Vol. 79/No. 23      June 22, 2015

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