Dave Jamieson, at the Huffington Post, has an alarming piece about how Rhode Island is the only state with a supposedly Democratically controlled legislature considering such a ban, saying, “State Democrats in Rhode Island have apparently taken a page from the Republican playbook, moving to preemptively block cities and counties from establishing their own local minimum wages.”

The proposed law has been snuck into the state budget, and may be approved as early as Thursday night by the House before it moves onto the Senate. Representative Gallison, who has fronted this ALEC-style bill, claims to want to protect business competitiveness, but in truth this bill is calculated to do just one thing: separate an entire set of people from their ability to access government.

Last May Day, we were graced with a history lesson from URI professor Erik Loomis on the origins of International Workers Day. This May Day, Rhode Island is graced with actual workers fighting in real time for better working and living conditions.

And so fast food workers, hotel workers, those unfairly swept up in the foreclosure crisis, immigrants and many more will march together in solidarity to City Hall and the State House.

Jo-Ann Gesterling, a Warwick Wendy’s worker who has been leading the fast food fight for a $15 minimum wage in Rhode Island, is speaking at the first stop on a Jobs With Justice-led march to the State House.

From a Burger King on Broad St., the activists will march to the Providence Hilton, where a hotel worker will speak about their recent efforts to form a union and more recently to ask the Providence City Council to pass a $15 minimum wage ordinance for the hotel industry.

And when group reaches the State House, Lilia Abbatematteo, who has been fighting an unjust foreclosure and simultaneously lobbying for the Just Cause bill which would stop tenant evictions, will speak about her plight and ensuing cause.

Speakers from Fuerza Laboral, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, and Committee of Immigrants in Action, will be speaking on how the immigrants’ rights movement brought May Day to the US, and on campaigns to win driver’s licenses for undocumented people, stop deportations, and accomplish immigration reform at the national level.

Suzette Cook, whose son Joshua Robinson was brutally beaten last year by the Providence Police in a high profile case, will speak on racial profiling, and the criminalization of people of color and working class people.

The march starts at 4:30pm at 280 Broad St., Providence.

It was organized by RI Jobs with Justice, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Fuerza Laboral, Olneyville Neighborhood Association, American Friends Service Committee, RI People’s Assembly, Committee of Immigrants in Action, UNITE HERE Local 217.

Here’s the full itinerary:

Thursday, May 1^st

Rally begins at 4:30pm at 280 Broad St., Providence (Burger King), where Jo-Ann Gesterling, Worker at the Warwick Ave. Wendy’s, will speak on the Campaign for $15/hr and a union for Fast Food Workers

March Stops at:

The Hilton Hotel, where workers from the Renaissance and Hilton join together to demand respect, better working conditions, and a $15 minimum wage for hotel workers across the city.

Providence City Hall, where Mil Herndon, member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, will speak on the need for the city of Providence to fully enforce its “First Source” ordinance and provide jobs for Providence residents when companies receive huge tax breaks

RI State House, to hear speakers on:

–       Immigrant’s Rights: Campaigns for Driver’s Licenses for All, to Stop Deportations, and for Comprehensive Reform at the National Level

–       Just Cause Legislation: Allow Tenants to Stay in their Homes after their Landlords are Foreclosed on

–       An End to Racial Profiling: Hear Suzzette Cook, whose son was brutally beaten by the Providence Police, share her story

Below is a video and photo essay of some of the people Providence city councilors will have to answer to if they don’t support the ordinance. The sign in the first picture shows three councilors support the minimum wage, but after the meeting Councilors Aponte and Jennings signed on, bringing the total to five in support. None have declared opposition and 10 are still undecided.

Providence may be getting a $15 minimum wage ordinance for hotel workers if activists fighting for better working conditions at the Hilton and Renaissance get their way.

Today at 3:30 they are submitting more the more than 1,000 signatures needed to force the City Council to consider such an ordinance.

“We hope the City will not delay in bringing this Ordinance to the City Council so that we can consider the ordinance,” said City Councilor Carmen Castillo in a press release. “From talking to hundreds of people in Providence, this is an incredibly important issue for our city that quickly deserves the City’s attention.”

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, who is running for governor, has not yet responded to a request for comment on the potential ordinance.

If the city validates the signatures, the Council will then have 70 days to take up the ordinance that would set a $15 minimum wage for hotel workers in Providence. The press release says there are more than 1,000 hotel workers who live in Providence.

“With this new minimum wage, I will be able to shop and support small business in my neighborhood,” said a housekeeper named Santa who works at the Renaissance Hotel. “No one on my block has any disposable income right now, so we suffer just like the business owners in our community.”

Employees and activists have been leading a high profile campaign for better working conditions at the Renaissance and Hilton hotels in Providence. They say they are forced to work in poor conditions for paltry wages while the multinational real estate holding company that owns the two hotels makes huge profits.

“We work very hard for billionaire corporations who pay us incredibly little,” said Yilenny Ferraras, a housekeeper at the Hilton. “If I received just a dollar and change more per room, my whole life and my whole neighborhood would change for the better.”

Since the public protests have begun, at least three activists have been fired, they say, for speaking out about the work conditions and advocating for collective bargaining rights.

Read our full coverage of the Hilton workers here.

“In a given circumstance, perhaps they should” form a union, Katz said and said the way they have been treated is “garbage from [employers].”

Katz deserves a lot of credit for this admission. Richard MacAdams, one of the board members for the vehemently anti-union political advocacy group he works for, is also on the chief legal counsel for the Procaccianti Group. I respect Katz for speaking his truth on this issue for the same reasons I respect the fired Hilton Providence workers for speaking theirs.

But, as per every episode, we also had some disagreement. Katz would prefer the invisible hand of the free market create better working conditions for the Hilton employees.

“What I don’t like the union union debate the way it sets it up unions have power to counteract business power,” he said. “If a company isn’t valuing its workers then that’s a problem with the company and we have to create an economic environment in which they suffer for that.”

In theory, everyone agrees I suppose. But from a practical point of view, unfettered capitalism simply doesn’t have an effective way to compel a multinational holdings company to pay poor people a living wage without workers organizing and making a stink about it.

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

Last week Bob Plain ran a piece detailing how two leaders of the unionization effort at the Hilton Providence had lost their jobs. Now that number is three. I previously profiled Adrienne Jones here, and covered Friday’s union action here. This is Krystle Martin’s story.

Martin is funny and optimistic, with an easy smile and a quick wit. She comes from a family with a strong union and military background. Her grandmother was in the Telephone Workers Union and her father was in the Laborers Union. She’s a hard working single mom, part of the blue collar, working class that builds, protects and maintains this country. I seriously doubt that many people reading this would want to switch places with Martin, swapping the challenges of their lives for hers. She lives every day on the edge of extreme poverty, where a missed paycheck or a missed day of work can mean the difference between eating or not eating, sleeping in your home or being homeless.

Martin was first hired to work at the Hilton Providence Starbucks, but after a few weeks she was offered the chance to be a server in Shula’s 347 Grill, the restaurant above the Starbucks. For those unfamiliar with food service, this move offers the potential of a big increase in pay. Though being a barista at Starbucks can pay a few dollars more than minimum wage, working as a server in a nice restaurant can bring in much more money in tips, even though you might make less than $5 an hour without tips. Martin needed this opportunity because she was pregnant, and needed the money.

Instead of working as a server, however, after training Martin was given the task of delivering room service, bussing tables (which requires carrying between 35 and 45 pounds of dishes from the table to the dishwasher in back) and expediting orders. (Expediting is adding the final touches to a meal, such as garnishes, and grouping the meals together to be delivered to the guests.) Needless to say, the tips for these duties were not what Martin expected.

Lifting heavy bussing trays full of dishes is not an optimal job for a woman over six months pregnant, but when Martin objected she says, “I received sarcasm from management when I presented a doctors note that stated I couldn’t lift more than 15 pounds.”

After presenting the note, Martin says was approached by a fellow server holding a bucket of clean dishes.

“Can you hold this for me, Krystle?” asked her coworker.

Martin took the bucket of dishes, not sure exactly what was going on, but she was beginning to suspect.

“That’s fifteen pounds of dishes,” said her coworker, “that’s what we expect you to carry.”

Martin asked for light duty, but was denied. She went into preterm labor twice, at 26 and 34  weeks, but still the hotel would not accommodate her. Customers would stop Martin on the floor of the restaurant and ask her if she was okay being so visibly pregnant and bussing tables. Martin just smiled and shrugged it off. She needed the job and needed the money: complaining to customers was not going to help her keep her job. Keep in mind that these are often long shifts of 12 and 13 hours, and breaks were rare, never mind the fact that they are required by law.

Finally, perhaps reacting to the concerns of customers or perhaps having finally found some sense of decency, management deigned to put Martin on light duty which consisted of hostessing and what Martin calls “light” bussing. Light duty lasted for three shifts, because Martin went into labor 11 days early, and delivered a healthy baby girl.

A single mother, Martin could not afford to miss work. Also, the Hilton told her that she might not have a job if she came back to work in six weeks. So less than 48 hours after leaving the hospital where she gave birth, Martin was back to work at the Hilton Providence Starbucks. Here she ran into new problems.

“Before I gave birth and before I returned to work, I’d stated my intent to breast feed my daughter, and upon my return to work, I immediately stated that I was breast feeding my daughter and would need time to pump milk during my shift.”

Working 12 and 13 hour shifts, Martin never got more than two chances (15 minute breaks) per day to pump her breast milk, and despite the law saying that she should be given a secure and designated area for the purpose, she was forced to pump her breast milk in the restroom of the coffee shop, “so that I wouldn’t be too far away from the store at the time.”

This is when serious talk of forming a union started to percolate among the hotel staff. According to Martin, “Management reprimanded us when we spoke out about mistreatment within our departments, inadequate working conditions, labor issues, unfair/illegal labor practices, tip theft and discrimination.”

Searching for a second job to supplement her income was also a difficult option.  Martin says was told that if she secured a second job she would have to tell the hotel management so that they could cut her hours.

“I told management that I was not going to tell them if I did get another job or not, because it was none of their business. I said that whatever I do with my time, while off the clock, and away from the Hilton is my personal life. It is my personal business, and it is not their concern. Management insisted that I was required to tell them if I got another job, because they didn’t want me working so much and intended on cutting my hours if I did.”

Of course, if the hotel paid decent wages and treated its employees with respect and dignity, workers like Martin might not need a second job.

On February 17 of this year, Martin says she was interrogated by her department manager, regarding “signatures.” It was obvious that management knew she was a member and leader of a union committee and was out collecting signatures from her coworkers with the intent of forming a union. The next day Martin says she was told by Hilton Providence Human Resources Manager Amanda Robataille that she was being suspended, pending termination. Martin says that Robataille had returned to work in early January after taking six weeks off for maternity leave.

Martin was suspended just four hours before the hotel worker’s first public action: the attempt to deliver a petition to the hotel management declaring the worker’s intent to form a union. Though delivery of the petition was rebuffed by Hilton management, a union was formed that day. Now the pressure needs to stay on The Procaccianti Group, the company that owns the Hilton, so that the union can be recognized and contract negotiations begun.

After the union action Martin was reinstated in her job, only to be suspended again a week later. As she awaits a decision as to whether or not this suspension is permanent, Martin has learned that the Hilton Providence has already run a job listing searching for her replacement. Effectively, she’s been fired.

“I am tired of not being able to afford both child care and rent, even though I work more than 30 hours a week,” said Martin. “Most of the days I work, I am working shifts in excess of 12 hours, without being able to take a break, because there aren’t enough employees on shift for me to be able to do so. I don’t receive welfare, housing assistance, WIC, or section 8. I live in a building that is contaminated with lead paint, but I am being told by other landlords and realtors that because I don’t have enough verifiable income, I’m unable to move into a new place. Because I don’t have a realistic and livable wage, I cannot afford to live in a healthy home, which my daughter, myself, and every other human being in the United States is entitled to.

“I am fighting for fairness and respect. I am fighting for the recognition of the hard work that workers do on a daily basis. I am fighting for fair wages, so that my coworkers and I can afford to provide for our families. More importantly, I am fighting to be allowed the ability to be the mother that my daughter needs and deserves.”

The truck, placed so as to spare hotel management and guests the sight of underpaid and overworked employees advocating for fair wages and treatment, became a source of amusement and jokes among the protesters. When a gigantic 18-wheeler rumbled by emblazoned with a large “Teamsters” logo, chants of “We’ve got a bigger truck!” began, followed by laughter.

To highlight the abuse of workers rights alleged to take place at the hotel by the workers on the picket line, the protesters held a mock funeral for the United States Constitution. The document had a good run, said the protesters, only to be murdered by the Prociaccianti Group that owns and manages the hotel. Speaking in memory of the Constitution were Adrienne Jones, interviewed here at RI Future last Monday, and Krystle Martin, whose interview will be on this sight shortly, as well as many other workers and Providence Councilperson Carmen Castillo.

Since the unionization effort began, three union leaders have lost their jobs at the Hilton Providence and eight workers have been reprimanded, according to the organizers, so the Prociaccianti Group appears to be playing union busting hardball. Two of the fired workers, the aforementioned Jones and Martin, are single moms, leading some on the picket line to assert that the Hilton is targeting single mothers, who are more vulnerable economically. It’s hard to imagine more deplorable behavior.

Forming a union is an essential human right, and whatever efforts the hotel is undertaking to squelch the union is morally indefensible. The Prociaccianti Group is already bleeding business. The Unitarian Universalist General Assembly is bringing thousands of people to the Providence area this Summer, and they are not staying at the Hilton or the Renaissance (where workers are also batting for their right to unionize)  in response to the hotel’s treatment of its workers. More groups are sure to follow.

Meanwhile, local media, including the rapidly declining Providence Journal and local TV news continue to ignore the plight of workers fighting for their rights, leaving coverage of this developing story to the Brown Daily Herald and RI Future. Stories about real human suffering and economic exploitation are beneath their notice, it seems.

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!

“Since workers presenting management with their petition February 18^th, management has terminated two public leaders for arbitrary reasons, suspended-pending-termination another, and issued arbitrary discipline to no less than seven workers at the forefront of the workers’ campaign for better jobs,” according to the release from Andrew Tillett-Saks.

The email said a follow-up action – a “‘mock funeral for the United States Constitution’ to bring light to the hotel’s trampling of workers’ freedom of speech” – involving “terminated workers, their co-workers, and other area hotel workers” is being organized.

Earlier this week, Steve Ahlquist reported that Adrienne Jones feels she was fired for supporting the effort to organize a union. Krystle Martin, a barrista at the Hilton Starbucks agrees.

“The company is firing many of us who they see as  leaders of the efforts to make these livable jobs,” she said according to the press release. “We shouldn’t be mistreated at work just because we want to have decent jobs. Bottom line, this is illegal but they think they’re above the law.”

Watch video and see pictures of the Feb. 18 action here.