April 2019 – The NEW 15 Now Tacoma

Uncle Weston, Wages, Inflation, and Killing Jobs

May 16, 2019April 16, 2019 by 15 Now Staffer

This article first appeared in the ORIGINAL 15 Now Tacoma website several years ago.

You’re at a typically crowded and raucous family get-together picnic. Uncle Weston’s voice hovers above the park, mingling with the smell of barbecue and camaraderie. Once again, he’s handing out wisdom to the young folks.

Uncle Weston loves to tell younger family members (like you) that you’re all misguided. Your mother was the one who set him off. After your mom tells Uncle Weston that you’ve been working on Tacoma’s Yes on Prop 1 campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, Uncle Weston rises up on his haunches, mounts his soapbox, inflates his bellows, and let loose with a mighty blast of wisdom.

Now you’ve always considered Uncle Weston to be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, although he himself says he’s just a realistic adult. He tolerates your lefty leanings, and he thinks your political instincts are naive, if well intentioned. He says, “You’ll outgrow this liberalism when you grow up.” He paraphrases the old adage, “If you’re not radical when you’re young, you have no heart. And if you’re not conservative when you’ve matured a bit, you have no common sense.”

Gently draping his not-entirely sober arm around your shoulder, he says incredulously, “Do you really want to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour!?!?”

The Video that Frightened the Chamber

May 16, 2019April 16, 2019 by 15 Now Staffer

This article appeared in the old 15 Now website in 2015. It contains an interesting video. You can see the original article by clicking here.

On May Day, 2015 (05/01/2015), a coalition of trade unionists, community groups, and low-wage workers organized a traditional International Workers Day march and rally. There were many excellent speakers. One such speaker was Mike Ladd, a 15 Now Tacoma volunteer. The crowd enthusiastically received Mike’s speech. Another 15 Now Tacoma volunteer made a video of it and uploaded it to YouTube.

However, the video failed to wow members of the local Chamber of Commerce (CoC). It dawned on the Chamber a few months ago that Tacoma’s low-wage workers meant business about getting a fair wage. They also realized a sizable percentage of Tacoma’s voters support Proposition 1, a ballot initiative that will raise the minimum wage immediately to $15/hour—with NO phase in. Here is the video that the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want you to see.

The CoC held a meeting to plan a way of sticking a wrench into Prop 1’s spokes. At their meeting, they featured this video to energize the CoC attendees into action. Apparently, Mike’s eloquent demand for justice frightened them out of their wits.

The Chamber’s President and CEO Tom Pierson also began attacking 15 Now Tacoma in the press. He claims that we’re a group of extremist outside agitators threatening Tacoma’s economy. This is a classically crude attempt to distract attention from the real issue—poverty wages. President Pierson would rather focus the discussion on the paranoid delusion that 15 Now Tacoma volunteers are a gaggle of radicals being directed from outside Tacoma.

For example, according to The News Tribune of May 12, 2015, here’s what President Pierson says about us. We’re “an outside group coming in and telling employees and employers what’s best for Tacoma.” Mr. Pierson himself lives outside of Tacoma, and the majority of 15 Now Tacoma volunteers are long-term Tacomans, mostly low-income workers or retired.

We in 15 Now Tacoma march to our own drums, and we don’t take our marching orders from any outside commissariat.

Is $15/hr Too Much, Too Fast?

May 16, 2019April 16, 2019 by 15 Now Staffer

By Max Hyland Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Reprinted from a Facebook Post ***** *****

This post originally appeared under a different name in the old 15 Now website. Here is a link to the original.

One of the critiques we have heard is that immediately increasing the minimum wage by 58% will have a disastrous effect on the economy. Usually to go along with this complaint is a claim that the minimum wage has never gone up that fast before, which is false. In 1949 the minimum wage went up by 87.5% all at once, overnight. Just a few years later it went up another 33%, overnight. The 50s were a period of strong economic growth, explosive economic growth, and unprecedented increases in the distribution of wealth and the prosperity of the American public including businesses.

Volunteer Meeting, 04/27/2019

March 4, 2020April 15, 2019 by 15 Now Staffer

VOLUNTEER ACTIVIST MEETING
15 Now Tacoma Meeting
Sat, April 27, 2019, 3:30 PM
Red Elm Cafe 1114 MLK Jr. Wy

DO YOU WANT TO FIGHT THE SPECIAL INTERESTS? Can you live on your current wage? Does your boss treat you with enough respect to pay you a living wage?

Become a volunteer activist and join us in a planning meeting to raise the minimum wage to a living wage here in Tacoma. Work with this local collective of working-class Tacomans, low-wage workers, retired people, community activists, religious activists, labor activists, and friends fighting for a dignified minimum wage.