Meanwhile, the Blue Ribbon Transportation Committee presented its recommendations for responding to what everyone agrees is a transportation crisis. They got an earful. In fact, they got a lot more than can be effectively detailed in this newsletter. Plus, state employees still lack the basic respect that comes from full-scope collective bargaining. Building trades workers have serious issues related to the ongoing energy and transportation crises, in addition to a growing sense that the industrial insurance system is responding inadequately to many of those who suffer job-related injuries.
Farm workers continue to live in devastating poverty and lack housing.
The rising minimum wage has failed to impact the kind of piece work that many do. Farm workers called for the right to organize a union as a means to create a better life for themselves, and the need for amnesty for those who come here seeking a better life. Hospitality workers , whose boat failed to be lifted by the economic boom of the '90s, continue to face impoverishment and a disproportionate lack of health care or pension benefits. Legislators were asked to reject any proposal to impose a tip credit, a direct grab into the pocketbooks of some of the lowest-paid working families in our state. Health care workers have also missed out on the economic expansion of the last decade which, among other factors, has resulted in a dire shortage of workers in the health care industry.