on the minimum wage, has announced he now supports an increase to $10, most Republicans in Congress remain opposed.
Leading Republican pollster Frank Luntz’s firm LuntzGlobal has warned minimum wage opponents, “If you’re fighting against the minimum wage increase, you’re fighting an uphill battle, because most Americans, even most Republicans, are OK with raising the minimum wage.”
Farm workers pick vegetables on a farm in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on August 31. Paul Sonn writes that Republican U.S. senators locked in close races could lose their seats over opposition to raising wages.
While Congress has refused to act, over the past three and a half years, more than 50 states, cities and counties, as well as individual companies, have stepped forward to approve minimum wage increases, delivering raises to 17 million workers.
And 10 million of those workers are in states or cities that have approved phased-in $15 minimum wages, raising pay for more than one in three workers in California and New York and beginning to reverse decades of growing pay inequality.
Historically, raising the minimum wage enjoyed the same bipartisan backing in Congress that it does with voters. But over the past 20 years, increasing polarization in Washington and the growing role of money in politics have led many Republicans to abandon their support.
As a result, the federal minimum wage today remains frozen at just $7.25 an hour. And taxpayers are being forced to pick up the tab, as low-wage workers in the seven states just polled must rely on $150 billion per year in public assistance to make up for their inadequate paychecks.
Candidates’ positions on the minimum wage have made a difference in close U.S. senate races before. Ten years ago, in Missouri and Montana, Democrats Claire McCaskill and Jon Tester successfully used their support for a higher minimum wage to highlight the difference between them and their opponents, Republican Senators Jim Talent and Conrad Burns, who both opposed raising the wage.
McCaskill and Tester rode the issue to an Election Day victory, helping to break a logjam in Congress and delivering the first federal minimum wage increase in 10 years in 2007.
With the public demanding action to boost pay, the Republican majority and individual candidates this fall face a clear choice: stop standing in the way of a long overdue federal minimum wage increase—or risk their political future.
By Paul K. Sonn
Source
Working full time, but living in poverty
Metro - February 13, 2013, by Alison Brown - They are working full time, but they are living in poverty. ...
Metro - February 13, 2013, by Alison Brown -
They are working full time, but they are living in poverty.
One day after President Barack Obama said America should not be a place where people working 4o-hour weeks are still in poverty, New York workers said that reality exists all too often.
During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Obama said a family with two kids earning minimum wage lives below the poverty line.
“That’s wrong,” he said. “In the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.”
Obama suggested raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.
New Yorkers want even more – raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour would give full-time workers an annual salary of $20,000, according to a report released today.
Right now, about 1.7 million New Yorkers are trying to live on about $18,530 for a family of three, according to the report. Meanwhile, unemployment increased from 5.3 percent in 2007 to 9.7 percent now, the report noted.
And more than 110,000 full-time workers live in poverty, according to the report, authored by groups The Center for Popular Democracy and UnitedNY.
Many of these are in the low-wage industry, like car wash workers, who often work more than 60 hours a week but make less than $400 per week.
And some are tasked with important services, like airport screening. The report said a survey of 300 airline employees found them paid barely more than $8 per hour.
Last year, many rallied outside their workplaces, with retail workers standing outside the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch to demand higher wages. JFK workers also threatened to strike before the 2012 holiday season. And fast-food employees went on strike in November to demand nearly doubling their salary to $15 an hour.
“You can’t even afford to get sick, “ McDonald’s worker Linda Archer told Metro while striking.
The report referenced the struggle to pay New York City prices on a retail or car-wash paycheck.
“After working as a cashier at Abercrombie & Fitch for over a year, I ended up with an average of just 10 hours per week,” one worker said. “That’s not enough to live on and go to school.”
A car wash worker in the report added, “I came to this ‘land of opportunity’ with so many hopes, but I have become disillusioned about being able to help my family.”
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,...
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
The latest fight for employee rights: work schedule predictability
The latest fight for employee rights: work schedule predictability
Efforts to boost the minimum wage have gotten a lot of attention lately and proponents have scored some major victories...
Efforts to boost the minimum wage have gotten a lot of attention lately and proponents have scored some major victories. But workers rights advocates are now asking: What good is a wage boost if workers don’t know how many hours they’re working every week?
Read the full article here.
The Anguish of Jeff Flake
Ana Maria Archila, one of the protesters who spoke to Mr. Flake on his way to the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on...
Ana Maria Archila, one of the protesters who spoke to Mr. Flake on his way to the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Friday.
Watch the video here.
Why Rising Police Budgets Aren’t Making Cities Safer
Minneapolis, the city where Philando Castile was killed by a police officer while being profiled and stopped in his car...
Minneapolis, the city where Philando Castile was killed by a police officer while being profiled and stopped in his car for the 49th time, spends 36 percent of its general fund budget on policing.
Read the full article here.
Grupos cívicos piden a Harvard desvincularse de la deuda de Puerto Rico
Grupos cívicos piden a Harvard desvincularse de la deuda de Puerto Rico
Los grupos que participan de la convocatoria están comandadas por el “Center for Popular Democracy”, e incluyen a...
Los grupos que participan de la convocatoria están comandadas por el “Center for Popular Democracy”, e incluyen a organizaciones de estudiantes de esas universidades, así como “Make the Road New York”, “Make the Road Pennsylvania”, “Make the Road Connecticut”, “New York Communities for Change”, and “Organize Florida.”
Lea el artículo completo aquí.
Zara Can't Seem to Stop Racially Discriminating Against Its Employees and Shoppers
Zara Can't Seem to Stop Racially Discriminating Against Its Employees and Shoppers
Another day, another discriminatory incident at Zara. When the chain first came to the U.S., like many women, I was...
Another day, another discriminatory incident at Zara. When the chain first came to the U.S., like many women, I was thrilled. I loved Zara's designer looks sold for a fraction of designer prices. I had outgrown Forever 21 and was excited that the creation of an upscale, sophisticated wardrobe was within my reach.
Oh, and the blazers. I love, love, loved a Zara blazer.
Unfortunately, my love has faded as allegations of discrimination against both employees and customers continue to multiply. The latest incident took place in an East End Toronto store. Cree Ballah, an employee, is filing a lawsuit for discrimination after managers asked her to take her braids out of a bun, and then attempted to "fix" her hair outside of the store in a busy mall in full view of other employees and customers.
“They took me outside of the store and they said, 'We're not trying to offend you, but we're going for a clean, professional look with Zara and the hairstyle you have now is not the look for Zara,” Ballah said.
“It was very humiliating, it was unprofessional,” she continued.
“My hair type is also linked to my race, so to me, I felt like it was direct discrimination against my ethnicity in the sense of what comes along with it,” said Ballah, who describes herself as bi-racial. “My hair type is out of my control and I try to control it to the best of my ability, which wasn't up to standard for Zara.” (Interestingly, Zara has no formal policy regarding employees' hairstyles, as long as they look professional.)
If that was the end of the story, then I’d probably be filling my online shopping cart with their new Palm Springs collection right about now. But, last year Zara's former U.S. general counsel filed a $40 million dollar lawsuit against the retail giant, claiming he was discriminated against for being Jewish, American, and gay. During his time at the company (from January 2008 to March 2015), he reported receiving homophobic emails, witnessing anti-Semitic remarks that were made in his presence, and that Spanish employees were assured of more job security and received greater pay raises despite his strong performance reviews and growing company profitability.
Then the Center for Popular Democracy released a survey of New York–based Zara employees, titled “Stitched with Prejudice: Zara USA’s Corporate Culture of Favoritism.” The report found that black employees are more dissatisfied with their hours than white employees, are reviewed more harshly by management, and are less likely to be promoted.
I took note of that report, but also saw that the sample included a very small number of employees. Plus, I had shopped at several Zara stores in Manhattan and never had a problem, but admittedly, ignorance is bliss.
As time marched on, however, more and more stories made headlines and it seemed not even Zara customers were safe from discrimination. In 2015, a Muslim woman was refused entrance to a Paris store because she was wearing a hijab. And the Center for Popular Democracy study also found that black customers are far more likely to be targeted as potential thieves than white customers. "The "Stitched with Prejudice" report describes a practice within Zara of referring to suspected shoplifters as “special orders,” leading to the racial profiling of black shoppers as soon as they enter the store.
In 2014, the retailer received backlash for a children’s shirt that drew comparisons to a Holocaust uniform. And in 2007, the store withdrew handbags from their store that featured swastikas.
As luck would have it, my cognitive dissonance regarding Zara wasn't to last. Last summer, while shopping in a Zara in my hometown of Los Angeles, I bought a mini-skirt that I wasn’t quite sure of and asked a sales associate if I could return it if I changed my mind. She said yes, and added that I didn’t even need my receipt to do so. Well, a week later I found myself in that exact situation.
The skirt was a little too short for my taste, so I attempted to return it (and of course I had lost the receipt). I was informed by the sales associate that the item had gone on sale and I would have to return or exchange it at the sale price. I offered to provide the sales associate (and then her manager) with both my credit card number (so they could look up the transaction), as well as my credit card statement to confirm that I had in fact paid full price for the item.
Admittedly, the interaction may not have been motivated by racial bias. The employees may have been tired, underpaid or having a bad day and that’s why they spoke to me in a way that left me feeling angry and humiliated. However, something didn’t feel right about the experience. And when I combined all of their missteps together I decided that I could no longer be a Zara customer. Thus far, I haven’t spent one dollar at a Zara store in about a year.
My personal experience aside, my advice for Zara executives is to get it together and do it fast. The world is more connected than ever before, and multiple allegations of gender, ethnic and religious intolerance are tipping the scales against you (no matter how cute your spring collection is). If more and more of these stories continue to come to light, I won’t be the only former fan girl voting against what appears to be a disgusting company culture by keeping my credit card firmly in it’s wallet.
By xoJane
Source
20 hours ago
20 hours ago