The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 80/No. 15      April 18, 2016

 
(front page)

April 14 actions will demand $15 an hour and
union organizing

 
BY MAGGIE TROWE
On April 14 actions in dozens of cities across the U.S. will demand a $15 minimum wage and a union. Across Canada they will take place the following day.

Union janitors fighting for a contract, for $15 an hour and the end of sexual harassment of female workers by bosses, rallied in Oakland, California, March 31. Petra Reynaga, a fast-food worker and member of the East Bay Organizing Committee, urged the protesters to turn out April 14 for the $15 and a union actions. “Rents are rising but wages are not keeping up,” she said.

In recent years, as working people looked for ways to defend themselves against grinding depression conditions, the demand for $15 and a union was raised in initial actions by fast-food workers in New York in November 2012. What was dismissed by bosses and their media as a pipe dream began to be seen as necessary and possible by millions of workers who can’t make ends meet on the $7.25 federal minimum wage. The demand spread to airport, home health care and retail workers. Tens of thousands joined the cross-country protests last April 15 and another national mobilization took place Nov. 10.

‘Friends of labor’ seek to derail fight

As the struggle gained support, savvy politicians defending bosses’ interests began to posture as supporters of the Fight for $15, promoting legislation to raise the minimum wage, but on a slow track over years and with loopholes.

As the 2016 elections approach the pressure has increased to tie the fight to support to so-called friends of labor like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Jerry Brown and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, downplaying unionization and focusing on winning legislation. This is an approach supported by the labor union officialdom.

Brown signed a bill April 4 provisionally setting $15 as the state minimum wage six years from now, at firms employing more than 25 people. The increase starts next year with a measly 50 cents. Worse, the law has “off-ramp provisions,” giving the governor power to halt increases in the likely scenario of a decline in jobs or retail sales or a deficit state budget.

That same day, Cuomo signed a law increasing the minimum wage in New York City to $15 by the end of 2018 at businesses with more than 10 employees, and a year later for smaller establishments. In nearby Long Island and Westchester County, the $15 wage will go into effect at the end of 2021. In the rest of the state the hourly minimum rises only to $12.50, and not until the end of 2020. The 10 poorest communities in the state are in upstate New York, according to a December 2015 study by the American Community Survey.

Cuomo’s law has a “safety valve” like its California counterpart. Beginning in 2019 state officials will conduct “an annual analysis of the economy in each region … to determine whether a temporary suspension of the scheduled increases is necessary,” the governor’s press release states.

Two weeks before the New York state primary election, Cuomo, after signing the law, held a rally with Hillary Clinton. She had previously called for raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour.

Unionization is key

Workers by the millions employed at McDonald’s and Walmart, baggage handlers and cleaners at airports, home health attendants, farmworkers and others have shown they want to fight together to raise wages and improve conditions on the job. Organizing unions, not counting on politicians who represent the wealthy employers, is the only way to do this.

It takes organized, collective union action to fight for increases in wages, to win full-time hours for those who seek them and regular schedules posted well in advance, to prevent retaliatory firings of militant workers, to insist on safe work conditions, and to fight race and sex discrimination.

“We’re on strike today for wages and health benefits,” airport contract worker Sadaf Subijano, one of the organizers of a March 31 rally of 250 workers at O’Hare airport in Chicago, told the Militant. “We have no health benefits, no sick days either. We work outdoors in all kind of weather.”

“I came out to support the airport workers because our struggle is the same,” said Tyree Johnson, a 24-year McDonald’s worker. “Some people are afraid to stand up, but we’ll never achieve anything if we don’t.”

Betsey Stone in Oakland, California, and Betsy Farley in Chicago contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
London ‘tube’ drivers strike against unsafe trains
For $15 an hour and a union!
 
 
 
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