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Articles by Joshua Chaisson
Chaisson: Labor unions are working against servers in Michigan
Chaisson: Labor unions are working against servers in Michigan Joshua Chaisson | The Detroit News Labor unions claim to stand with workers. So why are Michigan’s unions working against servers and bartenders and standing with an activist group that’s been sued by its own employees? These strange bedfellows are working together to threaten our livelihoods as tipped restaurant workers.
Commentary: Nominee to head federal Department of Labor has it wrong on tipping
An extraordinary threat to America’s working families is playing out with very little fanfare: President Biden’s nomination of Julie Su as the next secretary of the Department of Labor. The appointment of Su, who formerly served as California Labor and Workforce Development Agency secretary and currently holds the position of deputy secretary of labor, is a terrifying prospect for tipped workers in Maine, who just last year organized to prevent the elimination of the tip credit in Portland.
Christmas is not a hate crime
Without committing a crime, breaking the law, or hurting anyone, Christmas has been declared an enemy of peace. The pro-abortion, anti-family, left-wing media have been vigorously attempting to destroy and demolish the nuclear family, religion, and even good old St. Nick for decades. Some Gen Z parents have even announced this year that they will refuse to allow their children to believe in Santa Claus because they will be "traumatized" when they find out he’s not real.
This Christmas, help others find their miracle
This Christmas is going to be my best. It’s true that many people romanticize the Christmas season and hope they’ll have the best one ever. Perhaps we think everyone in the family will behave and get along this year or that the gift we’ve always wanted will be under the tree. But so often, we are disappointed when Christmas finally comes around.
Here are the states most likely to pass abortion restrictions in 2023
Several state legislatures appear poised to consider new abortion restrictions next year, potentially adding to the dozen-plus states that have already adopted new restrictions since the Supreme Court said in June that there is no constitutional right to abortion . State lawmakers in Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina , and Florida have signaled they might hear proposals to limit access to the procedure in the next legislative session.
Portland throws out hundreds of criminal cases due to public defender shortage
A shortage of public defenders in Portland , Oregon, has led courts to dismiss hundreds of criminal cases and delayed justice for scores of other victims whose cases have languished in a backlog for months. Between February and December of this year, Multnomah County dismissed 300 cases because no public defender was available to represent the defendants, according to the Multnomah district attorney.
The forced masking of children in schools will continue until morale improves
The despicable crusade against children being able to live normal lives in the name of COVID safetyism continues even now. School districts are once again imposing mask mandates on children in defiance of science and basic human empathy. Public school students in Philadelphia will be forcibly masked for 10 days when they return from their winter break in January.
Christmas at the White House
The holiday season is a special time – even at the White House during threatening moments. Here are two Christmas stories. On Christmas Eve in 1929, seven weeks after the stock market crashed and the nation slipped into the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover and first lady Lou Henry Hoover threw a holiday party for White House staff and children. The gathering was off to a great start with a festive dinner, treats, and gifts. The Marine Band played Christmas songs.
US must not forget the abuse of China's Uyghurs
As China begins to ease its “zero-COVID” policy in response to a successful protest movement that swept the country — a protest quite literally sparked by a horrific apartment fire that left many dead and injured — we should celebrate the success of this movement while continuing to put pressure on China ’s totalitarian regime. After all, the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses did not start during the pandemic, nor will they end with it.
European cities cut back on Christmas lights amid energy crunch
Cities across Europe are either turning off or drastically scaling back their Christmas lights this holiday season in efforts to cut back on energy use as the bloc adjusts to its first winter without Russian fossil fuels. With supplies scarce, and the prospect of rations looming, city officials across Austria , Denmark , Germany , and the U.K. , have all imposed limitations on how long the lights can stay on, and whether or not taxpayers will be forced to foot the high bills.
The public health bureaucracy ignored the benefits of exercise during the pandemic
The obsession with lockdowns caused many bureaucrats and politicians to miss several realities during the pandemic. For example, they somehow missed that COVID-19 was more deadly for the obese and that, therefore, we should have been encouraging people to get out and get active, not to shut themselves into their homes.
Is Joe Biden the worst thing for human rights since Henry Kissinger?
Last week’s U.S.-African Leaders Summit was the culmination of months of hard work by diplomats at the State Department and National Security Council. It all went out the window with a single photograph : President Joe Biden watching the World Cup with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Liberian President George Weah, and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Tigrayans and many outside observers accuse Abiy of genocide .
Southern states see large population increase in 2022
Several Southern states were in the top 10 for population growth in 2022, while the number of residents in Northeast and Midwestern states continues to dwindle. The South was the fastest-growing region between 2021 and 2022 by 1.1%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. Six of the top 10 states with the fastest-growing populations were from the South, with Texas and Florida at No. 1 and 2 respectively.
Washington’s worst Christmas tradition
It has been more than a quarter of a century since Congress did its duty to finish appropriations bills on time by Sept. 30. Instead, Congress has waited until the last week before Christmas and then made all spending decisions in a nil-considered rush, with virtually no public debate or amendments, and crammed the lot into a single monstrosity of a bill. It wouldn’t be so bad if all this last-minute legislating splurge dealt only with spending.
Congress must cut restaurant red tape for tipped workers
Economic uncertainties are driving job losses in many industries, but the restaurant and hospitality industry continues to add jobs at a steady clip. The opportunity to earn tips has driven many workers, myself included, into the restaurant industry. We don’t need to be stuck in a cubicle from 9 to 5 to earn well above the minimum wage. INFLATION CONTINUES TO DEFINE BIDEN PRESIDENCY This system has worked well for decades.
Philadelphia's de-policing backlash
In 2017, Larry Krasner was among the first candidates in the country to run as a “progressive prosecutor” in his successful campaign for Philadelphia district attorney. That wave swept across the country, with left-wing lawyers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and elsewhere following the Krasner model: running for the chief prosecutor’s office while promising to decrease prosecutions.
Maine Voices: Portland cannot afford to eliminate the tipped wage
For Portland servers and bartenders, our income security is on the ballot this fall. As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Six years ago, a statewide minimum-wage ballot initiative increased the minimum wage to $12 per hour, but simultaneously eliminated the separate minimum wage for tipped employees. In 2017, I came together with thousands of tipped workers from around the state to successfully lobby the legislature to reinstate this wage.
Tipped minimum wage increase: Not as great for restaurant workers as it sounds | Perspective - Philly
Philly is about to get a lot less hospitable for the hospitality industry. At least, that’s what will happen if Pennsylvania State Senator Christine Tartaglione has her way with a bill that would raise the state’s tipped minimum wage by more than 200 percent. The legislation in question is Senate Bill-1044, and it would raise Pennsylvania’s tipped minimum wage for servers from $2.83 to $9.00 an hour.
The tipped wage is good for waitstaff
Gov. Cuomo recently proposed eliminating New York’s separate minimum wage for restaurant workers who receive tips, calling it “a question of basic fairness.” It’s a topic I’m more familiar with than most. Last year, I helped lead the opposition from thousands of restaurant servers to a similar proposal in Maine. We successfully convinced Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature that this foolish idea would put our tip income and our jobs at risk.
Maine Compass: With tip credit restored in Maine, it's time to go national - CentralMaine.com
What would you do if a law were enacted that took away a large portion of your income? For restaurant servers in Maine, this isn’t a hypothetical situation. A ballot measure passed in November 2016 contained a little-understood provision that would have substantially harmed the full-service restaurant industry and reduced our ability to earn tips. We successfully organized against it in Maine; now, we’re taking our message national.
After success in getting tip credit restored in Maine, it's time to go national - Portland Press Herald
What would you do if a law were enacted that took away a large portion of your income? For restaurant servers in Maine, this isn’t a hypothetical situation. A ballot measure passed in November 2016 contained a little-understood provision that would have substantially harmed the full-service restaurant industry and reduced our ability to earn tips. We successfully organized against it in Maine; now, we’re taking our message national.
After success in getting tip credit restored in Maine, it's time to go national - CentralMaine.com
What would you do if a law were enacted that took away a large portion of your income? For restaurant servers in Maine, this isn’t a hypothetical situation. A ballot measure passed in November 2016 contained a little-understood provision that would have substantially harmed the full-service restaurant industry and reduced our ability to earn tips. We successfully organized against it in Maine; now, we’re taking our message national.
The progressive case for Trump's tip-pooling rule
This month, President Trump's Labor Department proposed a new rule that would permit some restaurants to share (or "pool") tips between servers like myself and "heart of the house" employees, such as cooks and dishwashers. It would rescind a 2011 rule that prohibited restaurants from including these latter employees in a tip pool.
Column: Restaurant servers want to retain ‘tip credit’
I love “Grace and Frankie,” the popular television show starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. As a server, I don’t love these actresses’ recent support for changing Michigan’s minimum wage law to the detriment of tipped restaurant employees. This debate is personal for me.
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