As secure scheduling issue continues to pick up steam, Seattle baristas will be outside today's Starbucks Annual Shareholder Meeting raising awareness of a hot issue — by handing out coffee sleeves that read #OurTimeCounts
Read MoreNew poll: 74% of Seattle voters support secure scheduling policies
As baristas and other workers continue to raise the issue of unstable, unpredictable workweeks, a new poll of Seattle voters by EMC Research finds overwhelming 74% support for secure scheduling policies, matching the high level of public approval for the $15 minimum wage law reached during the height of that debate.
Read MoreStreaming live online today at 10am: Working Washington members discuss secure scheduling issues, call on city council for action
Coffee and fast food workers will discuss how unpredictable and insecure schedules affect their lives, their families, and their communities, and launch campaign for secure scheduling. The live online forum will be hosted by Working Washington Executive Director Sejal Parikh, and Seattle City Councilmembers Gonzales and Herbold are also expected to attend.
What:.
Read MoreSeattle coffee and fast food workers to hold online town hall & launch campaign for secure scheduling on Thursday, February 4th
"Our time counts!" — Workers to speak out at February 4th online town hall about how unpredictable, insecure schedules affect their lives, and call for action
Read MoreSenator Michael Baumgartner may call his proposal a "quarantine", but it's actually an amputation... and maybe a hallucination
Pro-poverty wage extremists like Senator Michael Baumgartner aren't afraid that a higher minimum wage will hurt the economy... they're terrified of the growing evidence that local economies thrive when wages rise. After all, what else could possibly be more threatening to their make-the-rich-get-richer political agenda?
Read More"It's Our Time": Rallies, marches, and more as workers across the state move living wages and workers rights to the top of the political agenda
On Tuesday, workers in Seattle, Yakima, Spokane, Olympia, and across the state are rising up to set the agenda for elected officials from city halls to the state capital and beyond.... And it's going to be livestreamed all day long on workingWA.org.
Read MoreNext TUESDAY: Workers declare “It’s our time,” demand action on living wages and workers rights from City Hall to the State Capitol and beyond
Tuesday November 10th. workers rise up across the state to say: “It’s our time” — and we’ll be livestreaming it all day long on our website, workingwa.org. It’ll be like a mashup of Keeping up with the Kardashians and Occupy Wall Street — so hope you upgraded your data plan, because you’re not going to want to turn it off
Read More$15 wage, paid sick days, and scheduling rights would become law in City of Olympia under proposed new ordinance
Legislation introduced by City Councilmember Jim Cooper today would make Olympia the latest city in Washington to strengthen its economy by raising wages & expanding workers rights
The City of Olympia could become the next jurisdiction to pass a $15 wage and expand workers’ rights, joining a growing wave of cities and states across the country taking action to raise up workers, address inequality, and strengthen local economies.
The proposed new ordinance will be discussed before council on Tuesday:
Olympia City Council Study Session
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
5:30 pm
Olympia City Hall
601 4th Ave E, Olympia
Councilmember Cooper’s new legislation would:
- Phase in a $15 minimum wage over two years for large companies, and over four years for smaller employers. Currently, one in three Olympia workers is paid less than $15.
- Provide paid sick & safe time for all workers. About 1 million workers in Washington State don’t have any paid sick time, and half of food service workers report that they regularly go to work sick.
- Ensure work schedules are compatible with family, school, and life by requiring 11 hours of rest between shifts, 3 weeks notice of schedules, and allowing current employees to have a chance to access additional hours before other employees are brought on. In Olympia, 53% of hospitality workers and 42.9% of retail workers currently work part time.
“I love my job — except for the fact that I can’t pay for rent, food, internet, electricity, or my medical bills,” said Nicola Purpura, an Olympia food service worker. “And at my job I might have 25 hours one week, and 11 the next. I work any time they call me in.“
"We have very beautiful and vibrant local businesses here that are really suffering because the common person doesn't have enough money to go shop at those places," said Jae Townsend, who works at Jimmy John's in Olympia. "There are so many little restaurants and little boutiques that I would love and go be a patron of, but I don't have the extra money at the end of the month. I barely have enough to pay my bills."
“A few months ago, I got extremely sick and missed four days of work,” said Nichole Alexander, who works at an Olympia McDonald’s. “I had to borrow money in order to get all my bills paid. I’m trying really hard to get my life back on track. I just really wish I made enough money to get ahead instead of living paycheck to paycheck.”
More information:
- A copy of the proposed ordinance is available here.
- The Puget Sound Business Journal wrote last week about “the cuts that never came” after Seattle raised wages.
- A review of Olympia economic and demographic data is available online.
Key facts include:- 1 in 3 Olympia workers is paid less than $15/hour. The median age of these workers is 38.
- The retail and hospitality industries employ 19.1% of Olympia workers — more than are employed by Government alone.
- According to the most recent Census data, median rent in Olympia is $923. You need a full-time job paying $17.74/hour to afford that rent — or 77 hours at minimum wage.
- 9.8% of employed people in Olympia have earnings below the official Federal poverty level.
Yakima to honor World Food Day on Friday 10/16 by calling for $15 wage for food workers & all workers
The campaign for $15 an hour continues to build momentum in Yakima. In honor of World Food Day on October 16th, Working Washington will convene as many as 100 workers, students, and community leaders to discuss how to raise wages in agriculture, food service, and all jobs in the Yakima area
Read MoreSeattle City Council just took a big step to secure workers rights in the Uber economy
Multi-billion-dollar companies shouldn’t get special loopholes just because they know how to use a thesaurus.
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