LIVING WAGE COALITION IN THE NEWS
____________________________________________________________

Sonoma:
Living Wage Coalition Introduces Ordinance to the City of Sonoma

The Living Wage Coalition of Sonoma County will present an ordinance to the City of Sonoma at the city council meeting on Wednesday, March 3rd, at the council chambers, 177 First St. West, starting at 7:00 PM. All supporters of the Living Wage Campaign are encouraged to attend.
____________________________________________________________

Petaluma:
North Bay Progressive
December 19, 2003-January 16, 2004

Petaluma Sheraton Workers Defend the Right to Organize

By Eileen Morris

Some 80 Sheraton Hotel employees in Petaluma are looking forward to a happy and prosperous New Year, having just regained their opportunity to organize without interference from hotel owners.
____________________________________________________________

Petaluma:
Weigh The Benefits and Costs of Outlet Mall Expansion

October 29, 2003
Petaluma Argus-Courier
Guest Commentary

By EILEEN MORRIS

A decade ago when phase one of the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets was first wending its way through the city approval process, the project looked like a great idea. After all, the outlet malls in Gilroy were bringing in millions of sales tax dollars -- covering anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of Gilroy's costs for firefighter, police and administrative salaries. These salaries have to be paid by a city's General Fund, and sales tax is one of the few sources of General Fund Revenue around. (MORE)
____________________________________________________________

Petaluma:
City Strikes Deal With Sheraton, Labor Reps
Agreement Will Allow Workers To Unionize, Protect City's Investment

October 8, 2003

By CHIP McAULEY
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

New hope emerged Monday for workers who want to unionize at the Sheraton Petaluma Hotel with the announcement of a tentative deal that officials say works for all parties involved. The deal will give union reps nine months to organize workers and protect the city's $900,000 investment in the hotel. (MORE)
____________________________________________________________

Petaluma:
Petaluma Favors Sheraton Hotel Workers In Dispute

____________________________________________________________

Petaluma:
SMART GROWTH AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
April 2, 2001

Sonoma County has wrestled in recent years with both the promise and perils of increased
growth and its effect on the area's quality of life. The Rural Heritage Initiative
and transportation debates have focused on the environmental impact of growth.
But rarely is the issue of economic inequality addressed. (MORE)
____________________________________________________________

Sebastopol:
Sonoma West Times
December 3, 2003

City Council Enacts Living Wage Ordinance
by Corey Young

SEBASTOPOL - The City Council approved a "living wage" for some of the city's lowest-paid workers this week, joining a nationwide movement for better wages. "I believe it is the right thing to do. We need a living wage now," said Mayor Craig Litwin.
____________________________________________________________

Sebastopol:
North Bay Progressive
December 19, 2003-January 16, 2004

Sebastopol Passes Living Wage Ordinance

By Ellen Bicheler

Cliff Ostrem is one of nine Sebastopol city employees who will benefit from the November 18th approval of the Living Wage Ordinance. For Ostrem, this represents a $3.20 an hour increase in wages for his fifteen-hour week job as a crossing guard. Ostrem supplements his social security income with this job. "I'll be able to go out to dinner once in a while now," he exalts. "This will help equalize inflation. So many things have increased in price, for instance a haircut or the price of gasoline." Ostrem also gets paid for filming the city council meetings and volunteers over four hundred hours a year to the city.
____________________________________________________________

Sebastopol:
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
November 19, 2003

Council Backs Living Wage
Law would set $13.20 minimum for city workers

By Lori A. Carter

Sebastopol tentatively approved a living-wage ordinance Tuesday, becoming the first Sonoma County city to mandate higher pay scales for public employees and some private contractors. "It's everything we wanted," said Marty Bennett, a co-founder of the Living Wage Coalition of Sonoma County.
____________________________________________________________

Sonoma:
More Than 80 Sonoma Community Members Attend Forum on County's Nursing Home
Crisis:
Forum Participants Evaluate Evidence Against Sonoma Healthcare Center, Strategize How to Improve Care, Wages at Facility

by Kathleen Miller

On the evening of Thursday, September 18th, over 80 Sonoma County residents attended a community forum about the current crisis in Sonoma County's nursing homes. Community activists called for the forum because Sonoma's nursing home industry has become increasingly dominated by one corporation, the Ensign Group, which has a disturbing track record of putting profits before the needs of nursing home residents.
____________________________________________________________

San Francisco:
Landslide Voter Approval for San Francisco City Minimum Wage Adds Momentum to Living Wage Movement!!

Voters in San Francisco approved an $8.50 city minimum wage by a 60%-40% margin in November of 2003. When it takes effect in March 2004, the new ordinance will apply to almost all businesses in the city, raising pay for 54,000 low-income workers.
____________________________________________________________

Money for Nothing

by Bobbi Murray
The Nation
August 14, 2003

It was the dream of economic development that inspired officials in Caledonia, Minnesota, to give a Dairy Queen franchise a $275,000 tax subsidy in 1996. One problem: The largesse created exactly one job, at $4.50 an hour. The return on public investment wasn't much better in Pennsylvania a year later when the state--led by then-Governor Tom Ridge--and the City of Philadelphia ponied up $307 million worth of incentives to persuade Kvaerner ASA, a Norwegian global construction company, to reopen a section of Philadelphia's moribund shipyard. That created 950 jobs that paid around $50,000 a year--not bad, until you calculate the cost to taxpayers: $323,000 per job. (MORE)
____________________________________________________________

Santa Rosa:
Study Bolsters Living Wage
Benefits Outweigh Deficits, Coalition Claims During Forum In Santa Rosa
September 22, 2002

By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Activists pressing Santa Rosa to adopt a higher minimum hourly wage for
city workers and contractors unveiled a new study Saturday that said the
cost to the city would be minimal and would be outweighed by benefits
including greater worker productivity.(MORE)
____________________________________________________________

USA TODAY
Living-wage movement takes root across nation
Controversial effort aids lower-income workers
By Stephanie Armour

Life used to be very hard for Marlene Mendoza. The single mother worked
as a waitress at Los Angeles International Airport. At $5.50 an hour, she
says she had no choice but to put in 80 hours a week. Today, life is still hard. 
But under a 1997 city law that provided wage increases for certain employees, 
Mendoza now works 50 to 60 hours a week. She is paid more than $7 an hour, 
which allows her to cut back and spend time helping her son, Frankie, 10, and 
her daughter, Valerie, 8, with their homework. (MORE)
____________________________________________________________

Sonoma County:
LIVING WAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Various recent letters that have appeared in the local press
____________________________________________________________

Living Wage Comes of Age

by BOBBI MURRAY
The Nation
July 23, 2001

When the nation's first living-wage ordinance passed in Baltimore in 1994--a modest measure that improved the earnings of just 1,500 workers--few could have predicted that a powerful national movement would emerge in its wake. In the ensuing seven years, more than sixty municipalities, pushed by coalitions of local activists, have passed living-wage laws, and some seventy-two campaigns are rolling forward around the country, from New York City to the right-to-work South, not to mention at Harvard University, where students concluded a high-profile living-wage sit-in in May.
____________________________________________________________

LIVING WAGE COALITION OF SONOMA COUNTY
Phone: 707-478-9663
Email: benboyce@livingwagesonoma.org
PO Box 427
Santa Rosa, CA 95402