How Unpredictable Work Hours Turn Families Upside Down
How Unpredictable Work Hours Turn Families Upside Down
Unpredictable schedules can be brutal for hourly workers, upending their lives. New research shows that African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities — particularly women — are much more...
Unpredictable schedules can be brutal for hourly workers, upending their lives. New research shows that African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities — particularly women — are much more likely to be assigned irregular schedules, and that the harmful repercussions are felt not just by the workers but also their families.
The findings come from continuing surveys of 30,000 hourly workers by the Shift Project at the University of California. The researchers compared workers who earned the same wages, including at the same employers, but had different degrees of predictability in their schedules. Those with irregular hours fared worse — and so did their children.
Black and Hispanic women had the worst schedules, and white men had the best, the researchers found. The children of workers with precarious schedules had worse behavior and more inconsistent child care than those whose parents had stable schedules.
Read the full article here.
The movement to make workers’ schedules more humane
Alicia Fleming had worked as a server at restaurants in Massachusetts for a decade and a half. She enjoyed the work, but after she had her son at the age of 32, she found it impossible...
Alicia Fleming had worked as a server at restaurants in Massachusetts for a decade and a half. She enjoyed the work, but after she had her son at the age of 32, she found it impossible to stay in the job.
“The restaurant is looking at their bottom dollar,” Fleming said, “and won’t schedule you unless they absolutely need you. And then you don’t know until a few days before whether or not you’re even going to be asked to work.”
The result was that — as a single parent without close family nearby — Fleming was often scrambling to find childcare. When she wasn’t able to do so on short notice, she’d have to miss a shift. Her income fluctuated from week to week, and even though she was still employed at the restaurant, she was struggling to make ends meet.
Read the full article here.
Target raised wages. But some workers say their hours were cut, leaving them struggling
Target raised wages. But some workers say their hours were cut, leaving them struggling
Two years ago, Target (TGT) said it would raise its minimum wage to ...
Two years ago, Target (TGT) said it would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by the end of 2020. The move won praise from labor advocates and put pressure on other companies to also move to $15.
But some store workers say the wage increases are not helping because their hours are falling, making it difficult to keep their health insurance and in some cases to pay their bills. Read the full article here.How Working Families Can Impact Private Equity
How Working Families Can Impact Private Equity
Looking at economies around the world, it’s easy to think that reconciling markets with justice, or profit with basic fairness and human decency, is simply impossible. With the looming risks that...
Looking at economies around the world, it’s easy to think that reconciling markets with justice, or profit with basic fairness and human decency, is simply impossible. With the looming risks that come with automation and other technology-related shifts in the nature of work, the tension between what’s good for investors and what’s good for workers has seemed increasingly difficult to resolve.
There is great uncertainty about the future of work—and for many reasons, not least the lack of focused political will and policy attention to the future of work and workers. One reminder of that inattention is the sharp growth of economic insecurity over recent decades, even as the income and wealth of the affluent soared. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz persuasively argues, based on decades of economic trends across the globe, “inequality is a choice,” not the inevitable consequence of technological progress, the laws of physics, or the iron law of the market.
Read the full article here.
Social services and education meet in Fairfax County’s community schools program
Social services and education meet in Fairfax County’s community schools program
When Fairfax County Public Schools appointed Clint Mitchell as the new principal at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School, the district’s primary directive to its newest administrator was change...
When Fairfax County Public Schools appointed Clint Mitchell as the new principal at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School, the district’s primary directive to its newest administrator was change the culture.
It did not take Mitchell long to understand why.
A native of the Caribbean island St. Lucia who immigrated to New York as a teenager, Mitchell worked in public education first as a teacher and then as an administrator for more than 16 years before FCPS hired him in August 2016.
Read the full article here.
Housing Movement Demands Find Some Recognition in Congress
Housing Movement Demands Find Some Recognition in Congress
Campaigns for rent control and tenant protections that have been simmering for years in high-cost cities have managed to break through to the national level in the last few months. Two progressive...
Campaigns for rent control and tenant protections that have been simmering for years in high-cost cities have managed to break through to the national level in the last few months. Two progressive coalitions with roots in tenant organizing, centered around People’s Action in Chicago and the Center for Popular Democracy in Brooklyn, launched campaigns with overlapping demands. The “Homes Guarantee” campaign, convened by People’s Action, calls for the development of 12 million “social housing” units to be owned publicly and rented at rates that anyone can afford, regardless of income. The “Home to Thrive” platform, which the Center for Popular Democracy brought to Congress in September, demands a range of federal protections, including national rent control and a ban on evictions without just cause. The demands are picking up champions in public office.
Read the full article here.
Wall Street pulled its financing. Stocks have plummeted. But private prisons still thrive.
Wall Street pulled its financing. Stocks have plummeted. But private prisons still thrive.
Over the past year, private prison giants CoreCivic and GEO Group have been abandoned by Wall Street and seen their stock prices plummet.
Activists are rejoicing in the...
Over the past year, private prison giants CoreCivic and GEO Group have been abandoned by Wall Street and seen their stock prices plummet.
Activists are rejoicing in the success of the campaigns they waged against the companies for profiting from President Trump’s immigration policies and are planning even more protests.
Read the full article here.
The '94 Crime Bill 25 Years Later: It's Time for a Reckoning [Op-Ed]
The '94 Crime Bill 25 Years Later: It's Time for a Reckoning [Op-Ed]
It’s been 25 years since Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994—...
It’s been 25 years since Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994—also known as the ’94 Crime Bill. Signed into law by President Bill Clinton and authored by now-presidential hopeful Joe Biden, it was designed to send a political message that Democrats could be just as tough on crime as their Republican counterparts. It was supposed to reduce “violent crime” by imposing longer jail sentences, creating more death penalty-eligible offenses, cutting higher educational opportunities for incarcerated people, and providing billions of dollars to states to build more prisons and hire 100,000 new police officers. In short, the plan was to lock up more people, lock them up longer, and lock them up in more places. It was a brutal strategy that targeted and devastated Black and Brown communities for an entire generation.
Read the full article here.
Ocasio-Cortez Unveils 'Just Society' Program
Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a national figure who has used her platform to promote bold policies on the ...
Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a national figure who has used her platform to promote bold policies on the climate crisis and healthcare, unveiled Wednesday a package of six economic justice bills to tackle American poverty and inequality.
The New York Democrat's "A Just Society" package—which includes provisions that aim to expand the rights of tenants, workers, immigrants, and formerly incarcerated individuals—won praise from anti-poverty advocates such as Philadelphia Councilmember Helen Gym, vice chair of Local Progress, a national network of progressive elected officials serving in local governments.
Read the full article here.
A New Congressional Letter Led by Sanders and AOC Slams Puerto Rico Control Board’s Austerity Measures
A New Congressional Letter Led by Sanders and AOC Slams Puerto Rico Control Board’s Austerity Measures
The full letter —which was supported by Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, the Vamos 4 Puerto Rico network, the Hispanic Federation, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Center for...
The full letter —which was supported by Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, the Vamos 4 Puerto Rico network, the Hispanic Federation, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Center for Popular Democracy, and the Hedge Clippers Campaign…
Read the full article here.
9 months ago
23 hours ago