RespectDC to "Redouble Efforts to Fight Poverty Wages"

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)"The rejection of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) by a minority on the council and the Mayor was only the beginning of the fight for a living wage," the RespectDC Coalition said in a statement last week. "We will not stop until all District workers are paid fairly." A recent survey showed that 71 percent of D.C. residents were in favor of the LRAA. RespectDC, which knocked on thousands of District residents' doors over the past several months, said the message they heard “was loud and clear: ‘we deserve better than poverty wage jobs.’” The Coalition vowed to redouble its efforts to fight poverty wages “and close the income gap in the nation's capital,” said Mark Federici, President of UFCW Local 400, a Coalition member. “Building on the momentum established by California's landmark minimum wage increase earlier this month, we will keep fighting until all workers in Washington, D.C., earn wages that lift them out of poverty." To read more about the community’s plan for their own living wage proposal, click here. photo: at the 9/17 LRAA demo at the Wilson Building; photo by Chris Garlock