The Hill: Unions insulted by Bush minimum wage

[kskiska]

Despite Democratic losses across the board in the elections, organized labor is refusing to embrace President Bush’s offer to raise the minimum wage by $1.10 an hour.

“It’s insufficient, and it’s too little, too late,” said Bill Samuel, director of legislation for the AFL-CIO. “This is an insult to workers whose wages have fallen so far behind that they can’t even afford the bare necessities.”

Samuel said his organization would protest any wage increase less than the one Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) proposed, which would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour.

In the third and final presidential debate, Oct. 13, Bush said he supported Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) minimum-wage proposal. But McConnell never introduced such a bill. The Hill reported in April that McConnell was working on a plan to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour, but McConnell never formally introduced his bill, which was described as an effort to provide centrist Republicans political cover to vote against Kennedy’s bill.

more…
http://www.thehill.com/news/111804/unions.aspx

[hatrack]

1. Funny - this article didn't mention that Big Mitch's plan was VOLUNTARY

In fact, individual states could opt in or at their discretion.

Hmm. Wonder how that little facet of the Big Bold GOP Wage Hike escaped the vigilance of The Hill?

[MO_Dem]

2. Also funny is

that GeeDub "say what I mean, mean what I say" Bush never said what his minimum wage plan was. But now we have all this immorality on tv to deal with, so I don't reckon much of anybody will care about people working for slave wages.

[rfranklin]

3. Perhaps the working people should take responsbility for their own...

welfare and organize into unions that would protect their interests?
Nah...then those homos and liberals would have won.

[theHandpuppet]

5. Tell me about it!

I was about to pull out my hair trying to talk to minimum-wage workers in my area, people who can barely meet their bills and have to supplement their pantry from the local food bank and the Salvation Army. Several work at a local fast-food chain and some others at a convenience store, all rabid Bush supporters (even wearing their Bush buttons to work). All they cared about were gays and abortion. One young woman who works at the fast food joint and is a member of the local NG unit was such a flag waving pro-lifer she even threatened to "do something" to my old collie dog who was sitting out in the car waiting for a bit of ice cream -- as if harming my dog would be a fit retribution against anyone who is pro-choice. Her twisted logic was that killing someone's dog would teach them something about aborting a fetus. You simply can't talk to folks like that.

Doesn't matter if their electricity gets cut off and the kids are hungry, by golly we gotta have WAR and the greatest threat to their security is the mere existence of gay folk. Unionize? Fat chance of that around these parts.

[xchrom]

4. americans don't have time for minimum wage issues

we have to think about all those bad, bad people having sex.
bad people having sex
bad people having sex and getting married
bad people having sex and getting married and having children
bad people having sex and getting married and having children and living next door to righteous people
then bad people make righteous people have sex
and that makes for more bad people having more sex...
:eyes:

[canadianbeaver]

15. oooohhh your so baaaad!! LOL

you made my morning..I am such a bad person who is having sex and getting married and maybe having children(NOT NOW THATS FOR SURE)and I bet I'm next door to those Righteous people and they are now gonna have sex...I am sooo baaad too!!

[alaintex]

6. Hmmm...

I was surprised to read that only 1.6 million paid-hourly workers earn minimum wages. And that raising the minimum wage would result in 7.4 million minimum wage earners.

While I’m sure the extra money would be nice for some, it seems like a kick in the crotch to those employees who work for 5 years to become assistant manager and work their way up to $7/hr and are now told they're only making minimum wage again.

[BrutalEntropy]

7. well...

If you are making $7 an hour now, why be upset that more people are making the same amount as you are if the minimum wage were to be raised? Whether it's minimum wage or not, $7 an hour is still $7 an hour. It's more than I make. Besides, if the minimum wage was raised, most employees (even ones making more than minimum wage) would probably receive an increase as well... even if it were a token increase from $7.00 to $7.50, because how many companies want to tell their current and prospective assistant managers that they will be making minimum wage-- or worse, that they will be making the same amount as the new hires?

[alaintex]

8. I agree…

I just find it amazing that 1.6 million people (1.25% of the US workforce) work for minimum wage while 5.5% are unemployed and make nothing.

[central scrutinizer]

16. some states have their own minimum wage

and it may be higher than the federal "safety net" (sacrasm). So it is reasonable to expect that everything is scaled up in those states. The burger flipper in Oregon starts at $7.05 (we are a communistic blue state) so the McManager has probably moved up to an outrageous $9.00. You can check on your state at:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm

Compare the blue states to the red states - you will be outraged, but not surprised. (In Oklahoma, the minimum wage is $2.00, how's that for your good old heartland morality?)

[Magic_Cookie]

9. well it is a kick and unfortunately

that's what happens. But that also happens even when min wage isn't raised.

For example, I once worked at a company where there was a lady there who started 20 yrs ago, at a very low wage. Each year she received a raise BUT the amazing part is that it still didn't amt to what I started there making. I was, being there only 6 months, making over 1.00/hr more than her. Sad & unfair

[9119495]

10. It's about the common good--and we in the dem party actually

care about that.

With higher wages, we all benefit. If the company doesn't give a raise to a person making 7.00 an hour (AFTER WORKING FIVE YEARS?!) perhaps it's time they seek another job. You gotta love those capitalistic free market options.

[jackster]

17. jackster

yes we dems care about the common good and yes its true that higher wages are good for everyone...

except maybe those CEO's who make 450 times the average salaries of their employees and those who own the "means of production." (what an outdated term that is huh?)

or at least that's how they look at it. is this the last ditch effort for the robber barons of old to hold on?

[9119495]

11. But, but, but...this will kill small business.

Dick Cheney told me so.

How could our president be so reckless with people's businesses?

[alaintex]

12. The real question is...

Why are the unions insulted? What difference does it make if organized labor is refusing to embrace the minimum wage increase? Average union worker salary is $19/hr. Are the unions advocating raising the minimum wage to $20/hr. to benefit their members? That might hurt small business - and big business too.

http://www.ibew.org/organizing/it_pays_to_be_union.htm

[byronm]

13. Unions are trying to expand..

They're trying to get into walmart, more grocery stores and even e-markets such as amazon.com and other places that i'm sure have hordes of minimum wage workers.

Unions couldn't thrive in skimming these people there dues unless the minimum wage was $7.00 and a minumum wage hike with the unions being the lobbyists would give them leeway in to getting into more organizations.

Me personally, i think unions are great in the right environment - however i don't think unions are necessary in minimum wage jobs because of the costs and politics involved that would still eat away at the bottom line of these minimum wage workers.

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

14. actually, that's the median (middle), not the average, and full time only.

It's 27% more than nonunion workers.
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutunions/joinunions/whyjoin/uniondifference/uniondiff4.cfm

Frankly, I don't care if it hurts big business. Maybe they could cut back on their lobbying efforts and we could get a little bit of our government back.

[alaintex]

18. Fair enough…

The site I referenced used “average” which is probably adequate, although median is more specific.

Average:
1 a : a single value (as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values.

I don’t think hurting big business would cut back on their lobbying efforts. Look at the airline industry, most are losing money like crazy since 9/11 but they just redouble their lobbying efforts to get free government loans.

[Nadienne]

19. Big business might also

raise prices. Not because they need to, but to offset losses...

[Strawman]

20. I'm sure even that will be a pig in a poke somehow

It will probably be coupled with increasing the number of jobs and workers that are not required to be paid the minimum wage under Federal law.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

21. The military recruitment program is totally dependent on a poverty level

minimum wage to create the desperate poor people that provide the cannon fodder for the Republican war machine. The minimum wage in 1963 was $1.25 using the Social Security table for adjusting that amount to 2002 dollars with a multiplier of 7.49 results in the 2002 equivalent wage being $9.36. That means that the individual working for minimum wage in 2003 was being paid 45 percent less than the minimum wage worker was making 40 years ago. This is the fault of the Democratic Party who should have incorporated a cost of living escalator into the minimum wage law when it had the political power to take this social responsible action or they could have tied it to congressional pay raises. The US is becoming a third world country.

[TahitiNut]

23. Here ...

[forintegrity]

22. One MORE lie to add to * long list

Yet another out and out LIE by Bush buried deep in the article:

"Bush said he supported Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) minimum-wage proposal. But McConnell never introduced such a bill."

Does this man EVER speak one iota of truth? How does Laura trust him?

And I just love the fact that we reached our credit limit of 7.8 trillion dollars before the election but we Americans never heard a WORD about that either...until yesterday!

Since when did lying, cheating, and murdering become moral? I must have missed something. Are we still on the same planet? Beam me up, Scottie!!!

[newyawker99]

25. Hi forintegrity!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Chovexani]

24. $6.25 is a fucking joke

My cat can't even live on that.