“We’re energized and excited about this campaign,” said Professor Scott Myers Lipton, the SJSU professor whose students began working on the issue almost two years ago and helped bring it to this point. “We hope we can make businesses understand this policy will be good for them and good for the economy,” he said.

Next Gen Bay Area, an organization of young activists who want to effect positive change for working families, is involved in the campaign as well.  Several members will be canvassing businesses for their support, hoping those stores and restaurants will follow the lead of Alexandra Dorian, owner/chef of Emile’s Restaurant.

“This will do nothing but drive the economy here,” said Dorian as she addressed the San Jose City Council May 22 before council members voted to put the measure on the November ballot.

Supporters of the increase plan to canvass businesses all over San Jose to gather support and talk to voters in an effort to pass the measure.

SAN JOSE (April 24, 2012) – The initiative to raise the minimum wage in San Jose has officially qualified for the November ballot, after the City Clerk’s office verified 19,500 names of San Jose voters signed to petitions supporting the measure. The initiative needed 19,161 signatures to qualify, and supporters gathered more than 35,000.

“The voters have spoken even before the election,” said Cindy Chavez, Executive Officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, which is supporting the measure, along with several other community organizations. “The city council can now avoid a costly ballot process by simply passing this measure into law.”

If passed into law, the minimum wage in San Jose would increase from $8 an hour to $10 an hour, allowing thousands of low wage workers a better opportunity to support themselves and their families. When those low wage workers have more money to spend, the entire local economy will benefit. The increased minimum wage will help stimulate economic activity in San Jose.

The San Jose City Council will consider the measure at its next meeting May 1. At that time, council could decide to pass it directly into law, or set it for election in November.

San Jose State University sociology students began the campaign to raise the minimum wage. Their professor, Scott Myers-Lipton, noted “It’s been an incredible opportunity for these young people to apply their passion and dedication to making this community stronger.”

Locally owned and operated by the Lincoln Broadcasting Company, KTSF is the Bay Area’s major Cantonese- and Mandarin-language broadcasting outfit. They reach 2.7 million Asian households in the Nothern California market.

Graciela Mann, of Sacred Heart Community Service, explains the ballot initiative

A Spanish-language news crew from Univision 14 aired a 3-minute segment complete with lengthy (longer than 10 seconds!) interviews with two coalition organizers and minimum wage earner. Now that’sgood reporting!

Votantes logran pasar propuesta de aumentar salario mínimo en San José

Campaña que comenzó en universidad estatal de San José logran las firmas suficientes para ponerlo en la boleta.

(Video courtesy KTVU.com. Original posted at http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/san-jose-supporters-demand-higher-minimum-wage-in/vGjTx/).

Signatures submitted for San Jose minimum wage vote

By John Woolfolk (3/29/2012)

San Jose State students, labor leaders and community organizers submitted some 35,000 signatures Wednesday to qualify a November ballot measure that would make San Jose one of a handful of cities nationwide with their own minimum-wage requirement.

… The idea originated among students in San Jose State University sociology professor Scott Myers-Lipton’s class.

“Tuition has doubled while the minimum wage hasn’t changed at all,” Myers-Lipton said. “They couldn’t afford the basics of tuition and books. Silicon Valley has one of the highest costs of living in the country.”

Mr. Woolfolk doesn’t explicitly say it here, but with a little searching, anyone can figure out that the cost of living in California is much higher than in Washington.

California is among 18 states with hourly minimum wages higher than the $7.25 federal requirement. The state of Washington has the highest requirement at $9.04 an hour. California last raised its minimum wage in 2008 from $7.50 to $8 an hour.

In addition to San Francisco, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M. and Washington, D.C. also have citywide minimum wages, said Jen Kerns, a minimum wage law advocate with Washington, D.C.’s National Employment Law Project. The highest hourly rate is Santa Fe’s $10.29 after an inflation adjustment this month, she said. Many states, she added, don’t allow cities to adopt their own minimum wage rates.

… A total of 3.8 million people nationally earned minimum-wage level pay last year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Naturally, we expect the the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce to oppose this on reflex, and they will imply that they speak for ALL businesses. But do they have regular membership meetings where the membership votes on a position? No, they do not. In fact, they are not required to do so. And are we under any illusion that they don’t represent a broad enough spectrum of businesses? No, we are not. But here’s it’s president is quoted to say:

The San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce has no official position on the proposed measure, president Matthew Mahood said. But most of the small businesses it represents are opposed, he said, citing concerns that they would have to hire fewer people or raise prices to customers, making them less competitive with businesses in neighboring towns.

Clearly, one of the major goals in this campaign is to fight this information by gaining vocal allies in the business community to speak with us. One vague and general belief cannot stand up to a clear evidence to the contrary.

SJ miniumum wage initiative supporters submit signatures

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Supporters of a measure that would increase San Jose’s hourly minimum wage from $8 to $10 say they are submitting than 30,000 signatures to the San Jose City Clerk’s office today in an effort to have the initiative placed on the November ballot.

…The idea for the campaign came about roughly a year ago in Myers-Lipton’s social justice classes, where students discussed minimum wage issues.

From there, a class project by four students snowballed into an effort that now involves the South Bay Labor Council, Working Partnerships USA, Sacred Heart Community Services, the NAACP, Human Agenda, and about 100 students from San Jose State University and De Anza College, Myers-Lipton estimates.

As members of the Coalition delivered the signatures to City Hall this afternoon, we were especially cognizant  of its historical significance.

He said he believes the project is unique because students are “working within the democratic process. They’re not out protesting, they decided to actually change an economic policy by using the ballot.”

Myers-Lipton also noted that it is unusual to have a community-led initiative in San Jose that garners enough support to reach voters.

Toni Taber, assistant city clerk, agreed that “nothing like this has been done in the last five years, at least.”

Myers-Lipton said the initiative has received overwhelming support and that he hopes San Jose can follow the example set by cities like San Francisco and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the hourly minimum wages are $10.24 and $10.29 respectively.

Pacifica News Network journalist Brian Edwards-Tiekert interviewed, by phone, SJSU student Alicia Saint-Laurent and SJSU professor Scott Myers-Lipton. Ms. Saint-Laurent is one of the students in the Sociology class where the campaign began. Professor Myers-Lipton speaks briefly on the origins of the campaign.

Mr. Edwards-Tiekert also interviewed, by phone, Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Matthew Mahood, who gave the usual like about the Chamber’s attitude on wage increases.

Full hour of the broad available at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/79166. Our segment starts around 46 minutes and 11 seconds.

• National Employment Law Project (NELP) — http://www.nelp.org
• Economic Policy Institute (EPI) – http://www.epi.org/
• Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE), UC Berkeley — http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/
• Labor Center, UC Berkeley –http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/