15 Now Tacoma has proven a central point: That the best way to win reforms is not by allowing the compromisers-to-big-business — that is, the union leadership — to set the agenda for the movement. Instead, they have organized independently for what is needed. In the process, Corporate Tacoma, through their Chamber of Commerce, has gotten so worried that they are pressuring the mayor to come up with a plan to increase the minimum wage. The web site “Darkarethedays.wordpress.com” has published a new article on the groundbreaking campaign of 15 Now Tacoma and the fact that 15 Now nationally has instituted a news blackout on them. Here is their article:
Who is 15 Now Tacoma? The national 15 Now website carries no campaign updates with the exception of one sentence posted in March of last year, no reposted news articles, and no information outside basic contact information of an external website, phone number, and a Facebook page. Yet, this very same 15 Now local group has been causing political waves in the third largest city in Washington State, just 32 miles southwest of Seattle. A recent flurry of mediaattention has cast a spotlight on the 15 Now Tacoma ballot initiative, filed earlier this week. This ballot initiative would jump the city’s minimum wage to $15 at the beginning of 2016 for businesses with gross revenues greater than $300,000, faster than any other city in the country, and raise the legal penalty of wage theft to a felony, equalizing with the charge for workplace theft. 15 Now Tacoma has been described as holding the mayor hostage with their uncompromising campaigning for 15.
Categories: Minimum wage campaign