Posts tagged drug abuse
Metro Transit workers, including drivers, overwhelmingly vote to authorize strike
September 14, 2023 // While some may be ready to strike, voting to authorize a strike does not mean a strike will happen. But it does give union leadership the ability to call a strike if it becomes necessary, the union said. "The members have the final say in that. They will tell us what they want to do. They have the final vote on the contracts," Timlin said. "It's really how far they are prepared to go on this. That's the reality." Workers are asking for pay raises to include the cost of living, safety solutions, better shift differentials and more one-piece runs. Negotiations with the Metropolitan Council started back in March and contracts expired at the end of July.
Minimum Wage Laws Increase Homelessness, New Study Finds
July 20, 2023 // Separate research, however, suggests California’s own policies have exacerbated its homelessness epidemic, including a new paper written by University of California economist Seth J. Hill titled “ Minimum Wages and Homelessness ” published last month. Utilizing data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other sources, Hill examined 100 cities from 2006-2019 to determine the relationship between wage floors and homelessness. The findings are bleak. “Merging administrative data from HUD to state and local minimum wage laws suggests that minimum wages induce increases in homeless counts,” Hill writes. “When cities raise their minimum wage by 10%, relative homeless counts increase by three to four percent.” This is why even left-leaning publications such as the New York Times, until relatively recently, conceded that using minimum wage laws to combat poverty was an “old, honorable — and fundamentally flawed” idea because it would “price working poor people out of the job market.” That minimum wage hikes increase unemployment was once hardly a debatable subject among economists, and even today a scouring of the literature shows that a “clear preponderance” of the scientific research shows a job-killing impact.