From: Alan Maki
Date: Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: Give Workers a Fair Deal
To: "Keith Ellison, U.S. Representative", ZZZ Ellison Keith , Karen Monahan , Kathleen Blake , Shar Knutson , eliot.seide@afscmemn.org, "uniting_people@lists.riseup.net" , Ron Letnes , Duane Kamrath
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Date: Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: Give Workers a Fair Deal
To: "Keith Ellison, U.S. Representative"
Yes, Keith; let's blame the Republicans for standing in the way of making wages real living wages.
But; what is your excuse you make for yourself and your fellow Democrats here in Minnesota who have a super-majority yet refuse to use this super-majority to create a real living Minimum Wage for ALL working people?
You, Keith, are one of the primary obstacles to ending one of the two primary sources of poverty:
Poverty wages.
But; what is your excuse you make for yourself and your fellow Democrats here in Minnesota who have a super-majority yet refuse to use this super-majority to create a real living Minimum Wage for ALL working people?
You, Keith, are one of the primary obstacles to ending one of the two primary sources of poverty:
Poverty wages.
Any school child understands workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor.
A school child may not thoroughly understand the connection between wages and cost-of-living but these school children certainly understand something is wrong when they go to bed hungry and go off to school hungry.
Yet, as a member of Congress, you refuse to acknowledge this connection between cost-of-living wages and poverty just as you refuse to acknowledge that unemployment, under-employment and part-time employment is another major cause of poverty.
If you understood these connections between these two major sources of poverty you would insist that your fellow Democrats with their super-majority legislatively tie the Minimum Wage to all cost-of-living factors as tracked by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and then index this real living Minimum Wage to inflation with periodic increases to improve the lives and livelihoods of all working people.
And you would ask your fellow members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to sign on to similar federal Minimum Wage legislation as well as introduce legislation that would result in an Act of Congress for a Basic Income Guarantee along the lines advocated by Tom Paine back in the late 18th Century. In addition, you would bring forward real full employment legislation making it mandatory that the president and Congress work together to attain and maintain full employment--- anyone who wants a job gets a job paying real living wages--- if the "free market" can't maintain full employment then massive government funded universal social programs have to be devised to put people to work providing the requirements of society leading to improving the conditions for everyone. Think in terms of WPA, CCC and CETA.
Now you want to blame the Republicans for standing in the way of federal "contractors" receiving living wages.
But, what about the role of Democrats in creating this most hideously racist Indian Gaming Industry in connivance and collusion with a bunch of vicious and violent white mobsters forcing 44,000 Minnesotans to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights in their places of employment protected by state or federal labor laws as Native Americans are left to languish in poverty as the the profits are skimmed off the top by these rich white mobsters who own every facet of this industry from the slot machines and table games to the hotels/motels, bars and restaurants to even the gift shops which peddle cheap sweatshop produced merchandise from China, India, the Philippines and Bangladesh pawning this merchandise off--- illegally--- as Native American Indian handcrafts?
If you understood these connections between these two major sources of poverty you would insist that your fellow Democrats with their super-majority legislatively tie the Minimum Wage to all cost-of-living factors as tracked by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and then index this real living Minimum Wage to inflation with periodic increases to improve the lives and livelihoods of all working people.
And you would ask your fellow members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to sign on to similar federal Minimum Wage legislation as well as introduce legislation that would result in an Act of Congress for a Basic Income Guarantee along the lines advocated by Tom Paine back in the late 18th Century. In addition, you would bring forward real full employment legislation making it mandatory that the president and Congress work together to attain and maintain full employment--- anyone who wants a job gets a job paying real living wages--- if the "free market" can't maintain full employment then massive government funded universal social programs have to be devised to put people to work providing the requirements of society leading to improving the conditions for everyone. Think in terms of WPA, CCC and CETA.
Now you want to blame the Republicans for standing in the way of federal "contractors" receiving living wages.
But, what about the role of Democrats in creating this most hideously racist Indian Gaming Industry in connivance and collusion with a bunch of vicious and violent white mobsters forcing 44,000 Minnesotans to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights in their places of employment protected by state or federal labor laws as Native Americans are left to languish in poverty as the the profits are skimmed off the top by these rich white mobsters who own every facet of this industry from the slot machines and table games to the hotels/motels, bars and restaurants to even the gift shops which peddle cheap sweatshop produced merchandise from China, India, the Philippines and Bangladesh pawning this merchandise off--- illegally--- as Native American Indian handcrafts?
You yourself take massive amounts of campaign contributions from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association whose Executive Director is as crooked and corrupt as they come, and white, while the wife-beating Kevin Leecy oversees it all and lo-and-behold, the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association is the biggest lobbying interest opposed to raisin the Minimum Wage.
John McCarthy owns Tony Doom Enterprises, the primary business which produces all kinds of campaign paraphernalia which he sells to you politicians--- with one hand out in front he is handing out the money of which Native Americans are entitled to combat the growing poverty due to racist discrimination in employment, housing and education; and with his other hand McCarthy takes back these campaign contributions to bolster the profits of his own business. And between election cycles, McCarthy and his wife-beating accomplice in this scam, Kevin Leecy, are dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes.
John McCarthy owns Tony Doom Enterprises, the primary business which produces all kinds of campaign paraphernalia which he sells to you politicians--- with one hand out in front he is handing out the money of which Native Americans are entitled to combat the growing poverty due to racist discrimination in employment, housing and education; and with his other hand McCarthy takes back these campaign contributions to bolster the profits of his own business. And between election cycles, McCarthy and his wife-beating accomplice in this scam, Kevin Leecy, are dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes.
And now we hear rumors that Governor Mark Dayton with his Democratic super-majorityis working on a "compromise" on the "increase" to the Minimum Wage with the Chamber of Commerce and they have agreed, "in principle," to "raising" the Minimum Wage to $7.75 an hour.
And hear you come blaming the Republicans for poverty wages.
And hear you come blaming the Republicans for poverty wages.
The oldest trick in the book used by wily lawyers who know their client is guilty as hell yet to seek to blame the crime on someone else.
On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 10:36 AM, Keith Ellison, U.S. Representative <noreply@list.moveon.org> wrote:
Alan,
Americans seem to be working harder and harder, but still are unable to make ends meet.
That’s why I’ve been pushing so hard to raise the minimum wage to make sure that folks who are working full time can afford to raise a family.
But Speaker Boehner and House Republicans are standing in the way, backed by their corporate CEO buddies – who now make 273 times the salary of the average worker at their company.
Fortunately, there’s something we can do right now that Boehner can’t stop. President Obama can sign an executive order to help the 2 million workers employed by government contracts who make below a living wage.
That’s more low wage workers than work at Walmart and McDonalds combined. These 2 million workers are the folks who cook at museum restaurants, or clean federal buildings.
That’s why I need you to sign a petition to President Obama asking him to be a hero for these hard working federal contractors.
The President’s State of the Union address is this Tuesday, and it would be the perfect time to take a bold step toward an economy that works for everyone.
Stand with me and urge President Obama to help federal contractors make a living wage.
Thank you for all you do.
--Keith Ellison
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Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com