Reject Wagner’s poverty wage ‘compromise’

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By 15 NOW PHILADELPHIA—Across the United States a surging movement of the working class is fighting for at least a $15 an hour minimum wage. Fast-food and WalMart workers are organizing and striking for a $15/hour wage, alongside mass demonstra­ tions like the Martin Luther King Day of Action, Resistance and Empowerment on Jan. 19. During this historic march, 7000 people took the streets of Philadelphia, call­ ing for racial justice, education funding, a $15/hour minimum wage, and union rights.

Americans overwhelmingly support this call for dramatically higher wages: a re­ cent poll by the National Employment Law Center found 63% of Americans support a $15 an hour minimum wage. Here in Phila­ delphia, economists broadly recognize the need for a minimum wage of at least $17/ hour for all Philadelphia workers, just so a SUPERIOR, Wis.—Jan. 11 was the last day of work for 27 janitors and grounds keepers at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. They lost their jobs after a dramatic nine-month battle with university administrators.

Like many colleges across the state, the University of Wisconsin-Superior is facing a major budget crisis. This is largely due to massive cuts to higher education funding by the Republican Governor Scot Walker, and his Demo­ cratic predecessor, Jim Doyle. But the budget crisis was also caused by the construction of a slew of new buildings over the last several years, including an expensive new student center, despite opposition from students.

UWS administrators choose to try to balance their bud­ get on the backs of the lowest paid, and most vulnerable workers on campus. In the spring of 2014 they announced that they were going to explore outsourcing the univer­ sity’s entire custodian and grounds-keeping department to the lowest bidder. This was despite the fact that the overworked janitors only made $11-$14/hour to begin with.

Workers and community members immediately sprang into action to demand that the college reverse course.

Spearheaded by AFSCME, which represents the janitors;

the AFT, which represents the faculty; and members of Socialist Action, a broad coalition was organized. parent can afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city. For companies in Philadelphia, a $15 an hour minimum wage is a bargain. Even Tea Party Republican State Senator Scott Wagner can no longer deny the power of this movement. Senator Wagner recent­ ly introduced a weak tea bill to phase in a laughable increase in the state minimum wage to $8.75 over three years, while lock­ ing in a substandard $7.25 “training wage,” and only a small increase in the tipped mini­ mum wage (which should be totally elimi­ nated). Senator Wagner’s bill also fails to clarify the power of municipalities to raise wages on a local basis.

This bill is a naked attempt to cut across the public debate on raising the wage and divide the forces fighting for an increase by offering a “reasonable” compromise. But for working-class families in Pennsylvania, Wagner’s “poverty preservation” bill is way too little, and way too late. The terms of this poverty wage bill are an outright insult to workers who have been organizing for $15 an hour and a union, taking risks at their workplace, confronting abuse managers and organizing their coworkers for mass strikes in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

All organizations fighting to raise the min­ imum wage in Pennsylvania need to come together to oppose this rotten bill. Senator Wagner acknowledges the inevitability of a minimum wage hike and wants to lock in poverty wages in Pennsylvania for as long as possible.

We initiated our campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour based on what working-class families need for basic eco­ nomic security, not on what we thought was a “reasonable” compromise. It is up to those opposed to raising the wage to propose “compromise” language. We do not bargain with ourselves.

We know one thing for certain: this sena­ A mass letter-writing campaign was launched, followed by a petition drive in which several thousand people signed in support of the threatened janitors. Supporters reached out to local officials and community organiza­ tions, and were able to get the city council of Superior and the Douglas County Board, together with numerous union locals and other groups, to pass resolutions against the proposed outsourcing of jobs.

Numerous pickets and other actions were also held. A contingent of janitors and their families marched in the Superior July 4 parade, where they received a standing ovation. On July 26, over 250 workers from the commu­ nity and across the state converged on the UWS campus for a march and rally.

And finally, in December, a last ditch protest was held at the UWS chancellor’s annual formal fundraising ball. While attendees walked by in tuxedos and fancy dresses, the janitors and their allies chanted and held col­ lection buckets, before later crashing the party itself and singing labor songs.

But in the end, despite the overwhelming outpouring of community support, the university went ahead and fired the 27 threatened workers, and brought in an out-of-state tor and other politicians who continue to support poverty wages clearly represent the interests of the wealthiest 1%. At a time when corporations make record profits and CEOs make upwards of $10,000 per hour, we must unite to fight for what working-class people need. We can no longer accept the unprecedented levels of income inequal­ ity in our nation.

The fight for the $15 an hour minimum wage marches forward in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania. Senator Wagner’s bill shows that business interests see the glare of pitchforks on the horizon. The polls will continue to tell what we already know—the movement for $15 is coming. And we will not be stopped. n In other news, the Philadelphia city coun­ cil has agreed to conduct an open hearing on the need to raise the minimum wage in the city. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on March 4. Philadelphia’s 15 Now or­ ganization is working to mobilize fast-food workers and others to testify at the hearing.

company to take over—which is hiring workers at $9 an hour with no benefits.

Adding insult to injury, the very same administrators who insisted that they had to cut the janitors’ jobs to save money, gave themselves 12% raises! To give you a sense of proportion, each administrator’s raise is equal to the entire annual salary of a laid-off janitor!

The fear is that what happened to the UWS janitors is just the beginning, and that this was just the first campus of a system-wide drive to privatize campus custodial de­ partments across the state. It’s also not likely to be the end of the cuts at UWS either.

Already, an announcement has been made by adminis­ trators that various majors are being cut, and further staff cuts are in the works. Because of this, the community co­ alition that came together to try and save the janitors’ jobs has announced that it will stay together to fight further cuts and to insist that administrators and the state re-adjust their budget priorities.

There is enough money to not only fully fund higher education but to expand it and make it free for all. But to do that, we need to tax the rich, and put a stop once and for all on these outrageous attacks on working people! n SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 2015 5