{"id":16476,"date":"2021-01-06T09:09:37","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T14:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/2021\/01\/06\/conn-labor-demands-tax-the-rich-as-picket-lines-for-hazard-pay-continue\/"},"modified":"2021-01-06T09:09:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T14:09:37","slug":"conn-labor-demands-tax-the-rich-as-picket-lines-for-hazard-pay-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2021\/01\/06\/conn-labor-demands-tax-the-rich-as-picket-lines-for-hazard-pay-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Conn. labor demands \u2018tax the rich,\u2019 as picket lines for hazard pay continue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By ERNIE GOTTA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u201cPeople\u2019s Recovery\u201d plan was rolled out at a press conference by the Bargaining for the Common Good coalition on Monday afternoon, Jan. 4.  The coalition consists of a number of unions and community groups and has support from local politicians. The plan is centered around increasing taxes on Connecticut\u2019s wealthiest residents to preserve vital services coming out of the COVID crisis. The focus would be on a household\u2019s yearly income of $1 million or more and corporations that annually gross more than $100 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here calling for the help of the legislature to tip the scales in the direction of justice by moving towards greater tax equity,\u201d said Rob Baril, president of SEIU 1199 New England. He continued, \u201cEducation, health care, housing livable wages, a fair retirement\u2014those things should be a condition of birth, as opposed to something that are available only to the privileged few. And our state\u2019s budget, our state\u2019s tax dollars, can move in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Ned Lamont, himself a wealthy elite living in the most expensive area of the state, is opposed to this initiative. Tensions are only increasing, since the state\u2019s labor unions that helped elect Lamont are now facing a major austerity drive by the governor\u2019s administration. Lamont is seeking to shrink the unionized public sector workforce by \u201cstreamlining\u201d operations as workers begin to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor has hired friends in the notorious anti-worker Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to make recommendations. BCG has most recently advocated for the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the press conference, members of the CT Workers Crisis Response (CWCR) handed out hundreds of leaflets on Monday night outside of Stop and Shop grocery stores in Hartford and Stamford. CWCR has now held four informational picket lines in four Connecticut cities over the past month to raise the issues of hazard pay and safer working conditions during the COVID crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Piper, a union teacher and CWCR member who helped organize the Hartford action, said, \u201cWe know the workers and their union are fighting to regain hazard pay, PPE, and in general safer conditions at work. Safer conditions also mean prioritizing their access to the vaccine. Essential workers deserve more. Stop and Shop is a multi-billion-dollar corporation that can easily afford to take care of their workers. They have not done enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has held ongoing negotiations with Stop and Shop\u2019s parent company, Ahold Delaize, since the start of the COVID crisis. Small gains have been made as the union and supporters have helped loosen the pockets of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday morning, prior to the action, UFCW Local 371 posted on Facebook, \u201cAfter negotiating with UFCW leadership, Stop and Shop has agreed to pay out an additional $300 for FT and $150 for PT employees for hazard pay. While we believe you deserve more than that for the work you have done for your communities, we appreciate the company’s ongoing willingness to bargain over the issue of hazard pay. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Stamford, Stop and Shop workers made a point to express their appreciation for CWCR\u2019s show of solidarity. One worker emphatically told picketers, \u201cYou\u2019re damned right we deserve more. We worked through this pandemic, and the company\u2019s bonus of $300 is disrespectful!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Rob Baril, president of SEIU 1199 New England, speaks. \/ Stop and Shop picket line in Stamford, Conn. (General Strike Graphics)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ERNIE GOTTA A \u201cPeople\u2019s Recovery\u201d plan was rolled out at a press conference by the Bargaining for the Common Good coalition on Monday afternoon, Jan. 4.  The coalition consists of a number of unions and community groups and has support from local politicians. The plan is centered around increasing taxes on Connecticut\u2019s wealthiest residents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882114,"featured_media":15449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30840],"tags":[30228,30948,31202,31225,1332],"class_list":["post-16476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labor-2","tag-connecticut","tag-cwcr","tag-stop-and-shop","tag-ucw","tag-unions"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/workersvoiceus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/CWCR.jpg?fit=1500%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-4hK","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}