Local employees, organizers with the economic justice nonprofit Step Up Louisiana, and the City of New Orleans Health Department are pushing for brand spanking new language to be added to the city charter affirming that New Orleanians have the correct to job security and fair wages and advantages. The “Workers’ Bill of Rights” proposal, sponsored by Councilmember Helena Moreno, would allow voters to choose this November whether add recent sections dedicated to employees to the city’s bill of rights already included in the charter.
These rights would come with access to fair wages, paid leave and health care, in addition to the correct to form trade unions.
While discussing the proposal at a New Orleans City Council committee meeting on Tuesday (March 19), Kenny Arbuthnot, a Dollar General store worker and Step Up Louisiana member, said he has difficulty paying rent while earning minimum wage at his job. and eventually had to maneuver back in along with his parents and use food stamps to afford food.
“My pride was very hurt,” Arbuthnot said. “So the Bill of Rights is an opportunity for us to say that we have the right to live in the city, to earn a living and to live with dignity.”
If adopted, the proposed charter amendment wouldn’t require New Orleans businesses to pay their employees higher wages or offer recent advantages.
As a result state pre-emption rights that invalidate local labor rights ordinances, a city cannot set its own local minimum wage or require employers to offer paid leave. Louisiana has not set a statewide minimum wage, which suggests employers in the state are only required to pay the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour – a rate that has been in effect since 2009.
The decision to proclaim employees’ rights locally comes because the Louisiana Legislature considers bills to weaken unions, including a bill prohibiting local and state government agencies from bargaining with unions representing public employees. (The bill wouldn’t apply to unions representing law enforcement officers or firefighters.)
Union organizers hope that the proposed amendment to the city’s statute will enable the city to encourage employers to enhance working conditions. The city has already used the same strategy to lift the wages of some local employees. Local living wage law, passed in 2015, already requires contractors doing business with the city to pay their employees above the federal minimum and supply paid leave. Since then, the law’s mandatory wage – $10.55 an hour when it first went into effect – has remained unchanged adjusted to $15 per hour– says the city’s website.
“We felt it would be best to approach our local issues using a combination of tactics,” said Britain Forsyth, legislative coordinator for Step Up Louisiana. “We believe that the health of many city residents, especially workers, begins with workers’ rights.”
Step Up has been working on the Workers’ Bill of Rights initiative for years, hoping to ascertain a citywide standard for healthy workplaces. The proposal comes because of this of their work organizing employees across the city in each the private and non-private sectors, and up to date organizing victories local dollar stores.
The proposal will go to the total City Council meeting on Thursday (March 21). It is supported by all seven council members and is anticipated to pass. It will then be put to a citywide vote on November 5, 2024.
‘The data is shocking‘
Data shows that negative health outcomes for New Orleanians are due in part to an absence of access to secure jobs. In 2019, the Municipal Health Department conducted a survey over 1,000 residents and 100 partner organizations and located that certainly one of the most important barriers to health care is economic instability, with community members citing low and stagnant wages, in addition to an absence of stable, full-time employment, as aspects affecting their overall health well-being.
“Workers in New Orleans do a better job of showing the link between their jobs and their physical and mental health than any study has done, but the data is still shocking,” Jeanie Donovan, deputy director of the Department of Health, said in the course of the meeting.
“There is ample evidence to show that each of the rights included in the proposed amendment to the Workers’ Bill of Rights is directly linked to improving the health of workers and their families,” Donovan said.
A 3-step process
The addition of the Workers’ Bill of Rights to the city’s charter marks the start of a three-phase program promoted by Step Up Louisiana to deal with the needs of employees in the city. Next, organizers want to ascertain a employees’ committee during which local employees can discuss workplace issues, develop strategies to guard employees’ rights and share knowledge about trade union organizing. Similar groups were created, amongst others: Durham, North CarolinaAND Harris County, Texas.
In the ultimate a part of this system, organizers wish to partner with the Department of Health to encourage workplaces to extend worker advantages by designating people who comply with these laws as “healthy workplaces,” in the identical way the Department of Health recognizes restaurant food safety , says Erika Zucker, director of policy and advocacy on the Workplace Justice Project.
“We could jump right into action as soon as this goes into effect and have the Department of Health issue them a certificate stating that you are an A-plus rated employer,” Zucker said. “So it’s voluntary, but we want to encourage it.”
Supporters say such a program could help alleviate the population loss the city and surrounding areas have experienced over the past few years. New Orleans recently suffered the steepest population decline of any region in the country, in line with Metro data latest census estimates.
“I don’t want my friends, family and loved ones to go to neighboring states to look for better jobs,” Gregory Wilson, lead organizer of Step Up, said in a public comment. “It’s important that we rally around workers in our community and make sure we’re truly investing in them through this Bill of Rights.”
