Top 11 Stories This Week: Fast Food Strikes, Fast Moving TPP, Ikea & Unions, Veterans Day

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Cuomo to Create $15 Minimum Wage for New York State Workers - See more at: http://www.portside.org/2015-11-10/cuomo-create-15-minimum-wage-new-york-state-workers-2#sthash.mFP5LEwn.dpuf

Cuomo to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for All New York State Employees

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday that he would unilaterally establish a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for its public employees.

 

Read the entire story @NYTimes

 

Related: Labor's New Reality @LATimes

WHAT'S NEWS THIS WEEK:     1. Providing a Better Life For Our Veterans...Editorial by President Bruce Both   UFCW Local 1500 President Bruce Both's editorial on veterans was featured in two NY newspapers this week, The Downtown Express & Gay City News. We are forever grateful to every veteran for their selfless service.     2. Labor Pains for Mrs. Green's: Company Found Guilty of Labor Violations Polls West Village Community on View of Unions, Workers...   The real question is, why would a company found guilty of firing workers because they wanted a union, ask a community what they think about workers? Read the entire story @NYPost.

3. Mrs. Green's to Suddenly Close Hartsdale Store   The company is in turmoil, and it's treatment of men and women who work in the stores is shameful.

4. Labor's New Reality: Easier to Raise Wages for 100,000 than to Unionize 4,000   Its most prominent organizing campaigns of recent years — of fast-food workers, domestics, taxi drivers and Wal-Mart employees — have prompted states and cities to raise their minimum wage and create more worker-friendly regulations. But what these campaigns haven't done is create more than a small number of new dues-paying union members. Nor, for the foreseeable future, do unions anticipate that they will.

5. Labor Rallys Against TPP in Upstate NY   “This expanded NAFTA style trade agreement will continue offshoring US jobs, increase wealth inequality, grow our trade deficits, and plunge more American families into poverty. It is clear that the TPP is written for the exclusive profit and monopoly interests of transnational corporations, granting them powers that usurp our systems and principles of democracy, civil liberties, and human rights,” said Frank Natalie, Executive Vice President of the Capital District Area Labor Federation.   Related: Obama pushes TPP ahead of Asia trip   Must Read: What a New NAFTA Complaint Can Tell us about the TPP   As the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate intensifies, a coalition of U.S. and Mexican labor and civil society groups are taking an unprecedented legal approach to protect workers’ rights that will test the strength of labor protections in international trade agreements.

6. Popeyes CEO on $15 Minimium Wage: "Life will go on,"   "Everybody in retail is dealing with an increase in minimum wage," said Cheryl Bachelder, CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (PLKI). "We will adjust to increased costs just like we have before. Life will go on. There's been too much hubbub about it."

7. Fast Food Workers Hold Largest Strike Ever.   Fast Food Workers Went on Strike This Week Again on Tuesday...Telling Politicians, Come Get Our Votes   On Tuesday, one year before the 2016 presidential election, thousands of fast food workers walked out of their jobs in 270 cities. Organizers say it is the largest action yet by the three-year old Fight for $15 movement. An even larger number of workers from other low-paying jobs joined them in marches on local city halls in a total of 500 cities to send a message to political candidates: they represent 42 percent of the American workforce, and if they register to vote, they make a difference.

8. IKEA Workers Have Asked for a Union & Company Has Not Responded   Yesterday, a large group of workers at an IKEA store in Massachusetts told the company they want to unionize. IKEA’s response so far? Nothing.

9. Target to Open in Tribeca, NYC

10. The Risk of Not Fighting Climate Change An Iraq War Veteran explains how defending America against climate change, can help defend our country.

11. Haggen puts core stores on the auction block

 

A very similar situation to A&P bankruptcy is ongoing on the west coast, right now.  Super chain, Haggen is auctioning off its stores. Thousands of UFCW members are affected. 

 

Here's the latest UFCW statement.

 

 

 

 

Elsewhere & Out There:

 

Need for Climate Awareness: A study partially funded by Nasa predicted that civilization as we know it could be steadily heading for a collapse within the next century due to climate change– and the window to create impactful change is narrowing. Read the entire story here.

 

 

Thank You:

It's often a thankless job, so we'd like to say, thank you. And thank you for being a subscriber. 

Help Stop Fast Track! Call Your Representative

As you know, after being stalled for weeks, Fast Track was approved by the Senate late Friday night. The bill now goes to the House, where the vote is expected to be tight – and we are preparing for a fight that may last through June.  I am asking that you participate in this National Call-In.  (See attached flier below)

Currently, eighteen Democrats support fast track with six to ten still undecided or undeclared.  This means our opponents can’t afford to lose more than about 55 Republicans.  By some estimates, there are at least 50 Republicans opposed with another 40 still undecided.  But holding most House Democrats and enlisting the number of Republicans we need to defeat Fast Track is far from certain. We fully expect our opponents to unleash a torrent of ads and ramp up an unprecedented grassroots and digital mobilization effort to ram Fast Track through when the House reconvenes the first week of June.

The House needs to hear the voices of working families as clearly and as loudly and as often as possible. Please join us and our trade allies for a national call-in day Wednesday, June 3. We are calling every House member – Democrat and Republican – with this simple message: The “Fast Track” trade bill in Congress will send jobs overseas and give more power to giant corporations. It continues the same failed trade policies that leave working people behind.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact our Political Coordinator, Brendan Sexton: bsexton@ufcw1500.org and visit nofasttrack.com.

Thank you and in Solidarity,


Bruce Both
President

UFCW President Perrone: We are Determined to See Fast Track Defeated

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Marc Perrone, International President of the 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement in response to the agreement reached on trade promotion authority or fast track.

“The TPP and fast track are not just wrong for America, they will hurt every hard-working family. The fact that Democrats and Republicans support TPP is a bipartisan insult to the millions of men and women struggling to find good jobs
and earn a decent living.

Make no mistake, we are determined to see this legislation defeated. Our members will mobilize across the United States to call on Congress to stand up for hard-working families. While we may not be able to change every mind, our voices will be heard. And we will remember those who turned their back on America’s workers by voting for another destructive trade deal.”

A copy of President Perrone’s Wednesday op-ed in The Hill is linked here.

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Join the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) online at www.ufcw.org

We are 1.3 million families standing together to build an economy that every hard-working family deserves.

No on Fast Track

Call Your Elected Officials Today! Help Fight for Good Jobs – Tell Them to Vote ‘No’ on Fast Track.

America’s workers and hard-working families need your help, and the time to act is now!

As you may know, the U.S. House and Senate will soon consider Fast Track legislation to help pass another bad trade deal. As history shows, fast track has been used to quickly pass some of our nation’s worst trade agreements. This time will no different.

If fast track passes, we will face another terrible trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which will all but guarantee that more families will suffer, more jobs will be lost, and more of our communities will be devastated.

Contact your elected officials today. Tell them to vote ‘NO’ on Fast Track

Unfortunately, President Obama, and certain Republican and Democratic Members of Congress, support fast track authority and TPP. They are choosing to ignore the severe price our workers and families will pay if fast track and TPP passes

We all know the reality of past trade deals. Bad trade deals, like TPP, don’t care whether you are Republican or Democrat. They devastate workers from every party and every state.

The simple truth is that opposing TPP is not about partisan politics, it’s about supporting our jobs, our workers, and our families.

So we all have a choice – stay silent or speak out. It’s time for you, your friends, and your family to stand up and speak out to help stop this bad trade deal.

Please don’t wait—call your member of Congress today and tell them to vote ‘NO’ on Fast Track

How bad of a deal is the TPP?

The TPP trade deal has been put together in secret. Hundreds of corporate lawyers and other special interest groups have been advising the U.S. Trade Representative, but the voices of hard-working families have been left out.

No elected official, regardless of political party, who is truly interested in making the economy better and fairer, can responsibly support the TPP.

Now, more than ever, we need you to speak out and help us stop Fast Track and TPP.

Please reach out to your Members of Congress today, because together we can build an America that works for our workers and our families.