Fight for $15, Orlando — April 14
It’s time to take the Fight for $15 to the streets!
Nearly 64 million hardworking Americans make less than $15 an hour. That’s just not right – and on April 14, we’re standing together in Orlando to yell “enough.” Are you with us? We’re rallying to show that we support $15 and union rights for all working people. Fast-food workers will go on strike in 300 cities, including Orlando.
Posted in April 2016, Articles
Tagged aclc, alachua county labor c, fight for 15, living wage campaign
The Alachua County Labor Coalition (ACLC) has been working with Fight for 15 Florida to visit with and sign up fast food workers in Alachua County the last 2 months in addition to the ACLC Living Wage Campaign. We need folks willing to join us in both of these campaigns. The fast food workers are very eager to learn that Fight for 15 has come to their community, and we have visited over 50 fast-food restaurants locally with the Fight for 15 state-wide organizers providing the initial training.
We had a well-attended meeting in September where about a dozen fast-food, child-care and health care workers from the Tampa/St. Pete area joined twenty labor coalition and local community members to provide testimony about the gains they have made there in the Fight for 15. They spoke of one-day strikes, fighting for better pay, for better working conditions and being treated with dignity and as a valued employee.
The Alachua County Labor Coalition is forging ahead with the first leg of its Livable Wage Campaign in Alachua County. We are speaking to many groups, congregations, unions, businesses and individuals to educate our community about the need for a higher minimum wage in Alachua County, a livable wage.
Over 25 organizations including Veterans for Peace, The Sierra Club, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1205 have endorsed the campaign so far to lift low wage workers over the poverty line. If you would like one of our crackerjack speakers to come speak to your organization, please contact us. We welcome the involvement of the whole community in this effort, which will not only raise the wages of our target businesses, but the wages of the whole community. As wages rise in certain sectors of a community, all wages rise as businesses compete for workers.
Posted in Articles, July-August 2015
Tagged aclc, alachua county labor coalition, living wage, living wage campaign, sheila payne
“The Gap” is a short documentary describing the difficulties of people unable to obtain health care. Made in Gainesville by Jordanna Goldman and Christopher Cogle, M.D. it is being used by Florida Chain in its statewide campaign to have Florida accept funds for Medicaid expansion. It was shown at the Civic Media Center by the Alachua County Labor Coalition. It will be shown again on May 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the County Library, 14913 NW 140th St, Alachua. It will be followed by a discussion of what action to take.
Probably for no better reason than their resistance to Obamacare, Governor Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives have refused to allow Florida to accept funds from the Federal Government which would cover almost one million people without health insurance. They are largely people who work but don’t earn enough to qualify for Obamacare subsidies or are unemployed and looking for jobs.
Throughout the nation, a movement has been fomenting around the need for a living wage. Thousands of workers have gone on strike, politicians have stumped, and large companies such as McDonalds and Walmart have given token raises; but little has been done in Florida to make a living wage a reality. In Alachua County, a coalition of religious organizations, businesses, labor unions, and economic justice activists have come together to make a tangible change for Alachua County workers. Our ambitious goal is to have the 10 largest employers in the County pay a Living Wage by 2020. We aim to enforce Article X, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution, which is currently being scorned by many of our elected officials.
All working Floridians are entitled to be paid a minimum wage that is sufficient to provide a decent and healthy life for them and their families, that protects their employers from unfair low-wage competition, and that does not force them to rely on taxpayer-funded public services in order to avoid economic hardship.
The June 2015 issue of the Gainesville Iguana is now available online, and it’s got lots of good stuff (Bernie Sanders, an oral history interview with David Barsamian, a Florida Legislative update from FL NOW, a Sleep Creek Lands/Adena Springs report, and more!). You can also pick the issue up at any of our distribution spots, which you can find here.
Tagged abby goldsmith, aclc, adena springs, alachua county labor coalition, bernie sanders, Civic Media Center, CMC, david barsamian, dezeray lyn, FLNOW, florida national organization for women, juneteenth, kenito weeks, kenneth weeks, kent state, living wage, memorial mile, peace poetry contest, samuel proctor oral history program, silver springs, sleepy creek lands, students for justice in palestine, wgot
Alachua County Labor Coalition and Pride Community Center are teaming up for a showing of the film “Pride.”
Join these groups Monday, April 13, at 7pm at the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida for the Labor Coalition’s monthly film series screening of this 2014 film about the 1984 UK Miners Strike and the unlikely allies who rallied to show their support for union workers.
The London chapter of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) decide to collect money to help the striking miners. While some Londoners support the efforts of LGSM, others spit at them as they try to collect money. LGSM members stand fast, with the knowledge that the only people the homophobic British press hates more than gay people are the miners.
The Alachua County Labor Coalition is screening the film ‘Made in Dagenham’ as part of their on-going series of monthly labor film showings in the Alachua County community.
The film will be shown on Monday, March 16, at 7 pm at the Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St.
The Gainesville area National Women’s Liberation and Gainesville NOW will co-sponsor the event.
The Alachua County Labor Coalition, the Civic Media Center and the Interfaith Alliance for Immigrant Justice will host a screening of the documentary “Food Chains” at the Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St., Monday, January 19, at 7pm. This showing is to accommodate the over 50 people who were turned away at the inaugural screening because of the unanticipated overwhelming community response and the previous venue selling out days in advance.
“Food Chains” weaves together the stirring true stories of an intrepid group of farmworkers working to defeat the $4 trillion global supermarket industry, revealing the rampant abuse of farm laborers in the United States. “Food Chains” exposes the human costs in our food supply chain and the complicity of the supermarket industry. The film focuses on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a highly inspiring group of farm workers in the tomato industry from Immokalee, Florida who are revolutionizing the food industry.