Chicago City Council Approves Min. Wage Hike!

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Chicago City Council Approves Min. Wage Hike!


Friends-

Good news! Today the Chicago City Council has voted 44-5 to approve a minimum wage hike to $13/hour by 2019. Now all eyes are on Springfield to see whether they can vote out a statewide minimum wage increase this week. Contact your Springfield legislator here and tell them to finish the job. Workers are waiting and the voters have spoken!

Today's action in City Council is real progress for the lowest paid workers in Chicago, but this is just the beginning. Workers still need to organize to win higher wages, better benefits, and improved industry standards. And that's just what Walmart workers with OUR Walmart and fast food workers with the Fight for $15 are doing. Afterall, the minimum wage is intended to be the floor, not the ceiling! We have the brave workers organizing at Walmart and in the fast food industry to thank for creating movements that made minimum wage increases like the one voted on today in Chicago possible!

And we thank all of you who showed up to support Walmart workers on strike last week! Here's a link to photos from Black Friday.

Now, it's up to the fast food workers with the Fight for $15 to stand up and demand better for themselves and their families.

They are ready to fight-will you stand in solidarity with them?

Fight for $15 -Fast Food Workers Support Rally:

$15/Hr NOW! Full-time Hours NOW! The Right to Form a Union WITHOUT Retaliation NOW!

Thursday December 4th

We are meeting up at 6:00 AM at Madison & Clark

Please let me know if you will attend: [email protected]


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[OzymandiasX]

Considering that a hike to $13 nearly doubles the wages of some people, I have to support it in a strictly humanitarian capacity. But on the other hand, I believe it's these sorts of accommodations that form apathy. Living in a highly individualized society, people don't act unless they're effected personally. So it's mass general suffering that produces any dramatic change in the fabric of society. Considering the dire straits we're in as a global civilization, I think anything that serves to comfort and alleviate the suffering of some while others continue to live in misery is a fundamental hindrance to our greater objectives.

But then I think that is what makes liberalism so appealing and so vastly more dangerous than any form of direct apparent oppression. It leaves the impression that people have a voice, it is a safe guard for power, a means to compromise. A much more enduring and sustainable form of control.

I think it's only when this illusion is torn apart and the people realize that their lives aren't even remotely valued, that we can form the degree of organization necessary to implement permanent social change, versus the frivolous bills which are simply repealed or corrupted over the course of a few decades.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Considering that a hike to $13 nearly doubles the wages of some people, I have to support it in a strictly humanitarian capacity. But on the other hand, I believe it's these sorts of accommodations that form apathy.i think it's much more complex than that and that there isn't a formula when it comes to reforms like this.

First, I don't think the idea that suffering means fight-back because, for example, in the U.s. There has been 40 years of defeats and 40 years of increased hardships and exploitation for regular people. I think these have re-enforced eachother because as things got harder, people were more competitive and willing to work for less, willing to stay quiet and assume the position as the biggest per-capita prison population was developed. If you think you're powerless and there are no options, then you are more pliable and willing to drink piss rather than go thirsty.

The black power movement in the U.s. Developed as people beat back jim-crow, labor began fighting during the depression not at the worst point, but after years and a brief Mimi recovery.

So I think a combination might be in play... People have to know how bad things can be (and won't improve without action - or just through actions of rulers or the rich) but they also have to have hope and a concrete sense of a positive counter-solution (even on the reform level a counter-solution of independent action and demands from below as opposed to "gradual reform through history" or whatever).

So when it comes to the minimum wage issue, a lot depends on the specific shape that campaigns take. If they are run by NGOs or just as "non-political" initiatives or if they are introduced by politicians, then they will likely be empty or band aids to neoliberal effects on the working class. If these campaigns actually begin to rally together rank and file Union activists with unorganized Walmart and fast food workers and the people actually impacted by low wages and austerity drive the efforts, then it can be something that helps regenerate a sense of working class politics and helps organize people in cities on a class (rather than sectional, like strikes - not that I oppose those) basis.

[Atsumari]

2019? What the fuck?!?!

[Creative Destruction]

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[ckaihatsu]

Sign the petition: Workers deserve $15 per hour


Low wages are causing workers across the country to live in poverty, fueling inequality. Home care workers and low wage workers deserve $15 per hour and the right to join a union. The first step to strengthening and improving our economy is providing a fair wage for all workers.

TAKE ACTION » (http://act.truemajority.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hwLlxkqUJxXHfoY7RC4dY6AwEQBBCYfC)

Chris –

Today, thousands of workers in 190 cities are standing together to call for higher wages and home care workers are joining the fight for fair wages.

Over 2.5 million hard working Americans work to provide care for the elderly and disabled, yet they often struggle to provide basic needs like food, clothing and rent for themselves and their families. They help their patients live at home with dignity while being paid so little they can’t provide for their own families.

Stand with home care workers and low wage workers across the country. Add your name to our petition for a $15 per hour minimum wage and the right to join a union.

Home care jobs are among the fastest growing jobs in the country, but they’re also among the lowest paid.

On average, home care workers earn just $9.57 per hour – barely enough to rent a one bedroom apartment in many parts of the country, let alone pay for utilities, food, gas, and child care expenses.

Pay is so low that it relegates workers—especially women workers—to living in poverty, fueling inequality.

Home care workers – who do hard, essential, compassionate work for millions of Americans. They provide daily support services like bathing, toileting, dressing, and preparing meals, for older Americans and people with disabilities.

USAction is standing with home care workers and low wage workers across the country. Will you stand with us?

The demand for home care is exploding but the system doesn’t work for anyone. Families can’t afford to get the care they need and workers can’t afford to provide it. The first step to strengthening and improving home care in this country is raising wages for home care workers.

Home care workers are calling on states, private home care companies, and elected officials to take action to ensure every caregiver in America makes at least $15 per hour. We need to build a stable home care workforce to ensure seniors and people with disabilities can live at home with dignity.

Stand with low wage workers across the country. Sign our petition for a $15 per hour minimum wage and the right to join a union.

In solidarity,

Camden Lee
Digital Manager

CONTRIBUTE »
USAction, 1825 K St. NW, Suite 210, Washington, DC 20006

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