Ignore the hype. Check the facts to see who's really fighting for working Americans.
Who's investing in people? Promoting shared prosperity? Pushing companies to pay their workers a fair wage? Ensuring workers’ rights to organize? Who's letting wealthy donors exploit workers?
Swipe right to get the facts. Then make your call.
Who's fighting for you?
Interactive storytelling. Swipe Right.
This story presents the facts and invites readers to decide for themselves. The story presents both the Democratic and Republican perspective on six key issues. Readers swipe to see the facts. A side panel provides background information including videos. The physical engagement with the story to see the answer increases reader engagement.
Let workers organize
The Democrats’ new labor reform bill does several things, but the goal is to cut down on the bureaucracy that’s involved when workers try to form labor unions, and to penalize companies that try to stop them. For example, it would bar businesses from making employees attend meetings to discourage them from joining a union, and would require both sides to quickly mediate disputes that often stall unionizing and contract negotiations. The bill would also let the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hit companies with monetary penalties each time they fire someone for lawfully unionizing. Right now, companies just have to pay back wages to the employee and give them back their job if the board finds them at fault. - VOX
Health benefits
Union represented workers have substantially greater access to health, pension, paid time off, and other benefits. Corporations do not appreciate the higher wages and benefits because they cut into profits. - Common Dreams
Democrats push to expand health care benefits under President Joe Biden ’s massive “Build Back Better” plan. The $3.5 trillion domestic agenda bill touches almost all aspects of American life, from taxes to climate change, but the health care components are a cornerstone for Democrats, amplified during the COVID-19 crisis. For the nearly 145 million Americans covered by government health programs, along with their families and communities, the investment in the nation's services could make a difference in the quality of life for decades. - ABC
Bringing jobs back to America
Nearly every single House Republican voted against legislation that would lower costs for families, bring manufacturing jobs home, and make the United States more competitive with China. The America COMPETES Act would continue the economic momentum built by President Biden. - Democrats
Democrat trade policies puts workers first. We will negotiate strong and enforceable standards for labor, human rights, and the environment in the core text of our trade deals. Future trade agreements should build on the pro-labor provisions added to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) by Democratic members of Congress. Democrats are taking aggressive action against China or any other country that tries to undercut American manufacturing by manipulating their currencies and maintaining a misaligned exchange rate with the dollar, dumping products like steel and aluminum in our markets, or providing unfair subsidies. They're standing up to efforts from China and other state actors to steal America’s intellectual property and will demand China and other countries cease and desist from conducting cyber espionage against our companies. - Democrats
Workplace Sexual Harassment
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has also sought to spotlight sexual harassment in lower-wage workplaces . "I hope and expect that you are taking steps to address concerns about misconduct in your industry and to ensure your members’ workplaces are free from harassment.” The Senate’s bill to improve its own practices for handling sexual harassment claims has stalled, reportedly due to concerns from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the extent to which lawmakers should foot the bill for settlement payments. - HuffPost
Safe working conditions
Republicans want to undermine the government’s top workplace safety enforcer, and allow dangerous employers to run wild. The GOP wants to do away with a regulation that maintained the power of an OSHA workplace injury record keeping rule. The rule would undercut the agency's ability to levy fines against high-violation companies that consistently fail to keep records of workplace injuries. - Prospect
"When the coronavirus first surged last spring, meat processing plants became one of the early work places to see large outbreaks of the virus. Some plants temporarily closed, but after companies warned of food shortages, Trump ordered them to stay open. Workers were deemed essential, and the fast processing line speeds often required them to spend long hours breathing right next to each other without masks. As many continued to get sick throughout the year, unions tried to raise the alarm, and in some cases protested the working conditions and lack of oversight. Democrats have joined unions and labor experts in criticizing OSHA for the limited number of citations and penalties it has issued to employers as the coronavirus has swept across the country." - Time
Living Wage
The federal minimum wage has sat at $7.25 per hour since 2009. Democrats want an increase up to $15 per hour, phased in over several years. But they can’t vote on it due to the threat of a Republican Senate filibuster, which needs 60 votes to overcome. - Forbes
Democrats fight to increase the federal minimum wage to $15. As Vice President, Biden helped get state and local laws increasing the minimum wage across the finish line – including in New York State – and has supported eliminating the tipped minimum wage. This increase would include workers who aren’t currently earning the minimum wage, like the farmworkers who grow our food and domestic workers who care for our aging and sick and for those with disabilities.
It's time to ensure workers in the “gig economy” and beyond receive the legal benefits and protections they deserve. Employer misclassification of “gig economy” workers as independent contractors deprives these workers of legally mandated benefits and protections. Employers in construction, service industries, and other industries also misclassify millions of their employees as independent contractors to reduce their labor costs at the expense of these workers.- Empower Workers
ASO Communications
Anat Shenker-Osorio, the founder of ASO Communications examines why certain messages falter where others deliver. She has led research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice.
- Conventional wisdom says to meet people where they are. But, on most issues, where they are is unacceptable.
- Applying tools from cognition and linguistics, we uncover where people are capable of going and how to use our words, images and stories to move them.
- Progressive messages often lead with "no" and "don't." We rely on fear and anger — reactive emotions.
- To sustain long-term movements, we must shift from cataloging what we're resisting to painting a desirable portrait of the world we seek.
- If your words don't spread, by definition, they don't work. To break a signal through the incessant political noise requires constant repetition.
- That's why our messages must persuade the middle while also energizing the base.
The call to action in the guide is based on the ASO guide:
"No matter where we come from or what our color, most of us work hard for our families. But today, certain politicians and their corporate donors profit by dividing us. They try to make us fear each other so we won’t come together to demand the schools, health care, and jobs all of our families need. They try to make us fear each other so we won’t come together to demand the schools, health care, and jobs all of our families need.We need to go all in for all of us, joining together with people from all walks of life to make a better future for us all. Together, we make the future, and we will rewrite the rules to make this a country where all of us can prosper."
TakeAway: Persuade the middle while energizing the base with interactive, digital storytelling.
Deepak
DemLabs
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