Posted on 03/17/2014 1:04:34 PM PDT by MichCapCon
A petition drive to put a minimum wage increase on the statewide ballot in Michigan is only superficially about the minimum wage and isn't really Michigan based, says a watchdog group monitoring the issue and the groups behind it.
In fact, says Mike Paranzino, the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), which is actively supporting a minimum wage increase, is really just a labor front group. Paranzino is communications director for ROCexposed, an organization dedicated to educating people about "worker centers," which are being organized by ROC. ROCexposed provides a counter to ROC's research, illuminates its funding and highlights the tactics ROC uses against restaurants and restaurant workers.
ROC also is the hub of a coordinated national push for minimum wage increases in multiple states and has established groups to pursue this goal within individual states, Paranzino said. In Michigan, that group is, "Raise Michigan," which is working to get the issue on the statewide November ballot.
In early February, "Raise Michigan" submitted a petition to increase Michigan's minimum wage from $7.40 per hour to $9.50 per hour by 2017. But a week later the group amended the petition language to boost the increase to $10.10 per hour, matching the call by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address. Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer has suggested businesses be forced to pay an increased wage of $9.25 an hour.
Unlike Michigan's last minimum wage increase, the proposed jump in pay to $10.10 would also apply to the wages of tipped workers and, perhaps more significantly, after 2017 the wage would be indexed to inflation.
A spokesperson for the ROC denied that the organization is a union front group.
ROC-Michigan is an affiliate of the national group, ROC-United. The organizations say they are dedicated to improving working conditions in restaurants, increasing wages and getting restaurants to provide benefits to workers.
Paranzino says the ties to organized labor are clear and there is a clear link to the push for an increasing the minimum wage in Michigan. In the question-and-answer below, he provided some insight into ROC's actions in Michigan and some background about the group:
Q: What's the connection between ROC and "Raise Michigan"?
A: 'ROC Michigan' Director Frank Houston has said the campaign has secured up to $1 million to put the minimum wage increase on the statewide ballot. Of that, we know that $300,000 was pledged by ROC. Where the other $700,000 would be coming from has so far been undisclosed.
Houston is chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, and Treasurer of 'Raise Michigan.' Last fall, ROC put out a nationwide job posting, seeking someone to be the leader of the Michigan minimum wage drive. In that posting the drive was described as a multi-million dollar national effort.
Q: What do you mean when you say that ROC is a labor union front?
A: I mean it in the sense that it was union-founded and is increasingly working closely with the unions, particularly the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). In 2003, the New York Press reported that ROC's goals had evolved into efforts to organize the 99 percent of the restaurant industry that is non-union.
Q: Is this minimum wage increase proposal part of an effort during an election year to distract attention from what's going on in Washington, D.C., and particularly Obamacare?
A: Certainly, they can't afford to let the election be about Obamacare, and this is clearly a unified effort in multiple states. I think we just got a great example of what is really happening when 'Raise Michigan' had to go back and change its proposal to $10.10 per hour. They did that because apparently the $10.10 figure is the level that has been set nationally and the way they worded the proposal originally was overruled by those on the national level.
Q: What is the likelihood that a proposal like this one could be passed by the voters?
A: Polling shows that when you just ask people about raising the minimum wage it has a lot of popular support. A majority of voters tend to say: 'That sounds good, go ahead and give these workers more money.' But when you show that the minimum wage increase is a job-killer, such as with the Congressional Budget Office report predicting the loss of half a million jobs, support drops and it polls closer to 50-50.
Q: Has 'Raise Michigan' hurt the chances of the proposal passing in Michigan by aiming too high and indexing the wage to inflation?
A: They may have misfired by doing that. It could make it easier for people to understand that for many workers the increase won't be about making higher wages, it will be about making no wages at all.
Q: If the job-killing aspect of the proposal knocks it down closer to 50-50 in the polls, what arguments against the proposal might push it below 50 percent?
A: I think one down side to the unified multi-state approach is that it could be vulnerable if you can show people who and what the backers of the proposal really are. They are trying to portray themselves as a homespun Michigan movement, when in fact ROC is a New York-based operation with a co-director, who about a year ago was meeting privately at the White House making plans for this.
Also, I think it could be helpful to show that those who are the most likely to be hurt by a minimum wage hike are those workers who have obtained a lesser degree of education; and those are the same people who already suffer the most in terms of having difficulty getting jobs. A lot of people look at the unemployment rate in a state ... but not realize how high it is for those with less education.
ROC Responds
ROC Spokeswoman Maria Myotte was contacted and given the opportunity to respond to Paranzino’s claims that ROC is a labor union front group and that the Michigan proposal is an extension of a coordinated national campaign controlled from outside the state. Myotte denied the first of Paranzino's two assertions.
"ROC United is not a union, nor a union front group," Myotte said. "ROC is a worker center that advocates for fair labor practices for workers within the restaurant industry. ROC-NY was founded at the request of HERE Local 100 after the terrorist attack on the twin towers destroyed Windows on the World — one of the few unionized restaurants in the city — as a way of supporting the restaurant workers that survived the attack. We do not receive funding from unions."
Follow the money. Where will they spend it?
Democrat Politicians at the highest level pimping for votes.
Of course it is backed by union leadership thuggery, The One, and other sniveling commies.....
This is no big surprise
Socialists (subset - unions) who by definition are economic dunces.
The federal (and local) governments NEED the minimum wage hike. It is highly inflationary, regarding the prices of goods and services. This will effectively monetize the debt to one degree or another. It’s the only solution they have other than austerity. They are clearly not going to go for the latter voluntarily.
This^^
What better way to get the low information voter to get interested in an election and vote for you? Can't promise them any more free phones or more "free" health care, so you got to promise them more money through higher wages (once again, using other people's money).
Same old Democrat ploy. Vote for us because we'll steal stuff and then give you 10% in return.
A lot of Union contracts are tied to the minimum wage; requiring the Union wages to be a certain percentage higher.
Protypical liberal idea format:
1: Propose and activate for a non-reality-based wide-ranging utopian change to society, that
2: appears to be proffered from a “higher moral ground” eg; “we have to offer these poor underpaid workers ways to help them with their families” so that
3: anyone who opposes them is immediately brandable as a hateful, spiteful, greedy bigot who wishes to keep members of the underclass down.
Absolutely every one of their ideas follows this pattern. Global warming, gays in the military, homosexual marriage, unwillingness to profile Muslims in a security context, healthcare for everyone, on and on.
And so any time you offer opposition, you are on this lower level where you have to make the case that you aren’t a bigot before you even get to the substance of the underlying idea and you will never get to pointing out the possible negative consequences before they change the subject or circle back to the racist dirtbomb-toss.
Every liberal idea works this way, without exception. Offered as a grand solution to a societal problem from an assumed elevated moral position, without regard to any possible misconception or wrong-way consequence and sounding so benevolent and altruistic it cannot be opposed except by (you) a sociopath or psychopath.
TL;DR - increasing minimum wage increases labor-union wages. Follow the money.
Because they think more money will flow into the social security fund? That always pops into my head but I have no idea if there’s any evidence to support it.
I’ll take “Unions” for $100, Alex.
Ignorant fools.
The entire minimum wage argument is a farce.
The Republicans should call them on it and seriously propose increasing the minimum wage to $250 per hour. Just to see how they react. Would 0bama sign it? It would put EVERYONE out of business, including all of their democrat contributors. Lets just bring about the inevitable conclusion of their policies, and get it over with. They’ve already done away with the “debt ceiling”.
If there’s a shortage of “money” and inflation, the Fed can just print more of it. That’s probably how low information and liberal voters view the Fed anyway - they just exist to print money.(they don’t comprehend currency debasement)
Bring it on!
And THAT is why women adore the Democrat Party. Their whole schtick is to short circuit reasoning and logic and go straight for the emotional kill.
Women eat that stuff up. They don’t think about rational outcomes or common sense barriers, the LOVE the sound of the idea, it sounds so soft and caring, and their are hooked like a tuna.
This is why men don’t generally vote for Democrats and why women eagerly eat out of the palm of Democrat’s hands.
It’s all about the emotion.
To ask the question is to ask what entity or individual is behind the effort to subvert American freedom and form a one-world ruling class. There is a shadow government working to enslave us all.
This is one more small part of the plan.
This is all about getting Democrat low-info Obama voters to show up at the polls in November. If they think they are raising their own pay, it may do the trick.
What you said. Also trying to keep the news headlines from going to bad places, allowing the GOP to look like they don’t care about poor people, etc. No one even cares if it goes through (min. wage increase). It is just an instrument to play for the time being.
Very well said, what you said.
I am from Michigan and I think Dem voter turnout is a big reason for this push. The P-OF-Sh Democrat running for the open Senate seat is running behind the GOP candidate (a woman by the way). The Dem has Obamacare hanging from his neck, he repeated the lie over and over just like Obummer.
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