“I sure can’t.”
“I need to pay the rent, to help my son, to go to school,” says Marie Ferrier, a McDonald’s employee at the Pentagon and an activist with Good Jobs Nation, the federal contract workers’ campaign…“When I go to the doctor, I pay for that,” she says. “At work, they don’t give you 40 hours…that’s why it’s not enough.” Business Week
For Jessenia Vega, a single mother who works at the McDonalds in the Pentagon, “$10.10 is not really enough.” Vega said that in addition to paying for childcare, living expenses, and transportation, she helps out her family in Puerto Rico. CBS DC (Photos)
The $10.10 executive order likely never would have happened without the steady agitation of labor groups, particularly Good Jobs Nation… The group had held a series of protests and walkouts by low-wage food workers employed at federal sites like the Smithsonian and the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. With the support of members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, they called upon the president to issue the minimum wage order. The Huffington Post
Having secured that victory, Good Jobs Nation has now pivoted to the “voice on the job” component of its mission. In an open letter sent this week to President Obama and Secretary Perez, members of the group said they intend to form a union and want the president to “direct the federal agencies that contract with our employers…to require their contractors to bargain with us over fair wages and working conditions in return for our commitment not to strike.” MSNBC
“We hope that your minimum-wage executive order is only the first step you will take to help low-wage federal contractors before you leave the Oval Office,” they said in the letter, which was signed by 200 Good Jobs Nation leaders working at 50 federal contractors. The Wall Street Journal
Good Jobs Nation said Obama could add a positive note to his legacy by ensuring collective-bargaining rights for federally contracted employees…the group said the move would represent one of the largest efforts to help American workers join unions since the New Deal. The Washington Post