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Largest-ever Mobilization of Underpaid Workers Fight For $15 and a Union

Protests are being held across the country today in what organizers call the "largest-ever mobilization of underpaid workers." Fast-food workers in 230 cities are walking off the job as part of the "Fight for $15" campaign, a push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and the right to form a union.

A thousand workers in Boston held their action one day early in deference to today’s anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Students will also walk out at more than 200 schools in what's being described as biggest campus protests since the anti-Apartheid movement. The students and fast food workers will be joined by low-wage employees from other fields and businesses including home care, child care, airport, Walmart, adjunct professors, teaching assistants and graduate assistants.

Organizers are saying the actions are being held on Tax Day to highlight the public assistance needed to support underpaid workers.

A new study says low wages are forcing working families to rely on more than $150 billion dollars in public assistance.

According to the University of California Center for Labor Research and Education more than half of combined state and federal spending on public assistance goes to working families.

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Comments

The corporate lobby gets paid well to keep the minimum wage well into poverty wage territory. When you make billions in profits as McDonalds and Walmart do, you can afford paying lobbyists millions.

In 1968 in the USA, you could support a family of 3 on one minimum wage job.

There is a high cost of low-wage labor. It costs taxpayers $150 billion a year to subsidize low wage jobs. Why should shareholders walk off with the $150 billion from your pocket and mine?

Broadway, Manhattan, NYC:

Dublin, Ireland:

Bangladesh:

Philly:

Massachusetts:

Minimum Wage and Poverty:

What If The Minimum Wage Kept Pace?

Chicago: "Racial justice is economic justice"

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It is interesting that you call out Walmart, McDonald's, and other businesses as well as the "Corporate Lobby" by name, but hide behind a moniker that lends itself to just as many behind the scenes machinations and schemes in the name of someone else as those companies where I already do not shop.

Put the electronic Guy Fawkes Mask away. I would be more trustful of your writings if you told us who you were, who is supporting you, and your motives beyond the magic $15 number.

This being tax day by the way, did you pay at the higher rate that is suggested on your state tax forms to, you know, help others?

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It's interesting that you did not address any of the issues I raised in the main post or the first comment, (...such as how widely throughout our economy people, including highly educated people, are underpaid for their labor, and the cost of low-wage labor-- $150 billion dollars in public assistance-- to the rest of us who earn middle class incomes and subsidize their pay through taxes. More than half of combined state and federal spending on public assistance goes to working families!)

We are the richest country in the history of the world. A person can work a forty hour work week and live on $15 hour. it's a livable wage. They can pay their bills, buy their own food without state and federal subsidy, and pay their taxes. They can take their kids to the pool in the summer and save for a vacation. They can put money away for retirement.

I don't own Guy Fawkes mask. I've been posting on UniversalHub for a year longer than you. I live in the city. I'm not a union organizer. I work in technology. One of my hobbies is public policy.

People know me by what I have to say. I'm the only person who uses this account. There is no nefarious motive that you imply.

Every contractor hired by the City of Boston must pay their employees working on a City of Boston contract a minimum wage of $13.77.

Fifteen and a union is a demand thousands of poverty wage workers are making of their employers--McDonalds, Walmart, Northeastern, Brandeis, BostonUniversity, Home Health Care, Child Care, etc. Good for them. They work hard, they deserve it.

If employers would pay a livable wage, people who think like me and people who don't (you), could save $150 billion annually. So if for no other reason, support it because you're greedy.

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I said, I don't shop at McDonald's (unless it is the only bathroom in Northern Maine or Northern NH). I don't shop at WalMart and minimally at Target owing to their practices and more importantly, I don't employ anyone but me, so therefore I cannot directly effect someone's wages other than my own. I shop local as much as I can and try to avoid paying the man.

No shit some people are paid too little. I used to be one of them, but instead of marching through the streets and blocking the other working people from their jobs, I worked harder, and guess what, succeeded.

You want action, run for office, make your case, block the Nantucket Ferry, terrorize a Koch brother, storm the ramparts, raise the red flag, go Brigada Rossa on them, invite Pete Seeger to come by (too late), hell invite Arlo Guthrie to come by.

Guess what though? Nearly everyone doesn't give a crap about the 46 year old mother of 6 working at McDonald's. Please face those facts.

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That's your right.

Would you have been a Tory who opposed the Boston Tea Party? An opponent of the march for civil rights in D.C. and AL in the 60s? Would you have been an opponent of Memphis Sanitation workers forming a union? Do you not value the First Amendment right of speech and assembly? I do.

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Place occupation forces in Boston which equate to 1 police officer for every 4 civilians? I would have been in full war paint at the Boston Tea Party.

Where does it come across that I do not support equal rights in my comments? There is a huge difference in economic rights versus equal rights. You have the right to be married in this state to whom you wish, with certain exceptions of familial relations. You have the right to vote regardless of race, creed, or color. You have the right to equal protection under the law. Just because I support that does not mean that I also support "economic justice." Don't equate one with the other. In effect you are saying, he is Irish, he must be a drunk. That's not an argument, that's ignorance.

I'm sorry that I worked my way through college. I'm sorry that I didn't have a kid when I was 15 or 16, like many of my peers. I'm not sorry that I did not place myself in a position to work in fast food at age 38. I worked in fast food, when I was 16. I got paid the minimum; $3.35 per hour. I got a raise to $3.45 per hour after 6 months. I didn't like it and looked around and got a new job at $5.25 per hour which rose to $9 per hour by the time I was 18. I also worked other jobs (while living away from home) to fill in the time off. It is called bettering myself and lifting me out of my station. No unions, no grants, no handouts. I have been on unemployment for 3 weeks in 30 years. If I can come out of a bad neighborhood and a broken family situation, so can everyone else.

Sorry for doing that. I guess I should be ashamed of myself.

Don't you ever equate that I do not support this specific event of social activism to mean that I do not support social activism in toto.

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Wage Issues Are Civil Rights Issues

“Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?” -MLK, Jr.

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A lot of people say things that are complete idiocy. The Laffer Curve - Moronic. Trickle Down - Pie In The Sky, Read My Lips - A bald face lie. There are people all through out the former Soviet Empire with degrees in Marxism Leninism. How is that going for them? We have people with DD degrees who make us try to believe in Sky Gods. You can say what you want, as crazy as it seems, until it sounds like Canon. It doesn't mean it is right.

As we know, MLK was not a perfect human being. Noble, yes, media darling, yes, right for asking for equality in the eyes of the law, absolutely yes. Taking off of my plate to feed himself when he or someone else didn't work for it, but I did? See you later.

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I find Martin Luther King argument much more compelling than yours. And I think a lot of people would too, given the opportunity to read your arguments.

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A lot more people agree with me than you think.

However, I am willing to call you out so that you may prove your point. Please show me that you have found it in your good nature to pay someone a living wage for their work, say somewhere in the $13.37 to $15 per hour that you call for so wholeheartedly.

Please prove that you have hired a worker, for at least 30 hours per week, for more than a few weeks, with benefits and have / are paying them a living wage.

I will feel very good to know that someone is putting their mouth and wallet together for the good of society.

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I see. You're holding me accountable for advocating for a living wage. Well played.

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When we needed a full-time baby sitter, we paid her $12/hr, plus vacation days, plus sick leave. And when our kids started going to school, and she decided to back to school too, we paid for one semester of nursing school.

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Mike - Wouldn't that make you about 20 to 21 when you were paying that out? How did you have that much scratch as a college student? I am 46 and know from past posts that you were at Latin a number of years behind me. Is that a royal plural we, or did you do it yourself?

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Late 30s/early 40s back then....

My children went to Latin, but I went to Bishop Kelley HS in Tulsa Oklahoma (and graduated 45 years ago). ;-}

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In Chicago, the city councilor who gave Rahm Emanuel a run for his money.

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Did you know this man once ran for Governor of Mass.?

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Famously Naked at Barsamian's Bob made $242,613 teaching a class a UC Berkeley last year. That's one class. That's $116.64 per hour based upon a 260 day work year / 8 hours a day.

It sucks when facts get in the way of an argument.

I'd be proud as hell to tell everyone else to pay $15 an hour when I make 7.7x that.

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It sucks when facts get in the way of an argument.

At best, you can argue that his pay is so too high for him to advocate for better wages for poverty wage workers but that leaves lots of other people who can make the argument. In fact, I don't oppose high salary, I oppose poverty wages.

Do you oppose high salaries or are you full of shit?

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That is obscene as is the CEOs of publicly traded companies making exorbitant rates.

However, when it comes to privately held companies, the sky is the limit as far as I am concerned. Make what you want, you own it.

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But -- again -- you are deflecting. He is the messenger, not the message.

If it makes you feel better, I expect the number of obscenely overpaid celebrity professors is rather low. They're kind of a special breed, largely subsidized by obscenely underpaid adjuncts. Yeah, there is some irony there, but that doesn't discredit the whole cause.

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He is the messenger except he shows up, and then leaves, in a Lincoln Town Car to help those who take public transportation.

Just for kicks, I had a Robert Reich sign on my lawn when he ran for governor. Still think I am opposed to some of his policies?

However, as he lectures, let him start a business with his net worth of $4M and pay people $15 per hour for entry level work. Let's see how far he gets. A little Do As I Do, and Not Do As I Say might help the cause.

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If U Berkeley doesn't have the money to pay their adjuncts a living wage because they pay their most highly paid profs hundreds of thousands they should fix that INCOME INEQUALITY.

But as a point of argument, I don't assert he is too highly paid or know that is why they don't pay their adjuncts more.

Finally, I think you couldn't be more right about your fundamental assertion, he is the messenger. Trying to discredit the argument by discrediting the messenger is a fallacy-- ad hominem.

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Reich is classic, Do As I Say, Not Do As I Do Liberalism. He has money. He makes $40K per speech, or to put it in $15 an hour terms; 15 months of $15 per hour in one hour. It is easy for him to tell other people to give their money away, since he has a pile of it himself. It is easy to be a socialist if the house is paid for and the retirement is paid for. However, I don't see a Robert Reich Foundation giving away its assets to the needy each year. I don't see Robert Reich starting Reichburgers and paying his employees $15/Hr. You cannot defend his actions here. Don't even try. He is walking hypocrisy.

Same thing for Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield,, they were all for hyping a 5 to 1 pay ratio, then 7 to 1, and then to 17 to 1, as long as it sold ice cream until he realized it wasn't working and then sold out to corporate interests. (I worked for them, the pay scale only applied to their Vermont stores and factories by the way, not for us lowly Boston scoopers).

You keep speaking about THEY. What are you doing about it? I have been on this earth long enough to know that protests really don't work. Direct action works. What are you going to do about it?

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Do As I Say, Not Do As I Do Liberalism

Do you know for a fact he or any Foundation that bears his name pays employees less than $15 an hour? If so, would you provide your source?

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He doesn't have a foundation that gives away his money. That is the point of my comment. He keeps it for himself, not the proletariat. Let him pony up his millions for the good of mankind as opposed to house payments.

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To summarize, you oppose a $15 livable wage because Robert Reich doesn't have a foundation that pays less than $15/hr and doesn't give away his assets.

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And I pointed back what a terrible example it is to make him as your standard bearer for $15/Hr. What you see is that I oppose $15/HR Minimum Wage, I didn't say that. What College Comp course did you flunk?

You have "I can't support my argument so you turn to selective facts and then accuse the other person of being mean". Own up to that at least.

Good God do the sane thing a realize that I am not opposed to someone trying to get to $15/Hr. I do however think it is ridiculous to have a person who makes 2,666 times per hour what your goal is as your standard bearer.

You may want to find someone a little more reasonable for your standard bearer in the Vanguard Elite than the rich guy who can't see over the ramparts because his pockets are stuffed with gold.

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They have never worked a hard day in their life. They have never had to take on a second job to pay their bills. They have never had holes in their one pair of shoes. How can I tell? I can tell.

That picture is like using Abby Johnson to sell Hamburger Helper. You are making yourself look stupid with retweets of upper income college girls raising fists for people who live in neighborhoods they are too scared to visit.

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It's easy to construct a fact-less argument premised on stereotypes and prejudices when you invent your own narrative based on appearances from a photograph.

They are adjuncts. The pay they earn is poverty wages. If they looked different, say black women with kids, you'd invent an equally factless narrative based on stereotypes and prejudices supporting your ignorant opposition.

Your definition of hard work doesn't include what it take to earn a masters or a Phd and be an adjunct.

How did you graduate from BLS?

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Who forced them into this career? They look like they stepped out of an Anthropologie catalog, not an Anthropology catalog.

Last time I checked there are no press gangs driving through Sarah Lawrence or Grinnell hijacking 20 somethings off to an academic gulag archipelago to force them to work at low pay.

Want to make money? Learn how to throw a baseball better than everyone else, learn how to make the next needed widget, figure out a way to pour concrete in the winter better than anyone else. Want to teach Sanskirt at $23,000 per year, that is a choice.

Also, how did I graduate Latin? Easy, I studied hard, just like those poor waifs in academia, except I had the brains not to go off to a life of torture teaching Kant at Fitchburg State. Piss Off with the Masters is hard stuff. My God, my wife got hers at night, all the while working full time, at a real job that didn't involve large breaks in the winter and summer, short office hours, or leafy campuses. Face it, You have lost the argument on the "suffering" of adjuncts.

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I read through most of your comments. Enjoyed most of it, in fact. Thank you.

But guess what.... Some of us who grew up in Boston and didn't go to Latin have also managed to remain gainfully employed, raise families, pay college tuitions, avoid foreclosure, etc. In fact, I've even heard that a few people who didn't walk the hallowed halls of Louis Pasteur have managed to read a book. Some more than one. Hard to believe, but there you go.

It was 30 years ago, Bud. You were seventeen. It stopped mattering very shortly thereafter. And it never mattered to the rest of us. Let it go, huh?

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Or are you just so full of shit you can't see anything.

In many colleges in the US, adjuncts teaching 5 courses have no benefits and get foodstamps.

This with a college degree.

You wouldn't know hard work if it bit you on the ass.

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A university degree (typically a Ph.D.)

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It's been said that we're in an era of movements and that movements are necessary to draw attention to systemic problems and to effect positive change. I think movements can be credited as having had some influence on the public debate.

Three years after bank protests framed the problem as one where 1% of Americans aren't held accountable for the banking practices that had devastating effects on the other 99%, government is finally debating income inequality, the struggle of the working poor and how the low wage economy has high costs for children raised in poverty, our communities, as well as taxpayers who subsidize low pay to the tune of $150 billion a year. As of now, there is no consensus on how to address these problems but clearly the issues are on the table and they're recognized as serious.

When fast food workers started public protest demanding higher wages and a union, opposition argued that fast food jobs were starter jobs that employed teenagers in high school but demographics actually show under half have college degrees, many have children and average age is well above teenager. Many of these employees would be happy to take a job that pays more if they could find one. Meantime, the company they work for is booking record high profits in the range of $20B a year. McDonalds wants to maximize shareholder value. Employees want a livable wage.

WalMart workers (who are given an application for food assistance as part of their orientation) and who make $8-$9 an hour also organized to ask for better pay. They want to make enough so that they don't have to be on social welfare. The company they work for is the largest retailer in the world. It too is making record profits. It benefits from massive public subsidies both front door -- local govt tax exemptions -- and back door -- social safety net programs for its poverty wage employees. WalMart could finance a $15 wage for every employee simply by stopping its stock buyback program.

The march in Boston was remarkable in that it brought so many groups together all protesting against poverty wages and for $15 and a union including;

public defenders
adjuncts from Brandeis, Bentley, Northeastern, BU
airport workers
janitors
fast food workers
WalMart workers
child care
home care

Both McDonalds and WalMart have made small movements on pay. The movement seems to be creating some momentum.

Massachusetts has history in the labor movement. One landmark event was Bread & Roses, a labor strike in Lawrence 103 years ago, March 15th. The strike successfully united dozens of immigrant communities under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, was led to a large extent by women. The workers won pay increases, time-and-a-quarter pay for overtime, and a promise of no discrimination against strikers

Another result was the passing of a minimum wage for women and children on June 4, 1912, the nations first.

The commonwealth’s 1912 Report of the Commission on Minimum Wage Boards did not mince words. It said:

Whenever wages “are less than the cost of living and the reasonable provision for maintaining the worker in health, the industry employing her is in receipt of the working energy of a human being at less than its cost, and to that extent is parasitic.”

The Bread and Roses strike created the space for the legislature pass a minimum wage standard. I think the ongoing organized protests will create the space for movement on wages and maybe even a union.

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