Unions, churches join living wage campaign

On perhaps the hottest day of the summer, several organizations came together last Thursday to turn up the heat for a new living wage ordinance in the City of Minneapolis.

Faith, labor and community groups that form the Minneapolis Living Wage Yes! coalition kicked off their campaign for the ordinance with a rally at the CWA Local 7200 hall. Then, equipped with bottles of cold water to combat temperatures in the high 90s, volunteers fanned out to doorknock in Minneapolis neighborhoods.

The event was the start of many weeks of effort, said Bill McCarthy, president of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council, one of many organizations participating in the coalition. “We’re going to work this summer and get a living wage passed this fall,” he said.

The Living Wage Yes! coalition says the city’s current living wage policy, passed in 1997, lacks enforcement and reporting mechanisms and contains too many loopholes.

For example, when Target received public funds for its downtown Minneapolis store, the current living wage policy was evaded by classifying the project as “community development” instead of “economic development.”

The proposed ordinance would mandate that corporations receiving public subsidies from the city create jobs that pay no less than 130 percent of federal poverty guidelines for a family of four. That’s a wage of $12.09 per hour, or $25,147 annually.

“Anybody working on a job subsidized by our city’s dollars shouldn’t have to get food stamps to feed their family,” said McCarthy.

Other speakers at the rally concurred. Minneapolis City Council Member Paul Zerby, a sponsor of the measure, said it provides reasonable, “incremental steps” to make sure Minneapolis maintains a good quality of life for all its citizens. His goal, he said, is to have the council pass the measure unanimously.

Rabbi Simeon Glaser of Temple Israel and the Rev. Craig Johnson, bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, cited moral reasons to support a living wage.

“We believe that economic justice is a moral imperative,” Glaser said. “We cannot live in a community where it is being ignored.”

“Today we have an opportunity to step forward and welcome all people to a full share in our society,” Johnson said.

Even before the official kickoff, organizers said they had collected 2,000 postcards from Minneapolis residents asking city council members to support the new living wage ordinance.

ISAIAH, a coalition of several churches, will hold a series of public forums this summer to promote the proposed ordinance. The first will be held Monday, July 25, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 4537 Third Ave., S., Minneapolis.

In addition to the organizations already mentioned, groups supporting the new living wage ordinance include the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, SEIU Minnesota State Council, AFSCME Council 5, MFT Local 59, Teamsters DRIVE, UNITE HERE Local 17, Twin Cities Coalition of Labor Union Women, Confederation of Somali Communities of Minnesota and the Green Party of Minnesota-5th Congressional District