Thank god for San Francisco. Now, fifteen thanks to seattle and then california and new york and localities across the country, but also we need these moments for an agenda that works for all, contracts for the 21st century, so thank you, david, for this amazing piece of work, this book and all that you have led in our continuing to lead in the world that has been captured in the book and for creating this moment and Similar Movement to groups across the country to come together to reflect and animate us. I also want to thank mark and nikki and all the colleagues. A few years ago we began talking to have a series of books, uplifting powerful stories, the voices in the agendas of leading activists and change makers that rules will change. We also launched a few years ago , Domestic Workers alliance and ford has been proud to partner with you and super excite to go see this second book and the series come into the world and i know david will, indeed, has been a powerful tool as the Movement Continues to evolve and grow. Because i feel like im in a room of friends and i think most of you are indeed, i didnt introduce myself. My name is laine romero alston. I just want to say that ford will be talking later. Its just really incredibly proud to partner with you and to partner with several of the groups who also cosponsor this event. The national Domestic Workers alliance, the National Employment law project. Sciu and sciu7. 75 and reading the book, it was like a moment in time that ford has felt connected to, committed to supporting the stories and the voices and the campaigns that have been hard fought and ip incredibly across country and look forward to to make this agenda beyond a reality. So i hope you did grab a drink and bring it in, youre more than welcome to go out back out and bring it in. The idea is that this is really a celebration, a moment to pause and reflect and a discussion to be had here but to be taken into the hallways, into our work and world beyond. So without further due, i would love to introduce my cosponsor. Good evening, everyone. Thanks, laine, to bringing us together. You know, we all know but sometimes i dont think we say it enough, but we all know that the kinds of both political alliances and personal friendship that is we build through the kinds of gathering that you host at ford are really vital and theyre a lot of what makes our work work. So thanks to all of you here at the Ford Foundation and special shotout to everyone behind the scenes. So a special shotout to corey, davids colleague. Tonight i have the very, very easy to introduce david, organizes 400 workers, mostly longterm care providers in seattle. I like to talk about three elements of who david is. First david as a visionary labor leader, secondly david as a writer and truth teller and thirdly, david as a friend. So the visionary labor leader part you all know about. You know david. You read the book. Seattle ten square mile airport city of 26,000 people. That strategy moved to seattle and now to scores of campaigns across the country. And the fact that raising the wage to 15 is now part of the everyday National Conversation at dinner tables across america and 2016 president ial and the fact that my mom and dad asked me about it when i go home for the holidays, that can all be traced to the guy we are here to celebrate tonight. But this isnt the only thing that david has helped to start. You know, our move to thinking about making worker benefits portable, paid leave, the idea that those can follow you when you a worker of the 21st century economy move from gig to gig, a lot of that which you now hear across america and president obamas speeches that was also partly davids idea or a startup Funding Organization called the workers lab. Thats david brainchild too. And each of these shows davids commitments to finding new solutions to the very old problem of building real power at scale f for workers. David is able to do this because hes a truth teller. Hes been ready to say our movement is shrinking and be my measures it is dying. We have threats from the outside, technological change is real and we have threats from within all thinking. Therefore, we really have to think differently, we have to think about different business models. If we are to actually see the kinds of lives for working americans that we all hoped for and, in fact, if we want to see working americans, period. Now, david doesnt just talk about this obviously, youre all holding in your hands proof of the fact that he writes things down which allows him to make connection between history of the Labor Movement. Anyone can ask him about the origins over qok cocktails. And finally, david as a friend. I was thinking about this this morning and i think hes kind of a persuasive rattle rouser or inventive trouble maker and i look toward from getting a call from david because the conversation always starts with hey, felicia, i have this idea and i never know how that sentence is going to end. Theres probably some work for me at the end of that sentence, but you all know that david brings all of us ideas that are good for all of us and brings all of us to bring them a reality. Without further due, david ross. [applause] thank you, felicia, you can see i have to recover from the blushing attack. I dont normally get normally i hear less polite things said about me across the bargaining table or city hall or state capitol. So its a little bit of an odd experience for someone who basically listens and talks for a living to have to read rather than instead of stand up here in the mic but since im now an author that what must happen i have to read passages from the book. Heart of the evening is really going to be the Panel Discussion in a few minutes, but to get it started i collected two passengers, from near the beginning and one from near the end of my book the fight for fifteen, the right wage for working america. Starting from the beginning of the people, i will just ask since we are in a president ial Election Year to really get him to our mental time machines and go backwards to a moment that occurred certainly in my childhood that i will read from here on out. Imagine an alternative history of the 1976 president ial election. America is celebrating with fireworks and two men a republican from michigan and a democrat from georgia are campaigning to be president. What if one of them had given a speech that predicted the future . My fellow americans, wound could imagine them saying, this difficult decade will soon come to an end. The National Hang over from vietnam and watergate will slowly fade. There will be no more lines for gasoline, in more inflation. The cold war will end. The Nuclear Threat will recede and there will be no more Foreign Military threats to our soil. The last of the formal legal barriers to full economic participation by women and people of color will fall. China, korea, brazil, india and south africa will join the Global Economic community and lift hundreds of millions of people out of lifethreatening poverty. America will reinvent industries, technology will dramatically improve the lives of all americans and most people around the globe and america will continue to be the world wealthiest nation with its most productive workers. Now, that would have been a true incredible, astounding set of predictions all of which would have come true. But imagine if the speech continued, fbi fellow americans, of all the new wealth our country produces, 95 will go to top percent of income earners, a few wealthy family will amass more wealth than the bottom 8 to 2090 . The bottom 50 will have to take a pay cut. We are going to export manufacturing, import thirdworld wages, detax, deregulate, privatize, we are going to break the unions, bankrupt our pension system, rural and urban education, make debtfree college a thing in the past, we are going to turn the backs on the middle class, replace old jim crowe laws for black and brown americans. The impact of women between 1977 and 2012 will be zero dollars and take home pay for the bottom 90 and the family that can reasonably afford a comfortable middleclass life on a single persons paycheck today will need two or three income to live the same life if a generation from now. Obviously given such a speech would have doomed anyones president ial candidate. His party would have been out of power for years. No one in america would have voted for such a vision, just like the optimistic first part, the second part of fictional president ial speech would turn out to be true and became true not because of historical accident but Economic System was intentional rigged in favor of large corporations and wealthy americans over anyone else. Trickle down economics was woven into the National Consciousness as if it were written in founding documents in the country. 200 years of struggle and progress has been intentionally reversed over the course of the last 40 years. If a foreign power had announced that was its plan for america, we would have gone to war. So that is how the book in large measure opens and first the book closes, i will note in the following passage, you know, at some point i had to send the final, final manuscript to the folks at the new press and that that day was actually, i think, the 27 to the of january and because some of what about to read is sounding out of date. Its becoming ever clearer that americans are ready for a change. In january 2015 poll showed that 63 of americans support a 15dollar minimum wage. The april 1520 strikes for 15 that helped organization not just by fastfood workers, child care aids, adjunct faculty, airport workers and retail workers. The strikes took place in an astounding u. S. Cities. Chicago raised minimum wage to 13. Los angeles joins seattle and San Francisco in raising minimum wage to 15. Emeryville california raised minimum wage to 16, the mayors of boston, new york, st. Louis and sci kansas city and activists in washington, d. C. Are organizing to put a 15dollar wage on the june 2016 municipal ballot. In congress from 2010 through 2014 proposal for a 10. 10 was extreme. In the spring of 2015 a group of senators called for 12dollar National Minimum page growing last years politics on wages. In the summer of 2015, another group of senators and representatives introduced a bill to go to 15. In 2,014,000s of workers in Johnson Hopkins hospital won a new Union Contract that included a 15dollar minimum wage for longtime employees. In the spring of 2015 Union Hospital workers in minnesota did the same and massachusetts bargain contract in 2015 that will raise starting wage to 15 in 2018. In new york major bill de blasio proposed 15dollar minimum wage in 2014 which would require state law change and a city law change. Governor andrew dismissed the figure as unrealistic, in early 2015 when the state proposed raiding the wage, god bless them, shoot for the stars. He then put forward his own plan to slowly raise to 11. 50 in new york city and 10. 50 elsewhere in the states, but the 15dollar movement moved cuomo as well. Recommended raising wages to 15 and fastwood workers were said to make 15 by 2018 in new york and 2021 in the rest of the state. Sensing the change in political lens,cuomo went further. Fifteen dollars an hour the statewide in the nation and new economic contract to america and its about time. Nine months later. By november he put his money where his mouth was and established 15dollar wage. Thats a long way for a politician to travel in less than a year. The New York Times editorial page, editors blog ran a headline in 2015 that summed up what was in their mind. This all happened 2016 election got underway in iowa and new hampshire. Every great moment for justice in American History has begun with seemingly and plausible demand. The abolition of slavery when the entire economy of the south was built on slavery and the u. S. Constitution was built to ensure survival. End to child labor where one in five were under 16, women suffered when political machines, major relincoln own states and powerful industries feared losing power if women gained the right to vote. Eighthour day when fulltime manufacturing and construction employees worked 100 hours a week, an end to jim crowe laws and the passage of civil rights and Voting Rights law. Medicare, medicaid and even eventually obama care. Killing flies with a shotgun, end quote, an economic death wish. Yet the movement to end child labor establish a fair workweek, expand human rights all produced powerful policy victories and created a more just society within a generation. The challenges of poverty, income inequality and slow Economic Growth are becoming more acute. Mainstream needs higher wages and wall street fights its proven a poor stewart of the american economy. This issue is not going to fix itself. In other words, us. Now is the time for the people and our representatives, president ial candidates and members of congress, state houses and City Councils to seize the easy opportunities presented to them. A chance to be part of a historically Significant National movement to do something popular and valuable for american workers. One hundred years from now a few people will be remembered by name. What people will remember is whether or not our generation had the courage to stand up for the American Dream when it was at its greatest moment of risk and whether we left a vibrant middle class for generation that is came after us. Let us hope we give them a reason to remember us with appreciation. Thank you. [applause] all right. Thank you, david. Something that david always says we have gotten the call from felicia, whether its been the literal call or actually been this call that you just left us with. Many would say we won, we won the campaign, we even got more than what they thought we could but we are not done, right . So this is the idea that we wanted as you all sip your wine to have this conversation of, okay, lets look ford, talking with many of you of whether the moments of our time, how do we actually take on some of the biggest issues. We take on inequality and so in our new agenda its called ford forward and so we are looking forward, and then when we wanted to have this forwardlooking conversation, well, who could help to have a lively conversation that really starts getting at how do we think in the way our institutions that exist need to be transformed, how do we think a Labor Movement in the 21st century looks like, how do we think about the thoughts an ideas and, yes, in the rule of palanthropy. So i want to ask laura to come up. She has always been an amazing partner in this. As you all know, if you havent please go and check out her weeb site asking some of the most provocative and interesting questions of our time of what is it going to take us to move forward for an exclusive environment and the call that david has put out for us, and laura. We have an amazing panel. Thank you, laine, thank you, everyone. Lively conversation but youre all drinking wine. I see that the bar has been raised. Lets bring up our panelists, we are going to be speaking for a little while. We will also take questions. We have the hon o of having cspan in the house. Thank you, cspan, thank you all the media workers behind the scenes here. When it gets to a a session, i will ask you to wait for the microphone to come your way n. The meantime, im going to ask our panelists to come up to the stage. Janice fine, saket soni. [applause] let me briefly introduce so you know who is who. That to my left Vice President of the Ford Foundation, survivor of twoyear process, janice fine, associate prover of rutgers university, writers on the question of worker centers. [laughter] organizing at the edge of change as she puts it and david rolf, who you just heard. President of ciu775 and saket soni, Guest Worker Alliance among other things. Thank you all. Lets start with the question that you put the very end, david, im sure you quibble. To say what is the probable, demands of today im going pose to you, whats the next one . You know, we are winning the fight for 15. We havent won but we are winning. The other twin demand that workers had when they walked off on strike for the first time here in new york was 15 and a union and, you know, i think im probably in the growing minority of labor leaders, activists and thinkers who would say, that union is unlikely to look like my grandfathers Autoworker Union or my moms teachers union, but the question of what new forms of worker power are going to emerge for the 21st century that combined, the power to make the worlds Biggest Companies say yes when they want to say no, the scale to touch tens of millions of workers with revenue model for resilience during bad economies or periods of political disfavor, is really the needle that has to be threaded. We are winning the fight for 15 but the union piece, whatever that means in the 21st century, context, which i dont mean a set of specific 1935 legal responsibility, but the sense of collective power at scale, Sustainable Way is really the problem for our time. We are going to solve the lowwage problem and we are going to do that directly as more states find that they are starting for job applicants when people are flood to go new york and seattle and california. Thats the that is the oh lowhanging fruit. The harder, much harder problem to grapple with is what collective worker power looks like. We are talking about what might a union look like, what might 21st Century Power look like, what does the 21st century working class look like . That phrase working class is quickly running out of date. Well, i think workers today i think a lot has changed about how we work and who is working today. On how we are working, the economy is really driving towards call it the fisher workplace or contingent work or new phrases like the gig economy, more and more workers are tending toward employment relationships where theyre in a direct responsibility. In other words, a person writing paycheck is often not in control of the economy and the labor market in which you toil and so to davids point about what difference, the way workers aggregate will have to be different because the plant or the workplace is not a place to aggregate enough voice to get to collective power. So how we are working is changing, the other thing thats changing is how we are not working. Theres been a shift in the way we are employed but theres also a shift in the way unemployment works, more and more workers are unemployed and facing significant longer periods of unemployment. Many 27 weeks or more and that means that the social safety net doesnt catch you when youre in that wide and the demographics have changed. The working class of the United States according to epi will be majorityminority class, ten full years before that change will come to the rest of the country, to the whole country. So thats a significant change. This change is happening at the same time that the u. S. Itself is in an extraordinary inflection point. The face of change is changing and we are not we are being outpaced by technology and globalization. So its not just the working class thats changed, but its placement in the global economy. Well, janice, let me bring you in on that. I come from a country form early known as the united kingdom. [laughter] and watched the vote of last week thank you for ending civilization. Any time. For you saket, any time. I would like you to talk a little because i know you were there as well about what it means about the need to address culture along with class . For many people voting for exit, not all, many white power provided a refuge from wall street power, it was surely underpinned by economics but it was the cultural peace, the heat around race and immigration that gave that movement its power. So what does that mean about how we organize if you agree . Laura and i were talking before we started. I just came last night from the uk from spending about less than a week there and was there for the brexit vote. Just very sad, but what was really striking was that in london there was powb public mourning and very seldom that you saw somebody with an exit with a leave button or anything like that. But outside of london it was a very different situation and one of the things that was so striking was that i probably visited seven or eight cities and in many of them, the organization that had the most presence was ukip. I feel like the electoral politic is the opposite. Were going to rate people 14, four is if they are against us and three are leaning against us. We wont talk to them either. And focus on the twos, and the ones. And i feel like, you know, i dont mean to oversimplify it, thats the problem. And now, i live in new jersey, where theres a lot of trump supporters. And, as somebody who has lots of muslim, and, im jewish, and, trump gives me shivers. But, i stopped this win guy and he,i said, like, why . And he said, he looked at me, did you ever see a poor man give jobs. So its like this, moment were in, where, you know he really, i think, we got to go back to understanding the organizing work and i think thats whats happening, in the labor party. And this realization that, in some ways the trade Union Congress have never been more promigrant workers, and never been able to deliver. A lot of it is because theyre not talking about their own people. Thanks for the position but what are you going to do to make sure that the reality. And that working people having the conversations and having the difficult conversations. People were really mad about feeling like the posted worker, there were reasons why they felt, it wasnt just about racism, and, i dont mean onto deny it, but it was about feeling that they were subject to these rules that they couldnt figure out. They have lost their place. We have to have things to say about that. Is that youre now committed to inclusive organizing. How, do you bring together the next generation of movement that will for sure center class and the demands of the Labor Movement. Childcare and wages. But, also, expand to include some of the demands of the Racial Justice movement. Voting rights and justice reform. Is that still a Labor Movement . Its a really important question, on one hand, let me go back to davids book, theres a sense in which the argument is, about the importance of liveable wage and how to achieve it. And its captured right in the title. One beautiful thing, about a wage war, its a universal policy. Whoever is on the bottom, its mainly women and people of color and it belongs to everyone. Regardless of color and background. Theres another argument in his book that i think is a part of answer, and that is, because inequality hurts us all, the reverse lodge beginning is true, raising the floor, and more broadly the social contract around it, its good for the economy as a whole. It benefits us all. It doesnt just benefit the lowest paid workers. So thats an important part to think about. What they are talking about politics of common interest that helps us get past the wedge politics and we do know, that economic anxiety is a beautiful fuel for race baiting, and, in part because it makes it so easy to scapegoat. We have to have a comeback and organize and make sure everyone understands this is their conversation too. Not just someone elses . How do we do that . Instistutions, on one hand i think were seeing, and, she said this, new tactics, and things like reaching out broadly in communities and not just negotiating over the terms of work. But over a variety of community benefits. Caring about things like healthcare and, caring about the infrastructure and public goods again, the broad public interest. That, we think, working with Many Movement organizations, as well, that is very important because it makes this inclusive agenda today, literally more broad based and it makes it more reinforcing. Finding ways to Work Together and not to work in your lane. There are other things, too, and i think they have to do with reforming institutions. David, in his first comment talked about the room to organize and build that next generation of models, of collective power. And, likewise, i think the reform agenda, it needs to be a broad one t. Needs to go into how we agree to pay for the infrastructure. Thats institutional reform. Government cant do anything right and again, were been told, to turn on each other, rather than to figure out these common agenda again todays. Are the stories, in case we havent read every page of the book, are there stories that you want to lift up from seattle that speak to some of this, or to the possibility that some of this might be happening already. You come out of the campaign, like this seattle with a ton of stories and a ton of people that you collected, on all parts that was movement and all parts of debate. You know, there was the woman, who was the first woman who walked off her job bat taco bell, a Bedroom Community inside the city of seattle. Without knowing whether her two coworkers were going to follow her and shutdown. That was the first sure that shutdown on may 29th and 30th in 2013. And, you know, i think its in one part the exowr ranch. You can have all the pr people and all of the organizers in the world, and if you call a strike and no one walks off the job, all of the press will not help you. Doesnt matter. So, i think first of all, the work kers who have the courage to work off the job are the stories that i would want anyone to tell. If you havent had a chance of that, jump to the beginning of chapter five and they look, in home care and retail and, a number, amazon and a number of places who were not all making them, the minimum of somewhere in the low wage. And the second thing i think its important, the worker stories and they were the most powerful. We did 2 things differently than what happened in the playbooks. Maybe three. We picked a big bold number. Initially by the organizers in new york who were working on the initial fast food strike. I wont say who it was with. But someone very important in the nations politics came with a group about two weeks before that and was asked, should it be nine hours or 10. 10 it would hurt Small Businesses. An important person in the democratic party. Oh, go on. [laughter] its wrong. First of all, goal and we didnt see the job killer argument. We did not say this is about, its going to do more good than harm. We said it will help everyone even the rich. If you arbusiness that wants customers you better care about what workers make. 70 of the economy is consumer demand driven. The bill mar tax breaks does have some job results. For every dollar you spend, it produces 80 cents worth of jobs and you give it to a low wage worker and none of it goes to a tax shelter t. All goes to create demand for goods and services, some of which happen to be made in china or someone working in the United States. We didnt see the big demand and we didnt see the job killer argument. Number three, we changed the value of the fast food worker through the narrative, into, that persons value as a neighbor, customer and human being, not the value of the product. Because, when, the more workers were able to tell their own stories. The more it became difficult to simply read out of the playbook of, business law argument number 3. This will only hurt the people it is intended to help. Theyve been using that, when we first enacted a minimum wage. And, i think i add fourth one, but ill stop there. Those are some of the things that we learned, in seattle. Im thinking its probably ten years since you first came on my show talking about new orleans, in that moment, the people you were working with were seen as the job killers. You shifted that , do you have stories of how that is happening . Well, you know, talking about the big bold demand, i think that its awesome the workers who are lowest, closest to the floor, most vulnerable, who when they form organization, build the political confidence, to make bold aspirational de man. Often they are escape goated as the job stealers and the job killers. When immigrants arhode island, they were vilified. Much of the success of the organizing after that, depended on our understanding that there was an deep validness to the fear. Now, we cant wipe away fear with facts and figures. You have to listen to people. For people who were standing in a land scrape, wondering when their homes would be rebuilt and they saw immigrant workers and they say wages, fall from 14 to 6 in hotels and construction cites. There was a very valid fear. The story about the fear translated into deep violent reactions. My organization was founded, when guest workers trapped in labor camps were ferried out to new orleans and they had a Founding Convention and decided to start a network that would give them a voice. You know, i think its often the case that these workers, who are deeplyvillelat guyed and scapegoated have the most transformational demands. My members wanted to transform not just their conditions, but, did not want to displace workers that they were coming in, and, working alongside. I do think that theres something to what david is saying about how far the debate went, you think about the enact it was you know, 15 was unimaginable and 15 was the demand. That isnt possible unless workers and social motion take it up and believe in in it. It is often the most vulnerable dollar that. A lot of work kers in, america, are like guest workers, in a labor camp. They come to the point where they feel they have nothing to lose. That can either be a very dangerous thing or it can be some bold new directions that all of our movements can go in. In the some bold imagine turf directions coming out of this situation, in europe, where the conversation around guaranteed minimum income, is far further advanced than it is here. Januaries in, you have been pushing us to think about not just power shift but systems shift. Where do you think we are . How do we create space to talk about a different kind of Economic System . Not just different players in it . Well, i want to talk about the players. Whats a little funny about significant here, this audience, is the if you the allstar team of the 21st century worker, and movements, most would have numbers in this room. Most would be star players. So, its a funny thing to be up here because i feel like, people are lovely national audience. As their building it. But more to say that, at a time when the Labor Movement, when people were saying you could not organize, i think whats important to know, is that, people in this room, have built incredible organizations. Just to call out some of them, much of the work thats been down by the national law project. Has been going, this movement. The chinese progressive associate iation has been working for four years organizing, and black workers movement, theres just incredible talent. The workers defense project. People who, at a time when they said you cant build a organization. People have proven that wrong. And i think whats been really striking to me, i live in princeton. Which a lot of times we very people who say, well, we really support raising the minimum wage, and just this obsession with unions. Its like the idea that you could pass these policies without a powerful organization underneath t. Youre talking enforcement now. No get workers in motion, there had to be a union. Without knowing the end game it was going to invest in doing this, this wouldnt have happened. I dont want to move so quickly off of the need for institution building. Im kidding. This puzzle of how we do institutional in this moment . The right has been very clear, that one of the most important bases of power is the Labor Movement. Theres an attempt to kick it out from under us. I think we just need recognize sometimes people pit it against each other. We have to recognize that. It has been lifted, by by these institutions, old and new. They have been this very forward looking organization. And also all the Community Organizers who made those demands real. I think we have thinking to do, about what. It look like to build membership institutions. Were in a moment when it is fashionable to say we dont need them any more. Were all going to network, and, you know, not you know, we dont need membership based, and, really, i guess, the bottom line here is power. That, its the power that you had to make this happen. The power of this institution, and the other institutions that have made work. We have to be very proposesive about that. This last point is, so important. Both the fantasy we have that we can do it without organization, and the tendency to confuse mobilization with organization. Perhaps the most, one of the images, that we have all been gripped by. The arab spring. A lot of it, without organization. This is a part of why political transitions have been so difficult. Im not predict that go forum a. But we request not ignore the importance of creating modern organizations. The way for the way people work. I want to bring in the role of business. I want to go there. I was just thinking, we had riley and he said were great at demonstrating. Now, theyre just demonstration and we all go home. I guess i want to go back, and then, ask about business. What i was just thinking was how the fast food workers were able to create an image of themselves and create a vision, like they they were able to create a presence. If you go back to talking about your grandfather, who chased the steel job and we have an image t. Tells a story. The fast food workers had to create. Theyre lot about this lgbt pride month about those killed in orlando. Latin, year, immigrant and also workers. Will bouncer woman. People in sales. A dancer. Workers. None of them traditional face of work. We have told that without that being one of the things. So i guess that maybe it does come back to you, and, everybody wants to weigh in. Who are our allies in this movement . Its not just big guys who are in the same business. Sometimes it is business. Stereotypes i know. But it is business. Sometimes it is the worker, sharing and sometimes not. I think we want to be pragmatic about interests. And bold about the agenda. We want to henry write a narrative about the economy and how our fortunes are linked and raising the floor is in everyones interest. Not just the interest of the lowest paid workers. But, in that big ten, and ill let my colleagues shed more light on this, business has place. And i i want to speak to that because business has been in the conversation, so far. I want to make it more explicit there are spokespeople, particularly inside the beltway in washington, who adopted certain hard lines. We see organizations, like Small Business majority, which we have been proud to support speaking out on behalf of those, mom and pop shops. They say this stuff about keep wages at a poverty level, dont modernize t. And dont ask government to do anything bold at all, those people dont speak for us. Point number two, davids book, beyond talking about the ways in which labor standards help the economy to succeed, theyre in our collective interest i think its a window on things like the purpose of the corporation. I know thats not what you wroats the book about. But it raises really important questions about companies obligations to workers, to communities to the environment. And the expressing thats used in finance and corporate law, corporate model is shareholder prime makey. He puts it in a more plain spoken way. Shareholder value above all. The dangers of that, that religion of sure holder value. Is business your friend. Sometimes and sometimes not. I think, we cant be ignorant of the interests involved. But, there are different stories in this book about the role that business has blade. It was the class, just say no. Reading from the same script that has been read from, since massachusetts started shortening the workday, and every regulation produces the same set of data resistent organizations from the business lobby. That was very watch we heard, if we kill jobs, its going to hurt the people you help. Theyll move to automation. The people who really are going to get hurt are less skilled workers. Newer workers, and all that, this was of course said at lunches, with prime rib where the vote no committee had its meetings, and they could not feed their staff shift meals, if wages went to 15. It was a bad business lobby run amuck. But, the greater Seattle Community learned a lesson. Just saying no and, in a word of outcomes wasnt their best strategy. We had a very different type of engagement, in seattle. I sat across the table, and the owner of the sheriff taken hotel, and, bargained for four months to produce an outcome that was a a unanimous vote on the city council, with support of most of the business community. Not unan make must. But where the major actors, in the economy, were either accepting, that this was the future. They were resist it go because they were invited into a process, where we were going, right. But, they were given an opportunity to impact the long, the phase in, the 15 dollar policy and thought that was a better decision than saying no. Which they would have gone down to a dramatic defeat. So that was our experience locally, as we had in the same media market, business communities that acted very different limit one learned from the other. Nationally we also see two stories, you have the lobbyists the trade associations, and the beltway crowd that like all trade associations tend towards the lowest approach. When you have your trade associations, meetings, whoever has the worst investment practices, speaks up, demanding that they be protected. So of course, even what he majority of business owners, believe in higher minimum wage all of their associations come out against it. Because they are catering to the scweekky wheels. And then you look in chapter 7 where i defy burning all of the myths against higher minimum wages, based on actual information and not, fairy tale rhymes. We look at number of case studies, a number of them drawn from the scholarship at m. I. T. That looks at how you can be a high wage company, not how amazon can have software developers. Its much harder, to say how does a Company Called quick trips, pay 20 an hour when their competition, is paying 7. 21, how does costco beat walmart, on a high wage model . How do you final these low wage industries, and thats what we talked about, in that 7th chapter. Where it is possible to build a successful business if you know what youre doing. Let me go to some questions. We have about ten minutes of conversation. You are with a organization. The restaurant workers who, combined both organized labor and building. Thank you for this. This is great and thank you for the invite. I want to know, last i know, that, restaurant workers are fast food, they are included. But, you know, people will go 15 but they will stay at it and how we can they are workers. And, its 8 dollars now. So how we can Work Together to make 11 Million People included. Lets take a couple more questions. John. One question. Great book. I just want to the pick up, david you mentioned 79 years agoing a big Labor Movement fought and won the changes. So three groups of workers were left out. The tip workers, nannies and, farm workers. Im curious how you feel, and a new set the workers, guest workers. How have they figure need these fight says in have you written able to redress some of the racist problems of the fight 80 years ago . How do you see this moving forward. Third question. There. Era cal, im with the domestic fair trade association. The fight for 15 was popular around fast food workers and im wondering what part did food play in that. Theres a large movement of people, in the way that food is produced. Was that part of the success in having that be part of the culture. Three questions. Tipped wage, where the commitments are raising the wages and the tip workers is minimal. Two the question of the exincluded will workers. And then, this last one, in the fast food piece of this, what role to food play . Well, ill just say i think that to pick up what john was saying, the last social contract excluded large swaths of workers, southern workers and casual labor and Domestic Workers and that was the result of a political compromise, with them and, plantation economy. Those workers, now have moved from the margins to the majority. And they represent the plarnlg segment of the american working class. As people of color go into industries that are growing, like retail and service and care, its not just that those industries are low, its that those human beings, who have been de valtd are now marching into new industries, where they are devalued and getting a bad deal. I think we have to figure out ways to radically expand the social contract and we have to get on a new labor contract. Two those that. I think he was right. The, i think that the idea of exceptions, is always one of the dangerous sort of, its always the achilles heel. So how we can arrange it, to be inclusive is a real battle. The second thing is, i know its in davids book. But one of the things, that david mentioned, in the earlier presentation was, the way that Governor Cuomo convened a wage board. I think thats important. The idea of workers, being able to bargain for their interest, standards, and wages across many workplaces, perhaps across industries, and across an entire labor market is going to be a big next step for innovation. Thats one strategy to get at what they were saying. I think you could imagine a city where the state allows it. You can imagine a city wide wage board that elevates look wages, across many industries. The Labor Movement and business would have to be stakeholders, and be at the table. But, i think we need a vans to experiments where we work on that, so that the day worker and the nail salon worker are not good separate. Well, i mean, i think, he is right on the money. John is right to raise t. I guess whats so striking to he me about the new Labor Movement as opposed to the old Labor Movement, if you study labor history, the analysis that was it was the more skilled workers and middle class and the, you know, the better off workers who led the Labor Movement. And, if theres anything to be said, its that, its actually low wage workers and workers of color, and it is path breaking moment in history. Were at moment where people are saying, oh, we have to talk about manufacturing workers. No, talk about the service sector. Just in terms of your question, about employers, a lot has been talking to public agencies about enforcement. One of the things that comes up, when i make the argument for enforcement to work, organizations, have to be given a normal role. We have to stop thinking about enforcing something that government does here and something we do together. One of the push backs i get from local agencies is, but what do i say to local business . And, you know, in a word i say, yeah, you come. You say that we recognize that labor markets are always better off. And that, thats thats an argument we can win. David showed you can win it. A lot of the groups have shon you can win it. We want them to come, and we know when they are organized, at the local labor market level, we have somebody that we can deal with. Without that we just have xray os. So, there is a common interest. Its no less true today. The question of who will lead the movement, they used to think it was men. [laughter] to go back to the food issue, whether you are talking restaurant workers, food workers, were talking women, and consumers and one of the great models, thats out there, is the cross generations model where this is a role for all. Were taking about building a caring economy and you talked about how the fight for 15 movement was waged by people, who were longterm caregivers. I think what unites them is we are longterm care show wers around this issue. Longterm caring about this issue. We need to have a better idea of how to connect and keep it going. How to take this demand to the next level. But does anybody want to weigh in on the food question . I would love to. [laughter] just a quick thought, more and more they are adopting a multi stakeholder approach. So its going, from organizing workers, to restaurant owners, and consumers. How people are treated. It extends, this is maybe where the question is coming from, to who picked the crops . The whole chain. I think that, one of the themes im hearing tonight, is, we also need to be very savvy about cultural power. Think about, various high points, theres such an association between manufacturing jobs and the war effort. Manufacturing, decent work which was pulling more women and people of color. And then pushing them out. [laughter] but, an Ap Association of work with a national effort. Theres a power to food. Its so relatable. Its such a universal. A long way to go. But theres as tremendous power. I cant help but say media power. David, last comment and then well go to closing thoughts. Just to respond to some of the questions, you know, seattle is the kind of city where there are farmers markets as there are mcdonalds, thats a great thing. Thats true. Py wouldnt eight role of food itself was frontandcenter in the seattle struggle. It was really, low wage work. Gas stations and home care aids, and the whole, we now live in a world, where 1520 pay under 15 an hour. Dont require any education past high school. And were 43. 8 americans, work jobs under 15 an hour. So were becoming a low wage nation. Thatthat was the heart of the i. With respect to restaurant workers, Washington State did away with its tip pen nallty, in 1988. So on a single day, january 1st, every restaurant worker got a 300 raise. Guess what . We still have restaurants now, despite now, nearly 30 years of the Restaurant Association putting out a december newsletter predicting how many thousands of jobs would be lost. Somehow we have always grown restaurant jobs. Go figure. Even in the recessions. So its clear that the arguments, for a tip penalty. Just they dont have any economic resilient, because places without tip penalty, have amongst the highest number of restaurant jobs, and number of restaurants. So its clear that you dont need stuff in order to maintain a healthy Restaurant Business climate. It wasnt only tipped, farm work exercise and Domestic Workers who were good clyde, it was independent contractors, and, workers, four continue to be excluded. You know, eight states dont have a tip credit. One has collective bargaining. And, they went on strike and when laws did not let them have unions, they it anyway and thats how the law changed. Thank you so much. This is a break. Thank you all. Plus a balls awe place. [applause] so it was really, it was a great read. Its very inspiring. I want to thank the Ford Foundation for your support of this amazing work. The fight for 15 is the most important fight for Economic Justice in america today. I know, the Foundation Supports that work. I want to give a shoutout to a few other victories, that the Ford Foundation, and others, in this room have been a part of. It goes to the point that in addition to needing organizing, and needing new forms of Building Worker power. We need good government. That is shootout to the best