Action Now is proud to support Chicago Downtown Retail & Restaurant Workers that have just voted to form a union to fight for a living wage of $15 an hour! Read the article below for more info:
Chicago Tribune, “Fight For 15 to begin Thursday in Chicago” by Eric Zorn
Share this article and the photos below wherever you can! Make sure to use #FF15 and #Fightfor15 on twitter!
Updates on today’s event:
1:35 March ends at Water Tower… Congrats to the newly formed Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago!!!
1:20 P.M. Downtown workers take the streets!
1:10 P.M. Macy’s Security refuses to let workers enter their place of employment. Workers chant, “We’ll be back on Black Friday!”
1:00 P.M. Workers Organizing Committee Confronts Macy’s at Watertower Place
12:45 Workers start reaching the locations of their employers and post up notices of their decision to form a union!
12:30 Downtown workers begin their march through the Magnificent Mile!
12:15 Press conference begins to announce formation of union. One worker says, “I’m here because I work hard and struggle to survive, yet $4 billion a year runs through our registers”
12:00 P.M. Workers rally outside of St. James Cathedral after voting to form a union!
11:45 A.M. Downtown retail and restaurant workers vote to form a union called “The Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago” to fight for a living wage! Voted to drop these statements off at their places of employment:
11:30 A.M. “Who thinks gun violence will go down in their neighborhoods if wages are raised?”
11:20 A.M. An opening prayer- workers listen to a story of religious icons as those who fought for justice
11:07 A.M. Workers hold meeting at St. John’s Cathedral to discuss and vote on forming a union:
Pingback: Chicago Workers in Historic “Fight for $15″ Minimum Wage « FairWages.Org: A $12.00 An Hour Minimum Wage for Large Employers
Minimum Wage Factoids
62% of all Minimum Wage Workers are Women
“In 2011 more than 62 percent of minimum-wage workers were women compared to just 38 percent of male minimum-wage workers. Slightly more than 2.5 million women earn the minimum wage or less, while approximately 1.5 million men do. This imbalance is even more drastic once you consider that women were just 46.9 percent of all employed workers in 2011.”
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2012/06/women_minimumwage.html
2 of 3 Minimum Wage Employees Work for Large Profitable Corporations:
Two out of three low wage workers are employed by large corporations with more than 100 employees:
http://www.nelp.org/blog/entry/dol_issues_over_248000_in_penalties_to_walmart_supplier/
Raising the Minimum Wage is a Job Booster, Not a “Job Killer”
“A significant body of academic research has found that raising the minimum wage does not result in job losses even during hard economic times.
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2012/06/minimum_wage.html
$12.00 An Hour Will Raise A Worker Out of Poverty
A $12.00 an hour wage, while not a “living wage,” will lift a worker working 34 hours a week over the Federal poverty level for an individual in Humboldt County.
http://fairwages.org
The Gasoline Index 1968-2012
In 1968 an hour’s pay at minimum wage ( $1.60) would buy almost 5 gallons of gasoline (@ $0.33/ gal.) but today in Eureka an hour’s minimum wage ($8.00) will buy a little less than 2 gallons of gasoline (@ $4.37 per gallon.)
If the minimum wage had been increased at the same rate as the price of gas, the minimum wage would be over $21.00 per hour today.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html
Today’s Minimum Wage Worker is $7,000 Poorer Than a 1968 Worker
At $7.25 an hour, today’s full-time minimum wage retail worker, security guard, child care worker or health aide makes just $15,080 a year. Last century’s 1968 minimum wage worker made $21,944 a year, adjusted for inflation.
http://letjusticeroll.org/news/001216-raise-minimum-wage-raise-america
Worker Productivity Grew, Worker’s Wages Shrank
Worker productivity grew 80 percent from 1973 to 2011. The average worker wage fell 7 percent, adjusted for inflation.
http://letjusticeroll.org/news/001216-raise-minimum-wage-raise-america
The Reduction of Minimum Wage Value Has Cratered the Middle Class
In 2010, our nation’s economy was growing, but most Americans didn’t feel it because 93 percent of the income growth went to the richest 1 percent. The bottom 90 percent of Americans got none. It sure wasn’t always like that. Between 1938, when the federal minimum wage was first enacted, and 1968, when it peaked in value, the bottom 90 percent of households shared 69 percent of the nation’s income growth. The middle class was able to grow.
http://letjusticeroll.org/news/001216-raise-minimum-wage-raise-america
California Has the Lowest Minimum Wage on the West Coast
California $8.00 Oregon $8.80 Washington $9.04 Nevada $8.25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages
Raising the Minimum Wage is Overwhelmingly Supported by the Public
This June, a Zogby Analytics survey of likely voters found seven out of 10 supporting a raise above $10 an hour (including 54 percent of Republicans). Notably, 71 percent of young people (18 to 23 years old) favored it. Likewise, last November’s “American Values Survey” by the Public Religion Research Institute showed two-thirds of Americans in favor of a $10-per-hour minimum.
Jim Hightower http://www.nationalmemo.com/our-disgraceful-minimum-wage/
Defending the Community
$12.00 Minimum Wage for Large Employers
http://fairwages.org
http://eurekafairwageact.wordpress.com
email: info@fairwages.org
Could I get you to please sign my White House petition to increase the minimum wage and pass it along to your friends and followers? Thank you. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/raise-federal-minimum-wage-actual-living-wage/pQ2yb05x