A level playing field for workers is good for our country. We cannot build a strong and striving middle class without opportunities for working people to succeed. The Freedom Foundation actively opposes policies that are good for the working people in order to distribute the wealth to the top 1%. They oppose minimum wage, earned sick and safe leave, equal pay for women and collective bargaining for union employees.
The Freedom Foundation Opposes The Minimum Wage:
The Freedom Foundation has written dozens of articles in newspapers across the country arguing against the minimum wage. Their arguments only serve the interests of greedy corporations and are disrespectful to the people struggling to make ends meet on the current minimum wage. For example, Labor Policy Analyst Maxford Nelsen argued that “the only just method to determine wages is to allow adult workers and employers to voluntarily work it out on their own.” As if McDonald’s is going to ever put their workers ahead of their bottom line and sit down to “work it out.”
At a debate hosted at Seattle Pacific University in May 2014, Nelsen argued the current minimum wage is not a problem that needs to be addressed. He stated that Washington state’s $9.32 an hour is technically above the federal poverty line. That’s like saying your gas tank technically isn’t empty when the gas light turns on, so no need to make a pit stop! If thousands of workers in our state can’t afford to feed their families, pay rent, and put some money away for emergencies, then we need to raise the wage and ensure everyone has the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
The Freedom Foundation Opposes Paid Sick Leave:
It should be common sense that if you or your child gets sick, you should be able to take a day off so that you can keep yourself and your customers healthy, but apparently not for the Freedom Foundation. They’ve published a dubious report attempting to cast doubt on earned sick leave and have gone so far as to argue that employees abuse sick leave because they just want an excuse to stay home.
Additionally, in a blog post, Nelsen claims measures such as paid sick leave, “do little more than soothe the conscience of labor activists.” The fact of the matter is more than 70 percent of Washingtonians support paid sick leave, according to a poll by Patinkin Research. An estimated 1 million Washingtonians don’t have the ability to earn paid sick time– many of them working in restaurants, in retail, and even in health care where they serve you.
With paid sick days, people can seek preventive care and early treatment, as well as manage chronic conditions, lowering health care costs and staying more productive at work.
The Freedom Foundation Opposes Collective Bargaining Rights for Workers:
Collective bargaining allows workers to level the playing field for better pay, benefits, safety requirements, and other working conditions, in a legally binding agreement. The Freedom Foundation has sponsored at least five local initiatives that would undermine the rights of workers to organize for better pay, benefits and safer working conditions. The anti-worker legislation was introduced in Clark County, Sequim, Shelton, Blaine and Chelan. Thankfully, City Councils and judges have rejected these measures.
The Freedom Foundation’s attempt to chip away at collective bargaining is their overall plan to take down unions in Washington state. Tom McCabe has stated, “I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor…” Maybe McCabe just forgot about weekends or child labor laws… Would McCabe like to take us back to the days of child labor and having no weekends?