It could have been Memphis in 1968, but it was Philadelphia, 2011. I was in a packed church listening to security officers—mostly African American—speaking out against being disrespected on the job. Some, like mother of three Kobra Odin, said they could not provide basic necessities for their families.

The dire situation of these workers is disturbingly similar to the Memphis sanitation workers Martin Luther King was supporting when he was assassinated nearly 50 years ago. Like those workers in 1968, security officers in Philadelphia are standing up to the economic injustices that plague our country. And as we prepare to honor the legacy of Dr. King on April 4, the day he was killed, we are reminded that he was not only a civil rights leader, but a pioneer in the fight for economic justice.

With the top 1 percent of income earners taking home more than 24 percent of all income, the gap between the very rich and everybody else has never been wider. This growing disparity has hit people of color particularly hard as evidenced by a steady decline of America’s Black middle class since its peak in the 1990s. The only way to narrow the gap and reverse this trend is by finding ways to raise the wages of low wage workers across entire industries.

Across this city, thousands of private security officers work hard every day to protect Philadelphia’s residents and visitors as well as its buildings and landmarks. Even though these officers risk life and limb to keep us safe, too many earn as little as $9 with no paid days off and minimal to no meaningful health care coverage.

At a time when security is so critical to all of us, there is no reason why the people who keep us safe shouldn’t make enough to afford decent housing, quality healthcare and count on a secure retirement. Getting these workers the pay they need to make ends meet is not just vital to them and their families, but vital to stimulating economic growth in our cities and particularly low-income communities hit still reeling from the Great Recession.

In other cities, we’ve seen security officers win better jobs and better lives. In New York City, nearly 10,000 private security officers have raised standards by forming a union—including thousands who recently received more than $4 an hour in raises. But this fight isn’t only about raising wages and benefits for workers. It’s about giving working families a shot at the middle class and rebuilding our economy in the wake of a decline in manufacturing that has ushered in scores of low wage service jobs.

To commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Dr. Kings’ death, union members, community activists, people of faith, students, civil rights leaders and immigrant rights allies will joined together last Monday all over the country for the “We Are One” unity event. This was a national showing of solidarity for working people in places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and dozens of other states where that rights that Dr. King gave his life for are under attack.

The fight for social justice has been long and hard, and the fight for economic justice is no different. But the victories of Dr. King, Fannie Lou Hamer and A. Philip Randolph show us that real victories can be won. By helping security officers in Philadelphia, we do more than helping a few thousand workers and their families, we take one big step closer to realizing the dream of Dr. King.

Published: June 17, 2009

The tragedy at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was a painful reminder that private security officers often are our first line of defense and that these modestly paid men and women risk their lives to keep us safe ["Grief, Shock After a 'Gentle Giant' Loses His Life in the Line of Duty," news story, June 11]. As we mourn Stephen T. Johns, we can honor his memory by raising security industry standards.

It's in everyone's best interest to ensure that security officers are well prepared to handle emergencies and are treated with the respect they deserve for their brave service.

Valarie Long
Vice President
SEIU 32BJ

 

Published: June 15, 2009

Private security officers are in most cases our first line of defense ("Slain guard recalled as a 'gentle giant,' " Nation, Thursday). The tragedy at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is a painful reminder that these modestly paid men and women put their lives at risk to keep us safe and secure. As we mourn the loss of Stephen Tyrone Johns, we should honor his memory by working to raise security industry standards.

32BJ represents more than 1,000 officers in the District and thousands more on the East Coast who keep office buildings, college campuses, transportation hubs and key infrastructure safe and secure for tenants, commuters, tourists and most everyone else. In our experience, improved training, compensation and job security have helped boost officer performance and morale and reduced job turnover.

Because nothing is more important than public safety and security, we must ensure that security officers are best prepared to handle emergencies and treated with the respect they deserve for their brave service.

VALARIE LONG
Vice president
32BJ
Washington

Published: December 21, 2008

The Employee Free Choice Act is a bill that would make it easier for workers to join a union if they want. In turn, workers would get the wage and benefit boost they need to support their families. In Virginia, for instance, low-wage union workers earn up to 19 percent more than their nonunion counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to have employer-paid health insurance and pensions.

Contrary to the rhetoric of the multi-million-dollar corporate attack against free choice being launched by well-funded, anti-union business groups, the bill would not replace secret-ballot elections. Instead, the bill allows workers to choose which path they will take to obtaining representation, instead of the current system, which places that power in the hands of employers.

Nearly 60 million American workers say they would join a union if they could, but very few ever get the chance to vote. Last year, fewer than 100,000 workers got to take part in a secret ballot election. Why? Because employers, not employees, have control of the process.

Rules and regulations protecting workers are watered down and barely enforced. Irresponsible employers take advantage by delaying elections and subjecting workers to harassment, intimidation, and other anti-union tactics to prevent them from forming a union -- a right all workers have under the law.

According to Cornell University, a staggering 90 percent of private-sector employers resist their employees' efforts to unionize during the election process, and a quarter illegally fire union supporters. And even if workers do vote to form a union, employers can refuse to bargain a new contract without facing any penalty. The bill would also aim to fix this by creating a process for resolving contract disputes and cracking down on companies that punish workers for exercising their lawful workplace rights.

Falling wages, dwindling health care coverage, and disappearing pensions have fueled a decline in the middle class and sparked what some have called the Great Recession. It's no coincidence that the gap between the very wealthy and everyone else is widening as the number of union jobs drop.

We can get our economy back on track by restoring the middle class -- and to do this we must boost wages for the very people who work hard keeping our economy running. One way to raise wages and benefits is to make it easier for workers to join unions.

It's simple -- putting money in the pockets of workers enables them to spend on goods and services. Providing employer-paid health care keeps men and women healthy and on the job, earning money to support themselves and their families, and keeping businesses more productive.

It's not surprising the business community is largely against this bill, which would shake up a system that for too long has favored the boss and not the worker. Those out to kill the bill have taken aim against the process of forming a union -- secret ballot versus majority sign-up -- in order to mask their agenda bent on keeping unions from empowering workers to fight for higher wages and better benefits.

Any claim that the Employee Free Choice Act is not good for workers is plainly false. This bill would be a boon for workers who are struggling to make ends meet and a boost for our ailing economy.

Valarie Long is vice president of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents office cleaners throughout Northern Virginia.

Published: September 1, 2008

The latest U.S. census data describes the best of times and the worst of times for Maryland ("Md. still richest state in the nation," Aug. 27).

On the one hand, Marylanders (mostly those in the suburbs) boast some of the highest median incomes in the country. At the same time, city residents are facing one of the highest poverty rates in the country, and those in the middle - geographically and economically - are losing ground.

What's particularly troubling is that despite some small overall income growth, this year's statistics show higher numbers of Americans living in poverty and without health insurance than during the 2001 economic slump.

When the numbers come in for 2008, a year in which the economy has been hurting, people will see the urgent need for economic relief.

But Maryland's working families can't afford to wait another year for the experts to compile their reports and decide to act.

They need more immediate action, and that's why it's vital to elect leaders who will advocate for working families this November.

Valarie Long, Washington DC
The writer is vice president of Service Employees International Union 32BJ

Published: July 31, 2008

Thursday’s national minimum wage bump to $6.55 an hour won’t affect Pennsylvania workers who are already earning the state's higher $7.15 an hour rate.  But the higher 60 cents an hour rate does little if anything for them or the 1.6 million Pennsylvanians who are struggling to cover the skyrocketing prices of milk, bread and gas with low wages. 

Today, one-third of all Americans are trying to make ends meet on low wages.  And the number of low wage jobs – primarily service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning – is growing.  In the next decade, 5 million new jobs will pay poverty-level wages unless something is done.

Debra Fowlkes, a life-long Philadelphia resident, lives this struggle daily.  She’s doing her best to make ends meet, but earning just $9.00 an hour as a security officer at a state welfare agency doesn’t support her three children.  She can’t remember the last time her bills were paid-up, and despite her hard work, she’s lost hope of ever catching up.    

Debra’s not alone – one in four Philadelphians lives in poverty. Despite working hard to create better futures for their families, they are making little headway in an economy that's producing low-wage jobs like there's no tomorrow.

At the same time, this past year marked the fifth straight year in which the number of millionaires in our country grew – now at 10 million. The top 1% of households take home 21.8% of all income - more than double the 9% rate of thirty years ago.  This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest one percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash. 

At no time in our history has the disparity in income been so wide and in no other industrialized country does the disparity come close. CEO compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker. For an industrialized country, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England make half as much as those in America while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their American counterparts.

As we look towards the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the direction of our economy.

Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the workforce.  Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit – a cost that would be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy – would also help those low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty.  

At the state level, establishing prevailing wages and benefits for workers at state-owned buildings and facilities, as well as publicly-funded projects, would be a critical step forward in making sure work paid enough to get by.  In fact, Pennsylvania is behind the curve in establishing these standards which already exist in many neighboring states. 

Aside from government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and wide scale impact on poverty.  Government programs alone will fall short of the mark, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In Pennsylvania, low wage union workers make nearly 13 percent more in wages than their non-union counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension.  But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution.  Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which creates a more neutral environment for workers to decide on union membership, would help low-wage workers join the union and get the raises they need. 

We've long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet.  But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor. 

Valerie Long, Vice President SEIU 32BJ

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El salario mínimo se alza y todavía no alcanza. La semana pasada el salario mínimo nacional ascendió a $6,55 la hora. Una medida que no afectará a los trabajadores que perciben el salario mínimo en Pensilvania, $7,15 por hora.

La semana pasada el salario mínimo nacional ascendió a $6,55 la hora. Una medida que no afectará a los trabajadores que perciben el salario mínimo en Pensilvania, $7,15 por hora. Aún así, sesenta centavos extra que hacen poco para ayudar a los 1,6 millones de residentes en Pensilvania que pasan dificultades para llegar a fin de mes con constantes precios al alza en la leche, el pan y combustible.

Hoy en día, un tercio de los estadounidenses trata de llegar a fin de mes con salarios bajos. Y el número de puestos de trabajo de baja remuneración, principalmente empleos en servicios en hoteles, preparación de alimentos, cuidado de la salud, limpiando casas y oficinas, es cada vez mayor. En el próximo decenio, 5 millones de nuevos empleos van a pagar salarios de pobreza a menos que se haga algo.

Debra Fowlkes, residente de Filadelfia, vive esta situación día a día. Intenta salir adelante con un trabajo de agente de seguridad en un edificio estatal, pero un empleo de $ 9.00 la hora no da para mantener a sus 3 hijos. No recuerda la última vez que pago sus facturas a tiempo y a pesar de que trabaja duro ha perdido ya la esperanza de ponerse al día con sus cuentas.

Debra no está sola, uno de cada cuatro residentes de Filadelfia vive en condiciones de pobreza. Trabajan duro para crear un mejor futuro para sus familias, pero no avanzan en una economía que produce empleos con bajos salarios como si no hubiera un mañana.
Al mismo tiempo, el año pasado fue el quinto año consecutivo en el que el número de millonarios en nuestro país creció, ahora son 10 millones. El uno por ciento de los hogares se lleva a casa el 21,8 por ciento de todos los ingresos - más del doble de la tasa del nueve por ciento de hace treinta años. Esta es la mayor concentración de riqueza en manos del uno por ciento más rico desde 1928, un año antes de la depresión del 29.

En ningún momento de nuestra historia la disparidad entre ricos y pobres ha sido tan amplia y en ningún otro país industrializado la desigualdad está tan acentuada. La compensación de los altos ejecutivos es 400 veces mayor que la paga del trabajador estadounidense promedio. Estos niveles de desigualdad no tienen equivalente en ningún otro país industrializado. Los ejecutivos de las empresas en Inglaterra ganan la mitad que en los Estados Unidos, mientras que los trabajadores peor pagados ganan salarios mayores que sus colegas estadounidenses.

Con unas elecciones a la presidencia que pondrán el destino de nuestro país en nuevas manos, debemos exigir políticas nacionales para cambiar el rumbo de nuestra economía. Fijar el salario mínimo en un porcentaje de la renta promedio, elevaría los salarios más bajos y los mantendría, pegándolo así a futuros aumentos del salario medio. La ampliación del Earned Income Tax Credit - un costo que se vería compensado con el cierre de vías de escape de impuestos para los muy ricos - también ayudaría a las familias de bajos ingresos que están borde de la pobreza.

En el ámbito estatal, una política que fijara estándares salariales y beneficios para los trabajadores de edificios y establecimientos del estado, así como de proyectos de financiación pública, sería un paso decisivo para asegurar un salario digno. Pensilvania está todavía lejos de otros estados vecinos en la promoción de este tipo de estándares laborales.

Pero si realmente queremos tener un impacto inmediato para reducir la pobreza a gran escala, además de la acción de los gobiernos y las empresas, en particular las que se benefician de desgravaciones fiscales, deben incrementar la remuneración de los empleos que hoy son mayormente de bajos salarios. Los programas gubernamentales por sí solos no alcanzan, y los sindicatos han demostrado que pueden trabajar con las empresas para, con responsabilidad, lograr que los trabajadores de bajos salarios puedan salir de la pobreza.

En Pensilvania, los trabajadores sindicalizados que perciben bajos salarios ganan un 13 por ciento más que los no están afiliados y tienen más probabilidades de obtener seguro médico pagado por el empleador y pensión (un 25 por ciento más). Pero unirse a un sindicato puede ser una tarea difícil para muchos trabajadores que temen represalias de los empleadores. La aprobación de la ley de libre elección de los empleados (Employee Free Choice Act), que crea un ambiente más neutral para que los trabajadores decidan sobre la afiliación sindical, ayudaría a los trabajadores de bajos salarios a afiliarse a un sindicato y obtener los aumentos que necesitan.

Durante mucho tiempo hemos sostenido la idea de que tener un empleo significa poder llegar a fin de mes. Sin embargo, a menos que se tomen medidas para abordar los crecientes desequilibrio de nuestra economía, podemos despertar un día en una ciudad en la que sólo habitan los acaudalados y los trabajadores pobres.

Valerie Long, Vice Presidente SEIU 32BJ. Con más de 100,000 afiliados, incluyendo a 5,000 en el área de Filadelfia, la 32BJ SEIU es la mayor unión del sector privado de la costa este.

 

Published: July 29, 2008

BALTIMORE - Last week the minimum wage rose to $6.55 an hour. That’s a 40-cent raise for people in Maryland living in deep poverty and being hit hardest by the skyrocketing price of milk, bread and gas. Minimum wage earners will take what they can get, but $16 more a week doesn’t help much.

It’s not just minimum wage earners who are having a harder time, but one-third of all Americans who are struggling to get by on low wages. And the number of low-wage jobs — primarily service jobs in hotels, food preparation, home health care and office cleaning — is growing. In the next 10 years, at least 5.3 million new jobs in our country will pay low wages unless something is done.

About 1.1 million people in Maryland, mostly from Baltimore, are struggling to raise their families on low wages. No longer is it just unemployment, but also the rising tide of low-paying jobs that accounts for Baltimore’s high poverty rate of 20 percent. Too many people are juggling multiple jobs, working more hours than they can count and still not making enough to pay their bills.

And as the number of working poor grows, so does the number of millionaires — now 10 million in the United States after the fifth consecutive annual increase. A smaller portion of this group, the top 1 percent of households, takes home 21.8 percent of all income — more than double the 8.9 percent rate of 30 years ago. This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest 1 percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash.

At no time in our history has the disparity in personal income been so wide, and in no other industrialized country today does the disparity even come close. Record-high chief executive officer compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker. For an industrialized country like ours, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England, for instance, make half as much as American business leaders while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their American counterparts.

As we look toward the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the disturbing direction of our economy before it derails entirely. Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest-paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the work force. This would help move more families, regardless of whether their jobs are privately or publicly funded, closer to the living wage standards established by Maryland. Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit — a budget cost that would easily be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy — would also help low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty.

Aside from government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and wide-scale effect on poverty. Government programs alone will fall short of the mark, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In Maryland, low-wage union workers make 15 percent more in wages than their nonunion counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension. But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would replace organizing elections with private ballots with publicly signed cards, would help low-wage workers join the union and get the raises they need.

We’ve long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet. But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor.

Valarie Long is vice president of 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union. With more than 100,000 members, 32BJ SEIU is the largest private-sector union on the East Coast.

Published: December 7, 2007

The black underclass Cynthia Tucker speaks of cannot realistically join the ranks of the middle class so long as these men and women are expected to provide for a family on poverty-level wages ("As black middle class rises, underclass falls still further," Opinion • Commentary, Dec. 3).

Baltimore's commercial office cleaners, who are predominantly African-American, are paid as little as $7.50 per hour.

Until these jobs, which have to be filled by someone, pay a more livable wage, the gap between the super-rich and the poor will continue to grow.

If we want to get serious about helping workers get ahead, the focus should be on ensuring employers improve training and compensation.

We cannot expect workers to rise out of the underclass until we address the problem of the low-paying jobs that created and maintained this underclass in the first place.