Cities
Nominate a Changemaker Today!
Published October 04, 2009 @ 01:01PM PT
Change.org has launched a new competition, Changemakers, "to identify the leading activists, elected officials, authors, bloggers, actors and thought leaders who have the greatest capacity to spark change on issues of importance."
Changemakers will be invited to write on one of the many social change issues we cover here at Change.org to mobilize the countless readers and activists we have here to take action. You can vote on those you'd like to see here at Change.org, and also nominate your own.
I voted for: Ben Jealous, Cleve Jones, Cory Booker, Gloria White Hammond, Jim Wallis, John Lewis, Majora Carter (above photo), Sister Helen Prejean, and Zainab Salbi.
I nominated Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children's Zone, Cheri Honkala of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and Bertha Lewis of ACORN.
I also think I will nominate Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink and James Perry of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Center and a leading candidate for Mayor of New Orleans.
Vote Today and Nominate your Favorite Anti-Poverty Activists and Leaders!
Photo of Dr. Majora Carter, MacArthur Genius and Founder of Sustainable South Bronx, by mospeaks
Boston Hyatt-Worker Dispute Continues
Published October 02, 2009 @ 11:07AM PT
Last week we joined and covered the boycott initiated by MA Governor Deval Patrick against Hyatt Hotels, for what he saw as the "unceremonious" termination of housekeeping staff and their replacement with "outsourced" low-wage workers from a temporary staffing agency based in Georgia. In part through Change.org member activism, Hyatt offered the laid off workers new jobs at their higher wages with benefits into 2010. In a bold, and I think very cool, move, the majority of the workers rejected the offer, demanding their old jobs back. With the help of UNITE HERE, which has also joined the boycott, the workers are generating publicity and protesting Hyatt's actions - the case offers a great window into why it's so important to support service worker unionization.
50% of Americans Lack Sick Leave
Published September 29, 2009 @ 03:20PM PT
With a vaccine for the H1N1 virus still some time away, the lack of paid sick leave for almost half of all working Americans in the private sector is a potential public health crisis. Not only are these working adults likely to show up at work with potential infectious symptoms - or fear losing their job - they are likely to send sick kids to school for the same reason. Why is this on the Poverty blog?
Nationwide, the same trend holds: The proportions of workers without paid leave are higher in lower-wage industries, including food service, nursing care, and retail workers.
These are the folks we interact with on a regular basis - the person handing you your coffee or your morning bagel; the woman coming to care for your already infirm grandmother in her home.
I'm so sick of the argument that basic government regulation that protects public health and minimizes worker exploitation is bad for small business. I paraphrase a good corporate friend on Facebook - if you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage or benefits, you have a bad business model. And I'll add: as anti-poverty and economic justice advocates, we'd be happy to work with you to fight for a more equitable business climate for your small company.
15 states and cities are currently working on paid sick leave bills. Check them out and find out how you can support on-going campaigns.
Photo "Children with message in support of Paid Sick Days, Milwaukee - 2008" by Voces de La Frontera)
Successfully Mixing Incomes in Greenwich
Published September 27, 2009 @ 11:08AM PT
Don't be fooled by the misleading statement in this NYT piece about public housing in Greenwich, CT, one of the wealthiest towns in the nation, where the Housing Authority manages 750 units, including 300 for the elderly:
"In many ways, the housing in Greenwich mirrors modern trends in public housing — low-rise, small-scale structures — even though most of it was built years ago."
The majority of the more than a million units of public housing in the U.S. is in developments with less than 500 units, and half of all our public housing is in developments with less than 100 units. Contrary to the high rises that capture our ire and imagination, most public housing is smaller scale and more unassuming than even these model projects in Greenwich - which offer low-income families, many former workers of the wealthy families in town, playgrounds, picnic and BBQ areas and comfortable, mostly well-maintained if aging homes.
The key to success of low-income housing like this is yes, de-concentration, but by that I mean not putting it only in low-income neighborhoods. It's not the low-income population in the projects and their lack of resources that's the problem when we think about public housing, but the limited overall resources of the surrounding communities and authorities in cash-strapped cities and neighborhoods (think New Orleans, Detroit, Memphis; Roxbury (MA), South Boston, etc.). When public housing is situated in place like Greenwich, or the South End in Boston, the natural "mixed-income" benefits of better schools, safer neighborhoods, and more amenities kick in for public housing residents in a much more effective way than demolishing units and trying to import middle-class residents.
As we prioritize more affordable rental housing, and try to desegregate wealthy communities (still in 2009!), we could use more favorable, realistic coverage of public housing like this from the media.
(Families enjoying life in Greenwich, CT; photo by WalkingGeek)
Victory: Hyatt Workers Given New Jobs
Published September 25, 2009 @ 02:23PM PT
Hyatt announced today that the 98 workers it "unceremoniously" laid off last month will be given new jobs in Boston at their previous rate of pay - the positions will be through the staffing agency that employs their replacements. This is a good but qualified victory: their current pay is guaranteed through the end of 2010, and Hyatt has extended their health benefits through March 2010. For workers who opt instead to go through a career retraining and placement program, they will receive their previous wages through March 2010 or until they secure new employment, whichever comes first.
Many thanks to those that joined the boycott against Hyatt; it was a small but important movement here at Change.org, and part of a much larger response in Massachusetts and beyond.
Join the Hyatt Boycott: Tell the Hotel Chain to Rehire Housekeeping Staff Now!
Published September 24, 2009 @ 06:30AM PT
On August 31, 3 Boston-area Hyatt properties laid off 98 housekeeping staff, many of them seasoned employees earning $15/hour, and replaced them with outsourced staff from a Georgia company that pays $8/hour and offers far fewer benefits. The hotel chain cited financial difficulties as justification for laying off these vulnerable workers, and threatened compromised customer service if they were forced to walk back this low-road economic decision. Particularly at issue is the false pretenses the housekeeping staff alleges in which they were laid off and tricked into training their own replacements, a charge the corporation denies.
MA Governor Patrick isn't buying it - and neither should you. Governor Patrick has enacted a boycott of Hyatt properties by state employees - a move more symbolic than financial in impact - but one that has already forced Hyatt to extend severance benefits and work more closely with laid-off workers on re-training and job placement assistance.
That's not enough - if we allow companies to pursue these low-road strategies, where they pursue profitability mainly through cutting worker costs through outsourcing to the latest lowest bidder - we're condoning the permanent insecurity of the lowest-wage, lowest-skilled workers, who are already hit hardest during economic downturns.
Join Governor Patrick and the National Employment Lawyers Association in this boycott - and send a letter to Hyatt President and CEO Mark S. Hoplamazian today, telling him that you don't support these low-road business measures and that you will not be patronizing Hyatt properties until these 98 housekeepers are reinstated.
(Photo of the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, one of the targeted hotels, by mathplourde)
NYC to Get FRESH Supermarkets
Published September 24, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
In the spirit of National Food Desert Awareness month, yesterday morning, the New York City Department of City Planning voted unanimously in favor of an initiative that will bring fresh fruits, vegetables and other all-too-rare perishable goods to some of the city's most under-served residents.
The Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (or FRESH) program will give various zoning and tax incentives to retail companies that open supermarkets in designated communities throughout the five boroughs.
For example, new stores that meet the FRESH eligibility requirements will be given sales tax exemptions, real estate tax reductions and be required to provide less parking than is mandated for other retail food operations by the city's zoning laws.
