Earlier this year One Pittsburgh attended a roundtable discussion with the US Department of Labor about the minimum wage, and saw first hand that many women in Pittsburgh struggle while only earning the minimum wage

Contrary to popular myth, minimum wage workers are not teenagers looking to make extra money. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 88% of minimum wage earners are over the age of 20.

Around 60% of these workers are women. The EPI also estimates that there are 5.5 Million women with children under 18 that would see a pay increase if the minimum wage were raised to $10.10 an hour as the Harkin/Miller bill sets out to do.

Looking at the MIT living wage calculator we see that, assuming full time hours,  a single mother in Pittsburgh making minimum wage and supporting one child is right at the poverty rate.

“Being a full-time mom working part-time for minimum wage is tough. I’m grateful that my mother is there to help us along, but this Mother’s Day Congress need to remember the moms and raise the wage so that I can provide for my son’s future.” Nikki Edmonds

Even with the help of a spouse working full time on the minimum wage, the combined earnings are less than what is considered a comfortable living wage.

However, most women earning minimum wage do not have a spouse they can rely on for income. According to the National Women’s Law Center Over 75% of women 16 and older and 59% of women 25 and older do not have help from a spouse.

Even with full time hours a single mother cannot afford a two bedroom apartment. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition it would take a person in Pennsylvania 89 hours a week at minimum wage to afford the average rent for a two bedroom apartment.

“We’re not asking for $20 an hour, but at least get an amount where we can stand on our own two feet, to have some confidence in ourselves that we don’t have to struggle so hard.” Alveynia Turner.

If we appreciate Mothers everywhere then we need to raise the wage. The Harkin/Miller Bill in congress will raise the minimum wage to $10.10, keeping working mothers and their family significantly above the poverty line.

Support Working Mothers and Sign the Raise the Wage Petition Now

http://www.nwlc.org/resource/fair-pay-women-requires-increasing-minimum-wage-and-tipped-minimum-wage

http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2012-OOR-Min-Wage-Map.pdf

http://www.epi.org/blog/mom-mothers-day-raise/

http://www.epi.org/publication/bp357-federal-minimum-wage-increase/

May 1st is traditionally Worker’s Rights day, a holiday to commemorate the victories and struggles workers have faced since 1886.

What does Immigration have to do with Worker’s Rights?

Pittsburgh was built on immigrants coming to this city to work. Now working people are the ones who are losing out. Employers can take advantage of the broken system, and pay undocumented immigrants less money and poor working conditions at the disadvantage of average worker.

Worse yet, families are broken up because of deportation. Dreams are delayed when students must leave Pittsburgh. Tax money is spent on border patrol, deportation and inprisonment.

The system’s broken and everyone loses because of it. Because the American Dream needs to be opened to the 11 million undocumented people in this country.

We joined several community groups and heard from immigrants and community leaders about the importance of immigration reform before marching down Carson Street.

Check out the pictures.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEXLtZq

   To play One Pittsburgh activists needed to cross over from one side of the room to the other without being caught by ‘immigration agents.

Most could not make it and were either sent back or sent to jail with the option to work for well under minimum wage in bad working conditions.

Those who could make it were either students that could only stay temporarily or those who were wealthy.

This afternoon’s lecture titled, “Delivering Culturally Competent Care and Addressing Technology: The New Health Care Disparity,” discussed techniques that UPMC utilizes to ensure the dignity and respect of their workers and patients, and the benefits of using these techniques for fostering and building community, especially when working with disadvantaged groups. This particular debate was of great interest to us because of the Mayor’s recent challenge to UPMC’s non-profit charity status and the recent debates around raising the federal minimum wage. We were really excited to hear what she had to say about the relationship between living wages, public goods (e.g. education, transportation, etc.) and UPMC national campaign to promote dignity and respect.

Castleberry-Singleton runs UPMC’s Cultural Competency in Patient Care and Dignity and Respect Campaigns, which aim to reach all 50,000 of the hospital system’s employees (never mind that when workers charged UPMC with violating their rights, UPMC claimed not to have any employees).

At the heart of Dignity and Respect are the “30 Tips,” ideas that we can incorporate into our daily practices to transform the culture of our workplaces. The tips include important if commonplace ideas like:

We joined nearly one hundred attendees at the Center on Race and Social Problems public lecture series who yelled out the tips on Castleberry-Singleton’s cue. But we couldn’t help but wonder whether the decision makers at UPMC had really internalized them. From what we’ve been hearing, UPMC is treating its service workers with Contempt and Brutality, not Dignity and Respect.

Were UPMC managers “treating others the way they wanted to be treated” when they opened a food pantry rather than give workers a raise? Were they “lending a hand” when they called the police on workers who were talking about the union on their own time in the cafeteria? Maybe monitoring with surveillance and harassing workers who want to make changes is a really dramatic example of “reinventing the wheel?” Most people would just sit down and talk about it. Firing people unlawfully – now that’s some out of the box thinking.

At the end of the lecture, the packed room applauded and exchanged smiles, consuming the wonderful values and ideals that were shared. However, when I looked around the room I did not notice any UPMC low-wage workers there. Maybe that’s why there was no community discussion or question posed about the 80 violations that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed against UPMC managers and executives, or the settlement that UPMC entered into, or the new round of violations that workers allege and filed charges about this Wednesday. Not once did Candi Castleberry-Singleton bring up these issues, Champion of Dignity and Respect, talk about the fact that the Federal Government has found UPMC anything but.

So we took it upon ourselves to ask:

As the Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, what role do you think UPMC should take as the primary healthcare employer and provider in our Pittsburgh community to ensure the dignity and respect of low-income recipients of care as well as their low-income employees? These are individuals who have experienced food insecurity, loss of their neighborhood hospitals (in Braddock), low-capped wages regardless of tenure, and those who cannot afford healthcare?

It was clear that Castleberry-Singleton didn’t exactly welcome this question, though we did ask it very politely. We also asked politely about Jeffrey Romoff’s six-million dollar salary, to which she replied that that has nothing to do with her and that his salary is commensurate with other agencies the size of UPMC. We asked, “Do you mean for-profit, or non-profit?” A question to which she had no answer – though we do: Romoff is paid far more than his counterparts at the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic or John’s Hopkins. In fact Time Magazine singled out his salary as an example of what drives healthcare costs up for consumers.

We asked her to consider that Pittsburgh has the highest infant-mortality rate among African Americans in the country and some of the highest rates of diabetes and obesity in the country. We asked if she thought UPMC should contribute more than the 2% of patient revenue on charitable care, the same amount as a for-profit institution.

She jumped to UPMC’s defense, claiming that it was the ‘’media’’ that was creating this antagonistic atmosphere. I directly told her that that was untrue, and irrelevant. We stressed that UPMC has and continues to benefit significantly from their non-profit tax-exempt status, but that it is now time for them to pay their fair share and address their responsibility as a large employer in Pittsburgh and as a non-profit hospital. Castleberry-Singleton then asked us, not without some condescension, whether or not we liked UPMC, whether we knew the legal definition of a non-profit, and whether we had come to hear her lecture or had been sent by someone else to grill her.

We think the Respect and Dignity tips are awesome – but we what’s the point of having them, if they don’t count in situations of conflict and when a lot is at stake? If you only find common ground when everybody is on management’s program and not, instead, trying to form their union? If you only build relationships with a city that isn’t critical of your behavior, and question their motives when they point out things, you’re not doing it right. Dignity and Respect is just window dressing if it can’t accommodate the legitimate and lawful demands of anybody who doesn’t fall into line.

We’d like Candi Castleberry-Singleton to know that we Pittsburghers are unified in our love for our city and that we are ready to advocate for each other. Polls show that a truly overwhelming majority of us support the city’s challenge to UPMC’s status as a charity, largely because we’re tired of how UPMC treats its workers and the community. We think that’s something UPMC should consider and learn from before lecturing us on Dignity and Respect. 

Doing so is estimated to help 700,000 new Pennsylvanias get insurance, which in turn could save $800 million in the cost of healthcare and create 41,000 new jobs.

It makes sense to expand medicaid for so many reasons that it’s not acceptable to pass up this opportunity.

So One Pittsburgh joined Pennsylvania Health Access Network and more as part of a statewide day of action to stand up for Medicaid Expansion.

In Pittsburgh the rally took place by the Mazeroski statue on Mazeroski way by PNC Park, and the speakers included PA State Rep Dan Frankel who enthusiastically stated his support.

http://action.onepittsburgh.org/page/s/corbett-accept-medicaid

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onepittsburgh/sets/72157633310801339/

One Pittsburgh joined PennPIRG, PennEnvironment, Public Citizen, Keystone Progress, Common Cause PA in calling for EQT to refrain spending money in elections.

http://www.northcentralpa.com/news/2013-04-19_environmentalists-ask-eqt-refrain-political-spending

http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3859059-74/company-eqt-drilling#axzz2RPRAhD92

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onepittsburgh/sets/72157633315041800/

There 11 million undocumented immigrants that do not have a reasonable and clear path to citizenship.

Because of this millions of Americans are unable to pursue the American dream and participate fully in our economy, such as the immigrants in Councilperson Rudiak’s district that are opening up new stores in buildings that have been closed for too long.

Families are torn apart by deportation such as activist Maria Antonio who spoke heart-wrenchingly about her family dealing with her husband’s arrest by immigration agents.

Because Pittsburgh is a city with world-class higher education, immigrants attracted to the city for college cannot stay causing a drain of talent out of the city.

For these reasons Pittsburghs’ City Council signed a will of council in support of comprehensive immigration reform to be delivered to Pennsylvania’s elected leaders.

One Pittsburgh is enthusiastic, because we feel so strongly about creating a fair economy that allows for strong communities, and that can’t happen without new immigrants adding to that as has been crucial in Pittsburgh’s past.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onepittsburgh/sets/72157633227419969/

We held an information session that included Just Harvest executive directer Ken Regal speaking on the importance raising the wage would have on curbing hunger in Pittsburgh.

Activists then took to the South Side to talk to Pittsburghers about raising the minimum wage. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and over 400 people signed within an hour.

Raising the minimum wage so that better reflects the cost of living is an important step to creating a fair economy that works for everyone.

Sign your support so we can push Congress to not drop the ball on this.

http://action.onepittsburgh.org/page/s/what-would-you-do-with-5-600

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onepittsburgh/sets/72157633232144302/

BNY Mellon CEO Gerald Hassell sits on the Fix The Debt’s CEO Fiscal leadership council.

Right now 70,000 children nationwide are faced with losing head start, and 18,965 teachers face losing their jobs. In Pennsylvania alone there are 1,875 children affected and 609 teachers facing the loss of their job.

We need a responsible budget that works for people, not CEO’s. We need jobs not cuts, and we need quality education.

http://action.onepittsburgh.org/page/s/70000-kids

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onepittsburgh/sets/72157633086580293/

This winter we joined with allies and delivered a code of conduct to the institution and to elected leaders that lists the things we expect from a charity in order to justify non-profit status. We have stood behind UPMC employees, and we have gone into the communities to get petitions signed in support of holding UPMC accountable.

Now as spring rolls in our elected leaders are starting to stand up and challenge UPMC’s status.

On Tuesday March 19th, Pittsburgh City Council and Allegheny County Council passed resolutions condemning efforts by the General Assembly, SB 4 and HB 724, to amend the PA state constitution. If the constitution is amended then municipalities, such as Pittsburgh, would no longer be able to challenge the status of non-profits that aren’t meeting the criteria.

http://wesa.fm/post/state-level-bills-would-prevent-local-challenges-nonprofit-tax-exemptions

On Wednesday March 20th Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced that the city was going to challenge UPMC’s tax exempt status both in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and Allegheny County Board of Property Assessment.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/ravenstahl-pledges-challenge-to-upmcs-tax-exempt-status-680094/

Mayoral candidates Bill Peduto and Michael Lamb, County Controller Chelsa Wagner, State Representatives Erin Molchany and Dan Frankel, State Senators Wayne Fontana and Jim Ferlo, and PA Democratic Party Chair Jim Burn have voiced their support for Mayor Ravenstahl’s challenge.

It is exciting that so many leaders are in support of this challenge, but anyone who thinks that UPMC needs to act like a charity can not  take this news for granted.

On Saturday, March 23rd our friends at Make It Our UPMC are canvassing in Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods to spread the word and gain support from Pittsburghers everywhere that want to see real change. Many One Pittsburgh activists will be there.

Join all of us for a few hours this weekend, and help push real change. Sign up Here: http://www.facebook.com/events/122745364580226/