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. 

Providing a Better Life for Our Veterans

By: Bruce W. Both

Veterans Day is a time to pay tribute to the service and sacrifices of all U.S. military veterans. But acknowledging what these amazing men and women have done for our country is not enough. We must do more.

To truly honor our veterans, Veterans Day must be a time to strengthen our commitment to providing our veterans with “good jobs” with better wages and benefits that can support a family and provide a pathway to the middle class.

The harsh reality today is that too many workers – including too many of our veterans in New York – are a facing serious obstacles to finding these good jobs. Unlike their parents and grandparents who served in the military and returned home to a time of shared prosperity, today’s veterans are returning to a country that is grappling with a wealth gap not seen since the “Roaring Twenties,” where good manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas, wages are stagnant, and the middle class is shrinking at an alarming rate. More troubling, irresponsible companies like Walmart talk proudly about their programs for veterans, but fail to provide wages or opportunities necessary to build a better life.

The simple truth is this: We can and must do better, and our union family is committed to standing up for our veterans and their families.

In New York, UFCW Local 1500 represents 22,500 of hard-working men and women at Stop & Shop, Key Food, Fairway, ShopRite, D’Agostinos, Gristedes and many of our members are veterans. Whether it is the veteran at Fairway Market or Stop & Shop, we work hard to provide the better wages and benefits that all hard-working men and women have earned and deserve.

Nationally, for example, being a member of our union family provides veterans and non-veterans 27 percent more in pay than non-union workers. They are more likely to have paid sick leave and a pension plan, which means they have more control over their lives today and in the future. And, we stand and fight against discrimination and unsafe workplace conditions veterans and others face that are often ignored by non-union companies.

Despite their dedication, experience and skills, too many of our country’s veterans are paying the price as companies continue to cut wages, hours and benefits, and punish those who speak out and try to better their lives. This should not be the reality for any worker, but it especially should not be the reality for our veterans.

So our challenge to employers all across New York is this: Stand up with us and do more for our veterans. Commit to not only hiring more veterans, but provide them and all retail workers with better wages and benefits.

The best way to honor our veterans on this solemn day is to provide them with an opportunity to earn a better life. That is the least our New York employers can do.

Bruce W. Both is the President of UFCW Local 1500 in Westbury, NY.