Great piece courtesy Mika B at Morning Joe: [And so a rapidly increasing number of food industry and other retail workers are now fighting for basic rights: halfway decent pay, a real work schedule, the right to organize, health care, paid sick days, vacations and respect. Next week, organizers say, we’ll see a walkout of thousands of workers at hundreds of stores in at least seven cities, including New York and Chicago. Something is happening here, though exactly what isn’t quite clear. Fast food was never a priority of organized labor — it’s difficult to imagine a traditional union of four million fast-food workers in something like 200,000 locations — but dozens of organizations are now involved, including, to its credit, the Service Employees International Union, which is providing financing and counsel. The upshot: Workers with nothing to lose are demanding a living wage of $15 an hour, and gaining strength and confidence. They don’t have much else. Those making minimum wage ($7.25) and just above have less buying power than their peers did in the mid-50s. Even business leaders are beginning to recognize that forcing workers onto food stamps is no way to sustain an economy — or a society.] I extend my full support to them. It irks me to no end that the hardworking among us make the least, while those who play golf for half the day relish in outrageously overblown salaries and benefits. Something must change! // Great quote I found in the comments section: " The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich." - John Berger
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:02:33 +0000
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