Monday January 18 2:30 pm at Bakery Square in Mellon Park
Monday January 18th across from Bakery Square in Mellon Park at 2:30 PM Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network will hold a rally to announce our opposition to the Mayor’s actions against taxpayers and working people of Pittsburgh. The hotel complex in the former Nabisco plant got $13 million in tax subsidies and wants to pay hotel workers minimum wages.
We call on City Council to immediately pass our bill again and override the Mayor if he dares to use his veto again.
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More info from PIIN:
The Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network won a major victory in 2009!
PIIN, and our partners in Pittsburgh UNITED, passed a “prevailing wage” law in Pittsburgh December 21st. By a unanimous vote City Council established that future service jobs created with tax subsidies would pay family sustaining wages and benefits for hotel, grocery, building and food service work.
Then on New Year’s Eve, Mayor Ravenstahl vetoed the law! After saying he wouldn’t, he did so when it was too late for Council to override him!
PIIN says NO to the Mayor, you can’t keep giving our tax money to rich developers who put people to work for minimum wage/no benefit jobs. We know we will be paying taxes to help those workers with food stamps, health insurance and many other things so their families can survive.
Join us on Martin Luther King Day to tell the Mayor we won’t stand for his treating working people this way. Dr. King died fighting for workers to have decent wages and benefits, jobs that support families.
Additional info:
The law for “prevailing wage” for service workers is one of 3 parts of a package designed to reform how economic development is done using taxpayer subsidies. The other parts include environmental protections (reducing storm water runoff, diesel air pollution and making sure development includes parks and access for public transit and pedestrians) and opening to the public what the deals are when public funds are given away (developers would make public the impact of their plans and specific commitments to communities for which they would be audited and punished if they don’t do what they promised).
PIIN is one of 11 organizations in Pittsburgh UNITED. Most significant power groups in addition to PIIN are the service unions: SEIU (Service Employees International Union), Workers United (hotel and food service) and the United Food and Commercial Workers. Other groups include the Sierra Club, NAACP, Mon Valley Unemployed Committee and Clean Water Action. This faith/labor/community coalition won the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement. It can bean important way for PIIN to build the relationships with other grassroots people’s organizations needed to have the power to address the “holy ground” issues facing our communities.
