Our Subway Ad Against Fare Hikes
Posted by bryan on March 9th, 2010
Help us take our fight against MTA fare hikes where it matters most: the subway.
We’ve got a great ad we think will grab riders’ attention and put pressure directly on the Mayor to solve this crisis. But we need to raise about $25,000 to put it up, and we don’t have much time before the cuts take effect.
Can you help? Pitch in $2.25 — or whatever you can afford — to get this ad up in the subway right away:
https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3353
The cost of just one subway or bus ride will help us fight to keep the fare from going up later this year. And our ad makes it clear that Mayor Bloomberg is on the hook for solving this crisis. Read full post…
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“Judgement day for sick days”
Posted by Dan Levitan on March 2nd, 2010
As the new City Council session gets under way, Crain’s New York looks at the coming battle over paid sick days:
Crain’s New York
Judgement day for sick days: Business groups, Working Families Party face off on bill
By Daniel Massey
City Council legislation compelling employers to provide workers with up to nine paid sick days could be reintroduced as soon as Wednesday, setting the stage for a battle between business groups intent on killing, or at least gutting, the bill, and the labor-backed Working Families Party, which has made its passage a top priority.
Business groups expect the new bill to contain changes from the one that was debated in the council last year-notably, a shift in the definition of a small business, from fewer than 10 employees to fewer than 20. But the groups, led by an alliance of the city’s five borough-wide chambers of commerce, say the anticipated alterations are merely window dressing. Read full post…
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Getting Back to Work
Posted by Dan Cantor on February 25th, 2010
When Staten Island Republicans tried to come after Councilmember Debi Rose and the Working Families Party with a “junk” lawsuit their real goal was simple: to throw a wrench in New York’s resurgent progressive movement.
Our opponents – Republican operatives and corporate lobbyists – know they can’t beat progressive ideas at the ballot box, or in the battle for public opinion. So they dragged us into court.
The good news is, it didn’t work. The settlement announced earlier this week ends the Republicans’ frivolous suit. Just as importantly, it will let the Working Families Party return to the critical work of electing progressive candidates, and holding politicians accountable to working people.
Here’s what’s first on our list: Read full post…
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$100 MetroCards?! Tell Bloomberg to Save the MTA:
Posted by Dan Levitan on February 18th, 2010
Love New York? New York urgently needs your help.
Our city’s transit system is in crisis. The cost of a monthly MetroCard could rise to over $100 next year.1 Service is being cut on dozens of bus and subway lines. Crucial upgrades are being neglected.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran for re-election last year on a promise to fix the MTA – but since this crisis started, he’s been missing in action.
We have to make sure the Mayor and other politicians get that slowly killing the MTA isn’t an option. So today, we’re launching an all-out grassroots campaign — an emergency push to save the MTA, working with NYC students, our friends at NYPIRG’s Straphangers campaign, and other groups who know how much our city needs transit.
Our goal is to get 50,000 signatures, comments and calls to Mayor Bloomberg by March 24, when the MTA is next expected to take action on service cuts and fare hikes.
If you’ve spoken out before, speak out again. If you haven’t, now’s the time to jump in. Tell Mike Bloomberg to Save the MTA right now by clicking here:
www.saveoursubway.org
Read full post…
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Times: Economists on the Benefits of Paid Sick Days
Posted by Dan Levitan on February 10th, 2010
Anyone who’s ever held down a job can tell you the value of paid sick days for an individual worker. But growing evidence suggests the ability to take the day off when you get sick also has real benefits for your co-workers and the broader economy.
A new study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research says last fall’s H1N1 epidemic may have been worsened by the millions of Americans who came to work sick and infected their coworkers.
As Nancy Folbre, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst and New York Times Economix guest blogger, argues, the costs of implementing paid sick days policies could be mitigated by the economic damage they prevent: Read full post…
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MTA raising fares even more?
Posted by Dan Cantor on February 8th, 2010
After proposing major service cuts this year and a 7.5% fare hike next year, the MTA Board is now saying they may have to raise fares even more.
That’s unbelievable — and there’s a better option. Transit experts and even some MTA Board members want to use the federal stimulus money they already have to help close the MTA’s budget gap. But the MTA’s new chief, Jay Walder, opposes that plan — so we need to send a message directly to him.
Sign our petition telling MTA Chairman Walder to use stimulus dollars BEFORE he hikes our fares:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=781
Walder says all of the MTA’s stimulus money should go to new projects and improvements — but does it really make sense to pay for new subway lines by cutting the old ones?
Read full post…
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Daily News: Dan Cantor on WFP’s 2010 Agenda
Posted by Dan Levitan on February 5th, 2010
In an op-ed in today’s Daily News, Dan Cantor, WFP Executive Director, lays out the party’s 2010 agenda:
Working Families Party will use its power to stir things up
by DAN CANTOR
February 5th 2010
The last few months have not been promising for progressives across the country – the GOP has won major victories in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts.
In New York the story is different. After a decade of pushing progressive causes, the Working Families Party starts the year with increased standing in Albany and at City Hall, thanks to victories by candidates we were proud to support, including new public advocate Bill de Blasio and new city controller John Liu.
We hope to use our political capital wisely. At a time when city and state budgets are threatened by steep budget cuts, we will use the leverage we have to champion the priorities we think matter most to middle- and working-class New Yorkers. It’s an agenda that some consider controversial, but to us it’s common sense. Specifically, we’ll fight for:
Paid sick days. Right now, as many as 2 million workers in New York City aren’t allowed to take even a single day off from work when they’re sick without losing their pay and sometimes their jobs. Coming to work sick not only harms those workers but their co-workers and customers. It’s past time we made paid sick time a universal workplace right.
Accountable development. While City Hall struggles to fund its budget, it gives away hundreds of millions of dollars every year to developers and business owners through tax breaks and incentives. Maybe it’s necessary, but if it is, we have the right to demand that when taxpayer dollars help a private owner, the public benefits are real and enduring. That means such developments should include affordable housing, be built with union labor and create permanent living-wage jobs.
The MTA. Another urgent priority is stopping deep cuts to our city’s public transit. It’s outrageous that just months after MTA leaders passed a fare hike, promising it would prevent cuts, they’ve put those cuts back on the table. Slashing free MetroCards for schoolkids, to name just one service reduction, is unacceptable.
Fairer rent regulations. The most basic concern for millions of New York City families – who struggle to pay astronomical rents on flat or declining incomes – is having an affordable place to live. We’ll keep working with tenant advocates, as we have for years, to push for stronger rent regulations and tenant protections. But real estate is to New York what oil is to Texas, so expect landlords and developers to spend millions to protect their special interests.
Take back bonuses. We hear it practically every week: The people who wrecked the economy are rewarding themselves with taxpayer dollars. The WFP supports President Obama’s new proposal to take back that bonus money – and we’ll look at similar plans here in New York State. Maybe it’s time for a “bonus recapture tax” that can be used to provide property tax relief for the nonwealthy.
A better budget. Economic fairness is about more than just making the rich pay their fair share. Especially in this economy, the rest of us need to be able to count on good schools for our kids, strong support for our seniors and quality health care. When city and state budgets are tight, we have to make sure that these are the top priorities – not special interest projects or giveaways to big business.
The Working Families Party may have fought hard against term limits in 2008, but we are ready and eager in 2010 to work with everyone – Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Christine Quinn, Gov. Paterson, the state Legislature and the City Council – to achieve real progress for our city and state.
We want nothing more, but nothing less, either.
Cantor is executive director of the Working Families Party
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When Mayor Mike Met the 6-Foot Germ
Posted by Dan Levitan on February 3rd, 2010
Paid sick days supporters from Make the Road New York greeted City Council members and Mayor Mike Bloomberg with bottles of Purrell to remind them about the importance passing universal paid sick days legislation.
Germie, no fan of paid sick days, staged a lively counter protest. Check out these hilarious photos. Brad Lander knows what side he’s on!
(Pictured: Mayor Bloomberg, Councilmembers Brad Lander, Charles Barron, Ydanis Rodriguez, Jumaane Williams, Gale Brewer with Germie and Make the Road New York members).
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Report: Low-wage Workers in NYC Stiffed $3K a Year
Posted by Dan Levitan on January 28th, 2010
Progressives often talk about the need to raise the minimum wage and update America’s worst-among-first-world-nations labor laws. But a new report on working conditions in New York City reminds us that Step One is to simply enforce the laws we already have.
According to Working Without Laws, released today by the National Employment Law Project, the Big Apple’s low-wage workers are nickel-and-dimed to the tune of an average $3,016 a year in minimum wage and overtime violations — amounting to some 15% of their annual salaries.
Other jaw-dropping statistics from NELP’s survey of low-wage workers:
- 21% are paid less than minimum wage.
- 77% had worked unpaid overtime in the previous week at an average of 13(!) unpaid hours each
- 42% of workers who tried to report their violations or form a union to fight back faced illegal retaliation.
You can read the full report blow by blow below. On the other hand, we hear the Wall Street bonuses are quite nice this time of year.
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Dems making healthcare “lower priority” ?
Posted by Dan Cantor on January 27th, 2010
A week ago, Congress was closer to passing healthcare reform than at any point in the last 50 years. But today Democratic leaders are telling the New York Times that there’s “no rush” to pass reform — and some want to just give up altogether.
We can’t let that happen — it’s up to us to make sure New York’s Members of Congress finish the fight for healthcare reform now. Our elected officials like Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Anthony Weiner have been strong leaders in this effort, and they need to know that millions of New Yorkers are looking to them to help save reform from those who want to sink it.
Send a message to your elected officials – tell them to stand firm and get healthcare reform done now:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/5609/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3110
Today’s NY Times article clearly lays out the stakes: If healthcare reform doesn’t happen ASAP, “the Democrats stand to lose momentum, and every day closer to the November election could reduce their chances of passing a far-reaching bill.”
Read full post…
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