CPD's Josie Duffy Debunks Scaffold Law Myths on Capital Tonight
Capital Tonight's Liz Benjamin interviews Center for Popular Democracy Policy Advocate Josie Duffy on the Scaffold Law...
Capital Tonight's Liz Benjamin interviews Center for Popular Democracy Policy Advocate Josie Duffy on the Scaffold Law. For more information on how the construction industry safety standards elude workers of color, read CPD's report "Fatal Inequality."
Coalition Calls for Fed Focus on Full Employment, Higher Wages
The Dallas Morning News - March 4, 2015, by Sheryl Jean - A coalition of community and labor groups in Texas is calling...
The Dallas Morning News - March 4, 2015, by Sheryl Jean - A coalition of community and labor groups in Texas is calling for the Federal Reserve to focus on full employment and higher wages for blacks and others in poor neighborhoods who have been left behind in the economic recovery.
The group also wants the board of the Fed’s regional bank in Dallas to keep that in mind as it searches for a replacement for Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher, who will retire March 19.
Liberal activists across the country on Thursday plan to protest outside seven Fed regional banks, including New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis, to highlight high unemployment among minority groups and to urge officials not to raise interest rates yet and instead focus on full employment and higher wages. A demonstration also was planned at the Dallas Fed’s office on the edge of downtown, but was canceled due to a forecast for bad weather.
Still, activists in Dallas plan to call attention to a new report showing that the nation’s economic recovery hasn’t reached many minority communities. Falling jobless rates maskhigh black and long-term unemployment and racial inequality in wages in Texas and across the country.
The 84-page report by the Center for Popular Democracy and the Economic Policy Institute shows that Texas’ average jobless rate was 5 percent in 2014, but it was 9.5 percent for blacks. In the Dallas metro area, the average rate was 5.1 percent last year, but it was 9.6 percent for blacks. Nationally, the black jobless rate was 10.3 percent, compared with a national average of 6.2 percent.
Wages also lagged. Texas’ median wage grew 3.9 percent from 2000 to 2014, but it rose 8 percent for whites and declined 0.8 percent for blacks, according to the report. Nationally, wages have been stagnant for most workers since 2000.
“If the Fed raises [interest] rates to banks, then our rates go up, but wages aren’t going up,” said Danny Cendejas, senior organizer in Dallas for the Texas Organizing Project, one of the groups in the coalition. “It’s something that is very concerning for most of our community. In the black and brown communities, where we know the unemployment rates are higher, how do we expect those people to pay their loans back?”
The Fed has kept interest rates near zero since 2008 to help spur business lending to create jobs and boost the economy.
Coalition members in Texas want a more open search process for Fisher’s replacement with more involvement by the community. Fisher, who was in El Paso on Wednesday, has been one of the most vocal advocates of raising interest rates sooner than later.
“Look around at all the construction cranes in Dallas,” said Becky Moeller, president of the Texas AFL-CIO. “I think the lower interest rates are spurring businesses to do work and then they’re hiring people. We just don’t want an interest rate policy that isn’t good for workers in the state.”
Moeller was among a group of 10 community leaders who met with three Fed representatives — general counsel John Buchanan; Alfreda Norman, head of community development and public affairs; and spokesman James Hoard — for about 90 minutes in January to discuss the search process for a new president, the timeline and the qualifications sought.
“We had a good conversation and thought we answered their questions,” Hoard said. The Dallas Fed put the name of the search firm and its email address on its website for anyone interested in nominating a candidate, he added.
Moeller has a different view of the meeting.
“We don’t have a candidate, but we felt like we had some input we wanted to share,” she said. “We don’t want it to be someone who wouldn’t be good for jobs in the future. We wanted to make sure they were looking at the economic factors that relate to real people in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. We have low-wage workers who can’t get their head above water. We have folks who are long-term unemployed.”
In addition to the Texas AFL-CIO, the groups that met with the Dallas Fed were the American Federation of Teachers, Communication Workers of America, Dallas Central Labor Council, Fort Worth Building Trades and Ironworkers, Harris County Central Labor Council, Jobs With Justice, Texas Organizing Project and Workers Defense Project.
Coalition members last summer protested the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole, Wyo., forum and met with Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen in November.
Yellen and three other Fed officials met with about 30 workers and activists, including some from Texas, for an hour to hear their plights of being long-term unemployed and struggling to make a living. As a result, the Fed created the Community Advisory Council in January to provide different perspectives on the economy, especially the needs of low- to moderate-income families.
“She listened very carefully and was very engaged and was grateful to us for requesting the meeting,” said Ady Barkan, staff lawyer for the Center for Popular Democracy, who was at the meeting. “It’s the kind of response we would like to see from others.”
Source
Forever 21 And Others Accused Of Skirting California Labor Laws Around On-Call Shifts
Forever 21 And Others Accused Of Skirting California Labor Laws Around On-Call Shifts
A former employee of Forever 21 hit the company with a...
A former employee of Forever 21 hit the company with a lawsuit in California state court over its exploitative scheduling practices, just a week after a class action was filed against BCBG Max Azria alleging the same practices.
Raalon Kennedy, who previously worked at Forever 21 as sales clerk, claims the company requires employees to be on call for shifts but doesn’t compensate them with required pay for being made to report to work yet being sent home, as per California law. “In reality, these on-call shifts are no different than regular shifts, and Forever 21 has misclassified them in order to avoid paying reporting time in accordance with applicable law,” he said.
Robynette Robinson’s suit against BCBG seeks class action status on behalf of workers who she alleges were similarly required to report for on-call shifts but not asked to work, yet were not given reporting time pay. “This class action on behalf of BCBG Max Azria Group LLC retail store employees challenge[s] a new form of wage theft — the practice of scheduling employees in retail stores for ‘on-call’ shifts but failing to pay the employees required reporting-time pay,” she said.
Forever 21 and BCBG could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bridgford Gleason & Artinian, the law firm representing both Kennedy and Robinson, told Law 360 that it has also filed similar lawsuits against other retailers that include The Gap and its subsidiaries, PacSun, and Tilly’s, and plans to file four or five more.
California law stipulates that employees be compensated with “reporting time pay” for being required to report to work but only being asked to work less than half of the actual shift. That pay is supposed to come to an employee’s regular rate of pay for half of a day’s work.
Other states have these requirements as well: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC all have similar laws on the books. New York’s law is being put to the test by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who sent letters to 13 large retailers in April looking into whether their scheduling practices run afoul of the law. Since then, four of them have pledged to end on-call scheduling.
Chaotic scheduling is rampant throughout the retail industry, however, and goes beyond being made to be available for a shift without knowing whether there will actually be work. One survey in the service sector found that a third of employees rarely get consistent work schedules, while more than half only find out their schedules a week or less in advance. A different study found that within retail, more than a quarter of workers have irregular schedules that include on-call shifts, two shifts in the same day, or rotating shifts. Forty percent of retail workers in New York City say they have no set hours from week to week, while a quarter have been required to be on call.
These schedules can make it impossible to get by. Without a set minimum of weekly hours, workers may never know week to week whether they’ll earn enough to pay their bills. Without knowing for sure when they’ll be asked to come in, child care or transportation arrangements can fall through. And it makes it extremely difficult to hold down a second or third job to help make ends meet.
Source: ThinkProgress
Jeff Flake debates GOP tax plan with voter on a plane
While traveling Thursday on an airplane from Washington, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake debated a voter in a wide-ranging...
While traveling Thursday on an airplane from Washington, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake debated a voter in a wide-ranging discussion about the GOP tax plan, the issue of Dreamers, the Affordable Care Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Flake spoke for 11 minutes to a person who identified himself on his Twitter account as Ady Barkan, of California, according to a tweet posted by his friend. Barkan explained his current situation having been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and how the tax bill would affect his health care to Flake.
Read the full artilce here.
Silicon Valley part-time workers file petition to work more hours
Silicon Valley part-time workers file petition to work more hours
San Jose labor advocates, religious leaders and hourly workers on Tuesday submitted to city officials a proposed ballot...
San Jose labor advocates, religious leaders and hourly workers on Tuesday submitted to city officials a proposed ballot measure that would force large and mid-size companies to offer their part-time employees more hours before hiring additional temps.
Organizers submitted more than 34,700 signatures to place the Opportunity to Work Initiative on the city’s November ballot, city officials said. At least 18,852 valid signatures, as verified by the county’s Registrar of Voters, are required.
If approved by voters, the initiative would apply to all companies with more than 35 employees.
The initiative is the latest effort of the Silicon Valley Rising movement, which is trying to address the region’s growing affordability crisis for low-wage earners. Community leaders and coalition members have also campaigned for affordable housing and minimum wage increases.
“This is another step toward framing more properly the questions of the wage gap and wealth gap in Silicon Valley,” said the Rev. Jon Pedigo, board member of the Silicon Valley Rising coalition and pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East San Jose. “We see this as a moral issue, and we see this as a unifying issue where everyone will win.”
Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple, some of the biggest names in tech, have proudly touted the fact that they have done aways with gender pay gap. But that doesn't mean the tech industry overall is suddenly paying men and women equally across the board. Hired
One-third of San Jose workers earn less than the average annual rent for a one-bedroom home in the city, and families are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, according to an April report by the Center for Popular Democracy, Working Partnerships USA and the Fair Workweek Initiative.
“We’ve reached a crisis point,” Pedigo said. “There are so many people every day that are displaced.”
More than 40 percent of the estimated 162,000 people who work hourly jobs in San Jose rely on part-time work or variable schedules for their income, the report said.
Variable work schedules cause workers' incomes to fluctuate monthly, making it harder for earners to consistently support their families and pay rent. The burden falls hardest on women and minorities. More than 60 percent of hourly workers are women, according to the report. Almost 70 percent are people of color.
Alejandra Mejia, 29, makes $12 an hour as a part-time manager at a McDonald’s in San Jose. A single mother of three, Mejia depends on her monthly income to feed her kids.
The four of them live in a single room in a friend’s house. She can’t afford her own place, and she can’t depend on receiving a consistent monthly income. Over the past eight years, her weekly shifts have fluctuated — usually between 20 and 30 hours per week.
Mejia asked her boss for more work hours. Last week, the restaurant hired new people and gave Mejia only eight hours. Mejia will make $400 this month, almost $200 less than the average monthly income she depends on.
“I’m assuming I’m going to get money to support my kids, to feed my kids and to pay my rent,” Mejia said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do this month.”
Large companies consistently fail to treat employees like Mejia as people, as opposed to “cogs in a wheel,” Pedigo said. He called their choice to spread wages among part-time employees instead of hiring full-time workers “reprehensible.”
“We have a choice we have to make about how we move forward,” Pedigo said. “Do we move forward together based on the common good, or do we move forward based on the bottom line and the profit margin?”
By Jessica Floum
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Pilot Program to Represent Detainees Facing Deportation
New York Law Journal – September 30, 2013, by Mark Hamblett and Jeff Storey - Aiming to foster the rights of...
New York Law Journal – September 30, 2013, by Mark Hamblett and Jeff Storey -
Aiming to foster the rights of immigrants and to keep their families together, two legal services organizations, the Bronx Defenders and Brooklyn Defender Services, have been picked for a unique pilot project to represent indigent detainees facing deportation.
The two organizations will form the New York Immigrant Defenders, which will take on 166 cases in the next year at the Varick Street Immigration Court.
The program will be funded by a $500,000 grant made available by the New York City Council in June.
Robin Steinberg, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, said that her organization created an in-house immigration practice more than a decade ago when it realized that nearly one-third of its clients were facing adverse immigration consequences from even minor brushes with the law.
“The Bronx Defenders joining forces with the Brooklyn Defender Services to create NYID is a natural and necessary step in ensuring that all residents of New York City—no matter where they were born—have their day in court with lawyers who will fight for their right to stay here, with their families and in the communities they now call home,” she said in a statement.
Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Legal Services, agreed that working with immigrants was “very much in line with our mission.”
Schreibersdorf said that she had told her daughter after the group’s selection Thursday that the new program was part of the most groundbreaking public defense development of her generation—the extension of the right to counsel to immigrants.
“This is a groundbreaking program. There is no program of this sort anywhere else in the country. It’s a program that aligns American values with the reality on the ground when it comes to immigrants and due progress,” said Angela Fernandez, executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, one of the groups that advocated for creation of the program.
According to Brittny Saunders, senior staff attorney for the Center for Popular Democracy, another leading advocate for the effort, potential clients will be screened only for economic need, with anyone making under 200 percent of the poverty limit making the cut.
The poverty limit currently is $11,400 for a single person and $23,550 for a family of four.
Other factors, such as the strength of immigrant cases, will not be considered.
Oren Root of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit and nonpartisan center for justice issues, said the program will stress the importance of keeping families together. In many cases, the detainee has lived in the country for years, is the family’s principal wage earner, serves as the caretaker for family members and has children born and raised in the United States.
The one-year pilot project will be administered by Vera, which will coordinate the delivery of legal services and analyze the data that emerges from the effort.
Root said that Vera is “thrilled” to be working with “such high-caliber, innovative organizations as Brooklyn Defender Services and the Bronx Defenders.”
Providing support for the effort to represent immigrant families has been the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Center at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Most immigrants cannot afford representation, and attorneys and bar groups have become increasingly concerned about the dire consequences they face
Schreibersdorf said studies show that detainees with a lawyer are “more likely to identify valid immigration remedies.”
She cited one case of a 17-year-old on a minor offense handled by her agency. His attorney dug into the defendant’s family background and discovered that his parents had been naturalized, and thus he was a citizen himself.
“Without a lawyer, that kid would have been deported,” she said.
Source
The First Time Maria Gallagher Talked About Her Sexual Assault, It Was to Senator Flake
The First Time Maria Gallagher Talked About Her Sexual Assault, It Was to Senator Flake
The Senate Judiciary Committee has officially voted to move Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination forward. However...
The Senate Judiciary Committee has officially voted to move Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination forward. However, Sen. Jeff Flake has requested an FBI investigation take place before the full Senate votes on Kavanaugh's confirmation, something Republican leaders have now agreed to, per The Hill.
Read the article and watch the video here.
Puerto Rico was just hit by an island-wide power outage — here are the best charities to donate to for victims of Hurricane Maria
Puerto Rico was just hit by an island-wide power outage — here are the best charities to donate to for victims of Hurricane Maria
The Center for Popular Democracy – located in Brooklyn, New York – has launched the Maria Fund, which is focusing on...
The Center for Popular Democracy – located in Brooklyn, New York – has launched the Maria Fund, which is focusing on aid for low-income communities of color, women, and girls in Puerto Rico.
Read the full article here.
Fed Hawks Ignore Reality of Stagnant Wages, No Jobs
WSJ 12.01.2014 “A Central Bank...
WSJ 12.01.2014
“A Central Bank for the Beltway” (Review & Outlook, Nov. 19) criticizes the recent work of the “Fed Up” coalition, which is advocating for transparent processes in the appointment of Federal Reserve presidents and monetary policies that promote a full employment economy.
The editorial acknowledges that “the Fed should be held politically accountable in a democracy,” and I agree. In Dallas and Philadelphia, where the current Fed presidents will be replaced this year, the public does not know how the private search firm chooses candidates, who the candidates are, by what criteria they will be judged or even when the vote will be held.
Fed governance is dominated by financial and corporate interests: Of the 108 current directors on the 12 regional Fed boards, 36 are bankers, 62 are corporate executives and just 10 are leaders of community or labor organizations. The “independ-ent policy judgment” that comes from such a structure will be advice that benefits banks and corporations, not the general public.
Our coalition believes that the voices of workers, community leaders and faith leaders will bring important perspectives to key policy debates. The Fed hawks who argue that the economy has recovered ignore the reality of stagnant wages, plummeting workforce participation rates and the rapid growth of the involuntary part-time workforce.
While near-zero interest rates have not yet been sufficient to spur a true recovery, many prominent economists—from Adam Posen to Joseph Stiglitz —have explained that raising interest rates would be catastrophic. The public, particularly the unemployed, underemployed and underpaid, recognize that the Fed should provide robust support to the economy until it reaches full speed and is creating millions of good new jobs, and wages are rising for a broad sector of working Americans who have seen their income fall or stagnate for far too long.
Shawn SebastianCenter for Popular Democracy
Source: Wall Street Journal
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...
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
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