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Eight Little Village Car Wash workers in Chicago, expecting to get $262,000 in owed wages, discovered Thursday the car wash is filing for bankruptcy to avoid paying the wages owed.
After a three-and-a-half-year campaign to reclaim the stolen wages, the workers find themselves at the beginning of another legal battle.
The workers won their claim in the Illinois Department of Labor in 2013, but the employer didn’t pay. Illinois Attorney General sued but the last minute bankruptcy filing means the workers still aren’t getting the money that they’re owed.
UAW President Dennis Williams: Country Needs Unity and a Government Working for Working People
UAW President Dennis Williams says once the autoworkers union endorses a presidential candidate, it will be “all in” with support. But that endorsement hasn’t come yet and Williams is not sure whether the UAW will endorse before the California primary.
And the UAW president stressed the need for unity—both within the Democratic Party and in Congress. And he says the electorate is in no mood for run of the mill politics.
“Conservatism, the way that is has been touted in Washington D.C. is not going to be tolerated anymore. A Congress that does not know how to work together in the best interests of this country is not going be tolerated anymore. And I think all of our congressional leaders—both parties—and all of our senators better start recognizing that. Because there’s a mood out there that I think ought to be pretty sobering to everybody,” Williams said.
Williams says he wants to hear specifics from candidates about how they are going to create an economy that really works for working people. And he says poverty wages and the same old economic policies won’t cut it with voters or with the UAW.
“It’s not sustainable. You cannot have an economy that works without purchasing power. And you can’t have purchasing power unless you have decent wages in this country. And workers have to start standing up for theirselves. And workers have to join together, to unite, join unions and have collective bargaining rights in order to once again have a strong middle class,” he said.
35,000 UTLA Members Voting on Tentative Contract
More than 35,000 educators represented by the United Teachers of Los Angeles will vote June 1 through the third on a tentative contract deal reached with the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The union says it’s a student-focused agreement. UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said “significant strides for students and our classrooms” were made, and a foundation was set for “more improvements to public education in Los Angeles.”
There will be one more full-time teacher at every secondary school to help alleviate large class sizes.
These negotiations were contract “reopeners.” Results of the ratification vote will be released after a vote count June 4.