Rick Forschler is President of Market Wage Research and Consulting and he recently lost re-election to the SeaTac City Council in Washington State. In May 2013 a union-backed group filed a job-killing initiative in SeaTac. Rick took a stand against this initiative, and lost votes by doing so.
Although the proponents of this initiative claimed their goal was achieving higher wages for employees working in and around the Sea-Tac International Airport, their real goal was to increase dues-paying union membership. This is evident from provisions within the initiative itself, which favors unionization. It will damage the economic potential of the City of SeaTac and also result in fewer jobs for people who already have few opportunities—harming the very people the initiative backers claimed to be helping. (See report here.) The SeaTac initiative is part of a nation-wide campaign for $15 per hour wages and an attempt to make unions relevant again.
This new law in SeaTac only passed by 77 votes. (A recount is currently in work.) The opposition effort focused on fighting the SeaTac initiative locally, but there was little effort fighting at the national level. Unfortunately, the messaging of the national campaign for $15 wages also influencing local voters in SeaTac. Rick realized that in order to fight all these local job-killing initiatives, including SeaTac, there must also be an organized opposition strategy to fight it nationally. Consequently, Rick started this effort to fight ALL these job-killing campaigns on the national level. He needs your help in three ways:
First, strikes and protests against fast-food restaurants are intended to cause financial harm to the restaurants. So we are planning HELP Events to lessen the impact of these strikes and to begin educating everyone about the importance of entry-level jobs as the first step out of poverty. Many people participated in our first nation-wide HELP Event by heavily patronizing fast food restaurants between August 29th through Labor Day 2013. (See here for more information.) Please help us organize and promote additional HELP events in the future.
Second, ongoing efforts are necessary to educate business owners, union members, and voters and to take other proactive steps. Please help us by joining the Market Wage Action Alliance and contribute toward creating the Market Wage Legal Defense Fund.
Third, we need to network with other people who already recognize the damage done by by minimum wage laws and so-called “living wage” campaigns. So please direct your friends, relatives, neighbors, and business associates to this web site.
