A plan to increase California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 has opened the biggest fault lines yet between advocates of higher pay and critics who say it kills jobs and raises prices for consumers.

Proponents say the Golden State’s bold move will provide a decent living wage for millions of low-income residents, prove a bonanza for California’s economy and prompt other states to follow.

“They’re showing that it’s economically realistic to restore decent wages at the bottom” of the pay scale, says Paul Sonn, general counsel of the National Employment Project.

But opponents say it will force employers to replace workers with technology and sow particular hardship in a diverse California economy that includes many rural and distressed areas whose businesses can’t afford such a lofty base wage.

“We’ll have a lot of businesses close,” says Michael Saltsman, research director for the Employment Policies Institute, which is partly funded by the restaurant industry.

Under the plan, the state’s minimum wage would rise from $10 to $10.50 in 2017 and increase gradually each year through 2022. Sonn says $15 an hour – or about $30,000 a year --  would simply allow families to afford the basics.

More at source: USAtoday

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Likening their misdeeds to war crimes, a federal judge sentenced two Ukrainian brothers to 20 years in prison Thursday for their roles in a modern-day slavery operation in Port Richmond, in which victims were beaten, kidnapped, raped, and terrorized to keep them working in janitorial jobs for little to no pay.

Mykhaylo Botsvynyuk, 37, and Yaroslav Churuk, 48, said nothing and showed little reaction as District Judge Paul S. Diamond handed down their punishment, more than four years above the maximum term outlined by federal sentencing guidelines.

"In the 12 years I have been doing this job, these are perhaps the worst crimes I have ever seen," the judge said. "You sought to destroy these people by using them almost to death. The evidence in this case hearkens back to war crimes tribunals in demonstrating just how cruel and abhorrent people's conduct can be."

Three of the victims sat in the courtroom's front row, struggling to hide their deep emotional scars. Even a decade removed from their time spent working seven days a week, sleeping five or more to a room in a dirty Port Richmond apartment, and living in fear that any attempt at escape would be met with violent retribution, one rubbed his eyes red.

Another woman's weeping began the moment the judge took the bench.

"We didn't receive any money. We were half-starving. We were tired," said one former worker, whose name was withheld, as he testified through a Ukrainian interpreter. Of his captors, he added, "They didn't have anyth

Likening their misdeeds to war crimes, a federal judge sentenced two Ukrainian brothers to 20 years in prison Thursday for their roles in a modern-day slavery operation in Port Richmond, in which victims were beaten, kidnapped, raped, and terrorized to keep them working in janitorial jobs for little to no pay.

Mykhaylo Botsvynyuk, 37, and Yaroslav Churuk, 48, said nothing and showed little reaction as District Judge Paul S. Diamond handed down their punishment, more than four years above the maximum term outlined by federal sentencing guidelines.

"In the 12 years I have been doing this job, these are perhaps the worst crimes I have ever seen," the judge said. "You sought to destroy these people by using them almost to death. The evidence in this case hearkens back to war crimes tribunals in demonstrating just how cruel and abhorrent people's conduct can be."

Three of the victims sat in the courtroom's front row, struggling to hide their deep emotional scars. Even a decade removed from their time spent working seven days a week, sleeping five or more to a room in a dirty Port Richmond apartment, and living in fear that any attempt at escape would be met with violent retribution, one rubbed his eyes red.

Another woman's weeping began the moment the judge took the bench.

"We didn't receive any money. We were half-starving. We were tired," said one former worker, whose name was withheld, as he testified through a Ukrainian interpreter. Of his captors, he added, "They didn't have anyth

More at source:  Philly.com

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Art Museums Going Green!

In late 2009, Lawrence Rinder, director of the University of California, Berkeley, Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, stood alone and despondent in an abandoned building recently inhabited by squatters.

The building, a relic from the Works Project Administration and once home to a printing press, had been slated for demolition, to be replaced by a new home for the museum, designed by the Japanese architect. 

Then, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, budget constraints led the museum to abandon the construction project.

But as Mr. Rinder stood amid the squalor, sun pouring through the skylights, he had an epiphany. “I did a double take,” he said. “I looked around and thought, this has the bones of a really fine museum, and more specifically, one that would suit our particular needs.”

Soon, plans were underway to salvage the building and refashion it as the museum’s new home.

More at source: New York Times

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The 2015 death of a 20-year-old Oshkosh man who fell five stories from a senior-living facility prompted a federal inspection that has resulted in citations for a local window cleaning service.

According to a press release, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Serwas Window Cleaning Services LLC, for one willful and eight serious safety citations. Inspectors conducted three separate investigations of worksites in Appleton, Green Bay, and Oshkosh.

Tyler Peterson (Photo: Courtesy of Konrad-Behlman Funeral Home)

Tyler S. Peterson fell from a platform Wednesday, Sept. 9, while washing windows on the fifth floor of Bella Vista Retirement Community,

More at source: Northwestern

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A deal reached early Monday averted a second walkout and will be voted on this weekend. 

Janitors and Twin Cities employers have reached a tentative contract agreement that would raise wages 12.3 percent over four years, union officials said.

The deal was reached shortly after 1 a.m. Monday and averted a second walkout after a one-day strike by janitors last month.

Janitors will vote this weekend on the pact, which has the recommendation of the union's bargaining committee, said Josh Keller, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26.

More at source: Star Tribune

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This story updates our Rape on the Night Shift investigation.

Simon Brooks was broke and homeless after his idea for a Scrabble-like app failed. He kept sticking around the startup accelerator where he’d been working and eventually found his next idea.  

The accelerator wanted him to clean the bathroom. At first, he was offended. But then he looked into it, and, as Brooks recently told San Jose Inside, he found an industry built on low wages and workplace abuse.

Brooks’ company, Squiffy Clean, is paying higher wages and offering equity to his first 25 cleaners. It’s also sending workers out in teams to prevent sexual abuse.

“We go out in a group,” he told San Jose Inside. “Safety in numbers. We want to do better by our people.”

Brooks credits our investigation into the sexual abuse of night shift janitors, Rape on the Night Shift, for his decision. The investigation uncovered serious sexual abuse in the janitorial industry and the failure of companies large and small to prevent it. It was a collaboration between Reveal, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, KQED, FRONTLINE and Univision.

More at source: Reveal News

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Most of us are used to finding lists of ingredients on food, medicine, even cosmetics, but you might not realize there is no requirement to list all of the ingredients on the labels of cleaning products.

Many of those products are a part of daily life, used to clean our homes, workplaces, and schools. A lot of cleaning products carry legally required warning labels about poison or eye or skin irritation, but most do not list all ingredients on the label.

More at source: ABC

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With Stanford’s janitorial workers’ regional contract up for renegotiation this April, the Stanford Student and Labor Alliance (SALA) held an open meeting for new members last Sunday to rally support for the SEIU Local 1877 workers’ union. More than 40 people packed into the Asian American Activities Center to discuss upcoming actions for the janitorial staff in academic buildings.

According to Cenobio Hernandez ‘18, one of SALA’s three leaders, the workers’ union has taken the lead in the drive to seek a contract more favorable for workers, while SALA and other Stanford students are playing a supporting role. According to a questionnaire done by the workers’ union, some of the largest concerns of the workers include wages, job security and workplace harassment — particularly sexual harassment.

Since workers are contractually forbidden to strike on campus, a large part of student and faculty support will be shown through rallies and petitions.

“In the past, the administration has been able to use students as an excuse, saying that students want academic buildings to be open longer, so workers’ hours have to be changed,” Hernandez said. “Our voice has been used in a way that dismisses workers’ positions, so we need to show that we are with the workers.”

More at source: Stanford Daily

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Hundreds of janitors staged demonstrations at the airport, other major employers in metro area in 24-hour strike. 

Janitors across the Twin Cities metro area walked off the job and took to the streets Wednesday in the midst of tense negotiations with cleaning companies over wages and working conditions.

The 24-hour strike was the first by subcontracted union janitors in the Twin Cities in decades, according to Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents roughly 4,000 janitors in the metropolitan area.

More at source: Star Tribune

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