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Anna Susman, Anna.Susman@berlinrosen.com, 646-200-5285 Jack Temple, jack.temple@berlinrosen.com, 646-200-5280
Workers in nearly 30 cities have announced they are convening the first-ever "people's Wage Boards" to examine how poverty wages are holding back neighborhoods and communities across the city. Fed up with low wages that result in evictions, unpaid bills, and having to depend on food stamps for dinner, underpaid workers and their community members will testify at panels patterned after the Wage Board in New York that resulted in the state raising pay for nearly 200,000 fast-food workers to $15 an hour.
Beginning on October 6 and continuing throughout the week, these workers will deliver personal testimony on why they need $15 an hour and the right to a union--and are willing to do whatever it takes to win.
Local leaders from state senators to academics to members of the clergy have volunteered to sit on the Wage Boards. In Raleigh, the Wage Board will be made up of state Rep. Yvonne Holley, the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, and a local business owner, Vimala Rajendran. In New Orleans, state Rep. Joseph Bouie Jr., former city councilman and WBOK radio host Oliver Thomas, Pastor Dwight Webster and Human Rights Attorney S. Mandisa Moore-O'Neal will sit on the panel. In Little Rock, three state Senators--Will Bond, Joe Woodson and Vivian Flowers--will sit on the panel to hear testimony from fast-food, child care, home care and retail workers.
In conjunction with the Wage Board in Pittsburgh, a local city council member has proposed the city establish a Wage Board committee that looks at the effect of increasing wages of low-income workers.
"I used to think that if I kept working hard at Wendy's and put in the hours, I'd eventually scrounge enough that the sight of my monthly electricity bill didn't cause me to panic," said Tara Blair, who makes $7.50 an hour at Wendy's and will be testifying in front of the Wage Board in Memphis. "But I know now it takes workers joining together--as they did in New York--who will actually make the difference. That's why I'll be standing up in front of the Wage Board to describe some of my most personal moments--like being kicked out of apartments because I can't pay rent. It's not easy for me to share these stories, but Memphis has to realize there are too many people living just like me, and we're not going to take it anymore."
Gov. Cuomo's announcement earlier this year to adopt the $15 recommendation set by the Wage Board followed weeks of public hearings at which workers testified of being paid so little that they are frequently forced to rely on public assistance to feed their families; of squeezing into crowded apartments, often with strangers; and of being unable to buy clothing or school supplies for their kids, or to take them to the movies.
"When New York fast-food workers won $15, underpaid workers all around the country won too," said Hilda Edmundson, who has been a home care worker for five years and will be testifying in front of the Wage Board in Raleigh. "Right then, we pledged to build off New York's victory to win $15 in every state for all workers. The launch of the people's Wage Boards proves we are unstoppable--we're going to turn $15 from a dream into a reality."
According to a recent report from the National Employment Law Project, wages have stagnated for America's workers across the board, but those in lower-paying jobs are being hit the hardest and low-wage occupations saw the biggest drop in real wages during the recovery. Among the 10-largest occupations in the bottom fifth, declines were most pronounced for occupations in the restaurant sector: food preparation workers and cooks saw wage declines of 7.7 percent and 8.9 percent. Janitors and cleaners, personal care aides, home health aides, and maids and housekeeping cleaners also experienced steep declines.
The people's Wage Board hearings come as consensus builds that $15 an hour is what American workers everywhere need to survive. In August, the Democratic Party adopted a $15 platform, and every major presidential candidate for the party's nomination has expressed support for the workers in the Fight for $15. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders from Nancy Pelosi to Kristen Gillibrand have called for a $15 federal minimum wage. And on a state level, politicians are turning out to recommend a raise to $15 to help lift up local economies and families.
"The workers' testimonies in New York revealed the insensitivity of politicians and society as a whole to make sure that people who work hard are able to take care of their families," said state Rep. Joseph Bouie Jr., who will sit on the Wage Board panel in New Orleans. "It's imperative that in New Orleans, we listen to the voices of our workers, too."
"Child care workers are raising the future and need $15 to afford the basics for their own families," said Toland Barnett, who has been a child care worker in Raleigh for 13 years. "We celebrated when fast-food workers won $15 in New York, and we're not going to stop until all workers win $15 and a union."
From coast to coast, workers are winning unprecedented raises. Earlier this summer, Los Angeles raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour, following similar moves in SeaTac, San Francisco and Seattle. Fifteen dollar proposals are pending in Washington, D.C., Portland, Maine, Olympia and Tacoma, Wash. and Sacramento and Davis, Calif. Home care workers in Massachusetts and Oregon won $15 and it is the minimum pay at leading companies like Facebook and Aetna. Noting how the Fight for $15 has changed the politics of the country, the New York Times declared that "$15 could become the new, de facto $7.25," and the Washington Post said $15 has "gone from almost absurdly ambitious to mainstream in the span of a few years."
Workers from the following cities will testify at Wage Boards:
AR Little Rock
AZ Phoenix
CO Denver
GA Atlanta
LA New Orleans
MI Detroit
MN Minneapolis
MO Kansas City
MO St Louis
NC Charlotte
NC Greensboro
NC Greenville
NC Raleigh Durham
NV Las Vegas
PA Philadelphia
PA Pittsburgh
SC Charleston
TN Memphis
TN Nashville
TN Knoxville
TX Houston
VA Richmond
WI Madison
WI Milwaukee
Fast food workers are coming together all over the country to fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. We work for corporations that are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support our families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation.
"It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blasted Dr. Ralph de la Torre—the CEO of a bankrupt health services company "who has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and healthcare providers"—for refusing to comply with a bipartisan subpoena compelling him to testify about his company's insolvency.
"Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. de la Torre is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating through our for-profit healthcare system," said Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
"Working with private equity vultures, he became obscenely wealthy by loading up hospitals across the country with billions in debt and selling the land underneath these hospitals to real estate executives who charge unsustainably high rent," the senator added. "As a result, Steward Health Care, and the more than 30 hospitals it owns in eight states, were forced to declare bankruptcy with some $9 billion in debt."
Steward is trying to sell all 31 of its hospitals in order to pay down its debt.
As Common Dreamsreported on July 25, the HELP committee, which includes 10 Republicans, voted 20-1 to investigate Steward Health Care's bankruptcy, and 16-4 to subpoena de la Torre.
"I am now working with members of the HELP committee to determine the best path forward," Sanders said on Wednesday. "But let me be clear: We will not accept this postponement. Congress will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America. This committee intends to move forward aggressively to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify to the gross mismanagement of Steward Health Care."
"It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages," Sanders added, referring to the 190-foot megayacht the CEO purchased as Steward hospitals failed to pay their bills.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—a HELP committee member—and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also slammed de la Torre on Wednesday, calling his failure to appear before the panel "outrageous."
"De la Torre used hospitals as his personal piggy bank and lived in luxury while gutting Steward hospitals," the senators said. "De la Torre is as cowardly as he is cruel. He owes the public and Congress answers for his appalling greed—and de la Torre must be held in contempt if he fails to appear before the committee."
De la Torre's attorney, Alexander Merton, lashed out against the Senate subpoena Wednesday in a letter
accusing HELP committee members of being "determined to turn the hearing into a pseudo-criminal proceeding in which they use the time, not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion."
The same day the HELP Committee voted to probe Steward and subpoena de la Torre, Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, introduced the Health Over Wealth Act, which would increase the powers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to block private equity deals in the healthcare industry.
Last month, Markey and Warren expressed concerns over the proposed $245 million sale of Steward Health Care's nationwide physician network to a private equity firm.
"Two Massachusetts hospitals are closing and communities are suffering because of private equity's looting of Steward," said Warren. "Selling Massachusetts doctors to another private equity firm could be a disaster. We can't make the same mistake again. Regulators must scrutinize this deal."
"We already know how devastating the Biden asylum shutdown is and it should be ended immediately rather than expanded," said one campaigner.
Two months after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring migrants who cross the southern border without authorization from receiving asylum, senior administration officials are reportedly considering making the policy—which was meant to be temporary—much harder to lift.
Biden's June directive invoked Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act—previously used by the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, to deny migrants asylum—"when the southern border is overwhelmed."
The policy shuts down asylum requests when the average number of daily migrant encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500. Border entry points may allow migrants to seek asylum when the seven-day average dips below 1,500.
"The move to make the asylum restrictions semi-permanent would effectively rewrite U.S. asylum law."
The changes under consideration would reopen entry only after the seven-day average for migrant encounters remains under 1,500 for 28 days.
"The asylum ban itself is arbitrary and duplicative. It has no relation at all to a person's asylum claims, meaning even a person with an extraordinarily strong claim would be denied for crossing at a time when many others, potentially thousands of miles away, are doing the same," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group, said Wednesday.
"There is no doubt that we need to rethink the current asylum system, which would include giving it an infusion of resources so that people don't have to wait five years for a decision," he continued. "But cutting it off to whole swathes of people for reasons unrelated to their claims isn't a fix."
"The move to make the asylum restrictions semi-permanent would effectively rewrite U.S. asylum law, which since it was created in 1980 has mandated that all people on U.S. soil be permitted to request humanitarian protections, regardless of how they got here," Reichlin-Melnick added.
U.S. officials say Biden's order has resulted in a dramatic decrease in asylum claims.
According toThe New York Times:
Since Mr. Biden's executive order went into effect, the number of arrests at the southern border has dropped precipitously. In June, more than 83,000 arrests were made, then in July the number went down further to just over 56,000 arrests. Arrests in August ticked up to 58,000, according to a homeland security official, but those figures still pale in comparison to the record figures in December when around 250,000 migrants crossed.
Migrant rights advocates condemned the new rules. Less than two weeks after Biden issued the order, a coalition of rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration, arguing the policy was illegal and endangered migrant lives.
"We already know how devastating the Biden asylum shutdown is and it should be ended immediately rather than expanded," Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA's director of refugee and migrants rights, said Wednesday on social media. "High numbers of people being denied their human rights is not a sign of success, it's a disgrace."
"Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of their classroom," said the Democratic presidential nominee.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday addressed the fatal mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and addressed the attack that left at least four people dead—two students and two teachers—and injured nine, calling it a "senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies."
"It's just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive," Harris said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire that took place shortly after news of the shooting broke. "It doesn't have to be this way."
"This is just one of the things that's at stake in this election," Harris added.
President Joe Biden also spoke about the shooting, demanding that Republicans in Congress "finally say 'enough is enough' and work with Democrats to pass commonsense gun safety legislation."
"We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers," said Biden. "These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart."
The Biden-Harris administration has taken some action to prevent gun violence, including closing a loophole that had allowed firearms dealers to sell guns without running background checks on purchasers. Gun violence prevention advocates applauded the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, but denounced Congress for not coming to an agreement on legislation that would require background checks for all gun purchases and ban assault weapons. The legislation banned gun sales to people convicted of domestic violence and funded state "red flag" programs to remove guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to appoint federal judges who oppose limits on firearm ownership and has called himself "the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House."
Both Harris and Biden expressed concern for schoolchildren across the country who are coming of age in a country where mass shootings make national news several times per year and where lockdown drills are routine at school.
"Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of their classroom," said Harris.
The gun violence prevention group Giffords shared an account from Apalachee High School senior Sergio Caldera, who was in his chemistry class when he heard gunshots and someone pounding on the classroom door.
"They prepare you for these things," Isabella Albes Cardenas, an 11th grade student at Apalachee High School, told The New York Times. "But in the moment, I started crying."
The student-led group Students Demand Action said that "back to school season should not come with the fear of being shot."
"We deserve to go to school and focus on our education, NOT fear for our lives," said the group. "We don't have to live and die like this. WE DEMAND ACTION."