Portside

Workers at McDonald's file lawsuits in New York, Michigan and California claiming wage theft.

New Mayor Ed Murray says, “We know it is not a matter of if we get to $15 per hour, but when and how we get there.” All nine city council members publicly endorse the concept. But underneath the apparent consensus are differences on what $15 means and how long it should take. So labor and community groups in Seattle are mobilizing to hold the council’s feet to the fire—and to get the job done by ballot initiative if the council compromises too far.

Last week workers filed wage theft lawsuits against McDonald's in three states. The suits are an attempt to get at the franchise system in particular, which has enabled large corporations to avoid legal responsibility for what happens in the franchise.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is pushing for what would be the longest-ever contract with the teachers’ union: a nine-year deal that would let the city stretch out potentially huge retroactive pay increases. A nine-year deal for teachers would actually date to Nov. 1, 2009, when the union’s contract expired. But it would extend for another four and a half years — after Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, would face re-election in 2017.

Conversations with workers on both sides of the union battle reveal that the macho culture at the plant, helped fuel the anti-union campaign by low-level management and workers, who stressed obedience to authority and masculine self-reliance as reasons to reject the UAW.