REV UP members and Austin ADAPT members joined together to celebrate disability voting rights week. Travis County Tax Assessor Collector and head of voter registration for our county was in attendance as well. Those who were voters shared why voting was important to them and up and coming voters registered and shared why they wanted to vote.

Gulf Coast ADAPT’s Lydia Nunez participated in several events around Harris County and registered voters at the Disability Expo in Houston.

REV UP Texas is part of a lawsuit that will go to trial next week challenging some of the disability voter suppression laws passed by the Texas Legislature recently..

Austin folks show their signs telling why voting is important to them.

Photo: Cathy Cranston.

Starbucks now has engaged an international law firm to communicate about this letter of apology. How hard can it be to write a letter? Only Starbucks knows for sure.

Here is a survey to share your experience with the coffee company. Your response to the survey is much appreciated.
click here for survey

Desert ADAPT members in front of El Paso Starbucks

Today ADAPT of Texas and Desert ADAPT protested at Starbucks because of their disabilityDesert ADAPT members in front of El Paso Starbucks discrimination. Amazingly, the regional manager refuses to write a simple letter of apology and send their policy against discrimination based on disability.
In El Paso the local manager was a reasonable human being, and the crack troops of Desert ADAPT fairly quickly negotiated for him write to the Regional Manager Tim Klein asking for the letter. In Austin they continued with their sanctimonious stonewalling. “We already said we were sorry” the district manager Susan snipped, as if after throwing someone out for absolutely no reason we should be grateful for whatever crumbs they deigned to toss in our direction.
Add your message to Klein that just because they are dealing with people with disabilities that does not mean any old B’s will do. After all how damn hard is it write a letter?

Austin ADAPT in front of Starbucks in Austin

contact Tim Klein 904-993-8251 or tklein@starbucks.com. And tell him to stop the discrimination and send the letter.

Domestic workers groups including We Dream in Black, Fe y Justicia, Misma, National Domestic Workers Alliance, AFL-CIO, Restaurant Workers Union, OPEIU, Workers Defense Fund, with the coordination and support of Every Texan, asked PACT and ADAPT to join their rally for better wages and benefits for direct care workers and more. Others spoke movingly about domestic workers, child care and nanny’s, housekeepers and other domestics workers some of whom had been paid as low as $2 per hour. PACT organizer Cathy Cranston showed her beautiful passion as she spoke about our decades long battle to raise Medicaid attendants wages.

the House and Senate have passed their budgets and now are in conference committee to finalize the budget for the state for 2024 through 2025. We are supporting the Senate version because it raises attendant wages over 40%. It’s not $15 per hour but it will still be a huge jump for the millions of attendants in Texas. Call your legislators and tell them this is a critical raise or we won’t have attendants at all in 2 years; after all we a facing a crisis right now!

It is ironic that the same legislators who are crowing about this significant wage hike are the same ones who have kept the wages so depressed for so long. None the less it is important we all let our legislators know we support the Senate version of the budget for our issue. Let them hear from you!

Good Afternoon ADAPT Members, Disability Rights Advocates, Supporters of Disability Rights and Community Attendant Rights for Wage Justice,

We realize you have called before but we need you to call again.  The Budget Bill has now passed on the Senate side.  Now the bill will go to Conference Committee.

There will be members from the House and Senate on the Conference Committee.  It is so important that we keep the pressure up on the key point legislators.   They will make the decision on what goes forward.

Now is the time to continue pressure on the State Legislative Decision Makers.  We are headed in the right direction with the wage, but we must continue pushing them to a $15/hour base wage.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Call:

Senate Finance Chairwoman Huffman at: 512-463-0117

Senator Kolkhorst, Article 2, at 512-463-0118

House Appropriations Chairman Bonnen at 512-463-0729

Representative Jacey Jetton, Article 2, at 512-463-0710

House Speaker Phelan, 512-463-1000

Lt. Governor Patrick, 512-463-0001

Call & Ask for their Budget Person & Tell Them to Raise the Base Wage for Community Attendants to $15/HR. Nothing Less Will Do!

If you have any questions, please contact Cathy or Nancy Crowther

Thank you.

Free Our People!

Community Attendants Equal Independence!

Cathy Cranston and Nancy Crowther

ADAPT of Texas/Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas

1100 S. IH 35

Austin, TX 78704

O# 512.442.0252

ADAPT Members, Disability Rights Advocates, Supporters of Disability Rights and Community Attendant Rights for Wage Justice,

Call NOW!!

Now is the time to continue pressure on the State Legislative Decision Makers.  We are headed in the right direction with the wage, but we must continue pushing them to a $15/hour base wage.

Call:

Senate Finance Chairwoman Huffman: 512-463-0117

Senator Kolkhorst, Article 2, at 512-463-0118

House Appropriations Chairman Bonnen at 512-463-0729

Representative Jacey Jetton, Article 2, at 512-463-0710

Call & Ask for the Budget Person & Tell Them to Raise the Base Wage for Community Attendants to $15/HR. 

Nothing less will do!

If you have any questions, please contact Cathy at flacacata@aol.com

or Nancy Crowther at ncrowther21@gmail.com.

Thank you. Free Our People!

Community Attendants Equal Independence!

Cathy Cranston and Nancy Crowther

ADAPT of Texas/Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas

1100 S. IH 35

Austin, TX 78704

O# 512.442.0252

Don’t forget! Call today!

There’s no safety here for disabled people.

All disabled people do not look alike. We are not all the same.

WHAT DO WE WANT? We want a proper letter, on letterhead, and signed by Mr. Klein, apologizing for Starbucks kicking our member out of their store for no reason.
we want a written policy from Starbucks of non-discrimination against people with disabilities.

#StarbucksDiscriminatesDisability

#DisabledCoffeeLover

#AccessIsACivilRight

Our member was told to get out of this store (15th & San Antonio, Austin TX) because someone else in a wheelchair made a ruckus 5 months earlier.

contact Tim Klein, Regional Director 904-993-8251 tiklein@starbucks.com and tell him to stop the discrimination, write the letter and get & enforce a policy on non-discrimination.

ADAPT of Texas has lost two dear friends last week. Tim Thornton of the Denver area was a tried and true friend to all of the ADAPT network who supported us all during national actions as well as in between. Former Co-Director of Atlantis Tim left to start an attendant services agency of his own. He went the extra mile for everyone, was ready to do whatever needed to be done from wheelchair repair, to attendant services, to picking up a hundred hamburgers and sneaking them into an occupied office, to whatever the moment might call for. Such a gentle, friendly, warm person he leaves a huge hole.

Closer to home, Gene Rodgers also passed away last week. Gene was an ADAPTer from way back in the early days of Wade and the buses. When he moved to Austin he got right involved with our group, and although his busy life kept taking him away he would return and pitch in where he could. He covered our issues on the Gene and Dave show, made funny videos to carry the point with humor, testified at the Capitol and was willing to use his personal story to put a face to the need for more attendants and for better wages. Just this fall and winter he was featured in lengthy articles on these subjects. But, as Gene tells in his book Awesome by Accident, he had tons of other fascinating adventures. He was determined to live life to the fullest. David Dauber made this beautiful tribute to Gene; Click here for the tribute.

Bob Kafka, on his radio show/podcast Barrier Free Futures, interviewed Gene about his life and book: click here to hear the show.