Labor advocates hosted a hearing in Chicago today and highlighted the plight of part-time workers in retail and other service industries,
while underscoring the need for federal legislation that would extend
protections, including health care, family and medical leave and
pensions, to part-time employees.
The Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights Act of 2013 (HR 675),
sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-9), aims to do just that
by building upon the Affordable Care Act and ensuring that part-time
employees who work less than 30 hours a week have access to important
workplace benefits.
As it stands, many of the federally mandated
work-related benefits apply only to full-time workers, but that set up no longer meets the needs of the nation's workforce, Schakowsky said at the hearing, which was held at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.
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Some McDonald’s student guestworkers held a teach-in at the chain’s flagship store today in River North to show their solidarity
for organizing Chicago fast-food workers and to expose the threats of
deportation and severe exploitation they say they have faced at the hands of the company.
Citing a lack of economic opportunities as the driving force behind
the high rate of gun violence in Chicago over the last several
years, Illinois 2nd Congressional District candidate Robin
Kelly stood alongside union security officers Saturday to call on the
city’s downtown building owners to provide fairer compensation for their
emergency “first responders.”
Standing outside one of the schools slated for closure, Chicago
Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis had heated words for Mayor
Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education today.