Local 1000 members join nationwide fight to strengthen the middle class

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On Wednesday, thousands of people are joining fast-food workers, retail employees, child care workers, home care providers, airport workers and adjunct professors in rallies up and down the state and in more than 60 cities across the nation to demand fair pay for hard work: $15 and a Union.

“No one working full-time should have to live in poverty,” said Yvonne R. Walker, Local 1000 president. “We stand with these workers to ensure their prosperity and their ability to provide a dignified living for their families.”

The fight to raise the minimum wage is central to the fight for economic justice. To meet their basic needs, minimum wage workers and their families often need government assistance to make up the gaps that their paychecks don’t cover.

Rebuilding the middle class includes boosting the purchasing power of workers so they can drive the economy by increasing the aggregate demand for goods and services.

The federal minimum wage is so out of sync with increases in the cost of living that today’s minimum wage earners make roughly 25 percent less than their counterparts 45 years ago after adjusting for inflation. Seven out of 10 new jobs being created pay less than $15 an hour, making it impossible for workers to pay for basic necessities like rent and groceries, much less move upward into the shrinking middle class.

“It’s time for us to reach into our communities,” said Walker, “to rebuild an economy that works for us and provide more workers with a path to the American Dream.”

To be part of this historic day when we turn the tide on income inequality, visit seiu1000.org/april15 find your local rally, and raise your voice for $15 and a Union!