Labor: 2014

Monday, April 7, 2014

A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage

Join Us for a 2-Hour Conference Call Discussion

Sunday, April 27, 2014

8-10pm ET / 7-9pm CT / 6-8pm MT / 5-7pm PT

Telephone Call-in: 857-232-0157 • Access Code: 353711

Panel

Cindy Sheehan, California Peace & Freedom Party
Gubernatorial Candidate

Lena Buggs, Minnesota Green Party, State House District 65-A Legislative Candidate

Alan Maki, Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Theresa Sanchez, Union Steward, Local #1, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union

Frank “Pancho” Valdez, retired trade unionist, Green Party activist

Curtis Buckanaga, Asst. to District III Rep. for Leech Lake, Ojibwe Reservation

Bill Leumer, former President IAM Local 565, Labor Fightback Network Steering Committee member

Mel Rothenberg, founding member of Chicago Political Economy Group, co-author of "A Permanent Jobs Program for the U.S.: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs."

Moderator:
Devon Nola, Justice Party of New York

Each panelist will give a 5-minute presentation during the first hour. The second hour will be open to discussion with Q&A between callers and panelists.

Sponsored by:

Uniting People for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Healthcare and Environmental Protection

Contact info:

Tel: (203) 402-8745

E-mail: unitingpeople1@gmail.com

Blog: www.unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/USlivablewage

A bold livable wage policy must be viewed as a “keystone” fiscal mechanism that will trigger subsequent structural changes in the U.S. economic system to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth and income for all members of our society.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Salt of the Earth

New Mexican miners commemorate "Salt of the Earth"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9oY4rmDaWw

GRANT COUNTY, N.M. - "Where is Anita Torrez?" growled the sheriff's deputy at the young pregnant woman sitting at a table stuffing envelopes inside the union hall's doorway.

"I really have no idea," answered Anita Torrez with a good show of calm. The deputy had come on the sheriff's orders to round up those on a "wanted list" of union wives. The frustrated deputy finally went on his way and the women laughed heartily. But it didn't take away the fear.

More than 60 years later, Torrez is still iron-willed but soft-spoken, so she is reluctant to talk about herself and didn't tell that story when she spoke on Mar. 15 at the University of Western New Mexico on a panel titled "From Women's Auxiliary to Women of Steel." But she did eagerly share it with family and comrades over a plate of carne asada, beans, rice, and plate-sized flour tortillas. The meal preceded the panel and was prepared by brothers from a steelworker local in nearby Tucson using a portable grill outside the same local hall where Torrez outwitted the sheriff's deputy.

The confrontation took place in 1951 during a miners strike here. The strike was marked by government and company intimidation and violence and a new role for women. The story of the courage of the women led to the making of a unique movie, "Salt of the Earth" whose 60th anniversary was commemorated last weekend..

The movie depicts how wives, sisters, and mothers from miner families stepped up with women supporters from surrounding communities to take over the miners' picket line after the Empire Zinc Company's lawyers got a judge to issue an injunction barring the striking miners from picketing. Both management and the workers knew that it was only a strong picket line that could keep strikebreakers from defeating the strike; the purpose of such Taft Hartley injunctions was to defeat strikes.

Torrez shared more details. The sheriff deputized 25 thugs whose wages were paid by Empire Zinc. There was no semblance of impartiality: they cursed and beat, tear gassed, arrested, and even ran over the pickets - men, women, and children.

"Bob Hollowwa had warned me that they would probably be coming for me so I was ready," she related. Hollowwa, a grizzly-bear-sized foundry worker was an organizer from the International Mine Mill and Smelters Workers Union who had come to help out the strike. Off the frontlines, Hollowwa was a gentle and intelligent organizer, and a master of strike tactics. He was a veteran of Mine Mill, as the union was known. Mine Mill was the successor of the militant Western Federation of Miners. It was a rank and file controlled union in the tradition of the IWW, representing "hard rock miners" in the mountain states of Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

Bob was there to share the lessons from a lifetime of struggle. A member of the Communist Party, which had been the backbone of Mine Mill, Hollowwa paid special attention to young comrades Anita Torrez and her husband Lorenzo, as well as to Virginia and Juan Chacon. Organizers Clint and Virginia Jencks were also part of the group that included the two young couples and many more at their club meetings. There they discussed how to build unity and solidarity for the union and community.

In a 2003 interview, Lorenzo Torrez explained joining the Party at the height of the Red Scare: "Anita and I joined the Party just when McCarthyism was strongest. Many others got scared and tried to hide. But there's no hiding place."

Knowing the sheriff was out to arrest Torrez, Hollowwa advised her not to go home, so, she recalled with a laugh, she and Lorenzo just drove around till late into the night .

Hadn't lived there long

The young couple hadn't lived in the mining town too long. They both grew up in a tiny village in a rural part of this county along the Gila River. After Lorenzo returned from a stint in the army, they married in 1948. He got a job at the Empire Zinc mine in nearby Hanover, one of a cluster of towns including Bayard, Hurley, Fierro, Vanadium and Santa Rita, built around copper, zinc, and lead mines and smelters. The miners were unionized, but their bargaining position suffered because each mine had its own contract, and each expired at a different time. The various mines were owned by some of America's richest companies: Asarco, Kennecott, and U.S. Smelting, Mining, and Refining Company.

Empire Zinc mine had one of the smallest work forces, and its workforce was almost entirely Mexican American, according to retired miner and local historian Terry Humble. Wages there were 15 cents an hour lower than at the other mines, there was no paid lunch, no paid vacation, and workers did not get the same "collar to collar pay." Workers in the other mines got paid from the time they arrived to work at the mine "collar." At Empire Zinc, you didn't get paid for lunch even though you spent that half hour underground in the mine. Safety conditions also suffered. And there was neither equality nor dignity when it came to company housing for the Chicano workers' families. Unlike the homes of the Anglo miners, those of the Chicanos had neither indoor plumbing nor hot water.

Mine Mill had been working on a strategy for equality and to increase bargaining power by bringing together the scattered work forces of the various mines, aligning their contract expiration dates, and ending discrimination. Mine Mill was a progressive union, and its leadership consciously worked to build understanding that the differential was hurting all the miners. They brought the locals together and the other miners agreed to support the Empire Zinc strikers. The strikers knew they would face a tough battle, but many were recently returned World War II veterans and they were determined to be treated with dignity.

"I knew nothing about unions, and lo and behold, we went on strike!" Torrez told the panel at UWNM. Strikers had no paychecks and could no longer buy groceries at the company store in Hurley. But sacks of rice and beans came in by the truckload along with donations to the strike fund from workers across the country in a campaign organized by Mine Mill which put all its resources into the struggle. "If it hadn't been for them, we would have lost ," Torrez said.

Then, eight months into the strike came the Taft Hartley injunction. "There were meetings, more meetings, discussions, and more meetings," recalled Torrez. "The idea came up for women to take over," she continued. Technically, it was Empire Zinc employees, the miners, who were covered by the injunction, but not the women. "Some men said no," Torrez continued. "But the women raised their hands."

At first many of the men resisted the idea of the women standing in for them on the picket lines. It was dangerous and an affront to their position as head of the household. But the injunction left no alternative. It was the insistence of a few very strong women that turned the tide, Anita said. "They said 'Are you going to give up? This will be the end of it.'" She recalled. Then, "as word spread out, more and more women wanted to go. They said 'I want to go if my sister could go.'" And so the movement spread.

As for herself, Torrez recalled, "Lorenzo didn't object to me being there, but he didn't go so far as to do anything to make it possible for me to go either. Anita Torrez pointed out that at that time she had a 1 year old at home. "It was up to me to figure it out. Because Lorenzo wanted to spend every minute of the day at the picket line."

The women continued the picket line for another seven months, 'till Empire Zinc finally came to an agreement with the union. Torrez described the struggle to the audience at the UWNM. "We were striking against discrimination. For dignity." And "for socialism," she added.

The workers did not win paid vacations or lunch, but they got a 50 cent an hour pay raise. Not a total victory, but a step toward it.

Went on to become president

Juan Chacon went on to become a long time president of Local 890. Lorenzo Torrez served as chair of the local's grievance committee for a decade. After a shutdown in the 60s, he was laid off from Empire Zinc and even though he had years of experience as a highly skilled mine mechanic, no other mine would hire him.

The Torrez family left New Mexico in the early 70s for Lorenzo to head the Communist Party's Chicano Liberation commission based in Los Angeles. He then served 30 years as chair of the party's Arizona district until his passing in 2012. In Tucson Lorenzo and Anita Torrez helped found the Salt of the Earth Labor College. He authored several pamphlets including: Short History of Chicano Workers, Part 1 and Part 2; "Juan Chacon," and Sindicalismo Hacia Adelante. Anita worked for 18 years in a garment factory in Tucson where she chaired the shop committee of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

Despite its dramatic and timely story, few Americans have seen "Salt of the Earth." Made by blacklisted Hollywood producers with a cast of of miners and their families in addition to renowned Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas, the movie itself was blacklisted and banned from American theaters for decades.

It wasn't coincidental that the impetus for the 60th anniversary celebration came from the union that now represents the Sheriff's Department employees, according to American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 18 Communications Director Miles Conway. The union members, upon learning of the dastardly role played by deputies during the strike, were eager to put themselves on the better side of history, Conway explained.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE, the union representing movie projectionists, also wholeheartedly pitched in. They wanted to atone, said their president Jon Hendry, for the role that union played, succumbing to anti-communism, in suppressing the film. Hendry, who is also head of the New Mexico AFL-CIO, recalled how the FBI successfully pressured the union to order its members to refuse to screen the movie.

AFSCME and IATSE joined with the Steelworkers Union, into which Mine Mill merged in the late 50's, in sponsoring the weekend's activities. Hundreds of Grant County residents attended, including many veterans of the strike and film making and their proud descendants.

Organizers of the event put together a caravan of buses to visit some of the film's locations. The first stop, Hurley, brought to mind images of the Jim Crow South. Representative Rudy Martinez, from New Mexico's 39th legislative district described the situation in the 1950s. Mexicans lived on the north side of the railroad tracks, he said, Anglos on the south. The only connection was an underpass beneath the railroad tracks, and access to that tunnel was controlled by a security guard at the north entrance. Schools were segregated. Next to the south side exit of the tunnel stood the company store. In town, Chicano children were barred from the swimming pool and bowling alley. The theater had separate seating, "The Anglos had comfortable theater seats, but Chicanos had to sit on wooden benches," Martinez said. This mirrored the workplace division in Hurley, where Chicanos and Anglos were assigned separate facilities to shower and change after leaving the mine.

The crowd also heard from the Grant County Sheriff, Raul Villanueva. He was eager to distance himself from his villainous predecessor. In those days "they were on management's side," he told the People's World. "Now we try to work things out." That change didn't come about without struggle. In 1965, Steve Aguirre, a worker at Kennecott Copper, was elected the first Latino sheriff of Grant County, It was Juan Chacon who urged me to run," he told the People's World. "Juan was president of Local 890, and they helped get me elected."

Steelworkers District 12 Director Robert LaVenture, another panelist at the WNMU program, connected the New Mexico miners' history to the present moment. "We're in for one hell of a fight with Asarco," he predicted. That anti-union, multi-national mining company, with more than 1000 workers in an open pit mine in nearby Tucson, is now owned by Grupo Mexico and is expected to fiercely oppose Steelworkers in upcoming contract negotiations early this summer.

Responding to Anita Torrez's presentation, LaVenture pointed out that workers today face the same kind of struggles, "voter suppression, discrimination against people of color." He continued, "If supporting Salt of the Earth means you're considered a socialist or a communist, I guess I'm a goddamn communist!" he said defiantly.

"What have we learned?" concluded Anita. "Women have the right to have their place. We are as strong as men. We need cooperation, we need unity. And we are brothers and sisters. We look out for each other. We want to be equal."

Thursday, March 13, 2014

From the Greaves School in Ireland

Anyone interested in working class struggles will appreciate these videos from Ireland. U.S. trade unionist from New York makes presentation on the 2nd video from the top:
http://www.greavesschool.com/

A message to policians...

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Minimum Wage

Dan Lemon; your arguments about the Minimum Wage don't hold water.

First of all, your concern about small business. Here are the facts:

1. Not one single small business has ever gone out of business because they couldn't afford to pay their employees real living wages. Minnesota State Senator Tom Bakk made the exact same argument you are making. I asked him to provide proof... he can't provide such proof.

2. The reasons small businesses don't survive are many but here are the main reasons:

a. They can't compete with monopoly price fixing of the huge corporations.

b. Small business partners cheat and embezzle from one another causing the business to collapse.

c. High rents and mortgages.

d. High utility bills.

e. High legal expenses.

f. High insurance premiums.

I can document all of this based on actual reasons small business people have provided through bankruptcy proceedings and the records of the Small Business administration, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the National Association of Manufacturers and other trade groups.

In all of my research on why small businesses fail, I have not found one single documented case where wages are the reason for failure.

If you have such documentation by way of spread sheets or other financial records bring this documentation forward to prove your point.

The bottom line when talking about wages is that each and every worker doing a job the employer requires to be done is ENTITLED to a real living wage which means a wage that is tied to actual "cost-of-living" factors.

I don't understand why you or anyone else would take the position that any worker is entitled to any less in return for her/his labor... be it a casino worker or someone working in a convenience store or at Wal-mart or Target or McDonald's or Burger King?

If politicians or anyone else are sincerely worried that small business will suffer from the government imposing a real living wage on all employers, the solution is really quite simple.

Just exclude small businesses from Minimum Wage legislation--- allow the employer to do the work themselves or hire their spouses, grandmas and grandpas and their children to work for whatever wages they want to pay them.

Now, we have crooked and corrupt tribal politicians like Carri Jones and crooked and corrupt state and federal politicians all being bribed by corporations to keep the Minimum Wage down... paying workers a real living wage will not put any casino out of business nor will it put Wal-mart or McDonalds out of business... what will happen is their profit margins will be slightly less. These businesses are reaping super-profits from paying workers poverty wages.

Leech Lake just raised the Minimum Wage to $10.25 an hour which is now the highest legislated Minimum Wage in the United States. But, what is $10.25 compared to the profits being made by the rich white mobsters who own each and every slot machine on the floors of Leech Lake's three casinos?

Link to Leech Lake increase of Minimum Wage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOJXiX5pE2Y

Carri Jones has the gall to talk about poverty when she is only raising the Minimum Wage to one more pathetic miserly poverty wage.

What causes poverty? Poverty wages. Pay a worker poverty wages and their family is going to live in poverty. Any school child understands this--- the understanding is probably a little better if the child is going to school hungry and dressed in rags.

The energy monopolies raised the price of propane this winter. Now wages have to be increased so people can pay their propane bills. Certainly no one can claim wages are in any way responsible for propane going from $1.45 a gallon last summer to over $4.00 a gallon this winter.

Fact: most wages have been going down.

Go to the grocery store--- everything is going up in price.

Been robbed at the gas pumps lately?

Paid an electric bill lately?

Wages going down--- prices going up; your argument holds no water.

Why does Carri Jones refuse to disclose what the "take" is, the cream being skimmed off the top, by the mobsters who own the slot machines and table games and the interest rates being paid to the "investors" who put up the funds to build these casinos?

How come everyone is entitled to profits but workers are not entitled to real living wages based on what it cost them to live?

Why does Carri Jones refuse to sit down and discuss wages and working conditions and engage in discussion about a union contract?

I would be willing to sit down and discuss all of this with Carri Jones in a public forum at any time and place of her choosing.

And, by the way; what price are casino workers paying for working in these loud, noisy smoke-filled casinos? Does their health amount to anything to these corrupt creeps like Carri Jones or Archie "the come back kid" LaRose?

Casino workers get poverty wages and ill health, lousy, substandard housing--- ever taken a ride out to see how John McCarthy lives? Here is his address. Go out and see how this wealthy, rich white guy who heads up the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association lives as a result of forcing casino workers into poverty:

8925 Cove Dr NE, Bemidji, MN 56601

By the way... if you or anyone else wants to engage me in a public debate on this Minimum Wage issue, just let me know the time and place and I will be there.

By the way, why does Leech Lake gaming fire casino workers for discussing wages and working conditions? This doesn't seem too much like democracy to me.

And why does Leech Lake continue this disgraceful "At-Will Hiring and Firing" practice?

Let's get wages up there where they really should be for all workers everywhere.

You say worker's wages should be tied to profits... I assume this means you support wages for casino workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry being around $80.00 to $90.00 an hour? Come on Carri Jones... bring out the books so everyone can see how much is being made by whom in this gaming industry.

Alan L. Maki, Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Minnesota workers get the old "bait and swich" from the Dumb Donkeys and their coalition partners.

This Democratic Party front group set up by the AFL-CIO, Working America, sent out this letter (see below).

Please read it very closely.

In my opinion there is something very demented and perverse about this letter.

These Dumb Donkeys are living for a week on the current Federal Minimum wage of $7.25 instead of trying to live on the $9.50 an hour they are proposing.

This is very typical of the way these Democrats operate.

Why wouldn't they try living on their pathetic miserly proposed poverty wage of $9.50 an hour? Wouldn't this be the real test since EVERYONE already knows no one can live on $7.25?

Quite frankly, no one can even live on $15.00 an hour without maxing out a few credit cards until they have to declare bankruptcy.

We have gone from hearing these politicians and their front groups talking about "Elect us if you want the Minimum Wage to be a living wage" to "American needs a raise" to "$9.50 will help" to what the Democrats in the Minnesota State Senate propose instead of $9.50--- "$7.75 is better than $7.25."

These dishonest morons know full well their Democratic counterparts in the Minnesota State Senate are proposing to reach a "compromise" at $7.75--- and furthermore, they are well aware that Mark Dayton has met with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (more commonly referred to as the "Minnesota DFL Business Caucus because Democrats don't like people to know they work behind closed doors with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce to give working people the shaft). Dayton and this "DFL Business Caucus" have agreed the Minimum Wage should not be raised over $8.00 an hour.

Of course this "liberal" billionaire Governor Dayton whose inherited wealth was, and is, being derived almost exclusively from the super-exploitation of Minimum Wage workers who are more often then not subjected to the double-whammy of not just poverty wages but wage theft.

Come on, really; did these Minnesota State legislators have "to spread the word about how hard it really is to live on $7.25 an hour?"

Don't they really have to "prove" that a human being can live on their proposed $9.50 an hour?

Slick as shit the way they pulled off this bait (a living wage) with this switch (another poverty wage). Saying one thing to get votes; doing another thing to keep the corporate bribes coming.

Bait and switch is illegal in the retail world; not in the world of politics.

Anyways, read this letter for yourself...

Alan,

We've learned a lot this past week.

Because of our participants across the state, we've helped to spread the word about how hard it really is to live on $7.25 an hour.

We walked through some of the biggest hurdles minimum wage earners have to face, and had real conversations with workers across Minnesota about why a raise is important to them.

We've gotten close, and we need you to act now. Will you contact your state lawmakers now?

Alan, no one should have to skip a meal just to afford bus fare to work. Raising the wage to $9.50 is a start that will help thousands of Minnesota workers.

Can you do one final thing and make sure HR 92 passes the Senate?

It's been a great week, so thank you for participating. For taking action, following along online and engaging with the Challenge in all the ways that you did.

We can do this.

Thanks for all that you do,

Bree Halverson
State Director, Working Minnesota

P.S. Check out all of the photos and blog posts from the week.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Minnesota state employees have their standard of living slashed.

Rank-and-file AFSCME workers in Minnesota say: We don't want Eliot Seide and his toothless, management-loving paper union

Minnesota's billionaire "liberal" "pro-labor" governor, Mark Dayton, has ordered working hours for thousands of state employees reduced by up to 20% while bringing in lower-paid new hires to do the jobs of the members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees with no objections from the District Director, Eliot Seide, or his side-kick, Eric Lehto. Why no opposition from Shar Knutson, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO or her side-kick Mark Froemke.

What is going on here? State employees are losing 20% of their pay--- their standard of living slashed--- and these union "leaders" sit in silence doing nothing?

No wonder this leaflet is being distributed by a rank-and-file organization made up of AFSCME members who are pissed off:

We don't want Eliot Seide and his toothless, management-loving paper union

Our Dues - Our Union.

OUR AFSCME

Our rights.

Our Livelihoods.

Building a rank and file caucus for a democratic, fighting, militant, united union.

Brothers and Sisters,

With every new contract we have had our rights and our livelihoods decimated. Only a paper union with leaders taking our dues while doing nothing to represent us would have allowed this to happen.

This isn't Eliot Seide's union. This is our union. Let Eliot Seide go into the business world to build his fortune instead of building his fortune on our backs, off our unresolved grievances and problems.

Eliot Seide negotiated a concession contract with a Democratic governor.

The wage increases are far off-set with the rising prices we pay for groceries, home mortgages and rents, home and car insurance, gas, electricity, home heating fuels, child care and college tuition for our children. Our co-pays for healthcare have increased. This is going backwards, not forwards.

Our pensions are at risk.

We get no support or help from union leaders as unfair and unpaid disciplinary suspensions mount. Grievances have become a hassle. Arbitration has become too costly. What do our dues pay for?

One by one we are being picked off and fired as we gain seniority with increased pay levels.

Our union has shamefully endorsed a Minimum Wage for other workers based on what the Chamber of Commerce wants instead of the living wage morality, human decency, justice and solidarity requires.

We have a union leadership covering its betrayals with glowing hypocritical statements of admiration to real leaders like Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela as a cover for refusing to stand and fight the injustices of the present.

We ask you to build a caucus of OUR AFSCME in your AFSCME local and in your workplace. Together we can get our AFSCME back on course. This is OUR union. OUR dues.

We need an active and involved membership. We need to understand self-serving power in our union and the power of management concede nothing without struggle. Our union was built in struggle. Our union will survive in struggle fighting for our rights, for safe workplaces and for our livelihoods.

Forward together. Together In Struggle. Together in Solidarity. OUR AFSCME the voice of the rank-and-file

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Labor, "Cost-of-Living" and "Standard-of-Living"

We see, in the article below, what happens when "cost-of-living" is not introduced into this discussion about the Minimum Wage.

Each and everyone of us should be responding to every single article we come across about linking the Minimum Wage to cost-of-living.

I would love to respond to this particular article but the Star Tribune editorial board has banned my letters from being published in their newspaper even though their editors have waged vicious red-baiting campaigns against me.

So much for “democracy” and the much ballyhooed “free press” these editors and “journalists” from the Star Tribune like to boast about.

On the one hand the Star Tribune refuses to allow a discussion about the relationship between wages and cost-of-living; while on the other hand its editors and journalists drum into people's heads that an increase in the Minimum Wage will cause a loss of jobs and then poll results reflect what people have been fed day in and day out, every single day of the year and then these poll results are brought forward to “prove” people want an increase in the Minimum Wage as long as it isn't too much. How convenient that this big-business calling itself the Minneapolis Star Tribune would be able to come up with poll results that its fellow poverty-wage loving big-business partners with the advertising dollars will appreciate.

This article, like most articles on the Minimum Wage, can be broken down into at least 4 issues relating to the Minimum Wage that need to be responded to.

One thing we might consider doing is setting up a committee to respond to all these articles--- everyone would forward every article on the Minimum Wage they come across to one person, then that person would ask each of four people or so to respond to a different section of the article with a "letter to the editor" and even a longer op-ed piece. This might be a project we propose at out Uniting People National Conference Call about the Minimum Wage on April 27?

Democratic and Republican hacks are busy writing letters from their business perspectives on the Minimum Wage and then they ask people to sign the letters and send them in. The Star Tribune then calls to “verify” that these people sending the letters actually wrote them by asking, “Is this your original writing and no one else's?” Of course, the signer of the letter always dishonestly responds, “Yes; this letter is my original letter.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has never entertained the idea that there is this inseparable relationship between wages and “cost-of-living.” This is a taboo topic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune--- as anyone can see from this article written by one very reactionary Rachel E. Stassen-Berger who the editorial board of the Minneapolis Star Tribune don't like to mention that she is the granddaughter of the racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Communist, anti-labor, Nazi-loving and thoroughly corrupt lying former Minnesota Republican Governor Harold Stassen and president wan-a-be.

One thing I am wondering about is why some people seem to want to evade the Minimum Wage by saying things like "we need a living wage not a Minimum Wage."

There doesn't seem to be an understanding that the Minimum Wage is meant to protect workers by providing workers with a real living wage; not give employers a large body of cheap labor that is then used not only from which super-profits are derived but is used to drive all wages down.

In my opinion, we should be united in calling for the Minimum Wage to be a real living wage.

Doing otherwise lets these politicians off the hook. After all, this is an issue specifically about the Minimum Wage so why would we want to try to turn it into an issue about a “Living Wage Act” or anything else someone might choose to call it?

This issue about the Minimum Wage is the most important “kitchen table issue” and we, as leftists, should be concerned we are a catalyst for united action on this issue.

Anyone else have thoughts about this?

I would point out, that not once, has the Minneapolis Star Tribune published an article about the hideous Indian Gaming Industry which was created by these worthless Democrats for a bunch of extremely wealthy racist white mobsters like Angelo Medure, the Fertitta family and Malnik who force 44,000 Minnesotans to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws while Indian Nations are mired in the perpetual poverty causing debt from which wealthy investors like the Rockefeller's, Koch's, Mellon's and the teacher union pension fund managers reap huge profits.

And anyone can read the Minneapolis Star Tribune, listen to Minnesota Public Radio stations or even the foundation-funded "community radio" stations to understand why this mainstream big-business corporate media is silent on this issue involving the plight of casino workers in the same way the Minneapolis Star Tribune is so loathe to publish just one single article explaining the relationship between wages and "cost-of-living" which determines the "standard-of-living" for working people.

Oh, yes; before I forget... did you ever notice the millions upon millions of advertising dollars the Minneapolis Star Tribune receives from this hideous Indian Gaming Industry where these wealthy racist white mobsters own every single slot machine, table game and reap all the profits from the hotels/motels, restaurants/bars and how this great "free" media remains just as silent as these mobsters reap further huge profits from the casino "gift shops" from all this crap manufactured in sweatshops in Bangladesh, Taiwan, India, Mexico and the Philippines that is illegally sold as "Authentic Native American Crafts" completely in violation of federal laws?

And Minnesota State legislators along with all our great "progressive" members of Congress all go along to get along--- a get massive campaign contributions from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association which is run by another extremely wealthy racist white crook, John McCarthy--- who, by the way, just happens to be the new owner of Tony Doom Enterprises which sells all the campaign paraphernalia from yard signs to pens and pencils and those refrigerator magnets to the very politicians he dishes out the funds from the Indian Gaming Industry in the form of campaign contributions.

And let's not leave out this illustrious wife-beating prick who is so loved by the Editorial Board of the Minneapolis Star Tribune--- Kevin Leecy. How much does Kevin Leecy haul in from the Indian Gaming Industry as a direct result of his own tribal members living in such disgraceful poverty because they are paid poverty wages working in the Fortune Bay Casino?

Let's just sweep all these injustices under the rug right along with any discussion about the Minimum Wage and "cost-of-living" as these bastards tell us that there is this so-called "median income" of around $50,000.00 that is supposed to describe the "standard-of-living" of Minnesotans.

You know--- Rachel E. Stassen-Berger inherited more than her looks from her grandfather, Harold Stassen; she learned to lie just like him.

Between the right-wing bigot Jane Friedman and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has a couple real "prize" journalists writing about the plight of working people.

By the way... have you noticed Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Jane Friedman have never asked how most Minnesota working class families will ever be able to pay this winter's heating bills? "Cost-of-living."

Don't misunderstand me. Minnesota does have a handful of very good state legislators. A worker who has had all but three fingers chopped off in an industrial accident working at MinnTac can count them all on his one hand.

Alan L. Maki

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/246078891.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Minnesota Poll: Minimum wage hike is popular, but $9.50 target isn’t

Article by: RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER , Star Tribune
Updated: February 19, 2014 - 5:39 AM

Nearly 80 percent in poll say increase minimum wage.

Minnesotans overwhelmingly believe it is time to lift the state’s minimum wage, but fewer than half are ready to raise it to the level proposed by some DFLers, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.

The poll found that 42 percent of Minnesotans say it’s time to increase the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour — a figure proposed by House leaders and supported by Gov. Mark Dayton. Another 37 percent say it should go above the current minimum of $6.15 but stay below $9.50.

Only 16 percent of Minnesotans say the minimum wage should stay where it is. At $6.15 an hour, the state minimum is below the federal standard and one of the lowest in the nation.

The poll found support for raising the wage floor across all groups: Whether men or women, Democrats or Republicans, young or old, urban or rural, Minnesotans say $6.15 is not enough.

“I think it should be more. It should be minimum of $10. Minimum,” said Jeff Richard, 51, a temporary worker in Lakeville. “I don’t know how someone working for less would possibly live.”

The poll results will give advocates of raising pay a boost as they try to change the wage floor again this year.

Last year, amid division among Democrats over how high to go, the DFL-controlled Capitol left the minimum wage unchanged.

Backers have vowed not to let that happen again. Dayton and House DFL leaders, along with many advocates, have settled on $9.50 by 2015. Supporters have spent months pushing legislators to support the increase.

They also plan a massive rally to welcome the Legislature back to the Capitol when it reconvenes next Tuesday.

“This clearly indicates that a broad swath of Minnesotans believe that this is the way to go,” said Brian Rusche, co-chair of a group campaigning for a $9.50-an-hour minimum wage.

The poll surveyed 800 Minnesota adults between Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Three-fourths of respondents were reached through a land line, one-fourth by cellphone.

The sample included 39 percent Democrats, 30 percent Republicans and 26 percent of Minnesotans who said they were independent or identify with another party.

Effect on job growth debated

Some Minnesotans — including those who support an increase — say they harbor concerns that a higher wage could come at the price of lower job growth.

According to the poll, 31 percent of Minnesotans believe there will be a significant loss of jobs if the minimum wage is raised to $9.50. Meanwhile, 39 percent said a jump to $9.50 would cause “few or no minimum wage jobs” to be lost.

“I think $9.50 would be awfully hard on a lot of small-business owners,” said Cindy Manthei, a 55-year-old who works in a meat market. The Republican from Loretto said she wants the wage floor to go up, but only a little.

Roger Golby, a DFL activist from Annandale, said he too fears the effect of a sudden jump in wages.

“I think it should be a gradual increase and not immediate … to allow companies to slide into it,” said Golby, 64. Otherwise, he said, “There may be some layoffs.”

Bruce Nustad, president of the Minnesota Retailers Association, said if the minimum wage jumped suddenly, his members would be forced to reduce jobs.

He said the fact that 37 percent of those polled support increasing the wage to something below $9.50 an hour is “somewhat encouraging.”

“I think we all know that level is going to go up,” Nustad said. He would like legislators to ask: “What’s the reasonable level that’s not overly dramatic?”

No matter what final dollar amount they land on, lawmakers will have to settle on a phase-in time for the new wage, determine which businesses would have to pay it and whether any will be exempt.

In Minnesota, about 114,000 workers were paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 or less in 2013. According to the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, more than 460,000 Minnesotans, or about 16 percent of all workers, were paid less than $9.50 an hour in 2012.

Income is a big divide

The poll found that higher-income Minnesotans were least likely to support a minimum-wage increase.

Nearly half of those earning more than $75,000 annually said the minimum wage should remain $6.15 an hour, where it has been since 2005. Most employers pay the federal minimum, although some employers are allowed to pay the lower state minimum.

According to the poll, Democrats were most comfortable with a significant increase — 64 percent said the rate should be increased to $9.50 and another 27 percent said it should be increased, but by less. Nearly all independents — 85 percent — favored an increase. So did Republicans, but by a smaller share. About 58 percent said boost wages, though only 14 percent said as high as $9.50. Another 36 percent of Republicans said keep the minimum unchanged.

“I don’t see that government has any business telling private business how much to pay their people,” said Richard Larcher, 72, of Dora Lake. “That’s just silly, and it will cost jobs.”

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Twitter: @RachelSB