The fast food strikers were out again yesterday:
With support from union groups such as the Service Employees International Union, the fast-food protests have dramatically grown over the course of the last year. The early protests in New York City in November grew to thousands of protesters waging actions in seven other cities during the summer. An August strike spread to more than fifty cities, including areas in the South that have historically been hostile to union actions.
Mary Coleman, known to her co-workers as Ms. Mary, works at a Popeye’s in Milwaukee for $7.25 an hour. Coleman, 59, lives with her daughter, who has a heart condition, and her two grandchildren. She also relies on food stamps to make ends meet and says she would gladly trade in her Qwest card for higher wages.
Coleman says she is inspired by the organizing of low-wage workers in other states.
“I’m very excited about it, and it lets me know people can come together and do what’s right,” she says.
Danielle, 23, is a fast food worker at Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ’n Biscuits in Charleston who will be going on strike.
She walks five miles every day to work, and because she’s on her own, says she has trouble paying her bills on time. Sometimes she receives her paycheck and sees it isn’t even enough to cover rent.
“It makes me feel good because people are opening their mouths and going on strike, and saying we want a raise. We’ve been busting out butts and we finally want a raise. I’m glad to be one of the people going on strike because this is ridiculous,” she says.
Danielle adds she doesn’t fear retaliation from her employers for going on strike.
“I know my rights as a manager. They can’t fire me for opening my mouth. I earned [my paycheck], I’m a hard worker.”
I was following the strike yesterday on Twitter, and they were putting out photos.
Here’s Mary Coleman, from the story:
Chyron HR
So are we supposed to stop going to fast food places in protest? Or would that not help?
David in NY
Also, after the strike in NYC:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ba0Y9v4CUAE7yzo.jpg
Mnemosyne
@Chyron HR:
That’s my question as well. Is there something we should be doing other than lobbying our local, state, and federal government officials?
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
I think you could join the strikers, or even just go up to them and tell them you support them. My son went up and told them “good luck!” in Chicago and he said they were really appreciative.
I have not done this, however, but it’s partly because we don’t have any strikers here, so I’d have to drive quite a ways :)
Villago Delenda Est
But, but…
If we pay workers $15 an hour, the executives won’t be able to afford their monthly Maseratis, they’ll have to cut back on hookers and blow, and the fabric of the space-time continuum itself will be endangered!
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Just to be clear, it’s a good, round number. I don’t think any of them expect 15. Mary makes half that. It also sounds better than “fight for (eventually) $10.10, over 3 years” or whatever the congressional number is.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
Kay, my argument stands for any wage at all paid to the people who actually produce the product. It’s always outrageously high and will negatively impact the sacred lifestyles of the executives.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but these idiotic “Banned by Google” ads are really getting on my nerves…invariably they lead to wingtard sites that are warning you about the perils of actually having health insurance, or how the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Atheist Usurper is coming to take your gunz.
There are no hot babes. At all. Not even hot babes in nurse uniforms carrying glocks.
feebog
You can always send an email to your local SEIU or other supporting Union and tell them to keep up the fight.
kc
Last night the Daily Show did a bit on the Fox “News” gang criticizing these workers, and a local wingnut blog posted what looked like talking points attacking min. wage employees (and his commenters took up the attack with great enthusiasm).
I think we’re going to see a really nasty concerted effort by the right to go after these people.
Served
My building’s sandwich shop was closed yesterday and is closed through the weekend. I love that place and the people who work there, mostly 20-somethings like myself. When I passed by the protest yesterday, I told them I support them and “Get paid, girl!” to one of the ladies I recognized.
Now I’m hearing some (maybe most) of them are being fired. I will not be returning to that sandwich shop.
Kay, do you know if We Are One is supporting workers who are punished for striking? Is there anything we can do for them?
ETA: The most idiotic attack line against this movement is “I don’t even make $15!!” because a) this could increase their wage based on competition, and b) it’s called negotiation. You don’t start in the middle. You start with your most desired result.
David in NY
What to do? SEIU is supporting this — anything you can do to help them helps. Other local groups are supporting this or similar campaigns. In NYC, New York Communities for Change has gotten bargaining agreements for car wash guys significantly improving their working conditions. NYCC has a web page and accepts money (which they no longer get from any government source, cf. demise of ACORN). Showing up for demonstrations is great. Letting your congressperson know that a $15/hr. minimum wage is not crazy at all would help, too.
Just to keep the numbers in some perspective, in 1980 the average worker in a business got 1/40th the compensation of the CEO. See http://www.epi.org/publication/the-ceo-to-worker-compensation-ratio-in-2012-of-273/ . McDonald’s CEO made $13.8M last year. 1/40th of that would be nearly $350,000.
All figures absolutely true.
rikyrah
On long-term jobless, ‘everybody’s worst fears are coming true’
12/05/13 09:16 AM—Updated 12/05/13 09:23 AM
By Zachary Roth
……………..
But it would be a shame if boosting the minimum wage allowed Democrats to check the box on economic populism and move on. That’s because, important as it is, it does little for those not working.
That would be less of a problem if there were more turnover in the job market, with people moving often between being employed and unemployed, as used to be the case. But in recent years, there’s been far less flux. That’s creating a distinct class of people, the long-term jobless, trapped in a vicious cycle where being unemployed makes it all but impossible to get hired. And with economists warning that high unemployment could be the new normal, there’s little reason to expect this dynamic to improve.
The New York Times recently profiled a 53-year-old college graduate, Jenner Barrigton-Ward, who’s been out of work since 2008 and is now broke and homeless:
Helping people like Barrington-Ward will require policies that aren’t even in the conversation right now, like work-sharing programs and direct support for the long-term unemployed. But in the long-term, if we want to avoid creating a whole new class of people who are permanently shut out of the workforce, they’ll need to be.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/leaving-the-long-term-jobless-behind
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but Noisemax strikes again:
Israel to India: World Mourns Mandela
Links to a story taken, it appears, completely from an AP wire service report, in which Israel doesn’t rate a mention until nearly the end of it.
The first world figure quoted in the piece is the Kenyan Usurper, which is a dead giveaway that the article was not produced in-house by Noisemax.
Yet who does Noisemax focus its headline and teaser around? The neo-apartheid state of Israel.
I’m sure that the Noisemax target audience doesn’t grasp the Newspeak aspects of all this.
David in NY
@Kay: Also, given the vast increases in executive compensation, it’s worth saying not only that the minimum wage ought to keep up with inflation (that’s the 10.10) but it ought the bear some proportion to executive compensation as well which has ballooned dramatically.
C.V. Danes
History both rhymes and repeats.
As the period after the last Gilded Age was defined by labor unrest and the deep questioning of unrestrained capitalism as a viable economic model, so will the age after the current Gilded Age…
kc
@rikyrah:
This is so sad. I’ve read about companies that will reject applications out of hand if the applicant has been unemployed for a few months.
It’s just so wrong.
Mnemosyne
@Served:
It’s also idiotic because, dude, do you expect your boss to give you a raise on a silver platter? If you don’t like that you’re not getting $15 an hour, then do something about it rather than whining about people who are fighting to better themselves.
Ahh says fywp
If Occupy means anything, they should be marching with those brave min wage workers.
Lucha x 15, Expand Medicaid, Occupy Everything!
Petorado
I’m glad the media reports I’m hearing are taking note that the minimum wage is impossible to survive on without public assistance.
Trollhattan
@kc:
Jon Stewart absolutely killed last night, on the pushback against raising the minimum wage. Sometimes he simply can’t hide his contempt; this was one of those times. “Why don’t they raise it to a hundred-thousand dollars an hour?” Why, indeed, blonde financial-chat lady?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
The natural serfs just don’t get it.
They disgust me. Utterly unworthy to live in this country, under this Constitution, that so many fought, bled, and died for.
Ahh says fywp
@Chyron HR: Absolutely not. But dont cross a picket line. Join it. Bring them coffee or a snack. Honk ur horn.
Anoniminous
Good for them.
ETA: @Chyron HR:
Of course it will help. Also getting involved will help, there’s a ton of things needing doing and the strike center can always use “outsider” support.
David in NY
@kc:
Going to? Read any comments in any financial reporting about this — the racism isn’t even hidden. The number of comments that I’ve seen saying that [insert names that sound African-American here] don’t deserve any higher pay, because they are too dumb or lazy and shifltess to get a better job, are just too many to count.
Shrillhouse
Good for them!
BTW, I’m a little disappointed to see that BJ hasn’t been tinted to Shamrock Shake green…
rikyrah
‘Centrist’ think tank attacks Warren, sparks major blowback
12/05/13 11:54 AM
By Zachary Roth
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the coming battle over economic populism that could tear the Democratic Party apart. But it’s looking more and more like one side has already won.
Consider what happened this week: On Monday, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler of Third Way, a centrist Democratic Washington think tank, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that called an economic populist agenda “disastrous for Democrats.” It took particular exception to a proposal by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to expand Social Security, and blasted those who oppose cuts to Medicare. As its sole piece of evidence for the idea that populism is politically harmfu, it cited Colorado voters’ recent rejection of an initiative to raise taxes to pay for public education and universal pre-K.
Cowan and Kessler’s argument, on both the policy and the politics, has already been thoroughly demolished (see here and here, among other places). But what’s fascinating is the swift and decisive pushback their op-ed generated.
As the Huffington Post reported, Warren sent a letter to six big banks urigng them to dislcose the think tanks and lobby shops they fund—the implication being that much of the backing for groups advocating the kind of business-friendly economic poicies supported by Third Way comes, undisclosed. from Wall Street.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/attack-warren-sparks-major-blowback
pharniel
What’s hilarious is that if you read the LGF “This day in labour history” management was routinely able to utterly destroy unions simply by giving workers 50% of whatever they wanted.
Digging in heels and resorting to brute force just convinced everyone that the Union was right and that the owners had no intent on being reasonable individuals.
Plus ca change eh?
rikyrah
Will Democrats go to the mat on jobless benefits?
12/06/13 12:27 PM
By Zachary Roth
I wrote yesterday about how it would be a bad thing if Democrats’ economic populist agenda was limited to boosting the minimum wage, as important as that is. And today comes news that reinforces the point.
House Republicans and Senate Democrats are close to agreement on a budget deal. But right now it doesn’t include an extension of unemployment benefits, even though they’re set to expire for at least 1.3 million Americans.
This is a long way from over. Democrats are insisting on including a benefits extension in the budget agreement, and House Speaker John Boehner has said he’ll “take a look at it.” But Democrats haven’t said whether they’d make it a condition for supporting a deal.
If anything’s worth going to the mat for, this is.
If benefits aren’t extended, most workers would only be eligible for 26 weeks, or six months, of benefits. Right now, the long-term unemployment rate is at 2.6%, out of a total unemployment rate of 7%. That means around 37% of all jobless workers have been out of work for more than six months. In other words, more than one in three workers has currently been jobless for a longer period than benefits would run for if, they’re not extended.
On a human level, cutting off benefits would be cruel: It’s been clear for a while that most of the people out of work for this long aren’t jobless because they’re not trying hard enough—the justification that many Republicans have given for their reluctance to extend benefits. Instead, they’re stuck in a vicious cycle where being unemployed makes it harder to get hired.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/will-dems-go-the-mat-jobless-benefits
soonergrunt
You want to know how to make this happen on a local level?
Labor needs to run their own candidates when the local Dem party won’t support labor issues.
Like HERE.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
Centrist, my ass. Made up of investment banksters who should all be staked naked near a fire ant colony in the noonday sun and covered in honey.
kc
@Trollhattan:
Yeah, he did good.
VidaLoca
Folks,
As some of you may be aware I’ve been involved as a supporter of the fast-food organizing drive here in Milwaukee since it started in the summer. Kay has been kind enough to post emails I’ve sent her about some of the previous goings-on here so I’d like to share with you another brief report.
I spent yesterday morning at the strike/rally we organized (that’s us in the bottom of the 4 pictures that Kay attached to her post — big McDonald’s sign in the left background). We marched from the McD’s to a Wendy’s a couple of blocks away and shut the Wendy’s down for about 45 minutes while we did a teachin in the restaurant about the fast-food economy. In all there are about 100 shops in the Milwaukee area involved, as well as shops in Madison and Wausau. To our pleasant surprise we got very positive coverage in the media from outlets across the state, including even the local Fox New affiliate (yeah I can’t explain it either. Sometimes you just get lucky I guess).
I went out this morning on “walkbacks” with 3 of the strikers of yesterday who were coming back on their shifts today. All went without incident.
The biggest thing to report from the yesterday’s activities is the continuing growth of the movement, the growth of the demand for “15 dollars and a union”. We have been able to leverage this in a new effort this fall in support of a “Living Wage” ordinance that would guarantee employees of firms contracting to provide goods or services to Milwaukee County a wage of 110% of the federal poverty guideline for a family of 4 (that works out to about $12.50/hour). The ordinance comes up for a vote before the Board on Dec. 19 and we think we may succeed in getting it passed.
Commenters above ask how to support the movement if there is no movement where you live. The outfit here that’s doing the heavy lifting is “Wisconsin Jobs Now” and you can contribute via the “Donate” button on the upper right corner of the page. There are also links there that give more information on local events as well as the Living Wage ordinance.
geg6
@David in NY:
Just had this exact argument with my racist staff assistant. “Those people” are just losers and they take from welfare and game food stamps and they don’t really work and I don’t make $15 an hour so why should they and they’re all on drugs and they have more babies to make more money and I lived in the projects and know that none of them deserve that money like I did when I got it and if they want $15 an hour they should go to college.
This from a woman who lived in public housing for at least a decade, who got her associate’s at a community college funded by the state and using the federal Pell grant and while on welfare and food stamps, who now works at a public research university which paid 75% of the bill for her son’s college degree.
Oh, and she’ll be the first to tell you how she is a “devout” Christian.
Villago Delenda Est
@geg6:
Of the modern, obsessed with money type.
Jesus is not her teacher, obviously.
VidaLoca
@soonergrunt: Thanks for that link. I will disseminate it around here. We face a very similar situation and we are considering a similar solution.
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
The crazy thing is that she does make quite a bit more than $15 an hour. So I don’t know what she’s ranting about. And then she went on about how prices will go up and I asked if it would kill her to pay $1.25 for that dollar menu item rather than $1. And also why the money for the increase had to come at the customer’s expense since the CEO of Micky D’s makes multi-millions every year, so he could probably weather a year in which he made a few multi-million less.
And she is also always on me about how I can’t be a good person because I’m an atheist. Somehow, I’m morally tainted and she isn’t.
David in NY
@Chyron HR:
A lead organizer for fast food forward that I know responds: “Workers haven’t called for a boycott (though obviously you should not patronize on strike day). The best thing to do is find the website of the organization nearest to you and sign up so you know when the next events are!”
El Tiburon
I do sense a certain nation-wide groundswell of progressivism/populism whatever that seems to be breaking out.
Obama is leaning left. Of course Elizabeth Warren. Workers strikes. Talks about increasing Social Security, legalizing pot, increasing minimum wage and so on.
Perhaps it’s time for our Arab Spring.
David in NY
She’s a Christian because God tells her she’s better than those people.
scav
@geg6: She better have The Lord and All His Minions firmly under her boney thumb as she’s explaining to Him her superior Moral and Monetary worth than all the rest of us mere images of His form wandering about the planet. Last I checked the syllabus, she wasn’t in charge of grading and “Devout” in no way corresponds to “Saved” let alone any 4.0 GodlyPointAverage.
David in NY
@El Tiburon: Right. Did you see the House Dems’ plan (if Twitter is to be believed) for financing extended unemployment benefits? Hire new IRS employees for ca. $15 billion, who can collect $39 billion in deliquent tax payments! Voila! Right there’s a change of tune.
Amir Khalid
@El Tiburon:
I feel a song coming on.
ruemara
@rikyrah: This is me and homelessness is what I’m facing definitely by July and possibly at any moment. People really do not get what’s happening in the job market. It’s crazy.
I say, contact state legislatures and congresspeople to voice support. Write an LTE breaking down the basics of a consumer economy and why this is a boost. I would also say contact the CEOs and executive leadership of these companies and make the same argument along with the bonus argument of good PR.
@geg6: That’s your assistant? Remind her of that. Also remind her she can’t serve GAWD and Mammon, which is what she’s doing. Quote this verse, “Muzzle not the oxen that beareth the yoke”.
geg6
@David in NY:
LOL! I love that idea!
David in NY
@geg6: Via Sam Stein of HuffPo.
Yeah, the times they are a’changing.
rikyrah
@FrankConniff
Santorum is wrong to compare Obamacare to Apartheid because unlike Obamacare, many Republicans supported Apartheid.
Kay
@VidaLoca:
Hah! Hi VidaLoca. Lucky break, I looked at tens of photos and just picked these out of the lot.
Thanks so much for giving us a report.
Kay
@soonergrunt:
I can’t believe the county Democrats did that. Without the Labor Council, there would be no “Democratic Party” in this county. They do all the work. I basically stand around and make them laugh while they work :)
It would be suicide for us.
MattR
@Served: If you are feeling feisty, you can go into the sandwich shop and ask where one or more of the fired employees is. When they tell you she no longer works there, then you can tell them that you no longer have a reason to shop there. That makes sure they know there is an explicit connection between their decision and the loss of your business.
VidaLoca
@Kay: Kay, I can believe the County Democrats did that. It’s that bad, and even worse, here.
For example: I mentioned above the Living Wage ordinance that’s coming before the County Board for a vote in a couple of weeks. There are 18 members on the board but we need to get at least 2/3 of them (12 votes) in support. Why? Because it’s a dead certainty that the County Executive (a Democrat and a very wealthy one at that) will veto the ordinance as he has vetoed similar measures in the past.
Can we get 12 votes? Remains to be seen. That 12th potential vote has a lot of relevance all of a sudden. It’s the “Baucus effect”.
Mnemosyne
@MattR:
That would be most effective if you do it when one of the owners is on duty.
Eric U.
@kc: just saw one of those internet meme posters with soldiers taking cover with a legend, “we don’t make minimum wage and you want $15 an hour to slap a burger on a bun?” Of course, it’s criminal that we have soldiers that qualify for public assistance
soonergrunt
@Kay: It seems to have been suicide for them.
Mnemosyne
@Eric U.:
Which, again, makes me say to those people, Why are you satisfied that our soldiers make less than minimum wage? If you care so much about them, shouldn’t you be trying to get them more money?
It’s just such a weird stance. If you’re upset that soldiers aren’t getting paid enough, then get off your ass and do something about it the same way these workers are doing something.
VidaLoca
@Mnemosyne:
“Satisfied? Hey it’s not my problem. Hell, they volunteered.”
soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: Here’s a good song, too. Pete Seeger, “Solidarity Forever.”
Tokyokie
@kc: Because the hiring process has largely moved online, personnel managers rarely even look at résumés these days; they let computer algorithms evaluate them first, and reject most applicants. It’s cruel, it’s stupid, and it’s probably ultimately counterproductive — a mediocre candidate with a conforming résumé has a much better chance of making it through the process than an exceptional candidate with a slightly nonconforming one. But that’s the MBA way.
MattR
@Mnemosyne: Good point. If the owners are not around, you can try a “tell your boss …” and that might filter back to the owners at a local sandwich place, but better to tell them directly if possible (or at least a manager/supervisor who should be more likely to pass the msg).
For some reason, I don’t think my message made its way all the way to Jamie Dimon when I closed my Chase account a couple years ago.
scav
@Mnemosyne: Soldiers and Service workers joining forces to achieve a living wage? mmmmmmmm. Coalition building. Would they like some special forces with their secret sauce? I’m loving it.
burnspbesq
If you get into it with a wingnut on this topic, eventually you’ll hear about all the empirical evidence that “proves” that raising the minimum wage results in reduced employment.
The answer to that is that all of those studies involve small, incremental increases in the minimum wage. The truth (which any intellectually honest economist will concede) is that nobody has any fucking clue what the effect of an order-of-magnitude increase in the minimum wage would be.
David in NY
@Eric U.: Have things changed or do soldiers no longer get room and board in addition to pay? And health care coverage for the rest of their lives?
catclub
@David in NY: Neat! And one that both sides understand – paying for more IRS results in more taxes received. Just different views of whether that is a good thing.
catclub
@David in NY: “And health care coverage for the rest of their lives? ” I think it only lifetime coverage for service related conditions, but that is just my guess.
Otherwise I think there would be a lot more customers for VA care.
Kay
@soonergrunt:
I wonder if it’s the “Democratic County” part. They take labor for granted.
We can’t afford to piss them off here. There aren’t enough Democrats to split off. Any centrist, Third Way group would have about three members, and they wouldn’t be the people who actually do anything.
VidaLoca
@Kay: Heh. Here, the centrist, Third Way group is the Democratic Party. And they don’t do anything. Anything that does get done, gets done without the Democrats.
And that’s just Milwaukee County. Don’t even get me started on the State D.P.
David in NY
@burnspbesq: Actually, if you believe Paul Krugman, the studies do not show any significant job losses due to raises in the minimum wage. And it seems to me that just to raise it back to the inflation adjusted rate it used to be, now about $10/hr., should not have much effect. But you’re probably right, we’ve never doubled it before — whatever that means for the multiplier-effect stimulus it would have versus business greater incentive to cut employment (although somebody’s got to flip those burgers, right?).
Krugman: “And the evidence is overwhelmingly positive: hiking the minimum wage has little or no adverse effect on employment, while significantly increasing workers’ earnings.” NYT, 12/1/2013
soonergrunt
@catclub: That would be correct.
David in NY
@catclub: I don’t think its just service related injuries (I believe they have a substantial geriatric practice). A quick look at the site seems like about seven different groups may be covered (rated from group 1, those disabled or POW’s, etc., down to group 7). Depending on resources available, they may reduce coverages for some groups. No exact idea how that’s working in practice, but it looks available to many, many veterans.
David in NY
@soonergrunt: OK, then.
soonergrunt
@David in NY: Non-service connected Vets can get care at VA if they are indigent, or cannot get health insurance. I don’t know the full details, not my department, but I do know that.
As a service-connected Vet (has disability of one or more types directly resulting from military service in excess of a 30% rating) I’m group 2, I believe.
VA expects to accede a lot more Vets into the system under PPACA. I don’t know how many–again, not my department–but I do know that we are expecting an influx.
David in NY
@soonergrunt: Thanks. Mine is a case of just a little knowledge being dangerous. Way back in the ’80’s, I used expert witnesses from VA (a great guy in physical medicine, i.e. rehab, especially) who were dealing with geriatric cases, but probably indigent ones, and I just assumed general entitlement into old age. Should shut mouth when not sure.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: You probably know this, but Obama directly addressed the long-term unemployed issue in his speech this week. I believe in the form of an incentive for companies to hire them. He also made an issue of extending unemployment insurance, as did Pelosi. I’m a bit surprised by how “meh” the reaction to Obama’s speech has been. It was some red meat for progressives, I thought.
geg6
@soonergrunt:
My oldest brother has had VA medical services for at least a decade. His problem is not service related (he has bipolar disorder), but it is quite severe. He was unemployed when he was diagnosed and, obviously, has not worked since then. We’d tried to have him diagnosed and treated when he had employer-provided insurance, but no one ever was able to diagnose him. The VA was the first place to finally figure it out. He’d be dead if he hadn’t been able to access the VA.
the Conster
@Betty Cracker:
Just words.
Villago Delenda Est
@David in NY:
The bolded part is, in and of itself, a very undesirable effect by the reckoning of the parasite vermin of the 1%.
These people cannot enjoy their grand meals unless they know others are starving.
soonergrunt
@geg6: A significant number of our indigent client base are Vets with mental illness who, like your brother, cannot work. And there’s a possibility that there is some service connection to his illness. Military service can be stressful, even in peacetime, and possibly contributes to bipolar or other disorders. Certainly the age range of typical initial onset of symptoms overlaps with typical military service age–late teens to early thirties.
And the pattern of “he had insurance but the doctors in his insurance plan couldn’t diagnose him” sounds familiar. If a psychiatrist diagnoses too many patients as requiring long-term care–patients who, not incidentally, are disabled and cannot work, they can be dropped from participation in medical plans. Or at least they could under the old system.
We are not a profit-making enterprise, so we don’t have a bottom line other than A) provide the care our brothers and sisters need, and B) provide teaching opportunities to our partner medical schools. VA has a significant Public Health mission.
soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s mainly about keeping people desperate. Those who have a little are desperate to hang on to it, and are less likely than those who have nothing or those who have more to rock the boat.
David in NY
@geg6: @soonergrunt: I was really impressed with the VA medical people I met. I was doing litigation for prisoners about inadequate medical care, and they, dealing with a population that had many of the same problems, were enormously helpful. They, of course, had the benefit of being funded by the United States of America, while the prisons and jails I dealt with were not.
Belafon
@rikyrah: Kos has a great chart about the “Third Way” board members: Out of the 29 on the list, 3 are CEOs, 20 are investment bankers, and 2 are corporate lawyers. The others have not been tagged on the chart.
burnspbesq
@David in NY:
Krugman is a bit of an outlier in how he views that literature. What looks to me like the consensus view is that the coefficient is around -0.1 (i.e., a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage shrinks the pool of minimum-wage jobs by one percent).
I will say, however, that I find those data somewhat counter-intuitive. It looks like the preponderance of what minimum wage jobs still exist are in hospitality and food-service. Those jobs are, by and large, not going to be automated out of existence, so absent a big pool of unemployed the holders of those jobs would appear to have some leverage.
The joker in the deck, of course, is that the vast majority of foodservice employees don’t work for big public companies. They work for franchisees, which are predominantly small, locally-owned, and leveraged out the wazoo. When the owner of your local Burger Queen or Dairy King says he can’t afford to see his wage bill double, he may not be kidding.
sparrow
@soonergrunt: Awesome story. Gives me some hope, thanks.
Belafon
@burnspbesq: And that’s why I don’t think you can have a 7.25 to 15 all at once change. have it be something like a 13% increase each year over the next 7 years (that would get us to 15 in six years, and then one more for inflation). After that, tie the minimum wage to inflation.
sparrow
@VidaLoca: Thank you for the report, and just want to say you have HUGE respect from me for doing what you do. Those walkbacks are SO important, but must take a lot of guts. I will def. give to the Wisconsin Jobs Now ppl this month. Good luck with your fight.
Gene108
@soonergrunt:
Where you gonna stick the mentally ill, who cannot work and need long term care?
Non-VA docs probably have an issue with allocating scarce mental health resources and good long term care is hard to find, because no one wants to invest the money needed to fund quality group homes for people needing long term treatment.
The group homes, where I had friends were well run because people there were getting Section 8 money, and the Section 8 folks are damn strict about making sure their money goes to keeping houses in working order.
I’m not sure about none Section 8/state subsidized places.
Also, too in NJ, the last I looked, the folks who work in these homes (handing out meds, making sure the residents keep the place clean, take them to activities, etc) earn at most $12/hr.
The money paid to mental health professionals seriously lags behind the rest of the medical profession,
David in NY
@burnspbesq: As I have read the studies in the past, some studies don’t find any effect and some find something like 1%, which I think is what Krugman’s saying. So whoopee. You don’t see the anti-raise folks out there saying, “OMG, if they raise your pay there’s one chance in 100 you’ll lose your job — or maybe not even that!,” do you now? Because workers in those jobs are likely to say, “Big deal, just give me the money and I’ll take those odds.” And, as I said, who’s gonna flip those burgers, anyway?
VidaLoca
@sparrow: Many thanks, but as for guts I can’t take much credit. The people who are really showing the guts is the folks who are going out on strike.
Jebediah, RBG
Speaking of low wage workers, just saw this at Raw story:
These fucking execs really, really need to experience living on the wages they pay for a few months.
Ruckus
@MattR:
This.
You have to let management know why you no longer shop someplace. And not just local management. If you know how much you regularly spend in a place let them know that they will lose $x per month. My local supermarket used to give me a hassle because I walked there and wore a backpack to carry my purchases, which they didn’t like. I loudly informed them that if they kept this up they would lose the approx $400/month that I would no longer be spending on food in their store. And that I would write a letter to headquarters letting them know this. It isn’t a big sum by itself but others that heard me were nodding their heads in agreement. The manager noticed and things have changed.
Ruckus
@MattR:
I told the branch manager when I closed my Bunch of Assholes account exactly why I did. She did not seem at all surprised, I think she had heard it before. Being BofA I’d bet she heard it quite regularly in fact.
Ruckus
@soonergrunt:
I’m one of those who get care because of money, or more appropriately, lack of it. Some of the limitations are based on when you served as you may know, some on if you have or can afford private insurance. Some, as you are, are based on level of disability or being a pow. I’d imagine senator jonnie would be fully covered. And even though he is an asshole, he earned it. But there is a reason that most of the patients at the VA are Viet era vets and that is many of the latter service members do not get coverage unless they have a service connected disability.
All of the above is as I understand it. It is fully explained on the VA website but as always the devil is in the details.
Kay
@burnspbesq:
Actually, McDonalds is screwing their franchisees, too:
In my humble opinion, burns, we have a systemic BUSINESS problem in this country, and it isn’t workers. Workers are more productive than they’ve ever been. It’s Wall Street. It’s an ethos at the top that says it’s okay to screw over everyone below them, and just take more and more and more.
No one wins, except the people at the tippy-top.
So where’s the correction supposed to start? It may as well start at the bottom, because someone has to start it, and they’re the only ones who stepped up- probably because they have next to nothing to lose.
David in NY
@Kay: If McD’s increases their control over franchisees, they may be falling into a trap. Details may be important.