Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/policy/page/6/)
In the richest nation on earth, it’s wrong for anyone who works full time to live in poverty. Yet millions of Americans who work a 40-hour week are unable to lift their families out of poverty. Imagine supporting your family on just $14,500 a year. That’s what a full-time, minimum-wage job pays. Wages come to less than $279 a week – and that’s before taxes.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton joined more than 100 demonstrators outside the main post office in Minneapolis yesterday, leading the call for federal lawmakers to strengthen – not dismantle – the U.S. Postal Service.
Renita Whicker, a security officer in downtown Minneapolis, raised three children while taking chances that all would remain healthy. Her job didn’t provide health benefits or pay enough for her family to afford health insurance.
The AFL-CIO, the labor-backed Alliance for Retired Americans, the Steelworkers and the Auto Workers back new legislation to close Social Security’s future funding gap – which won’t begin for another 20 years – by taxing millionaires and billionaires, sponsors of the legislation say.
As the campaign to raise the minimum wage in Minnesota moves forward, low wage earners and experts gather in Bloomington to share their perspective about the needs of our local economy.
At their union’s Day on the Hill at the state Capitol in St. Paul, AFSCME members talked about the importance of growing the middle class.
On the second day of the “Unlock Our Future” week of action, some 300 people descended on the Nicollet Mall headquarters of Target Corporation to call on the company to be a leader in helping Minnesota’s struggling economy. The rally occurred as retail cleaners at Target stores staged a one-day strike.
Members of the United Steelworkers say an alliance with their employer – U.S. Steel – is a natural next step in preserving and creating jobs on Minnesota’s Iron Range.
Join an expert panel discussion on “Minimum Wage and a Sustainable Economic Future” Monday, Feb. 25, at the University of Minnesota.
For organized labor, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says, reforming labor law to help balance the scales between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining, will always be labor’s #1 legislative priority – until it passes.