Dear Friends,
Regardless of how you feel about this week's election results overall, there’s no doubt that when voters got a chance to decide on working family issues, we won big. We won on minimum wage, paid sick days, mass transit, and democracy. We also achieved important gains in criminal justice reform and healthcare reform. Across our network, our affiliates organized hundreds of thousands of voters around key issues that concretely impact our lives.
This Labor Day, as I take the helm of the Partnership for Working Families, I’m reflecting on the value and dignity of our labor, and also the value and dignity of our lives.
My heart has been heavy since the events of Ferguson. A mother senselessly lost her child, and Michael Brown’s killing has exposed the brutal fact that our lives are not equally valued.
From 2006 to 2012 in the United States, a white police officer killed a black person at least twice a week. That black people in our communities must proclaim that #blacklivesmatter reminds us that there are fundamental issues of inequality based on race that we must overcome before fully achieving the worker rights that we celebrate on Labor Day.
Nearly two million people have been deported by the current administration, separating countless families. That immigrant communities must declare #Not1More deportation is another reminder of the unequal value placed on different lives and the underlying issues that prevent many from fully participating in our economy. Read more...
Wednesday, September 10 at 2 Eastern
In our conversations with local CBA coalitions across the country, we are often asked, “How do we get the developer to sit down with us to negotiate?” For this webinar, we have posed that question to three veterans of community benefit organizing. For the first part of the presentation, they will provide a framework for maximizing the impact of your coalition’s activities, with a goal of getting the developer to negotiate. The second part of the webinar is dedicated to answering your questions about the challenges you face in getting to negotiations.
Today San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria and his colleagues stood up for 280,000 San Diegans who lack sick leave and nearly 200,000 people who work hard every day and can’t afford rent and groceries.
Friends -
Monday marks my last day at the Partnership, and the beginning of a new chapter for this incredible network. In August we welcome our new Executive Director, Nikki Bas, who has been a fantastic partner and leader, board chair and friend. You can send her a note of welcome at nfb@forworkingfamilies.org. Until Nikki starts at the Partnership, our capable Deputy Director, Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel (kmh@forworkingfamilies.org), will act as Interim Executive Director. READ MORE
Faith leaders from 40 congregations across Philadelphia celebrate the passage of Ballot Question #1 to raise the wage for thousands of workers.
Thanks to Partnership affiliate FRESC’s leadership in the fight against wage theft, the Wage Protection Act (SB 5) passed out of the Colorado legislature yesterday and is headed to Governor Hickenlooper’s desk for signature!
Partnership affiliate POWER enjoyed a concrete victory yesterday when Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter used his executive power to give subcontracted Philadelphia workers a well-deserved and long overdue pay increase.
For decades, the high technology economy in Silicon Valley has eroded the region’s middle class, distributing income in an hourglass shape that leaves massive numbers of workers trapped at the bottom in low wage, dead end, service occupations. A “next generation” living wage policy in the county government would change this picture for thousands of workers and their families.
Hundreds of San Diegans came out to show their support for the announcement in Civic Center Plaza under the banner of “Raise Up San Diego,” a broad-based community coalition that includes the Center on Policy Initiatives.