Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Blog

June 1: March for a Slice of Justice

On June 1, 2012, pizza workers at Palermo’s Pizza in the Menomonee Valley walked off the job to stand up for better wages, safe working conditions and the right to a union.  Since then, OSHA has cited Palermo's for 8 safety violations and a workplace accident in May resulted in a worker losing three fingers. 

One year after the walkout, workers want the owners of Palermo’s, the Falluca brothers, to know that they’re not done fighting for justice. 

Join strikers and their loved ones on Saturday, June 1, 2013 for an 18-mile March for a Slice of Justice.  Share the Face Book event page!

The march will begin with a sendoff rally at 8:00 a.m.,Palermo’s at 3301 W. Canal St., and end with an 8:00 p.m. candlelight vigil at Palermo's owner home at 12801 N. Fox Hollow Rd. Mequon. 

It’s a long march from Palermo’s in Milwaukee to the owner’s home in Mequon, but it’s also been a long fight. We encourage you to take part at any point of the day that works for you. 

March Route, Rest Stop Locations and Approximate Timing

•    Start at 3301 W. Canal St. (8:00AM)
•    3.4 mi REST STOP #1: Fund Du Lac @ Burleigh @ 36th St. (10:00AM)
•    6.1 mi REST STOP #2: Fund Du Lac @ Hampton @ 68th St. (11:45AM)
•    10.0 mi REST STOP #3:  Northtown Church, Fund Du Lac @ 107th St. (2:15PM)
•    12.0 mi REST STOP #4:  Popuch Park, 107th @ Donna Dr. (3:45PM)
•    16.5 mi REST STOP #5:  Trinity Lutheran, 107th @ Freistadt (6:30PM)
•    17.7 mi VIGIL SITE, 12801 N. Fox Hollow Rd (7:30PM)

Sign the Petition to Save the Postal Service

On April 24, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) launched a “We the People” petition on the White House website. The congressman’s goal is to get President Obama to act to save the Postal Service. We can save American jobs by preserving delivery standards and ending the unfair mandate to aggressively pre-fund future retiree health benefits.

Sign the petition.

Recently, the White House quadrupled the number of signatures needed to trigger a response—to 100,000—and it imposed shorter time limits for collection of signatures. The deadline for this petition is THIS Friday, May 24, and thanks to letter carrier activists, more than 24,000 Americans have already signed DeFazio’s petition. 

Stand in solidarity with letter carriers and postal workers by signing and sharing the petition today!

Here’s how to sign the petition

1.            Click the petition link

2.            On the “We the People” petition web page, click CREATE AN ACCOUNT or SIGN IN. (If you have an account, sign in and skip to Step 6.)

3.         Enter your e-mail address, name and ZIP code.

4.         The website will then send you an e-mail message. Open it and click the link provided to activate your account.

5.         Once your account is activated, click this link again to go to the petition page.

6.         Click SIGN THIS PETITION.

Immigration Bill Update

This month, the Senate introduced an 867-page bill that details its plan on immigration. Those 867 pages represent the dreams of aspiring American families and the interests of millions more working families around the country. And there’s a lot packed in there that matters to America’s workers, including fair wages, on-the-job safety and the ability for all of us to find good jobs.

Here’s what you need to know about the bill:

•    The bill creates a new system for workers to come into the United States, called the “W Visa” program. With this new system, a bureau would be created to monitor the labor market and workers would have “portablity” to leave abusive jobs. This new system finally would make the process of workers coming to this country manageable and it would protect new American workers by holding employers accountable. We will fight tooth and nail to be sure this program is included in the final bill.

•    Right now, the bill doesn’t do enough to protect workers in H1-B (temporary worker) programs. These programs are a blueprint for abuse, where workers live in despicable conditions for low wages, lured by the promise of a green card that will never materialize. We’ll be fighting to make changes to the bill to strengthen protections to ensure workers don’t get locked into a vicious cycle of temporary jobs. Big tech companies are highly invested in this portion of the bill, so they’re throwing a lot of money at it—but we’re going to keep fighting to ensure no worker is exploited in this country.

•    It’s critical that any bill has a realistic, speedy road map to citizenship for all of the 11 million Americans-in-waiting. The Senate has a 10-year path for most workers, and gave DREAMers a much shorter road map. We’ll be fighting to preserve the clear road map to citizenship and want to make sure corporations and their Republican friends don’t strip away workers’ rights.

Fight for $15 and a Union Spreads to Milwaukee as Fast Food Workers Strike in 5th Major U.S. City

Milwaukee fast food workers took action last Wednesday calling attention to poverty wages and poor working conditions.  Hundreds of workers from fast food and retail stores including Burger King, McDonald’s, Popeye’s and Dollar Tree walked off the job in solidarity in the fight for $15 an hour and a union. 

Tessie Harrell, a mother of six who has worked at Burger King for five years explained, “If we don’t stand up today we are always going to be on the downfall.  We work hard for $7.25 and we are standing together to say we are worth more.  We need to pay our bills; we need to take care of our children.  I’m not just out here for me.  I’m out here for all of us to speak for the people who are too afraid to speak for themselves.” 

Workers were joined by faith leaders and community supporters in a day of action to speak out for income inequality and living wages for all workers. 

Reverend Willie Brisco, Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope, reassured workers that God was on their side as they took action Wednesday.  “This is not a political issue, this is a moral issue.  What you are doing today is economically sound, spiritually sound, and morally sound.”

Rev. Brisco referenced scripture Deuteronomy 24:14:  "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

Community members and religious groups walked striking workers back to work on Thursday to ensure workers were not retaliated against for their protected action.