The workers of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring (TPSS) Co-op have recently delivered a letter asking for improved wages and union recognition, which we have attached below.



We feel that as members of the co-op and the wider community that these goals and values align with the ideals and principles of the co-op and should be recognized and supported!



We are asking co-op and community members to sign this petition to show their support. Let's work together to support a living wage and stronger communities!





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Attention fellow TPSS Member-Owners:





Dear President Rachel Hardwick, Vice President Robert Anderson, and Members of the Board:



As workers and fellow member-owners of the Takoma Park Silver Spring Cooperative, we seek to create a workplace that is horizontal and democratically-governed. Where the workers’ health and wellness is valued as much, if not more, than their labor.



We wish to form a worker-led decision making organization, recognized by the board, which would serve as both a collective voice and vehicle for positive change in our workplace and the larger Takoma Park community. We believe that a worker-led organization would create a workplace that lives up to the vision, values and goals of TPSS. Moreover, it would center the cooperative’s work in the community, the workers’ wellbeing, and the health of our planet.



Therefore, we, the undersigned, who represent the worker-owners of the Takoma Park Silver Spring Cooperative, seek the following:



$3.50/hour increase in wages for all current workers effective July 30, 2017. This wage increase would bring all current workers to at least an hourly wage of $15.00/hour. We need a starting wage of $15/hour to subsist in the Washington D.C. area. In reality, a full-time worker needs to make roughly $31.00/hour [ https://tinyurl.com/ycdtw3v7 ] in order to afford a market-rate apartment in Washington, D.C. We believe a wage increase is necessary for the survival of the TPSS workers.





All new hires will receive a starting wage of $15.00/hour.





The TPSS Cooperative Board of Representatives to immediately recognize the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) as the workers representative and sole agent for the purpose of collective bargaining.





We look forward to your decision by July 28, 2017.





United in solidarity,



TPSS Workers Union - IWW



cc: TPSS Co-op Board of Representatives; General Management; Member-Owners