Connecticut is becoming the fourth state to pass a $15 minimum wage law in 2019. The Connecticut legislature passed the minimum wage increase, which will be phased in gradually and hit $15 in 2023, then be tied to the cost of living, and Gov. Ned Lamont has said he will sign it into law. The state’s current minimum wage is $10.10 an hour, and more than 330,000 Connecticut workers will get a raise.
Listening to the state legislature debate the bill, 20-year-old McDonald’s worker Takara Gilbert told the Hartford Courant ”All I hear from [the Republicans] is about small businesses and nothing about the workers.” Democratic lawmakers, by contrast, were clear that even $15 is not enough, with state Sen. Gary Winfield saying that “We’re here talking about a subliving wage, that’s what this fight is for...because in the state of Connecticut right now ‚the living wage is larger than $15.”
”A $15 minimum wage will give me the peace of mind to know that I won't be scrambling to make ends meet at the end of every month,” McDonald’s worker Joseph Franklin said in a statement. “By joining together, speaking up, and going on strike, workers like me have turned $15 from dream to reality for millions of workers across the country.”
Unfortunately, tipped workers won’t be included in the full minimum wage, though the tipped worker minimum is well above the federal level of $2.13 an hour.
● A special election for Los Angeles school board went the right way, with pro-public education candidate Jackie Goldberg winning a resounding victory.
● It was a big week for education activism—another big week. Teachers, parents, students, and community members marched for increased education funding in Nashville and Boston.
● A charter school in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was looking to massively expand to the tune of two new campuses and 1,100 added students. When that plan drew opposition, the state education commissioner came up with a “compromise”: just 450 new seats, but replacing a neighborhood public school and handing the public school building over to the charter school for free. Now, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and 10 New Bedford residents are suing to block the plan.
● Last weekend, I wrote about my father’s unexpected death. Barbara Madeloni, his friend and co-organizer and a former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, likewise wrote about him in Labor Notes: Dan Clawson, Presente! And his death was covered in our local paper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, by Dusty Christensen, who is both an excellent local reporter and a steward of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild, part of an exciting surge of union organizing at local newspapers in New England.
● Larry Hanley, the late president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, was a transformational labor leader. He will be missed:
Larry understood that the very existence of mass transit depended on those riders who most depended on it, most often Black, Latino and immigrant workers. Larry acted and preached to ATU members that mobilizing the support of riders and the community were key to the union’s future success—not just traditional political action. In other words, the union was bargaining not just for its members but for the collective good. This is a vision for organizing based on opening the contract process up to riders and the community writ large, so they too can participate in collective bargaining, as the riders might have demands that the union failed to see.
● Tennessee janitors convince Target to drop dirty cleaning contractor.
● What are the employment prospects of young people graduating from college right now?
● How to think about the job-creation potential of green investments: A boost to labor demand that will create some jobs, shift some others—and increase job-quality overall.