A Modern Revolution in Labor — We Need A Living Wage
Labor Day is a day to recognize the Labor Movement, and the activists and Union members who fought for all of the workers rights we enjoy today. Without their blood, sweat, and tears, even the concept of a weekend may have been foreign today. Today, we face different problems. We face the slow undermining of workers pay and rights in the face of corporate greed. More than 45 million Americans are living in poverty. That’s 14.5 million children, 24.1 million women, 10 million African-Americans, 12.1 million Hispanics, 700,000 Native Americans, and 4.4 million disabled citizens. We must now take courage from the activists of decades prior and bring about a modern Revolution in Labor. The first step is raising the minimum wage.
To do that, we must accomplish three tasks:
1) Support unions and fight disastrous “right-to-work” laws
2) Elect progressive politicians, who will fight for a living wage at all levels of government
3) Grow the grassroots movement lobbying Congress to pass H.R. 15, the ‘Raise the Wage’ Act.
The fight ahead won’t be easy, but we are already making progress. Leading the charge is ‘Fight For 15’, an national organization that has grassroots campaigns in Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington, and more. With their efforts and the efforts of activists and union members, 19 states raised their minimum wage above the federal required level starting in 2017.
Still, we cannot take this gradual change when people are struggling to feed their children and make a life in this country. We must bring the fight to Washington with full force in 2018 and 2020. We must find and elect politicians who fully support a $15 minimum wage. If we stand together, we can accomplish just that.
In Solidarity,
The Political Revolution
Today, Senator Bernie Sanders will be holding a live stream to talk about workers rights and raising the minimum wage. Watch Bernie on the Labor Day Celebration Stream on Bernie2016tv!
