Jul 22, 2014
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country,” he expressed a view shared by many business leaders. In today’s business climate it seems incredible, but through much of the 20th century business leaders supported workers’ rights. Why did leading…
Readers: It’s another light agenda week. Please enjoy some summer reading inequality and the minimum wage. Paul Mason writes in the Guardian that the best of capitalism is over for rich counties by painting a bleak picture of what a continuation of “more of the same” means by 2060. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/07/capitalism-rich-poor-2060-populations-technology-human-rights-inequality Tweet
Neighborhood safety in San Jose has deteriorated. Potholes riddle our streets. Businesses struggle to have their applications and permits processed. Libraries are shuttered more hours than they’re open. In the video above, San Jose engineers, architects, supervisors and mid-managers detail the challenges that they and their coworkers face as residents question why city services have been cut. Check out the…
Jul 11, 2014
Last Sunday at 7pm, the small business my family spent 30 years building was taken away from us. We lost our retirement security, dozens of our employees lost their jobs, and the government lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue when McDonald’s forced us to close our franchised restaurant. McDonald’s says it did not renew our franchise agreement…
Jul 3, 2014
To many people Brazil consists only of Rio De Janeiro and São Paulo. Conflicting images persist of beautiful beaches, Carnaval, and vibrant music or the favelas of the poor and the impoverishment of the rural landless and indigenous. Throw into the mix a month of the World Cup simultaneously enjoyed by many and despised by some. This grand mixture reflects…
Jul 1, 2014
“It’s because of you we’re out of work!” That was the accusation shouted by the two laid-off, white workers of Detroit’s dissipating auto industry, before they proceeded to beat to death a young, Chinese American man by the name of Vincent Chin – who they had mistaken as Japanese –with a baseball bat. This year marks the 32nd anniversary…
Jun 30, 2014
Dear Readers: Summer agendas are typically light fare allowing elected officials to escape on vacation. We’ll still be covering local policy issues we think you should pay attention to, but when the agendas are light (like this week) we’ll use this space to link to other things we think you should know about. Tweet
Jun 19, 2014
Get ready to voice your opinion about what a good job really looks like. It’s one with wages that allow workers to support themselves and their families; it’s one where workers have a voice on the job to speak up about abuses or inequity; it’s one where a mother or father whose child is sick, can stay home for a…
Jun 18, 2014
Minimum wage increases are being enacted in cities across the country, from SeaTac, Washington, to Washington, D.C. Wherever a hike is proposed, free market conservatives offer the same dire warnings: Raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment, depress growth and hurt workers. The latest example is Seattle, where Mayor Ed Murray finds himself under pressure from the city’s businesses after…
Jun 17, 2014
Silicon Valley badly needs transportation improvements. Without investments in transit, expressways, bike lanes and more, our quality of life and our economy will deteriorate. Soon our community may have the opportunity to make decisions that can help make progress on these critical infrastructure issues. The Valley Transportation Authority is considering placing a quarter-cent sales tax on the November ballot. As…