Workers’ Center Certifies Three New Employers as Living Wage

(Ithaca) The Tompkins County Workers’ Center is pleased to announce that we now have certified 96 employers as being Living Wage Employers, having just recently added the latest three such employers:

The Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes; Cinemapolis Theater; and Tompkins County Recycling, LLC, employ a total of 31 workers; this brings the total of workers, countywide and regionally, who are working for Living Wage Employers up to over 2,988 people.  LWE

Says Brett Bossard, Executive Director of Cinemapolis: “As a community institution, the board and I agreed that it was important that Cinemapolis’ values of equality and access to the arts for all be reflected in the way we treated our employees. The staff at the cinema provides a much needed and valued community service, and they should be compensated fairly for their labor.”

The successful campaign to encourage Tompkins County Recycling, LLC (a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems) to pay its workers a Living Wage is a great example of the ‘concerted action’ of two workers in the workplace, Milton Webb and Stanley McPherson, acting in solidarity with each other, and in coordination with a community campaign as organized by the TCWC alongside many supportive County Legislative members.

Says Tompkins County Recycling worker, Milton Webb, who helped to spearhead the campaign: “You know, the guys who are working here do a lot of good work, we work hard and we need that Living Wage. For all of us that are receiving nine or ten dollars an hour and got bumped up to over $12.62 at the beginning of February, we really appreciate this. They will have the pay that they need and that they deserve. They’ll have money to put in the bank. This will make things better for families, for the economy, for everybody. The money will be spent right here in Ithaca. To all of the people who don’t earn a Living Wage because they’re employer won’t pay a Living Wage, hang in there, it’s coming.”
The Workers’ Center initiated the Living Wage Employer Certification Program in 2006 to publicly recognize and reward those employers who pay a living wage. Any employer in the private, public, and non-profit sectors is eligible to apply. With your help, we can provide incentives for other employers in our community! Please go to https://www.tcworkerscenter.org/community/certified-employers/ to find out which employers are Living Wage-Certified, as well as to download criteria and an application form.