Archive for October, 2006
7 Days @ Minimum Wage: ‘I Look at My Paycheck and I Want to Cry’
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Erin would like to go to college and she’d like to move out of her parent’s house, but because she makes just a little more than minimum wage, she’s trapped in a dead-end job with no immediate hope of getting out.
Erin tells her story on the second installment of the video blog (vlog) “7 Days @ Minimum Wage” (clip at left):
You have to work a lot of hours to make a decent amount of money. I work so hard every day.
I don’t know how people who have families and work these jobs support their families. I don’t know what I would do if I had a family. I guess we’d have to live with my parents.
“7 Days @ Minimum Wage,” sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN, is taking place Oct. 23–30 at http://sevendaysatminimumwage.org/ and at YouTube.com. It features interviews with seven workers describing life at or near the federal minimum wage, which has not been raised from $5.15 an hour since 1997.
Getting Out the Vote: Spotlight on Arizona
Union members in Arizona are among activists in six states where initiatives to raise the state minimum wage are on the ballot. In Arizona, voters will decide whether to raise the minimum wage to $6.75 an hour, while voters in Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio also have similar proposals. With Congress refusing since 1996 to raise the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum wage, voters are ready to make the change themselves.
Pennsylvania Explosion Kills Coal Miner in Deadliest Year Since 2001
One of the deadliest years on record in the nation’s coal mines just gets worse. Today, a coal mine explosion killed a Pennsylvania miner. Four others were able to escape.
Report Card: New Mexico Congresswoman’s Anti-Worker Record
In the decade she’s been a member of Congress, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) has voted against the interests of working families 78 percent of the time. Now the union workers in her district are holding her accountable.
Today, New Mexico union leaders are releasing in Albuquerque a report card to union members on Wilson’s record. The AFL-CIO is compiling report cards on some members of Congress to highlight how they voted on jobs and wages, retirement security, health care, tax fairness and education, among other issues. The first report card released last week on Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) showed Taylor voted with President Bush 90.59 percent of the time—and only 15 percent with working families.
AFL-CIO Files Complaint to U.N. Labor Organization Against Anti-Worker NLRB Ruling
Claiming the recent decisions by the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the “Oakwood” trilogy of cases destroy workers’ collective power by denying their freedom to form unions and bargain collectively, the AFL-CIO today filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO), an arm of the United Nations.
‘7 Days @ Minimum Wage’ Premieres Today
What’s life really like when you make at or near the minimum wage? Beginning today, workers will tell their experiences trying to make ends meet and support a family on the minimum wage on “7 Days @ Minimum Wage,” a video blog (vlog) event, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN. In the first installment, Paul Greg Valdez and his partner, Susan Windham, describe how he breaks his back every day for about $35.
Downloaded or on the Screen—Actors Should Be Paid
Whenever you download an episode of your favorite TV show, or when a website offers free versions of a show, the network wins—but what about the writers and actors who do the work?
According to the Los Angeles Times:
…writers and actors believe studios are ducking the issue of how to properly pay them when their work is viewed via the Web. With major labor contracts expiring over the next two years, fears are growing that digital distribution will become such a contentious issue that it could prompt a strike.
‘Wellstone!’ A Timely Tribute to a True Friend of Working Families
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| Actors Kris Nelson and Amy McDonald play Paul and Sheila Wellstone in a theater tribute to the late Minnesota senator and his wife. |
Steve Share, Labor Review editor in Minneapolis, sends us a review of the play, “Wellstone!” from the Labor Review. Share describes the play, which premiered in St. Paul, Minn., this month, as capturing the energy and politics of Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash, along with his wife, Sheila, shortly before the 2002 elections.
American flags flapping in the breeze, Paul Wellstone’s famous green campaign bus sat parked outside History Theatre, lit up in the dark by streetlights. Inside, Paul Wellstone’s energy and politics came to life on stage for the Oct. 7 world premiere of the play, “Wellstone!”
Report: Call Center Workers in India, U.S. Face Same Problems
It doesn’t matter whether the small cubicle where call center telecom workers answer the phone is in India or in the United States, the workers all face the same problems: stressful work conditions, overly demanding bosses and little right to raise their voices in protest.
Lots to Say
Recently, we noted that more than two dozen labor organizations in Mexico, the United States and Canada filed a case against the United States under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The case charges that North Carolina and the United States are violating NAALC and international labor commitments by denying 650,000 public employees in the state the freedom to engage in collective bargaining.
