The WCAT Presents: Good Jobs For All

Co-Support: Good Jobs Now, Michigan United, and the Washtenaw Regional Organizing Coalition (WeROC)

Date/Time: Wednesday March 26th from 4:00-6:00 pm

Location: Eastern Michigan University’s Halle Library Room 300

Description: The Good Jobs For All conference will cover three main topics: The Raise the Wage Campaign, AATA Millage Increase, and Working America. The point of this conference is to unify the efforts of the four participating organizations, provide participants with quality information about working struggles/movements, educate them on how to get involved, and encourage both the faculty and student body to become leaders within their community.

Raise The (Minimum) Wage: Launched by Michigan United, this ballot initiative strives to gradually raise the minimum wage in the state of Michigan from $7.40/hr to $10.10/hr by 2017. This will also raise the minimum rate for tipped employees 85 cents per year until it reaches parity with the regular minimum wage. The current minimum rate for tipped employees is $2.65/hr. If successful, this initiative could potentially increase the wage of over 1,000,000 people and pull over 350,000 people out of poverty. The WCAT is partnering with Michigan United on this campaign.

Good Jobs Now is also working towards raising the minimum wage. Their work mostly focuses on fat-cat, corporate employers like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Subway. They do a ton of work in other areas as well and will gladly share all of this at the conference on Wednesday.

AATA Millage Increase: With the slogan “More Buses, More Places, More Often,” WeROC recently jump-started their own ballot initiative to increase the millage for the Ann Arbor Transit Authority (public transportation). This means that, with a slight tax increase, the AATA will reach more areas in Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, and Ann Arbor more often. WeROC will come ready with a diagram that shows all of the additions that will be made. Not only will this increase the number of jobs in these areas, but it will also get people to their jobs faster and more efficiently. It is for this very reason we included them in this conference; this is definitely a working interest.

Working America: Working America is a national labor organization that aims to educate, assist, and mobilize working Americans to improve their working conditions, job security, and health care. The WCAT is a local hub for Working America where people can come every two weeks to talk about their working challenges or challenges they’ve heard and possible responses to take. The goal is to run a number of campaigns, like the Raise the Wage Campaign, that consistently fight for the integrity, equality, and protection of the working people.

There will be FREE FOOD and a T-Shirt give-away at the end of the conference. We hope to see all of you there!