To Improve Wages and Working Conditions, we believe the minimum wage must be raised, enforced, and applied meaningfully across-the-board to restore lost purchasing power for all workers. It must be indexed to keep it from eroding again. Employees should be paid a living wage with provisions for decent health care and retirement benefits.

We also believe:

• that laid off workers must be provided effective retraining;
• state leaders should be held accountable for how well they prepare young people to enter the workforce;
• the guarantee of overtime pay, which is constantly under Republican assault, must be preserved;
• local wage standards in government contracts must be protected;
• workers have a right to a safe workplace, free from injury and exposure to harmful materials, and meaningful sanctions must apply to employers who knowingly or negligently expose workers to injury or death;
• workers and employers both benefit from a workers’ compensation system that provides affordable coverage for employers, meaningful compensation to injured workers, the right of workers to choose their own doctor, incentives for employers to retain injured employees, and due consideration for the rights of workers within the legal system;
• all employees, public and private, must have the right to organize, collect dues, designate their income voluntarily to organizations and agencies of their choosing, and negotiate collectively with their employers through representatives of their choice;
• the so-called Texas “right-to-work” law – which does not protect the right to work – must be repealed;
• hiring of replacement workers for employees who are on strike should be banned;
• the Employee Free Choice Act should become law in order to allow workers to choose a union that can negotiate an employment contract that establishes wages, benefits and working conditions;
• the right of unions to engage in political activity must not be infringed;
• workers should be free from discriminatory employment practices and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act should become law;
• no person should be fired, lose seniority, be demoted, or suffer other reprisal for refusing to work when a violation of OSHA regulations places his or her health, life, or limb at risk; and
• state and federal law should provide real protection to whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing and unsafe practices.