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fight for 15
'Do You Hear What I Hear?' When Will Democrats Listen?
With our latest holiday-themed comic, we seek not only to empower the voices of working people, but also to push the Democrats to do so as we work to rebuild the party in favor of taking back and democratically transforming America.
Dec 16, 2024
It gives us no pleasure in saying this, for we definitely wanted it to go differently, but the Democrats deserved to lose. We, however, did not. They ceased to be the party of the people—the party of working people—years ago and they hardly seemed bothered by what was happening. Apparently the Democratic leaders were not listening to what working people were saying. Or, if they were listening, they failed to hear what was being said.
Embracing neoliberalism, the party’s leaders and presidents cultivated the affections of their billionaire donors; rationalized the widening inequalities and intensifying concentration of wealth and power; joined in the assaults upon the democratic achievements of the Greatest Generation and the Long Age of Roosevelt; distanced themselves from the resistance expressed in the Wisconsin Rising of 2011 and the anger and hopes of Occupy Wall Street; failed the Fight for $15; and made nothing of the polling which showed that Americans wanted not just change—indeed, radical change—but also jobs at living wages, guaranteed healthcare, decent affordable housing for all, and free public higher education (all of which would have amounted to what the greatest of Democratic Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, projected as an Economic Bill of Rights in 1944).
In fact, even as workers began to organize anew and started demanding better deals from their bosses, the Democrats failed to act seriously to bolster their initiatives. Then, truly proving they had not been listening, they ran a 2024 presidential campaign that avoided calling out the billionaire bosses whose billions are growing ever greater and made little of the voiced needs and wants of the working class.
Situating our new comic in the Holiday season, we seek not only to remind liberals, progressives, radicals, and socialists to listen to and empower the voices of working people, but also to push the Democrats to do so as they/we work to rebuild the party in favor of taking back and democratically transforming America.
We close this installment of our comic-strip series with a portrait of FDR, the Democratic President who—for all of his tragic faults and failings—not only listened to and actually heard working people, but also encouraged them to progressively push him further than he might otherwise have gone and determinedly engaged their labors and energies to dramatically transform the nation and radically enhance freedom, equality, and democracy.
In upcoming comics for Common Dreams we intend to recount that history in hopes of inspiring and propelling Democrats and working people alike to take action.
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'When We Fight, We Win': California Fast Food Workers Launch Union
Workers have shown "when they come together what kind of power they can have to really take on massive corporations like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Burger King," said one labor leader.
Feb 09, 2024
With plans to win annual raises and other labor protections for fast food cooks and cashiers across California, hundreds of workers in the industry gathered in Los Angeles on Friday to mark the launch of a first-of-its kind union.
Part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the new California Fast Food Workers Union represents workers at companies including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Jack in the Box, and organizers hope to eventually expand its membership to other employees in the industry in addition to cooks and cashiers.
The union was formed after fast food workers, the SEIU, and the Fight for $15 movement fought for the passage of a California law last year that created a fast food council, allowing labor unions and companies to negotiate over minimum wages and work conditions—a first for the industry.
The SEIU reached a deal with several chains to raise the minimum pay for 500,000 fast food workers to $20 per hour starting in April.
"California fast food workers have powered through and we've been winning against one of the largest industries in the world," said one worker in a video posted on social media by the union to celebrate the launch.
Joseph Bryant, international executive vice-president of the SEIU, noted that the push for labor protections and higher wages in the industry has "been led in California over the last decade by primarily Black and Latino cooks and cashiers."
The workers "have been fighting and have been able to show when they come together what kind of power they can have to really take on massive corporations like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Burger King, which have done everything to crush their workers and crush the idea of them pulling together a union," Bryant told The Guardian.
The union plans to push for a 3.5% increase of the minimum wage over the next three years, protections to ensure companies have "just cause" to fire workers, rules to ensure that employees are scheduled to work enough hours to sustain themselves, and protections against retaliation for organizing.
Fight for $15 called the launch "an historic day."
"Fast food workers have worked for more than a decade to come to this point," said the nationwide grassroots organization. "We're so excited to be here, and even more excited for what's to come."
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Minimum Wage Hikes Will Boost Pay of Nearly 10 Million US Workers in 2024
"These raises are the outcome of over a decade of workers organizing with Fight for $15," said the National Employment Law Project.
Dec 27, 2023
Tireless campaigning by economic justice advocates helped to secure minimum wage hikes for nearly 10 million U.S. workers starting in 2024, and one think tank noted on Wednesday that further successes at the state and local levels are expected in the coming year—but experts said the federal government must catch up with state legislators to deliver fair wages to all workers.
January 1 will see 22 states increase their minimum wages, providing affected workers with an additional $6.95 billion.
That's not counting the 38 cities and counties where minimum pay will be raised starting New Year's Day, including in Montgomery County, Maryland and in Tukwila, Washington, a city outside Seattle that will have the highest minimum wage in the country at $20.29 per hour.
A shrinking number of states still abide by the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which has not been updated in nearly 15 years.
"In the absence of federal action, states and localities continue to take the lead in advancing fairer wage floors via legislation, ballot measures, and automatic inflation adjustments," wrote Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a research assistant at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), last week.
For the first time in 2024, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York will require workers to be paid at least $15 an hour, joining other high cost-of-living states including California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
At the National Employment Law Project (NELP), senior researcher and policy analyst Yannet Lathrop pointed out on Tuesday that just over a decade after the national Fight for $15 movement was launched, none of the recent ongoing minimum wage campaigns demand less than $15 per hour, and many of the recent victories and campaigns push for "significantly higher wage floors of $20 or above."
The bold demands and reforms of the past year signal "the strength of the movement and a recognition that robust wage increases are needed especially in a post-pandemic, high inflation economic environment," wrote Lathrop. "Some of these campaigns are also demanding equal wages and treatment for all workers including those earning tips, signaling the increasing importance of equitable wage policies."
NELP also noted that the adoption of the $15 minimum wage by large employers like Starbucks and Amazon is likely to positively influence the wage policies of companies across the country.
In addition to raising minimum wages, city and state policymakers have taken other actions this year to stop the exploitation of workers. An ordinance passed in Chicago will phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers by 2028, and in Boulder County, Colorado, the minimum wage will be raised to $25 per hour by 2030.
Advocates brought to Boulder County policymakers' attention EPI's Family Budget Calculator, wrote Hickey, which showed that a two-income, two-parent, two-child household would need to earn roughly $26 per hour at both jobs to cover "a modest living standard."
The research underscored "how difficult it is for low-wage workers to find a way to live sustainably," Hickey wrote. "A $25 minimum wage might seem high, but the truth is that Boulder County is unlikely to be the highest minimum wage in the country in 2030 because of steps other localities have taken to index their minimum wages to inflation. Strong minimum wage policy can only benefit localities seeking a thriving and equitable local economy."
According to EPI, the minimum wage increases across the U.S. in the new year will disproportionately benefit Black and Hispanic workers. Black Americans make up 9% of the workforce in the states where increases will go into effect, but represent 11.1% of the affected employees. Fewer than 20% of workers in the states are Hispanic, but Hispanic workers make up 37.9% of those whose wages will be increased.
The new state and local laws will increase the purchasing power of households that include 5.6 million children, as more than a quarter of affected workers—2.5 million people—are working parents.
And nearly 20% of workers who will get a raise on January 1 have incomes below the poverty line.
"The minimum wage continues to be a powerful tool for fostering economic equity and ensuring a dignified standard of living for workers across the nation," wrote Hickey. "The proactive steps many states and localities took to index their minimum wages to inflation has helped protect the purchasing power of low-wage workers during the recent period of inflation."
NELP noted that later in 2024, additional minimum wage increases will go into effect in at least three more states and 22 more cities and counties—and advocates will continue campaigning for more victories across the country in the coming year.
Campaigners in states including Alaska, Ohio, and Oklahoma are collecting signatures for ballot initiatives that would push minimum wages to $15 or above, and in California an initiative pushing for an $18 minimum wage by 2026 has qualified for 2024 ballots.
Hickey noted that campaigners are still fighting on behalf of 17.6 million workers who employers continue to pay less than $15 per hour—almost half of whom live in one of the 20 states that use the federal minimum wage.
"Policy reforms are still necessary," wrote Hickey, "to overcome federal inaction and the persistence of unjust minimum wage carve-outs like the tipped minimum wage."
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