Category: Uncategorized

It’s time to take the Fight for $15 to the streets!

Nearly 64 million hardworking Americans make less than $15 an hour. That’s just not right – and on April 14, we’re standing together in Orlando to yell ‘enough’. Are you with us? We’re rallying to show that we support $15 and union rights for all working people. Fast-food workers will go on strike in 300 cities, including Orlando.

The workers’ protests, timed to hit just before Tax Day, will zero in on McDonald’s, highlighting how the world’s second-largest employer and the industry leader in the fast food and service economies is driving a race to the bottom that is undercutting wages across the economy and resulting in nearly 64 million workers being paid less than $15.

ACLC supporters are driving down in a rented van, meeting at the new Labor Coalition office. Please message Sheila Payne (sheilapayne56@hotmail.com) if you can join us.

Join us at the Civic Media Center (433 S. Main St.) on Weds, April 13th for this film screening.  This event is free and open to the public, however donations at the door are accepted.  You can view a trailer for the film here.

DREAM ON investigates the perilous state of the American Dream after decades of rising income inequality and declining economic mobility. In an epic road trip, political comedian John Fugelsang retraces the journey of Alexis de Tocqueville, whose study of our young country in 1831 came to define America as a place where anyone, of any background, could climb the ladder of economic opportunity. Following in the Frenchman’s footsteps, Fugelsang asks whether the optimistic spirit of the American Dream that Tocqueville popularized is alive and well in the twenty-first century, or whether George Carlin was right when he famously quipped, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Compared to people from countries where class boundaries are cemented at birth, we cling to the belief that America offers unfettered upward mobility to anyone willing to work hard and play by the rules. This conviction that anyone can get ahead in the world became known as the American Dream and has inspired countless generations of Americans to seek a better standard of living for their children. Yet, in recent years the venerable American Dream has become an empty promise for increasing numbers of Americans. Millions of middle class Americans are now unable to maintain the standard of living that they took for granted growing up, and more low-income families than ever before are unable to lift themselves out of poverty. As countless Americans struggle with diminished prospects for the future, our core beliefs about the value of work, the inevitability of progress, the fairness of the system, and America’s standing in the world are being shaken. Reviving the American Dream has now become one of the most critical challenges facing our nation.

By revisiting the places Tocqueville wrote about in 1831 and capturing the stories of a diverse group of Americans struggling to support their families, DREAM ON puts an intimate human face on the endangered American Dream. This timely documentary features stories of hard-working people trapped in poverty; senior citizens who have lost their pensions; blue collar workers whose jobs have disappeared; homeowners fighting foreclosure; once prosperous families struggling with hunger and homelessness; fast food workers fighting for a living wage; non-violent drug offenders in prison for decades; undocumented immigrants fighting deportation; low-income communities struggling with poverty-related disease; rust belt cities recovering from deindustrialization; educators trying to reform our failing public schools; and social entrepreneurs designing new models to reduce intergenerational poverty.

To add some sorely needed levity and political irony, John Fugelsang’s reflections on his Tocqueville odyssey are captured in a stand-up comedy monologue woven throughout the documentary. Fugelsang was the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos and has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, HBO, and NPR. Recently, Fugelsang was the host of Current TV’s daily show, Viewpoint, where he analyzed the news and facilitated conversations about current affairs. Currently, he hosts a daily political comedy program called “Tell Me Everything” on the new SiriusXM Insight Channel. As a comedian, actor, writer, talk show host, and pundit, Fugelsang’s eclectic background allows him to bring equal doses of wit and wisdom to our search for the increasingly elusive American Dream.

DREAM ON is produced and directed by Roger Weisberg, whose 31 previous documentaries have won over a hundred and fifty awards including Emmy, duPont, and Peabody awards, as well as two Academy Award nominations. DREAM ON builds on Weisberg’s extensive body of work and represents the culmination of almost four decades of documenting the struggles, aspirations, and achievements of disadvantaged Americans.

Please join us for this month’s membership meeting, 6:30pm on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, where we’ll be accepting nominations for our Board, ratifying some changes in our bylaws, and accepting our budget for 2016.  We’ll also discuss potential plans for a May Day celebration this year and check in with our Living Wage campaign to learn how we can help score a victory for Alachua County workers.  Please note that this month’s meeting will take place at a new location, the Mennonite Church, 1236 NW 18th Ave. in Gainesville.

In 2014, we re-organized as the Alachua County Labor Coalition to expand our access to people and organizations committed to the rights of working people.  Since then, we have seen an inspiring boost in new members and have added 10 member organizations to our coalition.

This has led to an infusion of new people, goals, and ideas into our work and into our leadership, with great benefit to the organization and to our campaigns.  As we plan future actions, we will need more involvement in our Board and in our Just Health Care and Living Wage committees.

In February 2016, nominations will be accepted for officers and representatives to the Board.  This is a great opportunity to shape policy and strategy for the ACLC, and we encourage input and nominations from all members.

Positions include: Co-Chair (two positions), Secretary, Treasurer, & Union Liaison & Just Health Care Liaison

In addition, any organizational member of the ACLC is entitled to nominate someone to serve on our Board.  For instance, Shawna Doran is the Board representative for the Alachua County Green Party.  If you are involved in an organization that is, or would like to be a member of the ACLC and you would like to help strengthen our connection and shared work, please contact us.

If you have questions or want to make a nomination (including self-nomination), please email us.

Alachua County Labor Coalition Screens Documentary “Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point,” Making a Business Case for Single-Payer Healthcare

When: Tuesday February 9 at 7 p.m.

Where: Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main Street, Gainesville

$3-5 suggested donation

On Tues, Feb. 9th at 7pm, the Alachua County Labor Coalition will screen “Fix It,” a documentary advocating for a single-payer or “Medicare for All” healthcare system such as the one proposed by Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.  However this documentary is not produced by a left-leaning progressive, but by a businessman. Richard Master, CEO of MCS industries, a Pennsylvania manufacturer of picture frames and mirrors who was shocked to discover how much of the $1,500,000 his company spends on healthcare access for its employees and dependents does not go to their healthcare. About a third of the total goes to administrative expenses like insurance companies’ costs for staff, sales, advertising and shareholders.  Doctors and hospitals also need to employ additional people simply to deal with the variety of insurance plans.

Richard Master produced this film, which took two years to make, to explain how a single-payer system like Medicare would benefit businesses, employees and the rest of us.  Because it is simpler and less bureaucratic it would cost less.  Everyone would be fully covered with no co-pays or deductibles. It would be financed by an increase in taxation which would be more than compensated by the elimination of premiums.

The film contains easily understandable numbers and graphics and interviews with academics, doctors, nurses, business people, patients, Canadian conservatives, and Wendell Potter, the insurance executive turned whistleblower. The event is free and open to the public, though small donations ($3-5) to help cover the Civic Media Center’s expenses would be appreciated.

We need you more than ever in 2016 if we’re going to be successful in our campaigns to bring a living wage and access to healthcare within reach of more people throughout our community. Please plan to join us Tues, Jan. 26th for a Strategic Planning meeting to help the Labor Coalition map out a strong 2016.  We’ll be meeting at the ACEA Hall (618 NW 13th Ave.). Pizza and refreshments will be available at 5:30pm, the meeting will start at 6.  Please invite other ACLC supporters to join you.