Some interesting background to the people involved - from Forbes:
The 'Smoking Gun' Emails That Show Advocates, Academics Coordinated To Boost $15
The evidence is in, and it's not pretty.
This week, the City of Seattle provided a tranche of email records that my organization requested, related to its pro-$15 coordination with a research team at the University of California-Berkeley. (The back-story, for those who are not acquainted with the controversy over a University of Washington report on the city's $15 minimum wage experiment, is available here.)
Interested parties can download the entire email dump and relevant document attachments here.
The email trail provides conclusive proof of the close coordination between the Berkeley research team, the Seattle Mayor's office, and the PR firm promoting the Fight for $15.
Takeaways from the email trail include:
-
- The Seattle Mayor's Office requested that Berkeley omit any mention of the forthcoming University of Washington report from its write-up. The original write-up of the Berkeley paper (available in the document dump) included a section critiquing the forthcoming University of Washington report. The Mayor's office requested that Reich remove it from the report and press materials, and didn't mince words on the reasoning: "Don't want your positive news to serve as a teaser for the UW study." Reich later responded: "I am convinced. Here's an improved version of the release."
- The press release for the Berkeley study was written by the same PR firm (and same PR executive) used by the Fight for $15. Economist Michael Reich sent an already-drafted press release to Berkeley's press shop and the Seattle Mayor's office. This release was authored by Daniel Massey of the PR firm BerlinRosen, who also handles media and has acted as a spokesperson for the Fight for $15. Reich also looped in Paul Sonn from the union-supported, pro-$15 National Employment Law Project (NELP) for his feedback. (The Berkeley team has closely coordinated with Sonn and NELP on past minimum wage testimony and media work.)
More at the site - why am I not surprised that there was serious money behind this. Most labor union contracts have their wages tied to the minimum wage. Boosting this gives a big pay-raise to all of the union workers out there, whether they deserve it or not. I wrote about the University of Washington study here: About that minimum wage - a new study
Leave a comment