The big business of low pay

No surprise, Dianne Furtchgott-Roth says today's labor movement has not much to do with the people who actually do the work, and everything to do with well-heeled pros at worker centers;

At Low Pay Is Not OK's Web site, people can download a strike kit (Download 15 Steps for $15/hour) and a strike letter ("This is to notify you that today [Today's Date] we're going on strike for one day to demand a $15 an hour wage, for the right to join a union without intimidation, and to protest interference with our protected workplace rights.")

....Fast Food Forward is funded by New York Communities for Change, which was set up in 2010 to replace the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN. ACORN closed down due to financial shenanigans and scandal, but NYCC has the same address and leadership. Jonathan Westin, a former ACORN organizer, directs NYCC and Fast Food Forward.

Speaking of the usual suspects (Service Employees Int'l Union);

The SEIU has contributed over $100,000 to NYCC, according to documents filed with the Labor Department. These documents also show that NYCC received $353,881 from the United Federation of Teachers between August 1, 2011 and July 31, 2012.

Unions are paying worker centers to do what unions are not permitted to do. On August 29, worker centers will use demonstrations, lobbying, and community organizing to bully and shame employees into submission, tactics that unions are not permitted to use.

Unions represent workers because officials are elected in supervised elections. Worker centers are not official representatives of workers, including fast food workers, because they have not been elected.

....Worker centers do not have to file financial disclosure firms to reveal the sources of their funds, as unions are required to do. Unions file LM-2 forms with the Labor Department so that members can see how they are spending union dues.

 Mostly to fund themselves.

[Thanks, once again to NC State's Craig Newmark.]