Fast Food Workers Want Higher Pay...Just Like Freedmen
On September 4th, 436 protesting fast food workers all over America were arrested. They were protesting for a higher minimum wage and the opportunity to form a Union for fast food workers. As of today, the nationwide minimum wage is $7.25 every hour, and the average payment for fast food workers is $8.94. These protests (which took place in cities like New York City, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, San Diego, Little Rock, Philadelphia, Hartford, Miami, Boston and Pittsburgh.) were held with the goal of a new minimum wage of $15.00 and a Union. President Barack Obama acknowledged these peaceful protests in a speech, and some cities have raised the minimum wage incredibly. New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago are considering a new minimum wage of $13.00 and Seattle already increased its minimum wage to $15.00. These circumstances relate to Reconstruction in the 1860s because African American freedmen often did not get paid as much as whites and were not appreciated as much as whites. Fast food workers are often under-appreciated for the work they do and are therefore paid little. African American’s had to form their own church, school and friend groups because no one was willing to help them. Fast food workers today want to form a Union together, as they don’t already have one. African American’s during Reconstruction were sometimes murdered in public (called lynching) and current fast food workers were arrested in public because of these peaceful protests. Things have definitely become better for African Americans, so hopefully things will get better for fast food workers.
In pop culture, millions of fans are interested in Taylor Swift’s music and sound choice. On October 27th of 2014, Taylor will be coming out with her new and improved album “1989” that is apparently different from the rest of her albums. This is going to be her fifth album but what exactly is so different about it? She is out with the old and in the new and now is becoming a “real pop artist”. Before, Taylor had been writing mainly country music but now that’s all coming to a halt for the 24 year old singer/songwriter. This is similar to the Reconstruction era when Congress attempted to change the way the south had been treating the African Americans in order to make the union come together as one whole nation. In the south, southerners believed in lynching, discriminating, and showing overall hatred toward blacks. This was getting in the way of the nation coming together. Congress came up with many ideas such as the 13th,14th, and 15th amendment so that there would be equality between blacks and whites. Similar to Taylor, her goal was to change her music style to get more people interested in her music just like how congress came up with new plans, laws, and ideas to try to make the nation come together.
Right now Scotland wants to rule themselves and not be ruled by England. First Minister Alex Salmond is saying that the Union has no longer a fit purpose and that if Scotland was independent, it would be one of the world’s richest countries. Salmond is saying that it is time for Scotland to have their own destinies instead of what he is describing as the “shackles” of a London-based UK parliament. This is the Scotish government side, but on the other hand, that opposing side, the UK government. The UK government is being led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron is saying that Britain is one of the world’s most successful social and political unions. This debate continues to go on to see if Scotland will win their independence or not. This debate on if Scotland will get their independence that they want is similar to many things that went on during reconstruction, but the big thing that it applies to is the opposing viewpoints of the South and the North after the Civil War and all throughout reconstruction. From the very start and all the way through, the North wanted to change things and the South wanted it to stay the same. The South is the UK government and the North is Scotland. They are constantly going against each other’s views because they each want their own kind of independence. This is how the debate over which Scotland should become independent or not, is similar to the reconstruction period.
The rise of corporations and large industry’s in America was a time of change for everyone. The first primary source is about the Carnegie Homestead after the attempted murder of Frick, which had led to some workers charging Frick’s coworkers with murder with other officials of the mill. The only two who were arrested for murder were the yard master James Dovey and Superintendent McConnell. However the true anarchist was Heinrich Bauer who was not released, but attempt to with a five thousands dollar bail. With this a new plain was put into place to better run the Homestead. The second source is a political cartoon on Irish industry. One image shows the world giving money to a craftsmen while the other seems to be a depiction of the Civil War and the industry similarities. The nation was almost divided into two, people who worked at factories and people who own factories. The Industrial Revolution in America was a progressive time that brought innovation, expansion, and the rise of worker satisfaction. With factory owners wanting to turn huge profits they cut workers’ wages and extended working hours, causing over two million children under the age of fifteen to work in dangerous factories to help support their families. Some factory overseers such as Frick refused to listen to the workers opinions on wages, hours, and even working conditions. Over inner hundreds deaths in one year were from steel mills alone, rickety outdated equipment was used every day and was super unstable. On top of that workers had twelve hour days six days a week, accidents were frequent and sometimes fatal. Strikes were common to change the problems of a factory and unions were formed to ease the workers’ laboring jobs. This may be the most progressive time American history, but came with the grave price of workers dyeing every day, and children working in unsafe and laboring environments.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-looks-to-bump-all-workers-pay-above-minimum-wage-2014-10-17 http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2014/oct/23/workers-walmart-commit-15-minimum-wage/ http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/corporate/international/wal-mart-ceo-promises-upgrade-minimum-wages-105173.html This month, Walmart has decided to bump up salaries for their employees. Even though the official minimum wage is $7.25, many Walmart employees will now make anywhere from over $10 an hour, to $15 an hour, and that’s only starting wages. Many full-time employees now make about $12.92 per hour, which is over the minimum wage of $7.25. This large retailer has decided to raise wages, which will help many employees struggling to earn $25,000 per year. Only about 6,000 Walmart employees are making minimum wage, and this will soon change. The chief executive of Walmart, Doug McMillion, says that he wishes for the company to all together get rid of paying minimum wage. He wants the employees to earn more than required by law. The decision to raise salaries for many employees is a result of petitions and complaints from workers. Many Walmart employees signed petitions in-stores and online in order to get their point across to the company. Some Walmart workers even protested and picketed in New York in order to receive higher pay. Many workers have been requesting $15 per hour as the companies’ minimum pay, but there is no definite on whether this will be put into place or not, though the protests from employees are moving things in the right direction. Back in the 1800’s minimum wages did not exist. Many laborers and factory workers spent long, grueling days doing back-breaking and dangerous work. Even after the struggles they went through during the work day, they were paid poorly. It was bad enough that their shifts were unreasonably long, and that the work was often dangerous. On top of those things, there was no minimum wage. Workers were paid whatever their bosses decided. In order to work towards fair pay, many laborers protested and revolted. Workers went on strike and refused to work until they received justice. For example, the Homestead Strike took place at a steel mill in Pennsylvania. Workers from the mill decided to stand outside and refuse to work until they were granted better working conditions. Eventually, strikes and protests like this led to minimum wage laws passed in 1938. Protests of laborers in the 1800’s- early 1900’s can be compared to the protests and petitions of Walmart employees in 2014. The Walmart employees wanted better pay, just like laborers back during the industrial revolution and progressive times. Both groups made their requests and complaints known to their employers in order to work towards fixing the problem. Both Walmart employees and the laborers protested to get what they wanted. Protests from both modern-day Walmart workers and past laborers ultimately brought about changes in salaries, and both groups were eventually successful. These groups just go to show that if you fight for a change, it might just happen.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/world-july-dec13-burkinafaso_07-10/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/28/tanzania-hazardous-life-child-gold-miners http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/11/africas-child-mining-shame Children in Africa who fail exams in primary schooling are essentially condemned to work hard, long hours. About 1,000,000 children in Africa work in rough conditions for long hours, and many are paid less than $2.00 a day. They work in hazardous conditions in small scale mines, digging for gold, crushing the rocks to powder, and then sifting though it to see if there is any gold. It is illegal in Africa, but the governments rarely ever inspect the mines the children work in, and hardly ever punish anyone who hires the 7-15 year old kids. The US government knows about this, and has stopped buying gold directly from the people who own the mines in Africa, but there are still private dealers who sneak gold in, or sell it on the black market. These cases of child labor are very similar to the child labor we talked about in class, as they essentially are the exact same thing. Young children who can’t really do much else, working long hours for very little pay. Except, in US during the progressive era, child labor was outlawed, and people who attempted to hire children had to pay fines/receive punishments, whereas in Africa, the government doesn’t really seem to want to go after the mine owners/people hiring children, and the conditions are a lot more dangerous. The PBS article even specifically mentioned that they process the gold with mercury, which damages nerves, causes a twitch, and is toxic, with only their bare hands. The children may make income, like the children in the progressive era, but it is nowhere near enough to compensate for the risk they have to take to make a measly two dollars. -Mitch Jellen
Summary: My first link discusses how a new Oxfam report on inequality found the gap between the rich and poor has widened even further.The number of billionaires has more than doubled to 1,645 since the recent financial crisis The world's richest 85 people own as much as the entire poorer half of the world. These 85 people also grew $668 million richer each day. Also, the combined wealth of today's billionaires has grown by 124%. According to Oxfam's findings, 50% of the kids born to low-income parents in the U.S. will become low-income adults in the future. My second link discusses how voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota have a high chance to approve ballot measures in order to increase minimum wage. Polls have shown that a majority of the public in those states favor an increase. Alaska and Arkansas have the largest proposed increases at $7.75 to $9.75 by 2016, and $6.25 to 8.50 by 2017. Illinois will put on a non-binding referendum on the minimum wage before voters in November. In the past year, other cities have approved increases.
History Synthesis: The first article connects to our curriculum because in the Progressive Era there was a extremely large economic gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. In the Progressive Era the majority of the U.S wealth was owned by a small amount of people. Just like in the Progressive Era, the gap is growing larger and there needs to be reform in order to help alleviate that problem. In the Progressive Era they implemented a graduated income tax. I think that a graduated income tax should be implemented to many other countries around the world to try to fix this problem. My second article connects to the curriculum because Illinois is using a non-binding referendum in order to gauge the popularity of this minimum wage reform effectively. Oakland, Calif., has a ballot initiative that, if approved, would raise the city minimum to $12.25 by March 2015, up from $9 today. The initiative process was introduced and used during the Progressive Era. This is also a reform on working conditions, and there are many petitions going around in order to increase this minimum wage. This is very similar to how Progressive Era workers pushed for working condition reform and how they fought for increased wages. -Kevin Mastascusa
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/solid-economic-data-lift-hopes-aug-job-report-25257829
ReplyDeleteMarco
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/216594-fast-food-workers-take-to-the-streets-for-15-minimum
ReplyDeleteKaelyn Pelosi
Fast Food Workers Want Higher Pay...Just Like Freedmen
ReplyDeleteOn September 4th, 436 protesting fast food workers all over America were arrested. They were protesting for a higher minimum wage and the opportunity to form a Union for fast food workers. As of today, the nationwide minimum wage is $7.25 every hour, and the average payment for fast food workers is $8.94. These protests (which took place in cities like New York City, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, San Diego, Little Rock, Philadelphia, Hartford, Miami, Boston and Pittsburgh.) were held with the goal of a new minimum wage of $15.00 and a Union. President Barack Obama acknowledged these peaceful protests in a speech, and some cities have raised the minimum wage incredibly. New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago are considering a new minimum wage of $13.00 and Seattle already increased its minimum wage to $15.00. These circumstances relate to Reconstruction in the 1860s because African American freedmen often did not get paid as much as whites and were not appreciated as much as whites. Fast food workers are often under-appreciated for the work they do and are therefore paid little. African American’s had to form their own church, school and friend groups because no one was willing to help them. Fast food workers today want to form a Union together, as they don’t already have one. African American’s during Reconstruction were sometimes murdered in public (called lynching) and current fast food workers were arrested in public because of these peaceful protests. Things have definitely become better for African Americans, so hopefully things will get better for fast food workers.
Emma Ford
In pop culture, millions of fans are interested in Taylor Swift’s music and sound choice. On October 27th of 2014, Taylor will be coming out with her new and improved album “1989” that is apparently different from the rest of her albums.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be her fifth album but what exactly is so different about it? She is out with the old and in the new and now is becoming a “real pop artist”. Before, Taylor had been writing mainly country music but now that’s all coming to a halt for the 24 year old singer/songwriter.
This is similar to the Reconstruction era when Congress attempted to change the way the south had been treating the African Americans in order to make the union come together as one whole nation. In the south, southerners believed in lynching, discriminating, and showing overall hatred toward blacks. This was getting in the way of the nation coming together. Congress came up with many ideas such as the 13th,14th, and 15th amendment so that there would be equality between blacks and whites. Similar to Taylor, her goal was to change her music style to get more people interested in her music just like how congress came up with new plans, laws, and ideas to try to make the nation come together.
Websites:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/artslife/1230596-taylor-swift-changes-tune-for-album-1989
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/09/showbiz/music/taylor-swift-1989-rolling-stone/index.html?hpt=en_bn5
http://theboot.com/taylor-swift-shake-it-off-song-1989-album/
Camryn Hicks
Scottish Independence-
ReplyDeleteRight now Scotland wants to rule themselves and not be ruled by England. First Minister Alex Salmond is saying that the Union has no longer a fit purpose and that if Scotland was independent, it would be one of the world’s richest countries. Salmond is saying that it is time for Scotland to have their own destinies instead of what he is describing as the “shackles” of a London-based UK parliament. This is the Scotish government side, but on the other hand, that opposing side, the UK government. The UK government is being led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron is saying that Britain is one of the world’s most successful social and political unions. This debate continues to go on to see if Scotland will win their independence or not.
This debate on if Scotland will get their independence that they want is similar to many things that went on during reconstruction, but the big thing that it applies to is the opposing viewpoints of the South and the North after the Civil War and all throughout reconstruction. From the very start and all the way through, the North wanted to change things and the South wanted it to stay the same. The South is the UK government and the North is Scotland. They are constantly going against each other’s views because they each want their own kind of independence. This is how the debate over which Scotland should become independent or not, is similar to the reconstruction period.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26550736
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/10/upshot/why-does-scotland-want-independence-its-culture-vs-economics.html?abt=0002&abg=1
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scotland-independence-vote-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-life-after-this-weeks-result-9731654.html
Erin King
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94052989/1892-08-04/ed-1/seq-1/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c18124/
The rise of corporations and large industry’s in America was a time of change for everyone. The first primary source is about the Carnegie Homestead after the attempted murder of Frick, which had led to some workers charging Frick’s coworkers with murder with other officials of the mill. The only two who were arrested for murder were the yard master James Dovey and Superintendent McConnell. However the true anarchist was Heinrich Bauer who was not released, but attempt to with a five thousands dollar bail. With this a new plain was put into place to better run the Homestead. The second source is a political cartoon on Irish industry. One image shows the world giving money to a craftsmen while the other seems to be a depiction of the Civil War and the industry similarities. The nation was almost divided into two, people who worked at factories and people who own factories.
The Industrial Revolution in America was a progressive time that brought innovation, expansion, and the rise of worker satisfaction. With factory owners wanting to turn huge profits they cut workers’ wages and extended working hours, causing over two million children under the age of fifteen to work in dangerous factories to help support their families. Some factory overseers such as Frick refused to listen to the workers opinions on wages, hours, and even working conditions. Over inner hundreds deaths in one year were from steel mills alone, rickety outdated equipment was used every day and was super unstable. On top of that workers had twelve hour days six days a week, accidents were frequent and sometimes fatal. Strikes were common to change the problems of a factory and unions were formed to ease the workers’ laboring jobs. This may be the most progressive time American history, but came with the grave price of workers dyeing every day, and children working in unsafe and laboring environments.
Connor Grunewald
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-looks-to-bump-all-workers-pay-above-minimum-wage-2014-10-17
ReplyDeletehttp://amsterdamnews.com/news/2014/oct/23/workers-walmart-commit-15-minimum-wage/
http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/corporate/international/wal-mart-ceo-promises-upgrade-minimum-wages-105173.html
This month, Walmart has decided to bump up salaries for their employees. Even though the official minimum wage is $7.25, many Walmart employees will now make anywhere from over $10 an hour, to $15 an hour, and that’s only starting wages. Many full-time employees now make about $12.92 per hour, which is over the minimum wage of $7.25. This large retailer has decided to raise wages, which will help many employees struggling to earn $25,000 per year. Only about 6,000 Walmart employees are making minimum wage, and this will soon change. The chief executive of Walmart, Doug McMillion, says that he wishes for the company to all together get rid of paying minimum wage. He wants the employees to earn more than required by law. The decision to raise salaries for many employees is a result of petitions and complaints from workers. Many Walmart employees signed petitions in-stores and online in order to get their point across to the company. Some Walmart workers even protested and picketed in New York in order to receive higher pay. Many workers have been requesting $15 per hour as the companies’ minimum pay, but there is no definite on whether this will be put into place or not, though the protests from employees are moving things in the right direction.
Back in the 1800’s minimum wages did not exist. Many laborers and factory workers spent long, grueling days doing back-breaking and dangerous work. Even after the struggles they went through during the work day, they were paid poorly. It was bad enough that their shifts were unreasonably long, and that the work was often dangerous. On top of those things, there was no minimum wage. Workers were paid whatever their bosses decided. In order to work towards fair pay, many laborers protested and revolted. Workers went on strike and refused to work until they received justice. For example, the Homestead Strike took place at a steel mill in Pennsylvania. Workers from the mill decided to stand outside and refuse to work until they were granted better working conditions. Eventually, strikes and protests like this led to minimum wage laws passed in 1938. Protests of laborers in the 1800’s- early 1900’s can be compared to the protests and petitions of Walmart employees in 2014. The Walmart employees wanted better pay, just like laborers back during the industrial revolution and progressive times. Both groups made their requests and complaints known to their employers in order to work towards fixing the problem. Both Walmart employees and the laborers protested to get what they wanted. Protests from both modern-day Walmart workers and past laborers ultimately brought about changes in salaries, and both groups were eventually successful. These groups just go to show that if you fight for a change, it might just happen.
~Erin Faulkner
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/world-july-dec13-burkinafaso_07-10/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/28/tanzania-hazardous-life-child-gold-miners
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/11/africas-child-mining-shame
Children in Africa who fail exams in primary schooling are essentially condemned to work hard, long hours. About 1,000,000 children in Africa work in rough conditions for long hours, and many are paid less than $2.00 a day. They work in hazardous conditions in small scale mines, digging for gold, crushing the rocks to powder, and then sifting though it to see if there is any gold. It is illegal in Africa, but the governments rarely ever inspect the mines the children work in, and hardly ever punish anyone who hires the 7-15 year old kids. The US government knows about this, and has stopped buying gold directly from the people who own the mines in Africa, but there are still private dealers who sneak gold in, or sell it on the black market.
These cases of child labor are very similar to the child labor we talked about in class, as they essentially are the exact same thing. Young children who can’t really do much else, working long hours for very little pay. Except, in US during the progressive era, child labor was outlawed, and people who attempted to hire children had to pay fines/receive punishments, whereas in Africa, the government doesn’t really seem to want to go after the mine owners/people hiring children, and the conditions are a lot more dangerous. The PBS article even specifically mentioned that they process the gold with mercury, which damages nerves, causes a twitch, and is toxic, with only their bare hands. The children may make income, like the children in the progressive era, but it is nowhere near enough to compensate for the risk they have to take to make a measly two dollars.
-Mitch Jellen
Summary: My first link discusses how a new Oxfam report on inequality found the gap between the rich and poor has widened even further.The number of billionaires has more than doubled to 1,645 since the recent financial crisis The world's richest 85 people own as much as the entire poorer half of the world. These 85 people also grew $668 million richer each day. Also, the combined wealth of today's billionaires has grown by 124%. According to Oxfam's findings, 50% of the kids born to low-income parents in the U.S. will become low-income adults in the future. My second link discusses how voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota have a high chance to approve ballot measures in order to increase minimum wage. Polls have shown that a majority of the public in those states favor an increase. Alaska and Arkansas have the largest proposed increases at $7.75 to $9.75 by 2016, and $6.25 to 8.50 by 2017. Illinois will put on a non-binding referendum on the minimum wage before voters in November. In the past year, other cities have approved increases.
ReplyDeleteHistory Synthesis: The first article connects to our curriculum because in the Progressive Era there was a extremely large economic gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. In the Progressive Era the majority of the U.S wealth was owned by a small amount of people. Just like in the Progressive Era, the gap is growing larger and there needs to be reform in order to help alleviate that problem. In the Progressive Era they implemented a graduated income tax. I think that a graduated income tax should be implemented to many other countries around the world to try to fix this problem. My second article connects to the curriculum because Illinois is using a non-binding referendum in order to gauge the popularity of this minimum wage reform effectively. Oakland, Calif., has a ballot initiative that, if approved, would raise the city minimum to $12.25 by March 2015, up from $9 today. The initiative process was introduced and used during the Progressive Era. This is also a reform on working conditions, and there are many petitions going around in order to increase this minimum wage. This is very similar to how Progressive Era workers pushed for working condition reform and how they fought for increased wages.
-Kevin Mastascusa
http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/29/news/economy/billionaires-oxfam/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
ReplyDeletehttp://money.cnn.com/2014/10/06/news/economy/minimum-wage-state-elections/index.html