Weekend Activities and Good News in the fight against wage theft

Workers’ Center members are invited to two different activities this weekend: one of our super-duper quarterly potlucks and a movie at  Cinemapolis.

On Saturday, March 6th at 5:30, please join us at the Unitarian Church of Ithaca (on the corner of E. Buffalo and N. Aurora Streets, Ithaca) for a potluck cosponsored with the Religious Taskforce for a Living Wage. The potluck will also be the kickoff for the Fifteenth Annual 40 Hour Fast for Worker Justice which local affiliates of the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State observe. This year, the fast’s theme is From False Idols to Moral Vision; the fast will begin at 8 pm on Saturday and concludes Monday, March 8 at noon when  fast participants will gather at Loaves & Fishes for lunch. Loaves & Fishes is located in the Parish Hall of St. John’s Episcopal Church at 210 North Cayuga Street in Ithaca.

On Sunday, March 7th, TC Workers’ Center members may show their membership cards at Cinemapolis to receive a discount for the commemorative  showing of  You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, the documentary film about Howard Zinn. Zinn, the author of A People’s History of the United States and a tireless activist for human rights, passed away at age 87 on January 27. Following the film at 2 pm on Sunday, please join us for a discussion with Cornell historian Richard Polenberg and IC political scientist Zillah Eisenstein. Cinemapolis is located at 120 E Green Street in Ithaca. The WC member’s ticket price is $5.

And now for something completely different, NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has surprised and delighted worker advocates by arresting the owner of a chain of boutiques in New York City for the theft of $1.5 million dollars in wages from his employees. This is unusual since wage theft has been treated as a civil matter in the past. Many thanks to the Retail Action Project for the tireless work seeking justice for workers. Read the full story here: http://www.labornotes.org/2010/02/ny-boutique-boss-arrested-faces-4-years-jail-stealing-wages