Hello families,
News: The recent protest and unionizing at Milk and Honey is an important opportunity to speak to children about protests in their community. If your children notice protesters, or you decide to join in these actions, you can help them understand why people are protesting. The use of the four square tool (ouch makers, ouch feelers, bystanders, and upstanders) can be helpful in breaking down a situation. We might say that the people who work at Milk and Honey are feeling scared and worried about getting sick at work and are ouch feelers. These workers are saying “No!” to working (protesting) as part of being upstanders for themselves. Other people who heard about them feeling scared and unsafe are joining them; going from bystanders to upstanders. There are many ouch makers in this situation, and we suggest with kids focusing on the ouch feelers and upstanders.
If you are not sure about what’s going on yourself, below is a statement by workers to the public. Let us know if you have any further questions on discussing this with your child.
“We as the employees of Milk and Honey Market have been called back to work without consultation about our needs in this moment of crisis, leaving many of us in precarious situations with regards to health, housing and safety. We have demanded that the owners acknowledge our group as a union and engage with us in collective bargaining. We have made a list of demands for what we need to keep ourselves and our customers safe. These demands include:
-Adequate PPE for all staff at all times, and the ability to stop service if this is not available.
-Appropriate signage for customers and employees about government guidelines regarding safety during the Covid 19 pandemic.
-Resources for navigating interactions with customers or staff who do not follow these guidelines
-An emergency plan in place should an employee show signs of or test positive for Covid 19
-15$/hr minimum pay for all employees moving forward.
In response to these demands, the owners posted a sign May 28th seeking new employees with a starting pay of 17$/hr, 2$ more than they offered to pay longtime staff who were willing to return to a safe environment. We as a staff have collectively decided not to return to work until the owners acknowledge our union and meet all of our demands. We have also updated our demands to ask for 17$/hr to reflect the wages they are offering new hires. We encourage others in the community not to accept employment or shop at milk and honey until these demands have been met. “
Patterns Week 4:
Focus for the week: Singing pattern songs and drawing children’s attention to the repeated refrain. Build patterns out of materials while children observe/help. Talk aloud about what you are doing using the word pattern.
Activity: On our Monday Zoom call, we’ll sing “Icky Sticky Bubblegum” together, and talk as a group about how the repetition of the verses build a pattern!
