The Fight for $15 was never just about raising wages, it was also about building public anger at a system where corporations make billions while workers are paid poverty wages. It is a return to labor's roots, the refusal to accept exploitation.
From Alaska to New York City, millions will benefit from an increase minimum wage in 2019. Yet in Michigan and Washington DC legislators overturned referendum votes to raise wages, while the federal government still refuses to act.
Outside of traditional labor structures, a new labor activism is surging, often supported by traditional unions. This new activism ranges from the “Fight for $15” movement to the statewide teacher strikes that broke out last spring.
Bernie Sanders has an activist orientation. But without the looming threat of workers disrupting business as usual at Amazon, targeting Jeff Bezos wouldn’t have much teeth to it. With that connection he punches well above his weight.
Rewriting our economic rules requires putting the needs of America’s wage earners—black, brown, white, immigrant, male and female—at the center of our politics, not invisible in the margins.
In the Trump era, the Service Employees International Union is pumping less money into organizing McDonald’s workers, filings show.
The NLRB Just Dealt a Major Blow to the Fight for $15. Now’s the Time to Take Stock of the Campaign.
Unions in Canada suffered some setbacks in 2017. However, movements like the Fight for $15 and Fairness show a potential way ahead. In 2018, those looking to renew the labor movement need to build power from below, encourage greater membership involvement, forge international solidarity, and confront governments, even those that are ostensibly friendly.
More than a dozen current and former staffers interviewed by BuzzFeed News said complaints about top-level staff on the Fight for 15 were an open secret, and that complaints about abusive behavior by organizers who reported to top strategist Courtney led to no action. In October, the union suspended Courtney, following his marriage to a union employee. Sources said he also had a history of dating subordinates.
With the help of a new municipal law, a new advocacy group seeks to become an organizing model for low-wage workers.
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