Vermont People's Platform | Rights & Democracy Vermont

VT PEOPLE'S PLATFORM

We are united to fight for and secure our rights to build a true democracy. Rights guarantee that we all have what we need to live, and a true democracy gives voice to those rights.

We embrace our shared humanity and commit ourselves to a unified struggle to claim our rights, build collective power, and achieve systemic change for ourselves and our planet.

We envision a society with human rights and a vibrant democracy at its core, and our work to bring that society into existence is guided by a commitment to equity, universality, solidarity, justice, accountability and transparency, power, sustainability, and freedom:

Our People’s Platform includes:

Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and eliminate the tipped minimum wage and sub-minimum wage for high school workers.

Enact paid family and medical leave, strengthen enforcement against worker misclassification and lower the barriers to workers collectively bargaining for their rights.

Implement an equitably and publicly financed system of health care as a human right for all as envisioned in Act 48, Vermont’s 2011 health care law, and pass Universal Primary Care.

Invest in the infrastructure and protections necessary to ensure these key human and environmental rights

Prevent lead poisoning by Streamlining federal and state requirements around lead-based paint, esp. lead-safe work practices and permit/training requirements. Ban fossil fuel infrastructure.

Ensure the recommendations of the newly created Racial Justice Oversight Board are followed in order to address implicit racial bias in our criminal justice system and other state institutions in Vermont by supporting the creation of an Equity Commission for the Mitigation of Systemic Racism.

Advance racial justice in our education system

Protect women’s right to control their own bodies and destinies, fight the prevalent sexual harassment facing women in Vermont, advance gender pay equity, and advance more equitable public accommodations for transgender people in Vermont.

Prevent sexual harassment in Vermont workplaces. Mandate reporting of wage discrimination data. Expand wage discrimination protections to all protected classes and prohibits disclosure of previous pay.

Prohibit photographing, filming, or recording a person at a peer support group without that person’s consent

Support reforms to our criminal justice system to end mass incarceration, prohibit for profit prisons, treat addiction as a healthcare issue not a criminal justice issue and enable a humane approach to justice that does not criminalize poverty

Empower communities to move toward a 100-percent renewable energy economy while prioritizing opportunities for local ownership and democratic participation in shaping our just transition away from fossil fuels.

Make our tax structure more progressive by creating an education property tax that is adjusted by income for all taxpayers

Stop the bribery by closing the revolving door between elected office and lobbying. Give every voter a voice by empowering voters to rank their top candidates to avoid “spoiler candidates” and fix our broken public campaign finance system.

Officially recognize Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day. Establish an Office of Native American Affairs within the Department of Housing and Community Development

End involuntary sterilization of ppl with disabilities. Oppose all cuts to programs that benefit people with disabilities in living Vermont.