After successful petition drive, Minneapolis workers call for vote on $15 minimum wage

June 28, 2016 by
15Now Minnesota supporters rally outside the Hilton in Minneapolis during the DNC's meetings.

15Now Minnesota supporters rallied in Minneapolis last year.

Activists will deliver a petition to City Hall tomorrow with signatures from about 20,000 registered voters who support amending the city’s charter to guarantee workers a $15 minimum wage.

The move, organizers with 15 Now Minnesota said, puts the amendment on track to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved, Minneapolis would join more than 30 cities nationwide with strong minimum-wage ordinances, including Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

“If they get it, why can’t we get it?” McDonald’s worker Steven Suffridge, a member of the low-wage worker center CTUL, said during a conference call with reporters yesterday. The outpouring of support for the petition drive, he added, shows “people are coming to the realization that yes, we are worth $15 an hour.”

Indeed, 15 Now volunteers collected nearly three times the number of signatures required to compel a vote. Several unions supported the petition drive, including the Communications Workers, the Machinists, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Letter Carriers and Teamsters Local 320.

[15 Now supporters, led by fast-food workers who are organizing with CTUL, plan a rally tomorrow at the McDonald’s at 210 E. Lake St., before marching to City Hall to deliver the petitions.]

Anticipating pushback from corporations and other special interests, 15 Now Minnesota released a legal memo yesterday detailing the legal basis for their ballot initiative.

Laura Huizar, an attorney with the National Employment Law Project who analyzed the legal landscape in Minneapolis, said a minimum-wage ordinance would fall under the city’s “broad powers to address the health, safety and well being of its citizens,” similar to ordinances regulating liquor sales or the number of hours workers can log at a job in one day.

Karen Marty, a former city attorney in Minneapolis, said the city is required to put a proposed charter amendment on the ballot as long as it meets the signature threshold and does not include language in conflict with state or local law.

“The charter doesn’t limit what citizens can offer as amendments,” Marty said. “Minneapolis can adopt a law or a charter provision on any topic that’s not prohibited, which would include a $15 minimum wage.”

When courts around the country have considered whether a city can enact a local minimum wage, the attorneys added, most have upheld those local laws – as long as they don’t conflict with state law. Minnesota law does not currently preclude a local minimum wage, although Republican lawmakers are plotting ways to roll back local control over employment standards.

“We determined that the city has the power to enact a local wage, and we also concluded that this can, in fact, be done by a charter amendment proposed by voters on the November ballot,” Huizar said.

For the city’s low-wage workers, who include a disproportionate number of women and people of color, the pay raise can’t come too soon. It’s estimated 38 percent of people who work in Minneapolis would see their wages increase with a $15 minimum wage, and supporters say it would mark a big step forward in efforts to address racial inequities in the Twin Cities that are among the worst in the U.S.

“Currently, more and more people have to work ridiculous hours at multiple jobs which in many cases leaves no guarantee they will even have enough to get by,” said Marcellina Reis, a restaurant server and member of the community group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change. “It also doesn’t allow them time to function like human beings. Having little to no time to build family, community and find happiness creates physical and mental health damage and brings our society down, not only affecting those struggling to live but everyone in Minneapolis.”

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Union volunteers give $15 petition drive a boost in Minneapolis

May 18, 2016 by
web.15Now-knockers

Alec Johnson (ATU Local 1005) and Katie Quarles (MNA) door-knock for a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis.

Katie Quarles, a nurse at United Hospital in St. Paul, was among 40 union members who answered the call for volunteers to take action Saturday in support of a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis.

“Fighting for higher wages for working people is what the labor movement does,” Quarles said before knocking on doors in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood with Alec Johnson, a member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005.

Union members like Quarles and Johnson are helping 15 Now Minnesota gather signatures on a petition that could compel the city to hold a vote on a $15 minimum wage, by way of a city-charter amendment.

Organizer Kip Hedges said the threshold for putting $15 on the November ballot is around 7,000 signatures, but the campaign’s goal is to file the petition with closer to 20,000. Already, over 4,000 people in Minneapolis have signed.

A former member of the Machinists union fired by Delta Air Lines for his outspoken support of a $15 minimum wage at MSP Airport, Hedges said unions have played a critical role in helping pass $15 minimum-wage laws in cities like Seattle and Los Angeles.

“Our unions are strong when we’re working in coalition with other groups in the community,” Hedges said.

The event Saturday was such a success, organizers plan another labor door-knock in support of the 15 Now petition drive June 18, starting at 11 a.m. out of the Communications Workers of America Local 7200 Hall, 3521 E. Lake St., Minneapolis.

About 40 union volunteers gather in the CWA Local 7200 Hall before knocking doors in Minneapolis.

About 40 union volunteers gather in the CWA Local 7200 Hall before knocking doors in Minneapolis.

“Fifteen dollars per hour isn’t even enough; it’s just a starting point,” Mona Meyer, president of the CWA Minnesota State Council, said. “And success in Minneapolis spills over into other areas like St. Paul.”

Union members like Quarles and Johnson see the need to raise wages each day on the job. Johnson, a Metro Transit operator, gets low-wage workers to and from their jobs, while Quarles, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, provides care when workers and their families get sick.

“As a nurse, I see it as a public health issue,” she said. “People working for poverty wages can’t afford real food, and many have to work more than one job to make ends meet. If you have to work all the time, you don’t have time to cook for your family.”

“When you lift the minimum,” Johnson added, “it lifts the conditions for everyone.”

To sign the petition, stop by the MPIRG offices in Minneapolis, at 2722 University Ave. SE., or join the door-knock June 18!

Union groups supporting the 15 Now petition drive in Minneapolis include: CWA Local 7250, the CWA Minnesota State Council, Machinists Local 1833, the Machinists Minnesota State Council, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, MNA, the Minnesota State Association of Letter Carriers and Teamsters Local 320.

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Hospital workers take a stand for paid sick time

May 3, 2016 by
Madeline Gardner, a member of the MN Nurses Association, spoke in favor of a citywide ordinance making paid sick time mandatory.

Madeline Gardner, a member of the MN Nurses Association, spoke in favor of a citywide ordinance making paid sick time mandatory.

Nurses and hospital workers today added their voices to the call for guaranteed access to earned sick and safe time for all workers, urging members of the Minneapolis City Council to take up a robust citywide ordinance when they meet Thursday.

It’s estimated 42 percent of Twin Cities workers don’t receive earned sick and safe time benefits. They are forced to make choices no one should have to make, health care workers said at a press conference outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Jeff Sarro, who schedules patient appointments at Abbott Northwestern, said he’s “witnessed several patients have to choose between their appointments and feeding their families.”

Madeline Gardner, a labor and delivery nurse, said working parents shouldn’t be forced to choose “between staying home with a child who’s too sick to go to school or being able to pay the rent that month. Life just doesn’t need to be that stressful.”

And Christina Cortez, who has worked at the McDonald’s restaurant inside Abbott Northwestern for 10 years, said she still doesn’t get earned sick time – even though she works in a health care facility.

The press conference was organized by the Minnesota Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL to highlight support for the policy recommendations of the Workplace Partnership Group, a task force set up by Minneapolis’ mayor and city council.

Jeff Sarro, who schedules patients' appointments at Abbott Northwestern, said it's not uncommon to hear people say they can't take time off work to get well.

Jeff Sarro, who schedules patients’ appointments at Abbott Northwestern, said it’s not uncommon to hear people say they can’t take time off work to get well.

At a news conference yesterday, workers and business owners of color gave their support to the WPG’s recommendations.

The WPG included representatives of large and small businesses, as well as workers, and it hosted listening sessions across the city over the last four months before voting 13-1 in favor of its recommendations.

If turned into a citywide ordinance, Gardner said, the WPG recommendations would make for “breath-of-fresh-air public policy.”

A group similar to the WPG is considering earned sick and safe time recommendations to the St. Paul City Council. The advisory committee is expected to finish its work by this summer.

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Striking workers revive campaign for Working Families Agenda

November 10, 2015 by
Striking workers and their supporters rally outside a McDonald's and Super America in Northeast Minneapolis.

Striking workers and their supporters rally outside a McDonald’s and Super America in Northeast Minneapolis.

 

Fast-food workers and retail janitors from 70 Twin Cities stores joined a nationwide strike today, rallying early this morning with other low-wage workers in support of a $15 minimum wage, paid sick days and other policies in the stalled Working Families Agenda.

Workers in 270 cities planned to join the strike, which mostly targeted fast-food employers. Organizers said it was the largest strike of the Fight for $15 campaign to date – a sign of growing support for workers’ demands of $15 and union rights.

Locally, striking workers also included retail janitors, who, like fast-food workers, are organizing with the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL, a Spanish acronym for Center for Workers United in the Struggle. Home care workers, bank workers, childcare providers, temp workers and Black Lives Matter activists bolstered their ranks on early-morning picket lines outside McDonald’s and Macy’s in Minneapolis.

Steven Suffrage, who works at a fast-food restaurant in Minneapolis, fires up the crowd.

Steven Suffrige, who works at a fast-food restaurant in Minneapolis, fires up the crowd.

Guillermo Lindsey, who works at a McDonald’s in Roseville, said he and other strikers are among “thousands of low-wage workers in  Minneapolis and in the nation who have taken bold action for change in their communities.”

The strikers seized on the nationwide events as an opportunity to renew pressure on the Minneapolis City Council to pass the Working Families Agenda – a $15 minimum wage, paid sick time, fair scheduling and increased enforcement of wage theft.

Mayor Betsy Hodges and a majority of council members recently backed away from their support of sick time and scheduling ordinances. Workers planned to march from a picket line outside Macy’s on Nicollet Mall to City Hall to serve notice that the fight was far from over.

“Seattle is getting $15. New York is getting $15,” 16-year fast-food veteran Steven Suffrige said. “Why can’t we get $15?”

Recent polling indicates the public is on Suffrige and other low-wage workers’ side. Among likely voters in Minneapolis, according to a poll conducted by Minnesotans for a Fair Economy, 82 percent support raising the minimum wage to $15 now or over time, and 91 percent support fair scheduling and paid time off for illnesses or family emergencies.

By delaying action on the Working Families Agenda, strikers said, city officials are further denying justice to low-wage workers, many of whom are women and minorities.

“I work seven days a week,” said striking worker Michaela Hudson, who cleans the Macy’s in Ridgedale Mall. “I don’t get a day off; I don’t get any benefits.”

DSC_0217 (2)Lena Gardner, a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Minneapolis, said the average worker of color in Minneapolis earns $28,000 annually, compared to $74,000 for the average white worker. “They want our bodies to control for their profits, but they don’t want our lives to matter,” Gardner said.

In addition to targeting fast-food restaurants and retail cleaning contractors, the strike took aim at Super America. The Minnesota-based chain of gas stations has come under fire from workers in St. Cloud, organizing with Working America and the Greater Minnesota Worker Center, for its hiring practices.

Workers have been asking the company for a meeting about the issue for months, said Makaida Garrett, a mother of five who has worked at a Super America in St. Cloud for about a year. Meanwhile, she continues to earn just $9.50 per hour and was recently passed over for a management-track position.

“There are many women and people of color who work at this company but are not properly represented in management,” Garrett said. “We are no longer asking for that meeting; we are demanding that they meet with us.”

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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.

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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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A $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis? Backers look to Seattle for blueprint

February 16, 2015 by
Kip Hedges, a former baggage handler fired by Delta for publicly supporting 15 Now, addressed a meeting in Minneapolis Sunday night.

Kip Hedges, a baggage handler fired by Delta for publicly supporting 15 Now, spoke during the coalition’s meeting in Minneapolis Sunday night.

More than 100 activists gathered in a Minneapolis union hall last night to begin the work of raising the minimum wage within city limits to $15 per hour.

Lest anyone suggest tempering expectations, 15 Now organizers invited Kshama Sawant, the city council member who spearheaded Seattle’s successful fight for $15 just over a year ago, to recount how labor, faith and community activists there turned an improbable goal into a reality for working people.

“Minneapolis is one of the cities that is poised to win $15 this year,” Sawant told activists. “Let the fight for $15 in Seattle be your guide, that with only one member of the City Council (initially supportive), we were able to get this done.”

Indeed, Seattle’s minimum wage will jump from $9.47 an hour to $11 an hour April 1, and it’s slated to reach $15 by 2021 at the latest. Sawant, an economics professor who upset a four-term incumbent on the Council, said the minimum-wage hike could lift as many as 100,000 workers out of poverty.

“Ultimately, what we are talking about are real people,” she said. “These are the people who make this city run. Just imagine if all of them decided not to go to work on one day. The city would shut down.”

Seattle City Council Member Ksharma Sawant addressed 15 Now supporters in Minneapolis.

Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant addressed 15 Now supporters in Minneapolis.

How did Seattle do it?

Success in Minneapolis – as it did in Seattle – will depend on 15 Now’s ability to build a broad coalition of support, Sawant said. That means faith groups, community organizations and, of course, labor unions.

A delegate to Seattle’s central labor council, Sawant said local unions in her city supported 15 Now out of a shared belief that a rising tide lifts all boats.

Most union members in Seattle earn much more than $15 per hour, she said. “They have pensions, they have health care,” Sawant said. “But they were there in solidarity with their sisters and brothers anyway.”

Ubah Aden was among them. A member of the Service Employees International Union and a leader in her neighborhood, Aden wanted to “walk the walk” when it came to advocating for a higher minimum wage. So she quit a higher-paying job and took one in health care that paid $10.95 per hour.

With two children monthly rent of $1,200, Aden found it impossible to make ends meet. “I couldn’t do it,” she said, adding that she quit the lower-paying job and went back to her previous field.

Aden, who also traveled to Minneapolis last week, acknowledged she was lucky to have a career path to resume. “Many low-wage workers don’t have that opportunity,” she said. “It’s just sad that they don’t have enough money to meet their basic needs.”

Expect a fight

No matter how broad a coalition 15 Now builds in Minneapolis, opposition will be fierce and well-financed, Sawant warned.

In Seattle opponents lamented the impact of a $15 minimum wage on small businesses – a public-relations campaign underwritten, covertly and ironically, by the city’s biggest corporations. “Suddenly, you found Starbucks lamenting the fate of local coffee shops,” Sawant said.

In response, 15 Now tapped into popular frustration with a global economy and political structures that seem rigged in favor of corporations and the very wealthy. In that sense, Sawant said, 15 Now builds on the message of Occupy Wall Street and the resistance of fast-food and retail strikers, offering a plan of political action to combat the growth of income inequality.

“We have been on the retreat, on the defensive,” she said. “That’s the beautiful thing about 15 Now – it’s the beginning of an offense… When we organize collectively around concrete political demands, we can absolutely win.”

Guillermo Lindsey, a McDonald’s worker, member of CTUL, said he usually works 55 hours per week with just one day off to spend with his family.

Guillermo Lindsey, a McDonald’s worker, member of CTUL, said he usually works 55 hours per week with just one day off to spend with his family.

Moving the Council

If turnout for Sawant’s appearance is any indication, 15 Now already has a strong base of support from which to draw in Minneapolis.

Two members of the Minneapolis City Council who attended the rally said they supported raising the city’s minimum wage. Alondra Cano of Ward 9 pledged to support $15 per hour; Ward 3’s Jacob Frey said he would support an increase, but needed more time to research how much.

Several community organizations had a presence at the event as well, including the low-wage worker center CTUL and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, a grassroots organizing effort for racial and economic justice in Minneapolis.

“It’s time for us to stop settling for a minimum wage and start reaching for a living wage,” NOC Field Director Mike Griffin said.

Ty Moore, a national organizer for 15 Now, pointed to an already-successful 15 Now campaign at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – where a worker-led rally briefly shut down traffic on a roadway to Terminal 1 in December – as helping “boost the credibility” of 15 Now locally.

“The debate is alive, and big campaigns are moving to help raise up working people’s wages and working conditions,” Moore said. “We need (Minneapolis) city leaders to play the kind of role of … Kshama Sawant, to stand steadfastly in the interest of working-class policies.”

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