Our mission is to build a movement to achieve economic justice, by engaging directly affected women to improve working conditions.

9to5 is a national, grassroots membership organization that strengthens women’s ability to work for economic justice. In California we are involved in the fight against job discrimination and harassment and for equal pay, paid sick days, and immigrant rights. (Read More…)

9to5 Bay Area, 2302 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95131
Phone: 408-432-6044, Fax: 408-432-6044

9to5 Los Angeles, 630 Shatto Place, Los Angeles, CA 90005
Phone: 213-201-7029, Fax: 213-389-1816

E-Mail: workingwomen@9to5bayarea.org

Each weekend over the summer, 9to5 will be tabling and registering voters at community festivals. A Red date indicates a scheduled outreach event for 9to5 Bay Area. Click on the date to view details and sign-up to volunteer. A Green date indicates a scheduled outreach event for 9to5 Los Angeles. Click on the date to view details and sign-up to volunteer.

If a date is not colored, then no event has yet been scheduled. Click the date to add an event.

Women in the United States are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their white male counterparts. For women of color, the numbers are even worse - African American women earn 63 cents and Latinas earn 53 cents for every dollar paid to white men.

Advocates are pushing for a vote in the Senate on the Fair Pay Restoration Act by the end of April to commemorate Equal Pay Day. The Fair Pay Restoration Act would correct the recent Supreme Court ruling, Ledbetter v. Goodyear, which made it virtually impossible for women who face pay discrimination to take action against their employers. The bill would give all employees a better shot at a fair workplace, making it easier to ensure justice for those who have been discriminated against based on sex, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, and age.

by Lilly Ledbetter, Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Good evening. Many of you are probably asking: Who is that grandmother from Alabama at the podium? I can assure you, nobody is more surprised, or humbled, than I am. I’m here to talk about America’s commitment to fairness and equality, and how people like me—and like you—suffer when that commitment is betrayed.

How fitting that I speak to you on Women’s Equality Day, when we celebrate ratification of the amendment that gave women the right to vote. Even as we celebrate, let’s also remind ourselves: the fight for equality is not over. I know that from personal experience. I was a trailblazer when I went to work as a female supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama.

My job demanded a lot, and I gave it 100 percent. I kept up with every one of my male co-workers. But toward the end of my 19 years at Goodyear, I began to suspect that I wasn’t getting paid as much as men doing the same job. An anonymous note in my mailbox confirmed that I was right. Despite praising me for my work, Goodyear gave me smaller raises than my male co-managers, over and over.

Those differences affected my family’s quality of life then, and they affect my retirement now. When I discovered the injustice, I thought about moving on. But in the end, I couldn’t ignore the discrimination. So I went to court. A jury agreed with me. They found that my employer had violated the law and awarded me what I was owed.

I hoped the verdict would make my company feel the sting, learn a lesson and never again treat women unfairly. But they appealed, all the way to the Supreme Court, and in a 5-to-4 decision our highest court sided with big business. They said I should have filed my complaint within six months of Goodyear’s first decision to pay me less, even though I didn’t know that’s what they were doing.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the ruling made no sense in the real world. She was right. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make sure what was done to me couldn’t happen again. But when it got to the Senate, enough Republicans opposed it to prevent a vote.

We can’t afford more of the same votes that deny women their equal rights. Barack Obama is on our side. He is fighting to fix this terrible ruling, and as president, he has promised to appoint justices who will enforce laws that protect everyday people like me. But this isn’t a Democratic or a Republican issue. It’s a fairness issue. And fortunately, there are some Republicans—and a lot of Democrats—who are on our side.

My case is over. I will never receive the pay I deserve. But there will be a far richer reward if we secure fair pay. For our children and grandchildren, so that no one will ever again experience the discrimination that I did. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental American principle. We need leaders in this country who will fight for it. With all of us working together, we can have the change we need and the opportunity we all deserve.

Thank you.

(Read More…)

Workers shouldn’t have to choose between their family and a paycheck. Working women need the right to be SICK and not lose the day’s pay. Almost half of today’s fulltime workers and three-fourths of part-timers (6 million people in California) have NO paid sick days.

Who Needs Paid Sick Days?

Claire	Janel	Christina

Join the Campaign for Paid Sick Days in California! (Read More…)

It looks like our Great State is in deep trouble again. Everyone knows it’s important to live within a budget, and to balance spending with income. This time there are no quick fixes left - and it’s time to Tax the RICH!

Not in California. Our Governor says he cannot raise taxes to pay the bills. And he cannot take away the tax breaks he gives to rich corporations and the loopholes he allows for rich residents.

He thinks maybe he’ll try to raid the state lottery. Meanwhile, he wants to cut education, health care, child care, social services, and CalWORKS - the one program that helps women get the education they need to qualify for a living wage job and a future!

9to5 is here to join the chorus of voices against these proposed budget cuts. We went to Sacramento twice in May, with California Partnership, and with Parent Voices. We took toy yachts to Republican Senator Ackerman’s office - to ask him to start paying sales taxes on those luxury boats he and others own

A Young Californian in Sacramento

Later in May, we co-sponsored a local hearing in Inglewood with Holy Faith Episcopal Church, to tell Assemblyman Curren Price our concerns. Nancy Berlin, from the anti-poverty California Partnership coalition, gave a brilliant analysis of the budget.

TAKE ACTION!

Valentine’s Day Budget Action, at the Governor’s office on Spring St, downtown L.A.

The Californians for Self-Sufficiency just published a true cost-of-living standard for each county in California. (May, 2008) The CFES Standard is bare-bones and realistic. It is an accurate measurement of what it really takes to make ends meet in today’s economy.

In Los Angeles, it takes $51,371/year for a single parent with two kids (one pre-school, one school-age). That is $24.32/hour for a forty hour work week.

In the past 5 years, basic costs in L.A. have skyrocketed:

• Child care costs up by 12%
• Food costs up by 15%
• Health care costs up by 32%
• Gas is over $4.00/gallon and rising!

WRITE THE GOVERNOR and please fax or mail a copy of your letter to 9to5 L.A.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

(Read More…)

Workplace Bullying

9to5 members have lobbied for legislative protections against the psychological violence of workplace bullying.

9to5 members have worked closely with California Healthy Workplace Advocates Working in coalition we have explained to state legislators how careers can be ruined and workers left with no more than a last paycheck and a bottle of anti-depressants when a supervisor targets a conscientious employee for harassment.

“For serious change to occur, it’s inevitable that individual(s) make attempts to cross over that line and “stick their necks out.” If that does not happen, the dehumanization and decay of the American system will continue its downward spiral because of complacency and fear to ‘rock the boat.’ “

Linda Viloria, San Francisco Healthy Workplace Coordinator and 9to5 Bay Area activist

Backed by a bill first written and introduced in 2004 a search is underway for a legislative sponsor.

Links for anyone who has been bullied on the job:

Dr. Gary Namie, foremost expert: www.workplacebullying.org.
California Healthy Workplace Advocates: www.bullyfreeworkplace.org.

(Read More…)

We hear a lot of talk in the United States today about “family values.” We need Expanded Leave for Parents and Caregivers (Read More…)

Health Care for All in California: Everybody In - Nobody Out. Our healthcare system is not only broken; it’s in crisis. (Read More…)

9to5 is working as an ally of labor unions and community groups. We work for better wages and job opportunities for working women in California and across the nation.

LAX Hotel Industry Campaign

A coalition of community, civic and faith leaders is engaged in an effort to address conditions for the 3,500 workers employed at hotels near the Los Angeles International Airport. The coalition has gathered thousands of signatures, participated in numerous rallies, passed city policy and testified at public hearings as part of a citywide mobilization in support of hotel workers on Century Boulevard.

Hotels near LAX have enjoyed the highest occupancy rates in Los Angeles, yet many workers in these hotels still live in poverty. Hotel workers in the LAX/PCH submarket earn 20% less than their counterparts in downtown L.A. Average annual earnings for LAX/PCH workers is $20,328 – barely above the federal $20,000 federal poverty threshold for a family of four. Some workers qualify for multiple government-assistance programs.

(Read More…)

Goodyear, Wal-Mart, Workplace Bullying — Taking on the Big Boys (Read More…)