Community Members Spring into Action to Increase Illinois Minimum Wage

By Shelly Ruzicka On the sunny morning of May 17th, over 100 community supporters including Chicago and suburban residents, workers, clergy, and lay leaders traveled to Springfield to educate their legislators on the need to increase the state minimum wage.  The group consisted of individuals from member organizations of Raise Illinois, a coalition made up [...]

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Chicago Says NO to Erroneously Named “Secure Communities” Program

By: Shelly Ruzicka Yesterday undocumented youth in Chicago led hundreds of families, allies, and religious supporters in a large demonstration protesting the Department of Homeland Security’s “Secure Communities” program, or S-Comm.  Hearings have recently been held across the country after ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Director John Morton stated that the program would be mandatory.  Not [...]

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Illinois Workers Deserve a Raise!

By Adam Kader Illinois workers deserve a raise, and that’s exactly what Senate Bill 1565 proposes to do.  A modest proposal, SB 1565 would allow Illinois minimum wage earners to catch up to the minimum wage they earned in 1969.  The “real wage” is the wage adjusted for inflation.  Since 1969, the minimum wage has [...]

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A System that Doesn’t Work Half of the Time? And Will Cost Billions? Sounds Good!

By: Shelly Ruzicka The “Legal Workforce Act” being introduced by House Republicans led by Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), and Steve King (R-IA), is at worst, a direct attack on immigrant workers which will actually negatively impact millions of working people across the country, including mostly authorized workers.  At best it is almost [...]

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The New Employment Relationship: Workers Bear All the Risks while Employers Keep the Profits

by Jamie Hayes In our work at Arise Chicago, we’ve lately noticed a dangerous new trend: employers are forcing employees to work as contractors, in order to subvert labor laws and their responsibility as employers. Campaign #1 Margarita (pseudonym) worked for 2 years at a laundromat in the Albany Park neighborhood.  She was paid $5/hour, [...]

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Connecticut Leads the Way

By Melissa Josephs Last weekend the Connecticut House followed the lead of the Connecticut Senate by approving the first statewide paid sick days law!  Governor Malloy – who made paid sick days a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign – will sign the bill soon, giving a broad cross-section of service workers in businesses with 50 [...]

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Connecticut Could be First State to Provide Paid Sick Days

By Melissa Josephs The Connecticut Senate narrowly passed a paid sick days bill 18-17, and it moves to the House next week, where if passed, it will be the first state to pass paid sick days, as Gov. Malloy made this an election issue and will sign the bill.  The bill provides up to 5 [...]

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Crying Wolf

By Donald Cohen Read my op-ed column, ‘Job killers’ that aren’t, published in today’s Los Angeles Times.  This article reflects the core of the Cry Wolf Project’s message.  Big business and its political and think tank allies consistently lie about the impact of laws and regulations that protect workers, consumers, and the environment, calling them “job killers.” But [...]

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