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From the Editors

Our Blog Roll’s Blog Stroll

Roseanne Barr, famous for many reasons including rocking situational comedy through a working class lens and spouting a sort of practical feminism in gems like "I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on," is weighing in on the fight to raise the minimum wage. Piggybacking on the fact that "650 economists, including "several Nobel Laureates, [have recently] laid to rest the myth that raising the minimum wage would hurt the economy," the AFL-CIO and ACORN are hosting a conference titled 7 Days at Minimum Wage, featuring the stories of seven individuals trying to make it on minimum wages and hosted by the "Domestic Goddess," Ms. Roseanne.

New Blog Alert: Roseanne's got a two-month-old...

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You may have missed this story about Bush supporting a 1.5 billion dollar bailout of New York's healthcare system. At first glance this may sound like a good thing-- or inspire narcolepsy-- but when I learned that my neighborhood health center could get shutdown in the process as part of a "rightsizing" effort (that's Orwellian for down-sizing) suddenly my blood pressure went through the roof.

The Opportunity Agenda's blog explains:

What the [NY] Times fails to report is that those funds are likely to be used for "acute care rightsizing," a euphemistic term for restructuring health services that will result in the loss of primary care services in medically underserved areas of NYC - particularly low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

It is a great blog post that also explains why it will be cheaper in the long run to keep medical facilities open in the communities that need them the most.

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DMI is always interested in new techonological innovations in communication. Here's an interesting tool that Eyebeam Collective developed. It's a Congressman Mark Foley Instant Messenger conversation generator. Disclaimer: not for the 18 and under set.

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Progressive States writes about completely unacceptable new rules at Wal-Mart that prompted nearly 200 employees in Florida (including at least 15 managers) to up and walk off the job, spontaneously. Under the new rules, many full time employees are being switched to part-time, and stores are going so far as to remove stools for elderly and disabled workers, ostensibly in a dirty ploy to push those workers off the payroll who could cost the company the most in health care expenses.

Progressive States quotes Guillermo Vasquez, one of the managers who organized the walk-out, explaining one of the major problems with the new rules:

"In addition, the shifts would be decided not by managers, but by a computer at company headquarters. Employees could find themselves working 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. one week and noon to 9 p.m. the next. So workers cannot pick up their children after school everyday, and part-timers cannot keep another job because they can be called to work anytime," says Vasquez."

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DownWithTyranny! has transcribed Lou Dobbs' appearance on the Daily Show, promoting his new book "The War on the Middle Class." Jon Stewart opens with one of the better one-liners I've heard in a while, and one that especially hits home given that I spend 40-plus hours a week at a think tank working to frame and analyze the middle class squeeze:

Jon: "I say this to you, Lou, isn't this good that war has been declared on the middle class? When America declares war on things--drugs, terror--usually the subject of that war ends up doing quite well."

While Dobbs may get it right when he points to soaring corporate profits and stagnant wages, our Executive Director Andrea Batista Schlesinger has called Dobbs out on his immigration stance, both on his show and in her Open Letter to Lou Dobbs, claiming that his policy suggestions will only hurt the already struggling middle class and aspiring middle class.

Posted at 6:45 AM, Oct 21, 2006 in Blog Stroll | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Regarding Roseanne Barr and "7 Days @ Minimum Wage", I was one of the interviewers for "7 Days...". It really was harrowing for all of us to video these folks. Their stories have been so heartfelt and so sad, and the commonality to them is that none of the people we interviewed is happy about working at minimum wage. They're all trying as hard as they can to get out of it, but circumstances, local job options, lots of things beyond their control--like a local legal minimum wage that adds up to less money than they might receive in a welfare check--keep them down.

When you're asked to find someone and interview them about their life and you end up sobbing behind the camera because of the details of that life that you're hearing about, and the person happens to be your age, in your city, not much different from you...I dunno, it was just pretty devastating for all of us to put this together.

Sure, it's an ACORN/AFLCIO project. But for me the point is too many people debate minimum wage in a starkly statistical manner. It's too easy to forget you're talking about real people, real families, that minimum wage has a real impact (and, let's face it, $6.50 an hour in Illinois is no picnic either). But real people are exactly who you're talking about. I was grateful to be able to help put a face to the debate.

For what it's worth, I interviewed two people from the Chicago area, Erin (from NW Indiana, going live on Tuesday), and Jessica (from Chicago, going live on Thursday). I dare anyone to watch Jessica's story on Thursday and not be moved to tears.

Say what you want about fair wages. I just wish everyone would remember that it's actual human beings who get stuck at the bottom of that ladder. I'll never forget my experience with this project. I invite everyone this week to come take a look.

Peace...

Mike thank you so much for sharing your story about working on the 7 Days @ Minimum wage project.

I've done documentary work myself and I know how easy it can get to start removing yourself emotionally from what you are shooting. The power of your interviews cuts through that.

The way you describe being so much like the people you tapped is exactly what I think the general public needs to see in these documentaries. They need to see themselves and how easy it could be to become the minimum wage worker featured in them.
Your amazing work is appreciated. And needed.

Thanks again for covering 7 Days at Minimum Wage. With Election Day finally upon us, I wanted to let you know what the project team is up to in support of the six minimum-wage ballot initiatives in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio.

I won't kitchen-sink you with all the details--you can browse the 7 DAYS project website for that, at http://www.sevendaysatminimumwage.org/site/?page_id=23 . But if you do click through, you'll find information about phone banks, door-knocks, prayer vigils, canvassing, election observations, and watch parties sponsored by ACORN and AFL-CIO throughout the six key states. (You can also find a lot of this last-minute info on ACORN's www.raiseswages.org and AFL-CIO's www.americaneedsaraise.org ).

It's obvious why these increases are important: an hour of human labor should cost more than a Starbucks venti latte. That the federal government thinks it's ok to pay you or me or anyone else $5.15 an hour is positively obnoxious--and most of those hours are below full-time and without health insurance.

I know I'm angry about that, and sad for the way the people we interviewed are forced to live because the law says it's ok to keep them earning below the poverty line. I know how deeply that fact affected me through my work on 7 DAYS. If the project touched just one other person out there to go to the polls and help raise their local minimum wage, then I know we've accomplished what we set out to do.

Please remember the folks we interviewed when you consider your state's or your city's minimum wage...or the next time you tip anyone, anywhere, for that matter. Do click through and see how to support minimum-wage increases in your state. And most of all, thanks for watching. Good luck to everyone on November 7!

Peace...