The $15 an hour minimum wage has been virtually stopped by governors passing $15 an hour minimum wage laws that will take years for workers to realize. The slow walking of the minimum wage is nothing more than an attempt to pacify workers and those who support them, but nothing more. What good will $15 an hour in six years do for workers today, especially those effected by minimum wage laws that have lots of loopholes.
I cautioned about politicians who would slow walk an increase of the minimum wage a year or so ago and, unfortunately, I was right. New York and California are slow walking the states’ minimum wage increase, but they added such safety valves as having state officials who are to conduct annual analysis of the economy in each region to determine whether a temporary suspension of the scheduled increases is necessary, the government press release states.
Now, guess who won’t be on the panel making the decisions on whether or not wages should be increased–wage slaves. The workers in California who would be eligible to earn the $15 an hour are those working for companies with 25 or more employees, and in New York, it’s companies with 10 or more employees so those working as, say at car washes, house cleaning, home healthcare and janitors just to name a few, are out of luck.
The only correct answer is $15 an hour minimum wage now. Had the minimum wage kept up with inflation it would be closer to $24.
What the wage slaves need to understand is that workers cannot count on elected people to do all the work. It has to come from the bottom up and then maybe there will be some elected people, like Bernie Sanders, who we can help. Sanders wants $15 now. Hillary Clinton says $12 an hour is enough, which is interesting given she charged $225,000 for a single speech.
Also, there are the factors of healthcare, sick days, pensions and safe working conditions. These will only come from unions organizations and not politicians who represent the wealthy employers is the only current way to do this. Tell Sanders that unions need card check and close the loopholes in the National Labor Relations Board where workers can form a union, which is a civil right of all workers.
There is hope and there has been movement, but the 1 percent is now using stall tactics and hoping workers will tire of this fight and take what crumbs are offered them. All minimum wage workers need $15 an hour now, not six years from now. Keep the snowball rolling and it will get bigger, if it stops or slows down it will melt. If that happens we all lose again.
I hope all wage slaves will educate themselves on why the minimum should be raised and how it will help us all, especially our economy. On April 14th, the U.S. was fighting for it, and April 15, Canada will take up the fight.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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