Working Families Rally for Fair Treatment in the Hospitality Field

by Nate Jackson

When working families see injustice, they don’t shut up; they stand up.

Working families in the service and hospitality industries gathered outside one of the largest hotels in the shadow of SeaTac International Airport on a hot August day last week. Working Washington joined up with the workers because we were all there to right a wrong.

Many of the hotels in the area are slashing hours, cutting benefits and ignoring the workers’ requests for a fair shake for the work they are doing. We tried speaking with them about the rights to fair wages that help us educate our children and put food on the table. However, the CEOs weren’t listening--so we got louder.

Waving signs and hands to passing, honking cars, we sent a strong message saying “We want a fair chance!”  A large crowd rallied in the heart of SeaTac to show that we are not going to take unfair treatment anymore.  We were happy, fired up and excited when news media such as the highly respected Robert Mak from King Five’s Up Front showed up with a camera man in tow to film the gathering.

Other neighbors and friends joined in to show their support, donning t-shirts, grabbing signs and getting in step to show that they care about families who work hard in one of the toughest industries around. At one moment, even Congressmen Dennis Kucinich of Ohio joined us. He came out from his hotel, grabbed a sign and marched in solidarity for more than an hour.

Working people are starting to get louder. Community members are not going to take the unfairness that is in plain view. When greedy CEOs and big businesses make record profits while cutting hours, benefits and jobs, we recognize that’s not how it is supposed to be.

We are showing up to rallies in droves to support our unemployed and underemployed friends and family. We see that their fight for a fair economy and a piece of the American Dream is our fight, too. The lines of division are fading as we all recognize that we must be in this fight together and we must win.

Greedy corporations and rich CEOs are starting to hear us. Our mantra is clear: no longer can they continue with a “business as usual” approach collecting tax breaks while the middle class suffers. We are joining forces and telling them they need to reinvest in good American jobs right now.  We are just getting started and they can hear us.

Rep. Dave Reichert will not listen to us

by Sandra VanderVen

Mercer Island--Want to know what inspires me?  People standing up for what’s right.Tuesday, 60 or 70 of 8th Congressional District Rep. Dave Reichert’s constituents gathered in front of his Mercer Island office to make a statement.

Even without a formal speaker, we said a lot. We passed around the microphone and over and over, in many different ways, we said, "We're not buying it."

We see that the debt ceiling issue is a ruse meant to confuse and distract the middle class while more of our economic security is taken away.  It is like waving a bright object at a baby to get candy out of his hand without too much fuss.

Our purpose for going to the office was to point out to Reichert and the world that we are unhappy with the direction our government is headed. We think politicians like Reichert have forgotten that he is supposed to be representing us and devotes himself instead to helping the rich while failing to create jobs for the middle class.

While most of the country is concerned about finding a way to make a living, the politicians who side with Wall Street and greedy CEOs are suggesting that we need to cut the very services that are meant to keep us healthy and strong in times like this.

We told Reichert all of this.

In the crowd’s words:One woman mentioned that she would hate to be trying to fend for herself only on Social Security, but she knows many do. “People depend on Social Security. We pay for it all our lives, so it is, in fact, an entitlement. This should not be touched.”

Others were also concerned about Congress representing the rich and not the middle class.

One man said, “I’m frightened that we’ll have 12 members of Congress deciding what the country’s budget will be, and they won’t be accountable to anyone.”

In the words of one of another Reichert constituent: “There are rich people who are paying less in taxes than you and me, and they are not being asked to sacrifice anything. Why not?”And another...“We need a constitutional amendment stating that corporations aren’t people, so our elected representatives will start doing what is right for Americans, instead of jockeying for campaign donations at our expense.”

One man had a very reasonable suggestion about how we could balance our budget.  “How about we stop paying for senseless wars?”

What a great thing it is to spend the day around people who care enough to make a difference.  They did, too.

To top off the day, a very kind police officer came by to let us know that we would not be allowed into Rep. Reichert’s office without an appointment.  I couldn’t believe my ears.  I asked, “You mean he doesn’t want to hear what his constituents have to say?”

No.  No he doesn’t.

The Real Rate of Unemployment--It’s a Lot Higher Than You Think

by Nate Jackson The unemployment rate in Washington State is close to nine percent, but that nine percent does not include the true number of folks who are unemployed. The "functional unemployment" rate is 19 percent for the state and includes those on unemployment, part-time employed looking for more work, and those who have become so discouraged they stopped looking for work and are no longer receiving unemployment.

The fact is that companies are choosing not to hire even though they are making profits.

People who do have jobs, even if those jobs do not pay a living wage, are considered employed, but economists do have a term for all the folks who are working hard and not making it due to cut hours or work stoppages:   in economic lingo, these folks are the “underemployed.”

The underemployed may have to hold more than one job or live with others in order to pay the bills. They are stuck in a cycle of working harder for less reward. The underemployed are being told to survive on less and less while greedy CEOs have seen bonuses rise and profits soar.

The amount of people who are effectively shut out of the economic system by underemployment are not included in the standard unemployment reporting about the country’s economic woes. We need to have a clear vision of how many of us are hurting before we can begin to fix it. We can’t stop the bleeding until we look at all the wounds.

One of the worst lies is to blame the worker. There are not enough good jobs available and by blaming the worker instead of the big bonuses CEOs make, people put the blame on themselves.  Do we think something is wrong with us instead of the real problems that have crashed this economy? We didn’t crash the economy; we were just taken for a ride.

Let’s break it down:  The Department of Labor calculates unemployment by taking household surveys that screen for those who do not have work, those who have been looking for work in the previous four weeks, and those who are waiting to be recalled to work after being laid off.  The surveys are of a sample of households that then represent the county as a whole, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

The rate of unemployment does not tell the story of businesses who would rather work their current employees to the bone and feed back to CEOs and board members bonuses and pay raises instead of hiring workers.  The unemployment rate does not include a “not-hiring-even though-they-should” factor.

We are hungry for work.  We put in application, after application never getting call backs, emails or messages.  We are looking for work that will support our families and the jobs simply are not there.  We want to work; there just aren’t enough good jobs.

Big Banks and overpaid CEO’s took this economy off the rails.  Now we need to put things back on track by standing together and getting back to work.  We’ve just started this fight, but we’ve already started to see results.  They heard us and now it’s time to listen to what we are saying.

Do your part to bring good jobs back to Washington State by joining us.

References: Associated Press—Christopher Rugaber USA Today—Matt Krantz Department of Labor

Who is Being Hired at SeaTac International Airport?

By Julio Sanchez

Mohamed Hassan has sent at least 15 qualified applications for a number of open positions at the airport. Who is being hired for these jobs?

Ayak Mithyang has experienced the same thing as Hassan, an Employment Case Worker at the Somali Community Services in SeaTac.

“They say they are hiring but I’ve put in 10 applications for jobs I am qualified for, and I have not received even one phone call,” said Mithyang, one of Mohamed’s clients.

Puget Sound Sage, Working Washington, Unite Here and other community organizations approached SeaTac on Thursday to demand good paying jobs for these workers.

The Seatac Airport is run like many other businesses. Instead of directly hiring employees, the Port of Seattle prefers to subcontract many of their services to other companies, which in turn hire workers for low wage jobs without benefits.

Our goal was to put the Airport Management and their subcontractors on notice that the workers and community are watching what’s going on. We are taking meaningful action to create fair wage jobs with benefits for local families and individuals.

First, our group of about 25 to 30 people went to two of the subcontractors in the airport--Prime Flights and Flight Service Systems--to ask this question.

The workers demanded to see the managers.  “We are here to demand fair treatment,” they said. Suddenly no one was available to talk to us.

Next we visited the ironically named Airport Jobs office, where the applications are received and evaluated.

Here, the manager was also suddenly engaged and unavailable. But we were asked to make an appointment in the future, though that doesn’t help us with good jobs now.

Moments after our questions, they sent a police officer to tell us to get out of there. We left promptly.   But that’s OK, because we will be back and we will continue coming back until we have jobs that allow us all to live with dignity and fair treatment.

For more information: A little history

http://www.historylink.org/_content/printer_friendly/pf_output.cfm?file_id=8920

20,000 potential Homeland Security jobs cut

Our friends in DC urge Congress to stop clowning around with Homeland Security Jobs.

Seattle City Council: Where are the jobs?

by Sara Kiesler

Working Washington got on the Washington Bus at the Candidate Survivor last night to see what our City Council candidates were saying about jobs.

The results: *crickets chirping*.  Not much. But we did get a bit of a bite here and there.

The jobs talk roll: --When asked when she had ever not voted with the majority, City Councilwoman Sally Clark said she opposed the $25-per-employee-per-year head tax because she thought it would stunt job creation. The head tax, which was repealed, would have put $4.5 million toward transportation improvements, notably for bicycles and pedestrians.

--Every single candidate standing on the stage--from candidate Dale Pusey to longtime City Councilwoman Jean Godden--said they supported paid sick days for Seattle workers

--Candidate Michael Taylor-Judd said in response to a question about his stance against the Seattle deep bore tunnel that he instead wanted to spend the billions of dollars designated for the project on rapid transit and jobs

Hopefully, as the races roll on until August 16, when the mail-in ballots are due, we hope to hear more about how our city council people plan to put the 8.5 percent of Seattleites that are unemployed back to work.

Regardless, we had a lot of fun watching City Councilman Tim Burgess rap to the tune of Black and Yellow, and listening to City Council candidate Brad Meecham sing Lady Gaga’s Telephone in Japanese.

Hospitality workers rally for liveable wages, safe working conditions

We know Washingtonians want good jobs. Over 600 of our friends in the hotel industry rallied in front of the Westin Hotel to let everyone know. Check out the story here.

A solution to the debt ceiling distraction

by Nathan Jackson When you buy something, you pay for it. Somebody forgot to tell Congress that.

With all this talk about debt, default and ceilings one of the most important questions has been ignored: how will this affect you?  Political posturing has become the story of the day, with negotiations being reported like sports statistics by excited commentators.

Unfortunately, there are actual consequences if the debt ceiling is not raised: higher interest rates, more restrictive loan terms, cuts to socials services, and a possible stock market plummet. This is not a sport. The consequences are much more dire.

Let me explain: The debt ceiling is simply the bill for the spending that Congress has already approved and spent in the previous fiscal year, according to PBS.  It is like the check at the end of a meal from a restaurant.  When we eat the food and enjoy the environment, we pull out our wallets and pay the amount owed.  The debt ceiling is simply the country paying for the supper it has already eaten.

The economic repercussions of skipping out on the bill are not completely predictable since the United States in its history has never pulled a “dine and dash.”  Some of the problems that could arise from defaulting on our bills would include a downgrade of our national credit score (the judgment of how good we are for any money that we borrow, or our trustworthiness) as well as sour our reputation as a safe harbor for international financial investment, according to Reuters.  It could also lower the trustworthiness of many states’ credit, making it harder for struggling states to get the assistance they need to strengthen their communities.

How would it affect us here in Washington State? Right now Washington State gets some of its funding from the Federal Government.  If the Federal Government defaults and has to pick whether to pay the electricity or the water bill, then funding to states will most likely be first on the chopping block. In Washington State we receive federal money to support essential services like college grants, K-12 education, Head Start, job training programs, and other social services that many of us rely on to get back on our feet.

With many of us still struggling to find good work and to find safe, reliable childcare, we cannot afford the loss of Federal money in our community.  We have already seen the state budgets shrink with drastic cutbacks in services.  We can’t afford to let ideology overrule rational thought.

****

We’ve been in this fight before, but things are different this time.

The fight about the debt ceiling has been stooped in willful ignorance of history and an attitude that is too optimistic about the possible problems.  Under President Ronald Reagan, the debt ceiling was raised over a dozen times. Under President George W. Bush, the debt ceiling rose more than six times.  This is truly a chosen crisis.

The crisis was created because members of Congress wanted to attach spending cuts to a normally routine legislation. The members of Congress have decided to gamble with our economic well-being to prove a political point driven mainly by ideology about the role of government.

But here are the facts. We could end this problem with a simple, clean bill to raise the debt ceiling. We could stop with the posturing and the speeches and simply get it done in order to avoid economic uncertainty.  When the check comes, you pay it.  It is not that complicated.

Sources: The Olympian Washington State Budget and Policy Center Reuters Think Progress Washington Post The Seattle Times CBS News ABC News

Rebuilding the American Dream

How 10 people created change in their neighborhood by Julio A Sanchez

It is not enough to talk about how upset we are by the direction the country is going.  Our actions need to support our beliefs, and I believe we have to come together and work on meaningful steps to fix what we perceive to be wrong.

Last week an estimated 20,000 people did just that. Those concerned with the state of our Nation decided to come together in 1,500 house meetings sponsored by Move ON.

A total of 10 people came to the meeting I attended.  We where a diverse group:  white, Asian, Latino, men, women, gay, straight, working professionals, retired and underemployed.

I was one of those people. We all expressed it a little different, but we where there because we believed in the need to rebuild the American Dream, a dream based on fairness, not on attacks to the poor and middle class while the rich get tax loopholes for jets and capital gains.  A dream whose final goal is equality and good jobs, not dissension and privilege.

During the meeting we shared personal stories about how the recession has affected us and our families and reminded ourselves moments when we have been proud of our country or our communities.  Next we voted on a number of ideas to rebuild the American Dream that have been gathered by means of public contribution.  Out of these ideas, those chosen will be moved forward as the cornerstones of a campaign to rebuild the dream.

At the end we left with a meaningful commitment to take a specific step to engage others in this process.   My commitment was to talk to 5 other people about the Summer Leadership Conference and the Progressive Speak Out, a community event 700 people attended.

If you host your own meeting, the mechanics are rather simple:  dedicate about two hours, tell friends to come by, it can be a potluck!  Set an agenda with time for introductions and then get to work.

Would you like to organize your own house meeting? Click here: http://action.workingwa.org/page/s/houseparty

Do you want to vote on the ideas to rebuild the American Dream? Click here: http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/

"Si se puede!" -- Speak Out for Good Jobs

700+ Chant and Speak Out for Good Jobs

by Nathan Jackson

The Seattle Speak Out for Good Jobs was loud, raucous and filled with people asking a simple question: Where are the Jobs?

Congressman Jim McDermott and King County Executive Dow Constantine were on stage listening to us tell our stories about how this unfair, unbalanced economy is hurting working families who just want a fair deal.

The room was filled to capacity with people standing on the side aisles rapt in attention as person after person talked about their concerns and struggles. Community members came from near and far for the chance to speak out to power.

The lines on both sides of the microphone at the Brockey Conference Center in South Seattle Community College were nearly to the back of the room. People were standing and pacing waiting for their chance to let their voice be heard because they were sick of being powerless and nameless.

A World War II Veteran talked about how the only way we could make a major difference was to get ownership out of the hands of the powerful and back into the hands of the people.

"We have money for wall street, we have money for wars, don't tell me we're broke,” the veteran said.  “We bailed out big banks now where's our bailout?"

Deborah Osborn of Tacoma, who has two college degrees, spoke about how things used to be OK, but now she struggles just to get by with basic needs like food and soap, which she grows or makes herself.

"It used to be ‘put it on the shopping list, no problem,’” she said.  “Now if I don't grow it, find it or grind it we don't have it. We have to count every last dollar."

One woman even told the crowd that we are all in this together, to which Congressman McDermott agreed that none of us are alone. McDermott highlighted that one of the solutions in Washington State is to create a state bank so funds that we deposit here do not get invested far across the country in places like Manhattan.

Dow Constantine spoke about how the only way we are going to move these things forward is if we make the common sense investments in education, transportation, roads and bridges and each other.  He said that it was madness that business leaders were actively trying to stop progress on the investments that were necessary to get this economy moving again for the working families of King County.

As the momentum of over 100 speakers filled the audience with a sense of comraderie, the room was noisy and responsive with cheers, boos and chants of “Si Se Puede,” the chant of legendary union activist Cesar Chaves meaning “Yes, it can be done” interspersed with the speakers. People were shouting out responses and nodding their heads as speaker after speaker kept returning to a question about fairness and an equal opportunity. We were not asking for handouts, just a fair shake.

Every speaker talked about how they wanted to work and couldn’t find living wage jobs that would solve their problems. Some of us were angry, some of us were hurt, but we were all fired up and ready to do what we needed to make these changes to get this economy moving again for the rest of us.

This is just the beginning and it is a great start.