The 99% march on the McKenna Agenda

By Nathan Jackson "Romney and Ryan look at Medicare and Medicaid as a bunch of numbers waiting to be cut down, " said Carol Green, a healthcare worker and SEIU 1199NW member. "My patients aren't numbers. I'm not a number. We're not numbers. We're people who just want what was promised."

Green stood in front of Swedish Hospital, wearing her scrubs, speaking to the 99% who had gathered to stand up for affordable healthcare.

"My patients don't know how they are going to pay their bills," she said. "If McKenna and the rest of them gut Medicaid my patients will literally have to choose between food or medicine."

More than a hundred of the 99% had gathered in the hot August sun to protest the McKenna agenda--which includes making Medicaid and Medicare more expensive for the folks who can least afford it.

Attorney General Rob McKenna in an Op/Ed published less than two months ago wrote that he would support and advocate for Medicaid patients to pay more--patients who are economically the weakest amongst us. Meanwhile he wants to make it harder to close corporate tax loopholes and has opposed proposals to make sure the top 1% pay their fair share.

So he wants the poor and working folks to pay more for their healthcare while standing by and not doing anything to make sure the rich pay their fair share? It doesn’t make sense.

Mila Dolan is on Medicare. She uses a mobilized chair to get around and she grabbed the microphone. She had a few notes with her, but she didn’t even need them.

"I don't have much to say," she said. "I just want to tell you all that I rely on Medicare to stay alive."

Mila paused and looked around at the crowd.

"I have to see a doctor at least once a month," she said. "If we let these guys get away with stripping Medicare I might not make it. Have they ever had to choose between medicine and bread? If they get their way I’ll have to make that choice every day. It’s not right and we have to stop it.”

Khoa Nguyen, a student, was the MC of the event. He spoke to the crowd occasionally looking at his prepared notes on his phone.

“We’re gathered here today because today is the day that Mitt Romney accepts the Republican nomination,” he said. “Today the 1% are in Tampa celebrating their dream. But to the rest of us their 1% agenda is a nightmare.”

He paused scrolling down on his notes.

“This isn’t about this party or that party,” he said. “This is about what is right for the 99%. We need elected officials who will fight for good jobs, quality, affordable healthcare and the rights of workers to get together to make changes.”

Cars honked in support and we pressed in closer as he continued.

“Their agenda is more of the same,” he said. “The rich get richer and the working people get nothing. We’re here to say ‘No to the Romney Economy, No to the Ryan Budget and No to the McKenna Agenda. Let’s go down to Attorney General McKenna’s office...right now.”

He directed us on our march from First Hill to the International District where Attorney General Rob McKenna has his campaign office. All the way through downtown folks looked on many throwing us a thumbs up or cheering as we chanted “We don’t want a Romney Economy!” or “Healthcare Cuts? Hell no!”

We arrived in Hing Hay park right across the street from McKenna’s office and RJ Williams walking with his signature cane stood up to speak to us.

“I just don’t get it. We are not out here trying to get some hand out or charity,” he said. “We just want what was promised us. We’ve paid into a system that was promised to be there for us when we needed it. We need it right now, today.”

He shook his head.

“It’s like they’ve forgotten what was promised,” he said. “I’m struggling to make it right now. I’m in the throws of cancer and this guy wants me to somehow dig up an extra 700 dollars? He wants people on Medicaid and Medicare to somehow scramble up more money? If I had that kind of money laying around I would have flown to Mexico and gotten treatment for free. We’ve worked hard for our Medicare and Medicaid. It’s not theirs to dangle around. It’s ours.”

Workers & seniors rally to say: "Medicare & Medicaid Cuts Make Us Sick"

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR AUGUST 30, 2012***Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org

On the day Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan formally accept the Republican nomination...

Workers & seniors rally to say: "Medicare & Medicaid Cuts Make Us Sick"

99% to march from First Hill hospital district to Republican Rob McKenna's campaign office

On the day Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan accept their nominations in Tampa, the 99% will rally in Seattle's First Hill hospital district and march to Rob McKenna's campaign office to call for an end to Republican budget plans that include tax cuts for big corporations and the top 1%, and Medicare & Medicaid cuts for the rest of us. Together, workers, seniors, and community activists will speak out for a different set of priorities and send an unmistakeable message: "Medicare & Medicaid Cuts Make Us Sick".

Like Romney and Ryan, Rob McKenna is pushing a budget agenda that that would force deep cuts to Medicaid for seniors and disabled people — while also making it harder to close corporate tax loopholes. Maybe that's why McKenna recently said "There's no better expert on the federal budget than Representative Ryan."

When: Thursday, August 30th at 11:00 am

Where: 99% protestors will gather at corner of Boren & James in heart of First Hill hospital district.  After brief rally, march will head to Rob McKenna's campaign office at 601 S King Street, Seattle

What/visuals: Workers & seniors marching from First Hill to Rob McKenna's campaign office with signs, banners, and several 3-foot-diameter Mr. Yuk faces to say "Medicare & Medicaid cuts make us sick".

About the McKenna/Romney/Ryan budget proposals: 

• The Ryan budget would end Medicare & Medicare as we know them. Ryan would hand Medicare over to private insurance companies, increase costs, and make seniors wait 2 additional years before receiving benefits at all. Funding for Medicaid would be slashed by more than a third, eliminating benefits for at least 14 million people.
• Rob McKenna is pushing a state budget that would force further reductions to Medicaid services for seniors and people with disabilities — while making it harder to close corporate tax loopholes or make sure the rich pay their fair share.
• McKenna has endorsed the Romney/Ryan ticket and praised Ryan by saying there is "no better expert" on the Federal budget than him.
• The Romney/Ryan/McKenna agenda would slash services and eliminate thousands of jobs — at a time when we have already lost more than 15,000 jobs due to state budget cuts in the last year alone.

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Working Washington is bringing people together to fight for a fair economy. We are speaking out to demand that our political leaders do what it takes to invest in good jobs and move the economy forward. We need good jobs — not cuts to funding for education, health care, and other services. For more information, visit WorkingWa.org 

No candidate or candidate's committee authorized this ad. It is paid for by Working Washington, 15 S. Grady Way, Ste 500, Renton, WA.

Let's give the 1% something to worry about.

by Nate Jackson On August 30, the 1% will be celebrating as Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney formally accept the Republican nomination. Rob McKenna will be cheering them on since all three have the same tired, 1% agenda: ending Medicare and Medicaid as we know it, giving out huge handouts to the richest 1% and expecting the rest of us to shoulder the costs.

It makes me sick.

So on August 30th as Romney and the 1% slap each other's backs, we'll be raising our voices to say no to the Romney economy, no to the Ryan Budget and no the McKenna agenda. Join us.

Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are campaigning on a budget proposal that would end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them, replacing these critical healthcare programs with cut-rate substitutes in order to pay for still more tax cuts for the rich.

McKenna has talked about a budget plan that will shift costs of Medicaid onto the shoulders of our seniors, disabled and those who’ve fallen on tough times. McKenna’s proposals would eliminate thousands of healthcare jobs — at a time when more than 15,000 jobs have been lost in just the past year due to state budget cuts.

Cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid and cutting jobs just doesn’t make sense. Join us on August 30th to say no thanks to the Ryan/Romney/McKenna agenda.

They just don’t get it. Do Romney, McKenna, and company really think that making sickening cuts to Medicare and Medicaid while doling out tax breaks to the richest 1% will get us to vote for them?

[Paid for by Working Washington, www.workingwa.org, and not Authorized by any Candidate or Candidate's Committee.]

99%-ers from Kent & Lakewood heading to Tampa to bring their voices to the Republican convention

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org

Local community members will join hundreds from around the country bringing their voices directly to the convention of the 1%

As the Republican Party prepares to nominate Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan in Tampa, hundreds of others from across the country — including workers, concerned community members, and good jobs activists — are heading to Tampa as well. They're bringing the voices of the 99% to the convention of the 1%.

John Harris of Lakewood is an army vet, currently working for minimum wage at a local chain restaurant while struggling to get enough flight hours to qualify for a job as a pilot. He is trying hard to build a better future, but it's tough to get ahead — or even to get by — in a 1% economy that seems to only offer low wages, budget cuts, and tax breaks for the rich.

Lashawna Bowman of Kent is a mother of two struggling to make ends meet in an economy where wealth always seems to trickle up and budget cuts always seem to trickle down. She sees the way budget cuts have already impacted the school her children attend and the community where she lives, so she can't believe politicians celebrating in Tampa are actually pushing for more cuts to programs like Medicare & Medicaid.

Who: Minimum-wage worker John Harris of Lakewood; Lashawna Bowman, a mother from Kent; and hundreds of other workers, unemployed people, and concerned community members. Please note: John and Lashawna are available for interviews — contact Sage Wilson at 206-227-6014 for details.

What: 99%-ers bringing their stories and their voices to the Convention of the 1%.

When: August 27, 2012 - August 30, 2012

Where: Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida

John Harris, Lashawna Bowman, and many others from dozens of cities across the country are traveling to Tampa to call for an end to policies that would mean low-wage jobs, more corporate tax breaks for the rich, and more budget cuts on the backs of working families and their communities. They are coming to Tampa to make sure the voices of the 99% are part of the story at the convention of the 1%.

Working Washington is bringing people together to fight for a fair economy. We are speaking out to demand that our political leaders do what it takes to invest in good jobs and move the economy forward. We need good jobs — not cuts to funding for education, health care, and other services. For more information, visit WorkingWa.org

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Alaska Airlines should hire contractors that pay a living wage

(Originally posted on The Seattle Times.) OP/ED by Mia Gregerson

ALASKA Airlines has been praised for cutting costs and increasing profits over the past three years, all while maintaining quality customer service and flying its planes on time. What you may not know is that many of the employees responsible for the airline's record of service do not actually work for Alaska Airlines.

In fact, many of the workers who serve Alaska passengers are among the thousands of poverty-wage workers who are employed not by the airlines or by the airport itself, but by low-bid contractors.

The people who load your bags onto an Alaska flight work for a contractor. When your bags get to you within 20 minutes of your plane parking at the gate -- as Alaska guarantees -- that work is actually performed by contract workers who are paid wages starting at $9.25 an hour.

The people who fuel the aircraft do hard work that requires skill and precision. Alaska has received kudos for having these workers pump biodiesel into their planes. But they, too, are paid poverty wages by a low-bid contractor.

It's the same story with skycaps and wheelchair attendants (minimum wage, or $9.04 per hour, plus tips) and the workers who clean the cabins (pay range starts at minimum wage). Over the years, Alaska and many other airlines have chosen to contract out this work to the lowest bidder, with devastating impact on communities like mine.

Read the entire article here: Alaska Airlines should hire contractors that pay a living wage

Send an email to letters@seattletimes.com letting them know what you think about the poverty wage jobs at our airport

The Port of Seattle builds a swanky VIP lounge.

by Nathan Jackson

The Port of Seattle and Alaska Airlines have entered a partnership to upgrade the north terminal to the tune of $230 million dollars. The port is paying the lion’s share, investing $194 million into the upgrade that will modernize facilities, improve seismic safety and even throw in an executive lounge for VIP customers.

It’s good that the Port wants to upgrade their facilities and improve the experience of the riders who will benefit. After all it’s been 40 years according to the joint press release since the terminal has seen any upgrades. But when was the last time poverty-wage workers in that terminal have had an update to their wages or working conditions?

In fact, some of the workers have been downgraded. The Port has allowed companies like Alaska Airlines to start shipping jobs off to the lowest bidder contractors, like ASIG and Menzies. Some jobs which used to be decent jobs have been demoted as these low bid contractors cut corners in pay, safety and even workers’ respect.

It’s time to change that.

The jobs that keep our airport moving, skycaps, fuelers, ramp workers, cabin cleaners, and baggage handlers, deserve an upgrade too. They are asking just for what every worker deserves: living wages, affordable healthcare and respect in the workplace.

The Port of Seattle, by entering this partnership with Alaska, is showing it can take a hands-on approach. If it can enter an agreement about spending hundreds of millions of dollars, surely it can have a chat with Alaska and the other airlines about the thousands of poverty wage jobs at our airport.

The Port was started to ensure that our airport and other ports were an economic engine that lifted the region up. They’ve shown a great willingness to improve and upgrade the facilities around our airport. Now it’s time they show that same willingness and excitement to make sure every job at our airport is a good job.

The 99% form a SuperPAC--a People's Action Committee.

It’s all over the news.The 1%, the super-rich, has a new weapon in their arsenal of control--the SuperPAC. SuperPACs take unlimited money, lobby and launch advertisements for the selected candidates and policies of the 1%. Policies like more tax breaks for the wealthy, low wage jobs for the rest of us and unfair access to our legislators. Time to change the rules. It’s time the 99% got its own SuperPAC--but not a money laundering operation, a People’s Action Committee.Jobs are scarce. Working folks continue to see their wages stagnate while gas, food and housing costs rise. The rich keep getting richer while the rest of us are barely making ends meet. It’s time for the 99% to step up and make real change. The 99% SuperPAC is us, standing up for policies that put the needs of the 99% first instead of the whims and desires of the rich. Together we can fight for economic justice, good jobs and a fairer tax system where the rich pay their fair share and the economy is steered towards a path that works for all of us. We need good jobs. Too many of us are either out of work or working in jobs that do not pay living wages or have no chance for a better future. We have the know-how, the skills and the drive. It’s time that we also had good jobs with living wages, safe working conditions, and the right to speak out together to improve our jobs. We need the rich and the big corporations to pay their fair share. The 1% has said that giving tax breaks to the richest amongst us will stimulate the economy and create jobs. We knew it was a joke theory, but the 1% have gamed the system. We were forced to try that and it just doesn’t work. The rich need to pay their fair share into the system that they benefit from. We need the 1% to play by the same rules that we do. It’s only fair. We need an economy that works for the 99%, and we can’t afford to wait any longer. We have to make our priorities more important to our elected officials than the 1% money that has influenced our legislators to create policies that enrich the rich and hurt the rest of us. We need to register to vote, get our neighbors involved and most importantly hold our elected officials accountable to us both in and beyond the voting booth. We won’t let them forget who put them in power in the first place. Join us as we meet community by community and push our elected officials to finally stand up for the rest of us, the 99%. Together we can create good jobs, make the rich pay their fair share and create a better economy that works for all of us.

99% SuperPAC Meetings People’s Action Committee Greenwood Tuesday, August 21st 6:00 pm Greenwood Library 8016 Greenwood Ave Bellevue Wednesday, August 22nd 7:00 pm Bellevue City Hall 450 110th Ave NE Boulevard Park Thursday, August 23rd 6:00 pm Blvd. Park Library 12015 Roseberg Ave Central Seattle Tuesday, August 28th 5:30 pm Douglas-Truth Library 23rd and Yesler West Tacoma Tuesday, August 28th 6:00 pm Greener Bean Coffee 1039 Regents Blvd.

Broken fuel trucks? Vacuum cleaners on fire? Alaska Airlines- contracted workers deserve to work in a safer place.

Originally posted on itsourairport.org By Nate Jackson

Sifredo Flores, a Fueler at Sea-Tac airport, pulls up his sunglasses and starts telling the on-duty manager of Alaska Airlines why he and 25 other community members came out to talk.

“I’m a fueler. I work hard, but ASIG doesn’t have any respect for us,” he said. “We have to work whether it is rain or snow, sick or well and the equipment we use doesn’t always work.”

Flores drives a truck that takes the fuel out to the Alaska airplanes. He’s is one of many fuelers who work for ASIG, the fueling contractor.

On a typical refueling he and other fuelers at our airport are hauling out over 10,000 lbs of high grade airplane fuel--in trucks that have shoddy brakes. Workers report that many of the trucks have emergency brakes that give out, defrosters that refuse to deice the windshields and other problems that make the act of hauling highly flammable fuel even more dangerous.

Flores continued.

“We do the work,’ he said. “We do it and the fuel gets soaked into our uniforms. We have to take our clothes home and wash them in our own family washing machines. It’s not right.”

For the entire story check out www.itsourairport.org

Don't let Waste Management kick workers to the curb

Update: Recycle and Yard Waste drivers have reached a new 6 year deal with Waste Management. For more details visit teamsters117.org. Recycle and yard waste drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 117, voted to ratify a 6-year contract agreement this morning. The contract vote was held after a 9 A.M. meeting at the Teamsters building in Tukwila. The Local 117 leadership and bargaining committee fully recommended the proposal for ratification by the membership.

by Sage Wilson

It's the same old rhetorical tactic greedy employers recycle over & over again: Waste Management executives are trying to convince the public that the people who drive their trucks are living high on the hog, claiming that the "total compensation" of a truck driver is almost in the six figures.

Yeah, right. That must be why all the recycle trucks have bumper stickers that say "My other ride is an Aston-Martin".

It's obviously a bunch of a garbage, and it's frustrating that some reporters are letting the company get away with building a rats nest of confusion out of their rotten numbers without even having to break down where they come from.

For example, the Seattle Times recently cited a starting wage for a recycle driver of $17 an hour, which works out to about $34,000 a year. And yet they also seem to swallow the junk numbers Waste Management feeds them, also mentioning a $98,000 figure for a driver's "total compensation". So here's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: where did they get the extra $64,000 from? Clearly, it's rubbish. Because you definitely don't see a number anywhere near that on drivers' pay stubs.

But they say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and that's definitely true for Waste Management CEO David Steiner— he's shoveling millions a year into his bank account on the backs of sanitation workers and the rate-paying public. In fact, it turns out that his $5.19 million salary works out to a bit more than $98,000... every week. So maybe the corporate executives were trashed when they did the calculation, so they got themselves confused? Because it's obvious that the guy who's feeding like a pig at a trough is the one who's making 52 times more than a driver makes in their wildest fantasies.

And while you wouldn't glean this fact from the TV reports, sanitation work is among the most dangerous in the country. Since 2005, four Puget Sound recycle workers have been killed on the job, and more have been injured. This is hard work that all of us benefit from, and the people who do the work deserve respect and fair treatment.

For decades, garbage truck drivers have worked together in a union to make sure they earn a decent living in exchange for their hard work. Recycle drivers have done the same. Now they are only asking for equal pay, since their work involves picking up the same kind of cans from the same customers in the same alleys on the same schedule with the same struggles and the same hazards. In fact, garbage drivers are supporting the picket lines of the recycle drivers because they too support the principle of equal pay for equal work.

But Waste Management executives have refused to negotiate fairly with refuse workers over this and other issues. Instead, they litter the landscape with misleading numbers and try to make workers who spend their days sharing territory with alley cats look like they're the ones who are the fat cats.

All these workers are asking for is to be given the respect they deserve by their multi-billion dollar employer and its multi-million-dollar CEO: fair negotiations, fair treatment, and equal pay for equal work. They deserve the support of the entire 99% — and these deceptive 1% tactics belong in the dustbin of history.

Visit SeattleTrashWatch.org to see what you can do to support workers.

The 99% had a message for State Attorney General Rob McKenna--we deserve a raise.

By Nate Jackson Over 50 community members gathered outside the downtown Seattle offices sporting over sized "pennies" that had the likeness of Rob McKenna with the message "In low wages I trust." McKenna had tried to stop a 12 cent increase in the minimum wage and had previously said that he believed in a training wage that would be below minimum wage for some workers. If McKenna thinks the 99% are already paid too much, he should try living on minimum wage himself.

Luis Escamilla, a Tukwilla area High School teacher, grabbed the megaphone and addressed the crowd.

"McKenna voted against raising wages for childcare workers," he said. "These are the people who take care of our families, who take care of our future."

The crowd gathered shook their heads as Escamilla continued.

"CEO pay has skyrocketed 700% in the last 30 years,' he said. "Minimum wage? Ha, it hasn't even been close. If it would have stayed a pace with the CEOs it would be over $20 an hour."

What we want are living wages that allow us to take care of our families. Nothing more than that. We work hard. We deserve that at least.

Escamilla continued.

I see how depressed wages and unemployment adversely affects both the motivation, dignity and achievement of my most vulnerable students. With parents making income comparable to some of their own children, my students are being offered a glimpse of an economically disenfranchised future.

A worker from Burlington Coat Factory, a company owned by Bain Capital, Mitt "I don't release my tax returns" Romney's company, wrote a letter to be shared with the crowd. Susan Wilkinson read the letter on the worker's behalf.

Minimum wage means minimum hope. I've worked for this company for 12 years and it has always been a struggle just to make ends meet. We all work hard down there, but we don't ever see our pay become a living wage. Things got worse when Bain Capital took us over. They cut a 1/3 of the employees hours and put them on part time, not benefits. That's how they made their money by cutting down the employees.

Escamilla after a few rounds of chants addressed the crowd again.

"We don't want to be rich or famous," he said. "It's simple. We want wages that are living wages. Respectful wages. Dignified wages. We work hard. The 99% deserve a raise."