I'm always a bit off balance when working stiffs tell me that raising
the minimum wage would be bad for the nation. A fellow came out today
to remove a huge Yellow Jacket nest above the garage. "Raise the pay
for waitresses and folks will not be so apt to tip, and the girls will
actually make less money than they do now," he assured me.
I told him that this surprised me. "I talk to waitresses from Puget
Sound to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and they mostly are earning
around $8.25 an hour, with no benefits other than tips.
$15.00 would go a long way toward their living a better life."
"But", he came back, "Prices would go up and people would not eat out
as often, and there would be layoffs."
"The first fast food hamburger I bought was at Dicks Drive in back
around 1955. It cost 19 cents. Fries were 11 cents and a shake cost
me 24 cents. Last Friday I paid around $8.50 for a McDonalds Chicken
Club meal. We were third in line and the cars kept coming behind us.
People will adjust and still carry on life about the same as when the
minimum wage was $1.00 per hour."
He shook his head and went up the ladder to capture the Yellow Jackets.
I know it's a case of, Catch up and Fall behind, catch up again and
fall behind again. But with no better plan on the table, we can't
just sit around and watch families torn apart through poverty. And
what's this about reaching $15. per hour by 2020? People need relief
right now, not five years from now.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/22/15, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2015/7923/792359.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 23 June 22, 2015
(SWP statement)
Keep up fight for $15 and a union!
This statement was issued June 9 by Bill Arth, chairperson of the
Socialist Workers Party in Los Angeles.
Across the country thousands of fast-food, hotel and retail workers have
marched and demonstrated for a $15 minimum wage and a union. The
campaign is having a big impact, first and foremost on working people by
increasing our self-confidence that when we fight, when we mobilize in
massive numbers, our solidarity and unity can score gains. That’s the
lesson from the decision by the Los Angeles City Council to raise the
minimum wage to $15 by 2020.
Of course, the nearly 50 percent of Los Angeles workers who earn less
than $15 per hour today, need the raise to $15 now, not in five years.
That’s why the fight can’t pause. An increased minimum wage benefits all
of us because low pay puts downward pressure on everyone’s wages.
The labor of workers and farmers produces society’s wealth. The
capitalist class takes away the lion’s share as profits. That’s why
bosses want to keep wages as low as they can get away with. When we
fight for higher wages we are fighting to get a bigger share of the
value we create.
The bosses try to sow fear and division among us by arguing that a
higher minimum wage will lead to layoffs, skyrocketing prices and
workers losing government benefits because they make too much money. But
a strong movement for higher pay puts us in a better position to
campaign for other pressing needs like government-guaranteed universal
health care from cradle to grave, a federally-funded public works
program to create jobs for all, workers control of safety on the job and
against capitalism’s wars abroad.
The fight for $15 is strengthened by its intersection with the growing
movement against police brutality that has scored gains such as the
recent indictment of six Baltimore cops for killing Freddie Gray.
Workers should soundly reject the proposal by Los Angeles County
Federation of Labor leader Rusty Hicks to exempt union workers from
being covered by the $15 minimum. This is a travesty of what the union
movement must stand for and plays right into the hands of bosses who
argue that unions are a special-interest group concerned only with
collecting dues.
Workers built unions to overcome competition among ourselves and to
defend ourselves against the bosses’ never-ending assaults. Our strength
comes from using solidarity and the collective power of a mobilized
workforce. Our unions must embrace the growing movement against police
brutality — Black Lives Matter. By fighting for the interests of the
entire working class, unions will attract more workers and become a more
powerful force.
Bosses and workers have opposed interests. Rather than relying on the
Democrats, the Republicans or so-called independents and socialists like
Bernie Sanders who trail after them — all beholden to the bosses — we
must forge a labor party based on fighting unions, a political tool
workers can use to better act in our interests, not in the interests of
the capitalist exploiters.
Related articles:
LA raises minimum wage, but at snail’s pace
On the Picket Line
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
