Workers Cry out for Higher Minimum Wage

www.peoplesworld.org August 984, 2012

Workers cry out for higher minimum wage

By John Wojcik and Mark Gruenberg

rom Pittsburgh to Peoria to Portland and from Washington to Detroit, workers came out this week to demand a hike in the federal minimum wage. FThe minimum wage campaign, stepped up last week by the Service Employees and Jobs With Chamber of Commerce, demanding its members Justice - with the AFL-CIO and other unions join- - many of whom employ minimum-wage workers - ing in - intends to win three 85 cent increases in support the minimum wage increase. the current $7.25 hourly federal minimum for this The Chicagoans had a political angle, too: year and the next two years and then regular in- They began with a “trolley tour” of Dunkin Donuts creases indexed to inflation. There has not been shops, emphasizing Bain Capital’s exploitation of any increase in the minimum wage since 2006. its minimum-wage workers. Presumed GOP presi- Thousands of people attended the rallies July dential nominee Mitt Romney owned and ran 24 at 34 locations across the country combined. Bain. Speakers included local politicians in Toledo, Elsewhere, including Kansas City, Mo., Peo- Ohio, and minimum wage workers in many cit- ria, Ill., and Minneapolis, advocates marched to ies. Clergy and union leaders also joined in, with local offices of Republican lawmakers - Sen. Roy particularly pointed comments coming from Bob Soutier, president of the St. Louis Central Labor Council. this week: After voicing labor’s strong support for the increase, Soutier noted Sen. Claire McCaskill, • Workers cry out for higher minimum wage D-Mo., backs the hike. But all three Republicans • Editorial: Racism is behind voter ID laws vying to oppose her this fall opposed increasing • “Let them eat cake,” as Swaziland plunges into crisis the minimum wage. The moderator in a republi- • California water issues make headlines again can primary debate asked the three GOP candi- • Candidatos priorizan campaña con electores indecisos dates to name the federal minimum wage figure - and they couldn’t. read more news and opinion daily at www.peoplesworld.org The four Chicago rallies, one of which was a humorous street theater in front of a Wal- Mart just west of the Loop, were later combined Blunt and Reps. Bobby Schilling and John Kline, into one mass march that drew more than 1,000 respectively -- to demand they back the minimum people. The crowd descended on the Chicagoland wage hike. Besides SEIU and Jobs With Justice,

Page 1 unionists at the rallies came from the UAW, the live off of,” added Mallory Curran of Lakeville, Teamsters, Workers United, the Teachers, and the Minn., a single mother who is separated from her Steelworkers, among others. husband but unable to afford a divorce. At Kline’s office, more than 50 demonstrators In Cleveland, a minimum wage cable TV in- appeared, some holding signs challenging the law- staller told how must work 20 hours a week of maker to live on minimum wage, $290 a week. overtime to pay the rent and keep food on his fam- There has not been Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the top Demo- ily’s table - and that’s at Ohio’s higher minimum any increase in crat on Kline’s GOP-run panel, and Senate Labor of $7.70 hourly. the minimum wage Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have “We talked about how we should keep the since 2006. introduced the minimum wage hike bill, but it’s pressure on” Congress even if it doesn’t raise expected to go nowhere in this Congress. That the minimum this year, said Cathy Kaufmann of didn’t stop the advocates. SEIU1199Ohio Hospital and Health Care Work- “One hundred fifty people turned out in ers, who helped organize events in Cleveland, Cin- 106-degree heat” for the St. Louis march said Lara cinnati and Toledo. Granich, director of Missouri Jobs With Justice. A minimum wage worker who puts in 40 That’s also where minimum wage restaurant hours a week barely takes home $15,000 a year, worker Joe Wicks told the crowd that earning the while the average CEO of a Fortune 500 company minimum at a chain restaurant often meant he earns more than twice that in a single day. had to “choose between gas for my car and grocer- According to the National Employment Law ies for my family.” He also pointed out that res- Project there is not a single state in the nation taurant workers survive on the “tipped minimum where a full-time minimum wage worker could af- wage.” That’s $2.13 an hour in almost all states ford a two-bedroom apartment. and it hasn’t been raised in 20 years. “Minimum wage is basically impossible to John Wojcik is PW labor editor. Racism is behind voter ID laws By PW Editorial Board hat is really behind the rash of The poll also supported the views of U.S. At- new voter identification laws? torney General Eric Holder that these ID laws are A new scientific poll under- a throwback to the days of Jim Crow. taken by the Center for Political What can one conclude from the release of WCommunication at the University of Delaware this polling information? It is fair to say that we says it’s race. They don’t use the term “racism” now have the numbers to show the impact of rac- but instead refers to “racial resentment.” ism is still wide spread in this country but that it The poll reveals The poll reveals that the new voter ID laws is concentrated in the Republican Party and the that the new voter have their strongest support among those “who conservative movement. This movement’s lead- ID laws have their harbor negative sentiments toward African Amer- ership seeks to politically institutionalize a new strongest support icans.” Coincidence? version of Jim Crow. among those “who Non-African Americans who took the poll The Democrats and liberals have problems harbor negative were also asked a series of questions devised with racist attitudes as well but they are personal sentiments toward to measure “racial resentment” and the results individual manifestations and not part of the ide- African showed that “support for voter ID laws is high- ological program of Democratic Party. Americans.” est among those with the highest levels of “racial A further conclusion is that there is more at resentment.” stake in the upcoming elections in November than One of the two lead researchers, Paul Brewer, just a possible change in which party controls the is quoted as saying, “These findings suggest that Congress or the presidency. What is at issue is Americans’ attitudes about race play an impor- the nature of the type of country we are going to tant role in driving their views on voter ID laws.” have. The Republicans, the party of racism and The poll found that the biggest racists just reaction, seek to undue all the democratic gains happen to be Republicans and conservatives (they of the civil rights movement, especially the right have “the highest ‘racial resentment’ scores”). to vote.. A Democratic victory will throw a road- Unlike the Democrats and liberals, however, Re- block in front of this attempt and open the way publicans and conservatives in general are all for for the American people to struggle to increase the ID laws “regardless of how much ‘racial re- and deepen democratic rights in the future. sentment’ they express.” www.peoplesworld.org Page 2 “Let them eat cake,” says king as Swaziland plunges into crisis

By Emile Schepers

ensions are rising in the small Southern African kingdom of Swaziland (population 1.2 million), as unionized teachers and public service workers face off Tagainst the security personnel of Africa’s last ab- solute monarchy. There are economic roots to the country’s problems that are similar to those of other African nations, but dissidents charge that the irresponsible attitude of the King, Mswati III is making the situation infinitely worse. Swaziland is overwhelmingly agrarian, and 75 percent of the population consists of subsistence farmers, while some work in the mines and other industries of neighboring South Africa. There is some mining (coal, gold, iron, and formerly asbes- sources. His thirteen wives are known for their tos) but by far the biggest industry in Swaziland is lavish shopping habits, which can’t be satisfied in the cultivation and processing of sugar cane. the capital, Mbabane, but require jet setting. The Sugar represents 59 percent of all agri- The king has demanded traditional forms of cultural output, 18 percent of GDP, 24 percent of tribute from his subjects, including cows for his manufacturing output, 35 percent of agricultural birthday. And now three of his wives and their en- wages, 18 percent of manufacturing wages, seven tourage are off to Las Vegas. Swaziland is percent of exports, and 58 percent of all Swazi ex- Opposition to Mswati’s royal despotism has overwhelmingly ports to the European Union, which, after South been arising through the trade unions. Demands agrarian, and 75 Africa, is Swaziland’s main trading partner. include increased wages and union rights, as well percent of the Sugar cultivation and processing are domi- as democratic reforms. The Communist Party of population nated by large-scale enterprises, mostly rooted Swaziland is calling for the end of the monarchy consists of and the declaration of a democratic republic. Oth- outside the country. Big players in Swazi sugar in- subsistence ers call for a constitutional monarchy with limita- clude the CDC (originally the Colonial, later Com- farmers. monwealth Development Corporation) owned by tion of the powers of the king and a democratic the British government, and the royal family. parliament. At the same time, food prices have been ris- A teachers’ strike has been met with refusal ing. King Mswati’s government has relied on re- to negotiate by the government, and increasing gional and international lending agencies. But in violence from the authorities. The government an- February the IMF told the king that there would nounced that any striker not back at work would be no more loans unless austerity was applied. forfeit their job. Basic services are falling apart. Schools are The teachers’ strike continues, now supported closing, and service workers wages drastically cut. by nurses and taxi drivers. The strikers are call- Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV-AIDS in the ing on workers worldwide to show their solidarity. world; a shocking 41 percent of adults are infect- At writing, the king has left for South Africa. The ed, but health facilities are closing. Communist Party suspects a move to be away when Mswati has expensive tastes. He has pur- harsh repression comes down, and has asked that chased expensive luxury automobiles and ac- the South African government place sanctions on cepted a gift of a private airplane from unknown the Swazi royal family.

www.peoplesworld.org Page 3 local news Obama y Romney priorizan Local contact campaña con electores indecisos [email protected] Por Prensa Latina l presidente Barack Obama aprobadas por la administración de California water y el virtual candidato re- George W. Bush que vencen en dici- publicano Mitt Romney embre próximo. issues make priorizan las acciones de Hatch, principal figura de su Ecampaña hacia los electores indecisos agrupación política en el Comité de headlines again durante los 100 días previos a las elec- Finanzas de la cámara alta, dijo en el By Marilyn Bechtel ciones de noviembre próximo. habitual mensaje semanal del Parti- Entrevistas con docenas de do Republicano, que el vencimiento he long-simmering struggle over votantes en estados claves como de dichos recortes tributarios sería how California’s water resources Florida, Missouri, Ohio y Virginia un golpe para casi todos los esta- are allocated took center stage muestran cuán complicada puede ser dounidenses. again this week as Governor Jerry la decisión de votar y lo equivocados El senador señaló que en apenas TBrown and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Sala- que están los estrategas de campañas cinco meses, las familias de clase me- zar unveiled the latest plan to shift more wa- de ambos partidos al respecto, señala dia y los empresarios que generan ter from the northern part of the state to the hoy el diario The Washington Post. empleos enfrentarán un incremento more arid south. Estas conversaciones con los elec- masivo de los impuestos, a menos que The controversial plan, announced at a tores evidencian también lo poco que el presidente Barack Obama y el Con- July 25 press conference in Sacramento, calls influyen en los indecisos las campa- greso actúen en consecuencia. for two parallel 37-mile underground tun- ñas de prensa, los anuncios y ataques Hatch respondió así al presidente nels, each 33 feet in diameter, to carry water verbales virulentos. de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, from the Sacramento River - the state’s larg- Después de meses de publicidad quien en su mensaje semanal por ra- est - to pumping facilities in central Califor- pagada por los republicanos, la may- dio e internet instó hoy a la Cámara nia. Water would then flow through canals to oría de los votantes apenas conocen de Representantes, controlada por los areas stretching from the San Francisco Bay que Mitt Romney ejerce la religión republicanos, a aprobar un proyecto Area south all the way to San Diego, bringing mormona y es un empresario rico, de ley para prorrogar las rebajas im- more water to southern California cities and agrega el rotativo. positivas a la clase media. irrigating millions of acres of agribusiness Según las encuestas más re- El miércoles pasado los demócra- farmland in the Central Valley. cientes, Obama aventaja a Romney 46 tas del Senado lograron que se apro- The plan also includes restoration of the a 45 por ciento a nivel nacional, mien- bara el proyecto de ley sobre recortes Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the tras en los estados decisivos para los fiscales, con una votación de 51 a 48, state’s greatest wetland. comicios, las cifras varían. pero los republicanos reiteraron que While water users would pay the $14 En Ohio Obama supera a su ri- lo bloquearán la semana próxima en billion tab for the tunnels, taxpayers would val republicano 48 a 37 por ciento, la Cámara de Representantes, donde pay for restoration of the Delta, through en Missouri Romney gana las inten- tienen mayoría. funds from the federal government and part ciones de votos con 51 a 42 por ciento, Los republicanos sostienen que of an $11 billion water bond slated for the mientras en Virginia tienen un virtual las reducciones deben ser ampliadas 2014 ballot. empate con 44 por ciento cada uno. para todos los sectores. The new project is similar to a “pe- En Florida el mandatario tiene El actual jefe de la Casa Blanca ripheral canal” Brown proposed in 1982, un punto de ventaja (46 a 45) sobre favorece que los más ricos paguen during an earlier term as governor, which el exgobernador de Massachussets, mayores tributos y se mantengan las was rejected by voters. In 2009 the state agrega el rotativo. ventajas fiscales para la clase media, legislature passed Republican Gov. Arnold Otras noticias con el fin de reactivar la economía y Schwarzenegger’s Comprehensive Water El senador republicano por el es- afrontar el abultado déficit público, Package, which observers say lays the basis tado de Utah, Orrin Hatch, llamó hoy que para 2012 se prevé alcance más for a massive water diversion project that a mantener las rebajas de impuestos de un millón de millones de dólares. doesn’t require voters’ approval. Residents of the Delta, area Native American tribes, environmentalists, family national contact farmers, fishers, and a number of elected of- Editorial: (773) 446-9920 Business: (212) 924-2523 ficials strongly oppose its construction. Email: [email protected]