Must read links for 12/6/13
I will be adding links throughout the day, adding any updates via twitter, so follow me here.
Fast Food Workers Strike
What they need is to start organizing, contacting upper management and propose starting a works council at the local levels and co-determination boards at the executive level, which you can read about here.
“To put it in perspective, yesterday I got paid, today I have not a dollar in my pocket,” said Akilarose Thompson, 24. She was on strike from the McDonalds in Chicago’s West Town – the scene of Thursday morning’s protest that kicked off actions around the city.
Thompson has worked at McDonalds for almost a year, serving customers on the cash register or on the drive-thru window. She got a pay rise in June and now earns $8.28 an hour – three cents above Illinois’s minimum wage of $8.25. Thompson works a second job too, at Red Lobster, but still has to go to food banks to support her and her 15-month-old daughter.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/fast-food-workers-strike-minimum-wage
The effect of Food Stamps on Obesity
“Specifically, access to food stamps in childhood leads to a significant reduction in the incidence of “metabolic syndrome” (obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes) and, for women, an increase in economic self-sufficiency. Overall, our results suggest substantial internal and external benefits of the safety net that have not previously been quantified.”
http://angrybearblog.com/2013/12/food-stamps-obesity-and-dependency.html
1 in 3 Bank Tellers receive welfare
“Researchers say taxpayers are doling out nearly $900 million a year to supplement the wages of bank tellers, which amounts to a public subsidy for multibillion-dollar banks. The workers collect $105 million in food stamps, $250 million through the earned income tax credit and $534 million by way of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center.”
Heretical Druthers 