Congratulations, Seattle!

[Cha]

Seattle mayor says he struck a deal for a $15 minimum wage

"Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced plans Thursday to increase the minimum wage to $15 there, which would place it among of the highest in the nation.

The plan would give businesses with fewer than 500 employees seven years to comply and larger businesses three years. Further increases would be tied to inflation.

“Throughout this process, I’ve had two goals: to get Seattle’s low-wage workers to $15-per-hour while also supporting our employers, and to avoid a costly battle at the ballot box between competing initiatives,” Murray said in a statement. “We have a deal that I believe accomplishes both goals.”

Seattle!

#RaisetheWage



TOD

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Fan-@$#&ing-tastic!

Wow!

[Cha]

2. Hey Seattle!

[freshwest]

40. Remember Obama met with Murray amd others on raising wages? Getting it done, a piece at a time. n/t

Thanks, PBO for keeping your promises to us and keeping up the fight in the states to improve people's lives. Without any media support, naturally. Our lives are better now with many things he has done!

Now to GOTV to keep it that way. The margin in our state lege is very narrow. The GOP has big money pouring again. 2014 is very important to us here!

[Cha]

42. Oh wow.. Seattle is getting things done now that it

has a slim majority.. this is what happens. Good Luck with the GOTV2014 in your neck of the woods too, fresh!

I did a thread on President Obama and the NE Govs out raising awareness for the minimum wage hike.. I found this with Sen Murray..

Local leaders like Obama’s call for minimum wage hike

http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/243372331.html

Without any corporatemedia support is right. Just his base and that's us.

[freshwest]

51. Yes, just his base knows. Half the state doesn't know or believe in it. Progressive IS as

Progressive DOES.

It's a work in process, that isn't sexy or powerful. But we can each move ahead with like minded souls to get it done.

We don't have the constant drone of lapdog media in our corner, we have our own minds and hearts to guide us.

We can prevail in time, if we don't go running from defeats and keep going. I see my Democratic pols constantly working at the goals, even if they don't win but numbers do matter, and can ONLY be attained by voters. If people don't vote, the status quo, just or unjust, is maintained.

We certainly get ideas from the internet to refine our technique to make things work IRL. This is not the job of DU. If a person cares enough to put their skin in the game, long term, they swallow their pride and continue to GO - they never GO away.

Because they literally can't afford to do so - and not talking about money.

[Cha]

67. "We don't have the constant drone of lapdog media in our corner, we have our own minds and hearts

guide us."

Beautifully said, fresh~ Here's to our Energy

[sheshe2]

52. Congrats Seattle!

PBO did indeed keep his promises and Seattle helped make them come true!

As for 2014 you can do it, we all can. GOTV2014!

freshwest~

[msanthrope]

3. Kick. nt

[Cha]

4. mahalo ms!

[Cha]

5. ..

[sheshe2]

6. Awesome!

Thank you Seattle for taking the leap. I hope other cities and state follow your example. The raise to minimum workers is past due, long past due.

Thank you Cha.

[Cha]

7. First in the Nation, she! Then there's this guy

in Michigan..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024893702

[niyad]

8. k and r

[Cha]

9. mahalo niyad!

[ProSense]

10. Excellent. Here's a great read on a trend in some citites.

The Revolt of the Cities

During the past 20 years, immigrants and young people have transformed the demographics of urban America. Now, they’re transforming its politics and mapping the future of liberalism.

Harold Meyerson

Pittsburgh is the perfect urban laboratory,” says Bill Peduto, the city’s new mayor. “We’re small enough to be able to do things and large enough for people to take notice.” More than its size, however, it’s Pittsburgh’s new government—Peduto and the five like-minded progressives who now constitute a majority on its city council—that is turning the city into a laboratory of democracy. In his first hundred days as mayor, Peduto has sought funding to establish universal pre-K education and partnered with a Swedish sustainable-technology fund to build four major developments with low carbon footprints and abundant affordable housing. Even before he became mayor, while still a council member, he steered to passage ordinances that mandated prevailing wages for employees on any project that received city funding and required local hiring for the jobs in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ new arena. He authored the city’s responsible-banking law, which directed government funds to those banks that lent in poor neighborhoods and away from those that didn’t.

<...>

Peduto, who is 49 years old, sees improving the lot of Pittsburgh’s new working class as his primary charge. In his city hall office, surrounded by such artifacts as a radio cabinet from the years when the city became home to the world’s first radio station, the new mayor outlined the task before him. “My grandfather, Sam Zarroli, came over in 1921 from Abruzzo,” he said. “He only had a second-grade education, but he was active in the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in its early years, and he made a good life for himself and his family. My challenge in today’s economy is how to get good jobs for people with no PhDs but with a good work ethic and GEDs. How do I get them the same kind of opportunities my grandfather had? All the mayors elected last year are asking this question.”

They are indeed. The mayoral and council class of 2013 is one of the most progressive cohorts of elected officials in recent American history. In one major city after another, newly elected officials are planning to raise the minimum wage or enact ordinances boosting wages in developments that have received city assistance. They are drafting legislation to require inner-city hiring on major projects and foster unionization in hotels, stores, and trucking. They are seeking the funds to establish universal pre-K and other programs for infants and toddlers. They are sketching the layout of new transit lines that will bring jobs and denser development to neighborhoods both poor and middle-class and reduce traffic and pollution in the bargain. They are—if they haven’t done so already—forbidding their police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in the deportation of undocumented immigrants not convicted of felonies and requiring their police to have video or audio records of their encounters with the public. They are, in short, enacting at the municipal level many of the major policy changes that progressives have found themselves unable to enact at the federal and state levels. They also may be charting a new course for American liberalism.

New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio has dominated the national press corps’ coverage of the new urban liberalism. His battles to establish citywide pre-K (successful but not funded, as he wished, by a dedicated tax on the wealthy), expand paid sick days (also successful), raise the minimum wage (blocked by the governor and legislature), and reform the police department’s stop-and-frisk policy (by dropping an appeal of a court order) have been extensively chronicled. But de Blasio is just one of a host of mayors elected last year who campaigned and now govern with similar populist agendas. The list also includes Pittsburgh’s Peduto, Minneapolis’s Betsy Hodges, Seattle’s Ed Murray, Boston’s Martin Walsh, Santa Fe’s Javier Gonzales...“We all ran on similar platforms,” Peduto says. “There wasn’t communication among us. It just emerged organically that way. We all faced the reality of growing disparities. The population beneath the poverty line is increasing everywhere. A lot of us were underdogs, populists, reformers, and the public was ready for us.”

- more -

http://prospect.org/article/revolt-cities

[Cha]

11. Wow.. who knew? Pittsburgh! Something to pay attention to..

"Pittsburgh is the perfect urban laboratory,” says Bill Peduto, the city’s new mayor. “We’re small enough to be able to do things and large enough for people to take notice.” More than its size, however, it’s Pittsburgh’s new government—Peduto and the five like-minded progressives who now constitute a majority on its city council—that is turning the city into a laboratory of democracy."

"But de Blasio is just one of a host of mayors elected last year who campaigned and now govern with similar populist agendas. The list also includes Pittsburgh’s Peduto, Minneapolis’s Betsy Hodges, Seattle’s Ed Murray, Boston’s Martin Walsh, Santa Fe’s Javier Gonzales...“We all ran on similar platforms,” Peduto says. “There wasn’t communication among us. It just emerged organically that way. We all faced the reality of growing disparities."

Thank you so much, ProSense~

[freshwest]

41. Great article and link! Go blue, USA! n/t

[classof56]

12. Seattle--my old home town!

Yay!!

[Cha]

13. Sounds like a great place

to live, classof56!

[classof56]

15. I loved it! But then I met and married my spouse, who "imported" me to Oregon.

His place of birth. Now I really-really love it here, but have lotsa fond memories of the Seattle day.

Glad to hear from you--as always!!

[Cha]

17. Good to hear from you, too, classof56~

My daughter and her family live in Portland, Ore.. and love it!

[spooky3]

14. Just another reason to live Seattle! n/t

[Cha]

16. I hear that, spooky!

[spooky3]

44. Ha--I meant to type "love" but I guess it works either way.

[Cha]

65. Yeah, and silly me read it as .. ".. another reason to live In Seattle".. :)

[spooky3]

69. sounds good to me!

[TBF]

18. WTG Seattle - good news on May Day! nt

[Cha]

22. It's Lei Day here in Hawai'i~ :)

[sheshe2]

26. Well here ya go~

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60982-i40821068-Honolulu_Oahu_Hawaii.html

[Cha]

27. Pretty Plumerias, she.. they're everywhere!

We have a huge tree right in front of our Hoku building. Every few days I bring home a couple of flowers from the tree in front of the library that have fallen on the ground. I put them in a couple of little bud vases so I always have fresh flowers.

Happy May/Lei Day, she.. thank you for the sweet pic of the young hulu girls bedecked in leis and hakus~



http://www.maui-catering-cjs.com/blog/bid/38112/The-Haku-Fresh-Flower-Head-Lei-Hawaii-Wedding-Traditions

sheshe

[spooky3]

45. Beautiful!

[Cha]

66. :)

[awoke_in_2003]

56. Well, make sure you get lei'd...

[Cha]

68. I did.. it's beautiful, awoke!

[awoke_in_2003]

70. Great to hear, Cha

[UtahLib]

19. May Seattle's example be followed by many more. nt

[Cha]

24. This is really encouraging for other cities, UtahLib!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4898626

[seabeyond]

20. i want to live there. just to too tooo expensive. cool for them. nt

[Cha]

29. It is here on

Kaua'i, too.. Money is a thing. Freaking budgeting all the time!

[seabeyond]

30. oh, i betcha... that it is. nt

[CarrieLynne]

21. not for 3 years - 7 for smaller businesses

by then it wont be enough again lol

still support it tho but damn...still a long way out

[Iwillnevergiveup]

25. Yeah, I was thinking that, too

But the smart companies who want to hire the best people (and gets lots of credit for it) may show the rest the way.

Congratulations, Seattle.....way to go! Now let's have a little trickle down here in L.A.

[Cha]

34. Here's to LA, Iwillnevergiveup!

[Cha]

32. Right.. at least they're trying, CarrieLynne~

[Cha]

23. A toast to Seattle!

[ismnotwasm]

28. Yeah that's my town

We are also having an anarchist day which is being counter protested by self appointed superheroes.

Ah Seattle-- I love you, rain and all

[sheshe2]

31. Good for you, ismnotwasm.

You gotta love it all~ I feel the same way about Boston, snow and all.

Seattle did good today.

[ismnotwasm]

36. ..

[sheshe2]

38. Back at ya!

[Cha]

33. So happy for you, ismnotwasm.. I always thought it sounded

like a great place to live.

[ismnotwasm]

37. It is

It's a neat place to live

[Cha]

39. Lucky you!

[Cha]

35. ..

[Cha]

43. K

[grahamhgreen]

46. Kick!

[Romulox]

47. They'll need rent control, too, or $15/hour still won't be a living wage in Seattle.

[tea and oranges]

48. As a Seattleite I Know That

Kudos must be made to our new Socialist member of the City Council. Without Kshama Sawant we wouldn't have this "nice thing."

[Cha]

72. Awesome, tea and oranges! Sounds like your mayor, Ed Murray, was

down with it too!

[tea and oranges]

87. Ksama Sawant's Platform was Based

on the $15 minimum wage. I doubt our Mayor would have pushed for this w/o her election. It's tremendously exciting to have a person on the Council who is dedicated to the worker's cause.

[Cha]

89. Good to know.. mahalo!

[betterdemsonly]

76. Agreed

Where you can elect someone to the left of the dems, it is always a good thing to do so. It pushes the goalpost left. The dems aren't challenged enough.

[tea and oranges]

88. Yes!

The center is way too far to the right. It is indeed excellent!

[hue]

49. Speaking from WI, it's hard to believe there exists places & Peeps like this!!

[Cha]

73. hue.. if only you all could get rid of that scourge in November!

[tofuandbeer]

50. But but...no look over here! Benghazi, repeal ACA.

[Cha]

74. The gop want to bring us down but we keep

forging ahead!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

53. Compare this to Oklahoma BANNING a minimum wage increase.

[Cha]

75. Gov Fallin Is a monster.

[BlueStreak]

81. Over time, anybody with any brains will move to the areas that have the better wages

Seattle is a great place to live and work. Rather than trying to lift the states that are determined to remain ignorant and impoverished, the best way forward is to effect and encourage the brain drain away from the third-world states. And that includes giving them the austerity (you might call it "tough love&quot that their politicians seem to want to put on the productive states. Oklahoma gets back $1.18 for every dollar they are taxed.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

84. A biker friend of mine moved there. He's a paramedic....

You know,...one of those "gubmunt workers".

[rhett o rick]

54. Great news, thanks for posting. nm

[lovemydog]

55. Yay Seattle!

Plus, I love your football team's glow in the dark uniforms.

[lunatica]

57. I never, ever thought I would see the minimum wage raised

[Cha]

77. It's a beautiful sight, lunatica!

[Rose Siding]

58. home sweet home

[Cha]

78. Sweet, Rose Siding~

[Gothmog]

59. I applaud Seattle's actions here

This is a great move by this city

[Cha]

79. Indeed, Gothmog.. it's going to help so much in moving forward.. for workers and

their economy.

[Kath1]

60. Seattle Rocks!

This is excellent news and, hopefully, a sign of things to come!

[Cha]

82. Once progress gets a toe hold like this, Kath.. I think it has little choice but to be

a sign of things to come!

[johnnyreb]

61. It feels like: civilization.

[Cha]

83. I know exactly what you mean, johnnyreb.. instead

of the opposite.. like so many places.

[mike_c]

62. note that this will not take effect for some time....

I believe the phase in is 4 to 11 years, depending upon the companies affected. While $15 an hour is great, keeping workers in poverty for 4-11 more years when you know $15 an hour is fair today is unconscionable.

[WestSeattle2]

63. Let's hope larger paychecks improve standards of living..

which really is the goal. Larger paychecks in and of themselves mean nothing if standards of living remain neutral or even diminish. As soon as this becomes official, I can see businesses, landlords and government jurisdictions with taxing authority, all rushing to raise rents, prices, taxes and user fees. Time will tell.

[Cha]

86. Yes, time will tell.. and thank goodness they have the chance, WS!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

64. AND yesterday on PBS they had a really good documentary showing its central library. Wow, what a

place! With I lived in Seattle, WA instead of this hellhole called Florida - a dumbazz state of right wingers with a governor who is nothing but a big-ass Medicare fraudster and scammer.

[Shandris]

71. How long until many of them are replaced with the robot worker?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-12/meet-smart-restaurant-minimum-wage-crushing-burger-flipping-robot

Toyota left Cali over what, something like a .1% tax increase? I'm hoping I'm wrong, but business owners very, very, VERY seldom let their profits go down without a fight...and a fight that can save from $15/hour to 4+ people is a tempting offer.

I'm very happy for them, but I hope they've got some legal fireworks in the pipeline too or this could end very differently than we want it to.

Perhaps its time to bring up the Basic Income again?

[BobTheSubgenius]

80. WA state has had some of the best representation of any of the 50 states.

It makes me happy to live across the border from a state like Washington. No offense to any DUers, but there are several states I wouldn't even feel comfortable with close proximity, let alone residency.

Well, that and the fact that I don't have the option for residency in any of them.

[DireStrike]

85. Congrats to comrade Sawant and her grassroots supporters!

Happy May Day!