fight for 15 – Page 3

June 2, 2014

Santa Brito to Mayor Taveras: ‘Please support the working women of Providence’

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After last Thursday night’s Providence City Council Ordinance Committee meeting in which the proposal to establish a $15 an hour living wage for hotel workers was to be discussed and voted on was cancelled, many of the women and men who made the effort to engage with their government were abandoned in City Hall with no way to speak to their government.

As Jenny Norris, MSW, said to me, “There are many, many, many, many, many barriers that prevent people from participating in government and policy discussions. What a shame it is when people actively overcome a lot those barriers only to be blindsided by a cancellation…”

Still, the women wanted to speak out, to directly address both the City Council and Mayor Angel Taveras. My camera caught them outside the Mayor’s locked office, and over the next few days I’ll be releasing their statements.

First up is Santa Brito. Santa has been a fierce advocate for hotel worker’s rights. She was fired from the hotel, possibly for her unionization efforts, shortly after giving birth to her child. The first video is translated into English, the second video is in the original Spanish.

May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

Mayor Taveras and PVD City Council abandon working mothers

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Upon being elected Mayor of Providence in 2010, Angel Taveras, “speaking at the state Democratic Party gathering at the Biltmore, thanked his mother, Amparo ‘Milagro’ Ovalles, a Dominican immigrant who had raised him and his two immediate siblings largely on her own while working at local factories.”

Speaking of his mother, Taveras said, “Her example taught me that, through hard work and perseverance, anything is possible, and most importantly, that there are no insurmountable challenges,” adding in yet another interview, “I feel really blessed in many, many ways. My mother sacrificed a lot, and emphasized education so that my sister and I can live the American Dream.”

Everyone in Providence has heard the story of Mayor Taveras. He grew up poor, supported by his mother, a product of the Providence public school system. he later graduated Harvard and Georgetown University, to become the first Hispanic mayor of Providence at the age of forty. He routinely gives much of the credit for his success to his mother.

Even as recently as Tuesday night Taveras was playing this familiar tune. “Taveras talked of growing up poor in Providence — how his mother had his Easter Sunday suit put on layaway at Ann & Hope. ‘I tell you that,’ he said, because ‘you want to know who your governor is going to stand with when things get tough … working families.’”

Why is it then, when given a chance to actually stand with working families, Taveras skulked away and left them standing alone?

Last night, nearly one hundred hard working women, many of them supporting children in circumstances not too different from those endured by the Mayor’s mother, were left wondering why the Mayor and the City Council had abandoned them. Last night was supposed to be a meeting of the Providence Ordinance Committee to discuss the proposed $15 minimum wage for hotel workers. Working women secured childcare or brought their kids with them. They skipped meals, skipped overtime and traveled to the City Hall on foot, on buses or in carpools, only to find out that the Ordinance Committee meeting had been abruptly cancelled.

Those City Councillors who would face their constituents in the lobby of the City Hall seemed at a loss to explain the cancellation. Mayor Taveras had indicated to Channel 12 news that he wanted the measure held for further study, but as far as I can tell, the Mayor does not have the power or authority to cancel City Council meetings, though obviously he can exert enormous pressure if he has to. Rumors were flying that Committee Chair, Councillor Seth Yurdin, was being lobbied by hotel and/or mayoral interests, or that he had broken his foot in a fortuitous (for Mayor Taveras and the hotel owners) accident.

With memories of Angel Taveras’s biography in my mind, I couldn’t help but see in the bored faces of the children present in the halls of Providence City Hall the potential for them to be the Mayor of Providence themselves a few decades hence. I wondered what their story would be, and if they would remember Mayor Taveras as the kind of politician who stuck up for them when they were in need, or sold them out for the chance to be governor.

The parents of these children, 80% of whom are women and who all work exceedingly hard at their jobs, are being abused right now with long hours, low pay and crushing poverty. They and their children suffer the effects of economic uncertainty and the never ending stress of making ends meet. Just the act of agitating for better working conditions seems to have cost many of them their jobs.

It is within the power of Mayor Angel Taveras and Providence City Council members like Seth Yurdin to improve the lives of these women and lift them out of poverty, but they are avoiding their duty and appeasing monied interests by using shady tricks and delaying tactics rather than holding a straight up vote. This kind of back room dealing, where secret lobbying, money and political designs count for more than the efforts of organized citizens agitating for justice is shameful.

This measure deserves a straight up vote, and that vote needed to happen yesterday.

Councillor Carmen Castillo confronts Councillor Sam Zurier

Councillors Wilbur Jennings Jr and Carmen Castillo

Councillor Kevin Jackson supports the measure

May 28, 2014May 29, 2014

Hotel workers, activists ask PVD for $15 minimum wage

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Reading Rhode Island’s paper of record this morning about the Providence City Council meeting where public testimony was taken on a proposal to raise the minimum wage for hotel workers to $15 would certainly give the false impression that “Dozens of speakers testified before the panel, both for and against the plan.” In truth, 22 people testified for the proposal, and only five people testified against it. Over 200 supporters rallied at City Hall. The measure is overwhelmingly popular, but the ProJo decided to bury the item on the bottom of page five.

That’s too bad, because the successful passage of this proposal would put Providence at the forefront of the battle for a fair and equitable living wage for all people, and the ProJo will be playing catch up when the national media turns its attention here. $15 an hour will change the lives of Providence hotel workers, who barely survive on meager paychecks and government assistance. It will change the lives of their children, opening up opportunities for better education, health care and child care. It will expand local businesses as the new money put into the hands of local workers will be spent locally. It will allow Providence workers the ability to afford to live in Providence.

This is a game changer, and the Providence City Council would show real wisdom in passing this. Establishing this city as a place where workers are treated well and not exploited will be an economic draw, not a detriment. This is an issue of basic human compassion: Nobody should work so hard and make so little. Good people realize this, and want to support the businesses and communities that embody these values.

Those speaking for the hotels spun the same old gloom and doom prognoses concerning higher room rates, loss of competitive pricing, and loss of profits. This from multi-billion dollar corporations that operate hotels all over the world, including places with minimum wages that are already $15 or higher. After forecasting certain doom, one hotel advocate asked that the proposal be put on hold until a study could be completed, a tactic meant to delay, not enlighten. If the study concludes $15 would be beneficial, the hotels will dispute the findings. If the study shows $15 detrimental, the hotels will claim vindication. In the effort to defeat this measure, the hotel and business community spokemen (and they were all men) stopped just short of suggesting biblical plagues would result.

Speakers in favor of the proposal include Krystle Martin and Adrienne Jones, single mothers who were fired from their jobs shortly after they began agitating for fair wages and a union. Both were previously profiled on RI Future.

After the testimony last night the proposal will be voted on in committee next Thursday, and if it passes out of committee, it will be presented to the Providence City Council the following Thursday. Supporters are hoping for at least ten votes on the City Council, to thwart a possible veto by Mayor Angel Taveras. Supporters were holding signs reading “Angel Don’t Veto Working Women” to get ahead of this possibility. One would think that a man who wants to be governor would not consider voting against hard working hotel workers, 80% of whom are women, but this is an election year, so we can only hope that the Mayor will do the right thing and sign this bill into law upon passage.

Below you can see photos from the event, and pictures of all twenty-two speakers.

Here are photos and video of all 22 people who spoke in favor of the proposal. Not all of them were hotel workers. Business, labor and community leaders and members were represented.

Pre-City Council meeting

Pro $15 Speaker 01

Pro $15 Speaker 02

Pro $15 Speaker 03

Pro $15 Speaker 04

Pro $15 Speaker 05

Pro $15 Speaker 06

Pro $15 Speaker 07

Pro $15 Speaker 08

Pro $15 Speaker 09

Pro $15 Speaker 10

Pro $15 Speaker 11

Pro $15 Speaker 12

Pro $15 Speaker 13

Pro $15 Speaker 14

Pro $15 Speaker 15

Pro $15 Speaker 16

Pro $15 Speaker 17

Pro $15 Speaker 18

Pro $15 Speaker 19

Pro $15 Speaker 20

Pro $15 Speaker 21

Pro $15 Speaker 22

Post City Council meeting

For “balance,” here’s the five rich white guys who spoke against the proposal:

May 15, 2014

Photos: Rhode Island’s Fight for $15, 12pm at Wendy’s

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Fast food workers are fighting for $15 an hour all over the country today – and all over Rhode Island. After a 6am action at a Burger King in Providence (, video here), the workers and activists convened again at the Wendy’s in Warwick, where the local protests began.

May 15, 2014

Video: Rhode Islanders Fight for $15

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Here’s video from this morning’s Fight for $15 protest at Burger King in Providence. There are protests today at fast food restaurants in Pawtucket, Providence at the Warwick Wendy’s at noon.

Robert Paquin, the executive director of the Rhode Island Republican Party, said he will be attending the Warwick Wendy’s protest at noon.

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Photos: First of two ‘Fight for $15’ events today!

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With a last minute change of location from the Dunkin’ Donuts on Broad St. in Central Falls to the Burger King on Lonsdale Ave., Jobs with Justice launched their fourth action for $15 an hour and and unionization for fast food workers. Burger King management kept the doors to the restaurant locked but they couldn’t stop the voices of workers demanding fair wages for long hours of work. Towards the end, Charles, a ten year employee of Burger King, spoke briefly about the impossibility of supporting oneself on the paltry wages on offer. The next event is at noon in Warwick, I’ll have pictures from that event soon.

May 14, 2014May 15, 2014

RI fast food workers walk off job

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Workers from several Rhode Island fast food restaurants are striking tomorrow in the most recent direct actions in the fight for a $15 and hour, according to a press release from Jobs With Justice.

“Fast-food workers in Central Falls, Warwick, Providence and Pawtucket will walk off their jobs,” according to the media advisory. “They are expected to strike at Providence major fast-food restaurants, including Dunkin Donuts, Wendy’s and KFC. Clergy, elected officials, and community supporters will join fast-food workers on the strike lines.”

Affected businesses include a Wendy’s, McDonalds, KFC (formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) and Dunkin Donuts.

This is the fourth such direct action in Rhode Island that began at the Wendy’s in Warwick in December (watch video of that action here). It will be the second time workers have actually gone on strike, or not reported to work as a protest against the emloyment conditions.

The effort is part of national campaign, led by the SEIU, to raise the minimum wage in the fast food industry to $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Across the nation, workers will be striking at more than 150 fast food establishments, according to the release.

Public protests will be held at a Dunkin Donuts on Broad Street in Central Falls at 6 am Thursday morning and at noon at the Wendy’s in Warwick.

Here’s some background on the Fight for $15 movement from the Jobs With Justice press release:

A campaign that started in New York City in November 2012, with 200 fast-food workers walking off their jobs demanding $15 and the right to form a union without retaliation, has since spread to more than 150 cities in every region of the country, including the South—and now around the world. Last December workers in Warwick and Providence joined the movement with a one-day strike. Momentum continues to grow throughout Rhode Island to include workers at restaurants in Central Falls and Pawtucket. The growing fight for $15 has been credited with elevating the debate around inequality in the U.S. When Seattle’s mayor proposed a $15 minimum wage earlier this month, Businessweek said he was “adopting the rallying cry of fast-food workers.”

As it spreads, the movement is challenging fast-food companies’ outdated notion that their workers are teenagers looking for pocket change. Today’s workers are mothers and fathers struggling to raise children on wages that are too low. And they’re showing the industry that if it doesn’t raise pay, it will continue to be at the center of the national debate on what’s wrong with our economy.

Earlier this year, workers in three states filed class-action suits against McDonald’s alleging widespread and systematic wage theft. And in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McDonald’s said worker protests might force it to raise wages this year. With shareholder meeting season upon us, and a recent report showing the industry has by far the largest disparity between worker and CEO pay, scrutiny on fast-food companies is bound to intensify. USA Today called the growing worker movement, “the issue that just won’t go away” for the fast-food industry.

May 2, 2014

Watch the May Day march

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Robert Malin has video on the May Day march in Providence yesterday. It includes people rallying against the city’s proposed plan to move the bus terminal out of Kennedy Plaza, Wendy’s workers, Hiton hotel employees, foreclosure and immigrant rights activists.

March 20, 2014

Protest to end wage theft at McDonalds in Providence

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The fight for a fair and equitable minimum wage shifted gears yesterday as protests were executed across the country against “wage theft.” Though it’s difficult to get an exact number, it is estimated that wage theft protests occurred at some thirty McDonald’s locations in cities across the country, including Providence, where about thirty protesters rallied on Broad St.

Wage theft comes in many forms. According to WageTheft.org, “Common forms of wage theft are non-payment of overtime, not giving workers their last paycheck after a worker leaves a job, not paying for all the hours worked, not paying minimum wage, and even not paying a worker at all.”

Prominent lawsuits are being filed in California, Michigan and New York, and McDonald’s is being targeted “because of its size and position as an industry leader,” according to the Huffington Post.

At the McDonald’s located at 343 Broad St, participants met outside on the sidewalk and prepared their signs. After a short motivational speech by Jesse Strecker, director at Jobs With Justice, the protesters approached the McDonald’s with the intent of asking management to make a commitment against wage theft. McDonald’s management refused to answer the protesters and instead locked them out of the restaurant and called the police.

When the police arrived the peaceful protest moved to the sidewalk, where fast food worker Joanne gave an impassioned talk about trying to live at poverty wages while working for an exploitative fast food industry that maximizes profits over the wellbeing of its employees.

March 14, 2014March 17, 2014

Hotel, fast food workers stand up for rights in RI

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There’s a bit of low-wage worker uprising happening here in Rhode Island.

Hilton Providence employees are holding an action to support their coworkers who were they say were fired for speaking out about the need for a labor union. A tweet from Unite Here 217 organizer Andrew Tillet-Saks called it a “Funeral for US Constitution to protest mass firings.” On Monday, Steve Ahlquist interviewed Adrienne Jones, who said she was fired from the Hilton Providence for speaking out. On Tuesday it was learned two employees were fired for speaking out about the work conditions at the downtown Providence hotel and seven others were disciplined.

And on Tuesday, the Rhode Island fight for $15 an hour for fast food workers moves from a Wendy’s in Warwick to a McDonald’s in Providence, where activists (I’m not sure about workers yet) will protest in solidarity with the McDonalds workers in California, Michaigan and New York are suing the corporation saying they were “illegally underpaid employees by erasing hours from their timecards, not paying overtime and ordering them to work off the clock.”

This from Rhode Island Jobs With Justice:

Fast-food workers have been at the forefront for economic justice. They’ve gone on strike, fighting for $15 and the right to form a union, fueling a national debate on income inequality and creating momentum to raise wages.

But in addition to not paying a decent wage, fast-food companies are making it even harder for their workers to afford even the basic necessities by stealing their wages. That’s why fast-food workers are making their voices heard again.

Join fast food workers from RI and community allies on TUESDAY, MARCH 18th, at 12:30, at the McDonald’s at 343 Broad St. in Providence, as we stand in solidarity with workers across the country who filed a national law-suit against wage theft at McDonald’s!

December 6, 2013December 6, 2013

Photo essay: Fight for $15 at Warwick Wendy’s

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About 50 people, including at least 5 workers, protested outside a Warwick Wendy’s as part of a national day of action. You can watch video of the action here, or check out my pictures below.

December 5, 2013March 14, 2014

Video: Warwick Wendy’s workers protest at their jobs

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At least five Warwick Wendy’s workers protested at their place of employment today as part of a nationwide effort to organize fast food workers and pay them $15 an hour. They were joined by labor leaders, city councilors from Warwick and Providence, state legislators, faith leaders and activists of all stripes.

Watch the video of the action:

November 17, 2013November 17, 2013

George Vecchione needs to meet Jo-Ann Gesterling

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Jo-Ann Gesterling, a fast food worker, and George Vecchione, a former CEO, have both recently garnered some attention for their respective salaries.

In 2011, Vecchione made $7.88 million as the chief executive of Lifespan, a WPRI investigation revealed recently. Meanwhile, Gesterling helped organize a protest at the Wendy’s in Warwick where she works in hopes of calling the media’s attention to her hourly wage of $8.20 an hour. In other words, Vecchione made almost twice as much in one day (~$30,300) as Gesterling will make all year (~$17,000).

	hourly	weekly	monthly	annually
George Vecchione	$3,788.45	$151,538	$656,667	$7,880,000
Jo-Ann Gesterling	$8.20	$328	$1,421	$17,056

But perhaps it is unfair to compare a free enterprise fast food economy with that of a non-profit, regulated for consumer health. So instead let’s use Wendy’s internal pay grades. At $16.5 million in 2011, CEO Roland Smith made more than twice running Wendy’s as Vecchione made leading Lifespan. Here’s how his salary compares to Gesterling’s:

	hourly	weekly	monthly	annually
Roland Smith	$7,932.68	$317,307	$1,375,000	$16,500,000
Jo-Ann Gesterling	$8.20	$328	$1,421	$17,056

November 16, 2013March 14, 2014

Wingmen: Is RI subsidizing corporate fast food profits?

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Capitalism is great. Except when it’s not.

Even my new-found frenemy Justin Katz seems to agree. “There is a role for government in ensuring that people do not slip through the cracks to that level where they are dying in the streets,” the Koch bros soldier told Bill Rappleye on this week’s edition of NBC10 Wingmen about the minimum wage.

When the minimum wage, about $16,000 a year in Rhode Island, falls below the actual cost of survival, at least $20,000, the public sector makes up the difference. This is how the fast food/big box industry works, or doesn’t, depending on your perspective. Multinational corporations that own fast food chain restaurants make huge profits that are largely subsidized by taxpayers.

“Walmart, which grossed $318 billion in the U.S. last year, provides its workers with technical advice about how to apply for this public assistance. For responsible businesses to subsidize the low wages of their larger competitors is a complete perversion of capitalism.” – Ralph Nader, Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2013.

In Rhode Island, this issue is just about to heat up. Five Wendy’s workers in Warwick joined labor and working class activists in storming their place of employment and demanding better working conditions. The effort was the first front of the Fight For 15, a nationwide movement of fast food workers, aided by the SEIU, who are demanding $15 an hour. More local and national protests are being planned in this drive to organize fast food workers. And several activists groups are planning to protest Walmart on Buy Nothing Day as part of the War on Thanksgiving.

Watch our debate below, and read this post about what our congressional delegation is doing to boost the minimum wage. (And listen to the deafening silence from Katz when Rapp asks him if it’s public assistance that keeps people from dying on the streets!!)

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

November 14, 2013November 17, 2013

Wendy’s workers on why they want to organize

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A direct action inside a Wendy’s in Warwick today was Rhode Island’s first in the nationwide Fight For 15 effort to unionize fast food workers. But it won’t be the last, organizers said. Expect more local protests and more fast food workers to organize in the weeks and months to comes, they said.

About 30 people entered the Wendy’s on Warwick Ave, including at least five employees, and delivered a list of demands for better working conditions. When the group began chanting, management had police ask the crowd to leave, which they did.

I caught up with two of the Wendy’s employees afterwards:

November 14, 2013November 17, 2013

RI fast food workers fight for $15

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The movement to organize fast food workers for better wages and working conditions comes to Rhode Island today as employees will hold an action at the Wendy’s at 771 Warwick Ave in Warwick.

“We have to do without a lot,” said Jo-Ann Gesterling, who has been working at the Wendy’s in Warwick for 5 years, and only makes $8.20 an hour. “Some people I’m working with have trouble buying food and need to rely on food stamps. They are having trouble finding a place to live.”

“And we’ve got their backs,” according to a Jobs With Justice email. “We need to stop sending Rhode Island dollars out of state to multinational corporations that pay workers poverty wages.”

The protest today in Warwick is part of a nation-wide effort that kicked into high gear this August to fight for fast food employees’ economic security. While fast food workers typically earn near-minimum wage. But across the country employees are demanding $15 per hour by walking out of work.

“Most of the workers at fast food restaurants in Rhode Island are adults and make around $8 an hour, which will be the new minimum wage in 2014,” the Jobs With Justice email said. “We need to get the economy moving again, and that starts with low-wage service jobs. An adult with one child needs to make $20.64 an hour working full time in the Warwick area just to afford the basics, according to a model developed by a professor at MIT. Because many of these workers are forced on to public assistance, money is flowing out of Rhode Island to increase the billions in profits that multinational corporations like Wendy’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s enjoy.”

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