Faith leaders on earned sick time: ‘Something’s got to happen’

October 22, 2015 by
Rev. Laurie Eaton of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, calls for a policy guaranteeing workers access to earned sick time at a press conference outside Minneapolis City Hall.

Rev. Laurie Eaton calls for a policy guaranteeing workers access to earned sick time at a press conference outside Minneapolis City Hall.

 

Faith leaders from Minneapolis today called on elected officials to begin addressing Minnesota’s alarming racial disparities by guaranteeing all workers access to earned sick and safe time.

“This is exactly what systemic racism looks like: reasonable people who say, ‘Our hands are tied … because it’s just too costly to change our system,’” Rev. Laurie Eaton of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church said. “Minneapolis, we are better than that.”

The Twin Cities and Minnesota as a whole have ranked poorly in terms of the economic gaps between whites and minorities, with a recent study naming Minneapolis the third-worst place to live for African Americans.

Similar disparities play out in the numbers regarding who enjoys earned sick time. More than half of the estimated 245,000 Minneapolis workers without access to the benefit are non-white, including 62 percent of Latino workers and 51 percent of black workers in the city.

“People are suffering, trying to decide whether to buy medicine or buy groceries,” Rev. Billy G. Russel of Greater Friendship Baptist Church said. “Something’s got to happen.”

Earned sick time remains a plank in the embattled Working Families Agenda that Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and several allies on the City Council still support. But corporations are stepping up the pressure on officials to back off, and the state’s largest newspaper recently dismissed the measure as “anti-business” and “naïve.”

Rabbi Michael Latz of Shir Tikvah Synagogue called on elected officials, editorial writers and business leaders – “people who shower before work, not after,” he said – to “exercise your moral courage” on earned sick time, which he called “a great moral issue of our generation.”

web.SickTime-scene“Sickness and disease are not reasons to … withhold pay from anyone,” Bishop Richard D. Howell Jr. of Shiloh Temple added. “It is a person’s right to seek good health.”

Rev. Paul Slack, pastor at New Creation Church and president of the faith-based social justice organization ISAIAH, urged city council members to listen to the concerns of their constituents, not just corporations.

“We have protected companies, corporations by giving them community benefits,” Slack said. “Now let’s give a benefit to people who work in those jobs. Let’s protect our low-wage earners. Let’s protect their children and their families.”

The clergy members spoke at a press conference on the steps of Minneapolis City Hall before visiting council members individually to urge action on the issue.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Victory in New York strengthens workers’ resolve for $15 in Minneapolis

September 11, 2015 by
The Minneapolis Works Coalition rallies outside McDonald's in Dinkytown.

The Minneapolis Works Coalition rallies outside McDonald’s in Dinkytown.

 

Fast-food workers in New York state won their fight for $15 yesterday. Workers in Minneapolis intend to be next.

“If New York can do it, then Minneapolis and Minnesota can do it,” Guillermo Lindsay, a McDonald’s worker and CTUL organizer, barked into a megaphone at a rally outside the Dinkytown McDonald’s yesterday.

Fast-food workers, Working America members and other stakeholders in the Minneapolis Works Coalition organized the rally to celebrate New York’s victory – and keep pressure on Mayor Betsy Hodges and city council members to pass a slate of policies that would lift low-wage workers out of poverty.

“We deserve justice,” McDonald’s worker Lizbeth Garcia said through an interpreter. “We need $15 an hour. We need paid sick days. We need fair scheduling. We need an end to wage theft.”

The Minneapolis City Council today announced it would consider ordinances guaranteeing workers access to earned sick time and fair schedules, an “important step in the right direction and great news for Minneapolis workers, public health and work productivity,” Minneapolis Works said in a press statement.

Shenda Kazee joins a rally outside her workplace, the McDonald's in Dinkytown.

Shenda Kazee joins a rally outside her workplace, the McDonald’s in Dinkytown.

Shenda Kazee, who works nights at the Dinkytown McDonald’s, said her productivity and work-life balance suffer as a result of inconsistent scheduling. Because she earns just $9 an hour at McDonald’s, Kazee picks up hours at a second job to make ends meet.

“It’s been three days, and I have not had any sleep,” Kazee said before the rally yesterday. “I’m going off espresso right now.”

Employers, she said, should provide workers with notice of their schedules “at least a week or two in advance.” They should also pay higher wages.

“McDonald’s is a billion-dollar company,” Kazee said. “They can afford it, and I think we deserve it.”

The victory in New York comes three years after workers at McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s walked off their jobs in New York City, sparking a nationwide movement for a $15 minimum wage and union rights.

The new policy, finalized by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday, will gradually raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 over the next three years in New York City and over the next six years statewide. An estimated 200,000 workers will see higher wages as a result.

“Now it’s our turn,” Kazee said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

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Fast-food workers’ Fight for $15 gaining momentum in Twin Cities (video)

December 4, 2014 by
Striking fast food workers occupy a Burger King in south Minneapolis.

Fast-food workers in 160 cities nationwide went on strike today, including 50 workers from 14 restaurants in the Twin Cities. The strikers are demanding $15 per hour and union rights.

The strike comes on the two-year anniversary of the initial “Fight for $15” action in New York City, which sparked a movement that has since spread across the country.

After walking off the job early this morning, fast-food strikers staged a lunch-hour demonstration outside a Burger King in south Minneapolis. More than 100 people – striking workers and their supporters – occupied the store for about 10 minutes before marching outside and shutting down traffic at the intersection of East 34th Street and Nicollet Avenue.

“We work very hard, and we deserve to be paid a fair wage, we deserve to have benefits and we deserve to have vacation,” striking worker Carmella Palacios told the crowd outside Burger King. “We need to be able to put food on the table for our families, but what we make now is not enough.”

The “Fight for $15” is quickly catching on in the Twin Cities. The number of workers who walked off the job today nearly doubled the number of participants in the first Twin Cities fast-food strike just three months ago.

Fast-food workers are organizing locally with the worker center CTUL, a Spanish acronym for “Center for Workers United in the Struggle.”

A demonstration in support of striking fast-food workers shut down traffic on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

A demonstration in support of striking fast-food workers shut down traffic on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

Eusebia Rosendo, who works at a McDonald’s in northeast Minneapolis, said she joined the strike because she’s seen just one 40-cent raise in six years with her employer. She currently works for $9 per hour without benefits.

Rosendo marched alongside her co-worker Lourdes Rodriguez outside Burger King today. Rodriguez, who also earns $9 per hour, said she supports organizing a union so that workers can negotiate benefits like vacation, health care and paid sick days.

“We still have to go to work, even when we’re sick,” Rodriguez said. “If you show up to work sick, they might say, ‘Thanks for coming.’ But they never say, ‘You’re sick, you should go home.’”

Supporters at the demonstration included Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, religious leaders and members of several local unions.

“I want to be clear,” Hodges told striking workers. “I support your right to organize… I know it’s good for the city – and I know it’s good for the people in this city – if you all get a decent wage.”

Striking fast food workers are demanding $15 per hour and union rights.

Striking fast food workers are demanding $15 per hour and union rights.

Home care worker Bjorn Johnson, who won a union after SEIU Healthcare Minnesota‘s successful organizing drive earlier this year, urged fast-food workers to continue standing up – and standing together.

“This is about the rights of human beings,” Johnson said. “Everyone who works for a living should be able to make a living.”

Rosendo said the community support was encouraging.

“We want the support of everyone, and we want all fast-food workers to join this fight,” she said. “We can all be united, and we’re stronger that way. We’re not afraid because we know we’re out here fighting for our rights.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Mayors take up call for $9.50 minimum wage

February 6, 2014 by
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman talks about what a $9.50 minimum wage would mean for his city, as Hibbing Mayor Rick Cannata looks on.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman talks about what a $9.50 minimum wage would mean for his city, as Hibbing Mayor Rick Cannata looks on.

Raising the minimum wage to $9.50 would boost the paychecks of an estimated 20,000 workers in St. Paul, injecting $27 million into the city’s economy. In Minneapolis 30,000 workers would get a raise, a $40 million bump for the city’s economy.

It’s no surprise, then, that both Twin Cities mayors today added theirs to the growing chorus of voices calling on lawmakers to make raising Minnesota’s minimum wage a top priority when the Legislature returns to session Feb. 25.

“This is the wealthiest nation on earth, and no one should have to live in poverty,” St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said. “But unfortunately, the current minimum-wage level is forcing too many of our families into that situation.

“If you work hard, you should get rewarded for that work.”

Coleman and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges joined other Minnesota mayors at the Capitol today for a press conference organized by the labor-backed Raise the Wage Coalition, which is pushing a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 per hour, and adjust the wage annually for inflation.

[Related: “It’s time for Senate to act on minimum wage“]

Both Coleman and Hodges identified raising the minimum wage as an effective way to combat rising income inequality. Minneapolis’ economy is recovering from the Great Recession, Hodges said, but “low-wage workers, people of color are not reaping the same benefits of the recovery as other people are.

“Raising the minimum wage is crucial to ensuring that people who work for a living, can make a living. We need (legislators) to take action on this.”

Income inequality isn’t just an urban problem. On the state’s Iron Range, Hibbing Mayor Rick Cannata said, there are good-paying jobs in the mining industry and minimum-wage jobs like the one his wife holds down – but not much in between.

“You see neighbors who can’t decide what they want to do, feed their families or buy fuel oil,” Cannata said. “That’s why I’m here today.”

According to an economic analysis by the JOBS NOW Coalition, raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2015 would boost purchasing power statewide by $470 million, as low-income workers and families are much more likely than middle- or upper-income families to spend most – or all – of what they earn on goods and services.

“The people at minimum wage now can’t go out to support the mom-and-pop stores on Main Street,” Cannata said. “You get a couple dollars more in your wage, you’re going to go out and spend that.”

Mayors also offered a strong rebuke to opponents who say the minimum wage was never intended to support an adult, let alone a family. Instead, they say, it is an entry-level or “training” wage for teenagers and young adults seeking employment experience.

In fact, a report issued by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry last month found 40 percent of the state’s minimum-wage earners are older than 24.

“If it is a training wage, then there are people who have been in training for years if not decades,” Hodges said.

“It’s a quaint notion that it’s kids working at Dairy Queen” who earn the minimum wage, Coleman added.

[Click here to take action in support of raising the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 by 2015!]

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