Petaluma to vote on our $15 Min Wage Ordinance Monday July 15th!
Please join us and speak out in support!
Location: Petaluma City Hall, 11 English Street, Petaluma
Time: 6pm
Santa Rosa to hold a Min Wage Study Session with our report on the Impacts of a $15 Min Wage!
Please join us and speak out in support!
When: Tuesday July 16th
Location: Santa Rosa City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Ave
Time: 12pm
Blazing a Trail for the Green New Deal in the North Bay
One of the best ways to ensure the labor standards of the Green New Deal come alive in the North Bay is to:
- Support our local pre-apprenticeship program and construction apprenticeship programs. These FREE schools provide the highest level of training to any construction worker, and provide a direct pathway into a career with $25+ an hour wages, workman's comp protections, access to healthcare, and upward mobility. But...
- 70% of our local construction workers are commuting out of Sonoma County every day because our local elected officials are not asking any of our local developers to be using local workers. So the second best thing you can do is call/email your city council-members and ask that all public projects, retail and commercial, schools, and most importantly affordable housing only be built with a Project Labor Agreement (PLA)!! PLA's are the ONLY way that we can ensure local workers are rebuilding in the North Bay, and are guaranteed livable wages and safety standards. The Pre-Apprenticeship program will soon offer all-female cohorts and Spanish co-horts, because a pathway to the middle class needs to prioritize folks of color, immigrant workers and women who are often exploited by bad developers.
- Check out our report: Apprenticeship Programs are Building Career Opportunities for Women and People of Color. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT
NBJwJ's Raise the Wage Campaign Gains Momentum!
After leading the May 1st International Worker's Day march through Santa Rosa, speakers from our Petaluma Raise the Wage committee spoke about the importance of a living wage, especially when addressing the housing crisis and food insecurity for communities and families of color.
Now, Monday May 6th at 6pm the Sonoma City Council will discuss our proposal to move to $15 for large businesses* by January 1st, and Tuesday May 7th at 4pm the Santa Rosa City Council will set a date for a Min Wage study session with our report. Join us to win livable wages for 149,000 workers in the North Bay!
*defined as 25 employees or less
By Martin J. Bennett
The Press Democrat
March 22, 2019
The rental housing crisis in Sonoma County is close to catastrophe. Rents spiked 50 percent from 2011 to 2016, then soared 35 percent after the 2017 wildfires — just before Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a one-year, 10 percent cap on rent increases (the Santa Rosa City Council renewed the cap in December). The recent Russian River flood forced hundreds of low-income renter families to evacuate and will certainly intensify the rental crisis.
The state Department of Finance reported that over the 12-month period ending last July 1, more than 2,200 residents left the county. Many low-income renters relocated to more affordable housing markets in Solano, Sacramento, Yolo and eastern Contra Costa counties.
In the 2018 Sonoma County Homeless Census and Survey, more than 10,000 residents self-identified as “unstably housed”— many live with family or friends or without a formal lease. Seventy-two percent of 500 poll respondents identified “unaffordable rent” as the main reason for their lack of permanent housing.
Building new affordable housing is costly and takes years...
Clearly, the fastest way to make rents affordable is to raise the wage floor, and particularly the minimum wage.
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NBJwJ Announces Release of New Report:
“The State of Working Sonoma 2018: A Profile of Income and Racial Inequality, Poverty, and Low-Wage Employment”
On Monday November 19th North Bay Jobs with Justice released this report by Jesus Guzman, MPP.
Despite the prolonged recovery from the 2007-2009 Great Recession, inequality in Sonoma County has soared, median household income has stagnated, and wages have fallen for the bottom 60 percent. The number of families in the county who are working poor has increased since 2005, and the crisis of affordable housing has deepened as renter wages and incomes have not kept pace with skyrocketing rents.
Highlights of the report include:
*One in four Sonoma County residents live in families receiving annual incomes of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line or about $50,200 for a family of four;
*One in five county residents live in working poor families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line with at least one member reporting income from work;
*Women, Latinos and other people of color experience the highest rates of poverty and disproportionately comprise the working poor;
*A living or self-sufficiency wage for Sonoma County is $23 an hour but about three-quarters of the new jobs created between 2014-2024 will pay less than a livable wage.
*Nearly one in two Sonoma County renter households are rent burdened and pay more than 30 percent of their gross monthly income for rent; one quarter are severely rent burdened and pay more than 50 percent for rent.
*Between 2000 and 2016 median rents increased by 25 percent in the county while median renter incomes rose by only 9 percent;
According to researcher Jesus Guzman who authored the report: “The recovery has left behind a majority of working people in the county and the persistence of class and racial disparities has led to widespread economic insecurity.”
Guzman presented a summary of the report at a forum sponsored by the Alliance for A Just Recovery on November 19th in Santa Rosa.
The report (pdf format) can be downloaded HERE.
By Bill Swindell
The Press Democrat
Nov. 21, 2018
A report backed by the biggest local labor group predicts a bleak future for Sonoma County’s working class unless policy steps are taken to allow low-income families to get a toehold back into the middle class.
The report was released in conjunction with a Monday night event sponsored by the Alliance for a Just Recovery, an umbrella group of local labor, environmental and faith groups calling for greater resources to be devoted towards low-income families as part of the 2017 local wildfire recovery effort.
The alliance — which includes groups such as North Bay Jobs with Justice, the North Bay Labor Council, Sonoma County Conservation Action and the Greenbelt Alliance, among others — contends lower-paid workers have been disproportionately hurt by the October 2017 wildfires, especially as the housing market got much tighter and more expensive after the fires destroyed of about 5,300 homes in the county.
The alliance wants local cities to adopt policies with a greater focus on affordable housing, rent-control policies, establishment of a public bank in Santa Rosa and area cities to implement a $15-per-hour living wage by 2020, three years earlier than it is scheduled to go into effect at the state level.
“A just recovery must include public policy tools to raise the wage floor, make housing more affordable and create good living-wage jobs,” said Emilia Carbajal, program director of the Graton Day Labor Center.
Read More HERE.
Raise the Wage! Campaign Update:
Using this report from the UC Berekely Labor Center that we commissioned earlier this year, the Sebastopol City Council held a study session in November 2018 to examine the impacts of moving to a $15/hour wage in Sebastopol, which would ensure employers with 50 employees or more pay $15 hour by or before Jan of 2020 (with a cost of living adjustment every year after and paid sick days).
This is part of our regional Raise the Wage! campaign where city councils across Sonoma and Marin counties are using our study to help raise wages. Sonoma City Council and Santa Rosa City Councils have already committed to moving forward with our study session, and we are working with Petaluma and Novato City Councils as well. If you think your city council needs to be included or you want to help ensure this ordinance is passed in your city email us at northbayjwj@gmail.com
Stories From the People Who Make Our Food System Go:
Interview with Jesus Guzman about the report “State of Working Sonoma 2018”
The State of Working Sonoma 2018, paints a devastating portrait in data of a split in Sonoma County, between the rich and poor, with an economic gap that continues to widen. Prepared by Jesús Guzmán, a graduate of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a lifelong Sonoma County resident, the report was commissioned by North Bay Jobs with Justice. We spoke with Guzmán to find out more about the story told by the numbers, and the ways that policy and action can shift the tide.
READ THE INTERVIEW HERE
Sonoma City Council Eyes $15 Minimum Wage
Get ready to punch the clock, local minimum wage earners – the City of Sonoma is thinking about giving you a raise.
That’s where it stood at the close of the Feb. 4 meeting of the Sonoma City Council, when council members voted 5-0 to form a minimum-wage subcommittee to work with city staff to develop an ordinance that would raise the minimum wage in Sonoma to $15 an hour by 2020.
Currently, the state minimum wage is $12 per hour for businesses with more than 25 employees and $11 for businesses smaller than that. According to City of Sonoma figures, of the 1,028 businesses in Sonoma, between 35 and 45 percent have between 2 and 25 employees; 5 percent have more than 25 employees.
Critics have said such wages are part of what prevents the most modest earners from living in higher-priced areas like Sonoma.
“Our economy is in jeopardy if we can’t figure out how to get people to live here,” said Mayor Amy Harrington, who framed the proposed wage hike as part of a broader effort to make the city more affordable to live in. “I think of the minimum wage as a leg of the affordable housing bundle.”
READ MORE HERE
Just Cause: Grassroots Alliance Announces Plan for Inclusive, Just, Wildfire Recovery
More than 20 labor, environmental and social- and economic-justice organizations banded together July 19 to endorse the Alliance for a Just Recovery’s 25-point plan to ensure a “just recovery” following last October’s unprecedented wildfires.
The self-described grassroots organization called for unity and action from community members and politicians to address problems plaguing Sonoma County, such as lack of affordable housing, good jobs, living wages, environmental sustainability and equality across language divides. Local city councilmembers and representatives of Congressmen Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman joined more than a hundred other attendees in Santa Rosa’s Christ Church United Methodist multipurpose room, where chairs were added to accommodate the crowd.
North Bay Jobs with Justice works with Community Partners to launch Fire Relief Fund for Undocumented Community in Sonoma County
Donate here online: UndocuFund.org or send a check to: UndocuFund c/o GCIR, P.O. Box 1100, Sebastopol, California 95473-1100
If you or someone you know could benefit from this fund, please go to Undocufund.org for information. Or contact: Omar Medina at omedina@undocufund.org