Low-wage workers from fast food and other industries to host forum for McGinn, Murray, Harrell, Steinbrueck, and other candidates
Just two weeks after fast food strikes spread across the city and brought the issues of low-wage workers to the center of public debate, Seattle mayoral candidates will gather June 15th for a candidates forum hosted by workers from fast food, childcare, retail, hotels, and other fast-growing low-wage industries.
After the candidates hear workers share stories about the issues affecting their lives and their futures, they will discuss various proposals for how to ensure a sustainable future by building our economy from the middle out.
Who: Candidates for mayor of Seattle, joined by fast food workers, child care providers, and other members of Seattle's fast-growing low-wage workforce.
What: Candidates will hear from low-wage workers, attempt to construct their own minimum wage budgets, then debate what they could do as mayor to raise up low-wage workers & lift the economy. The forum will also include a presentation by Lori Pfingst, PhD, of the Budget and Policy Center on the impact of low wage jobs on our economy.
When: Saturday, June 15, 2013, 11 am
Where: 215 Columbia Street, Seattle, WA, in the SEIU Healthcare 775NW auditorium.
The Seattle area has recently seen a surge of unrest among low-wage workers, including the strike by fast food workers that spread across the city; Walmart workers who struck on Black Friday and have continued to speak out for better conditions; workers at Sea-Tac Airport who are organizing for good jobs and living wages; and port truck drivers who ground container traffic to a halt with a work stoppage last February.
The issues raised by low-wage workers are of fundamental importance to the city's future — and it is clear that something has to change if we are going to build a sustainable future for our economy. While the top tier of Seattle's economy may be bouncing back, thousands are being left behind:
- 7 of the 10 fastest-growing jobs are in low-wage fields like retail, fast food, and home health care.
- These are the jobs of the future: in our region, the fast food industry alone is projected to create 10 times more jobs than aerospace engineering will.
- A recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute showed that the proposal by Senator Tom Harkin to increase the Federal minimum wage to $10.10 would boost the GDP by $32.6 billion and create about approximately 140,000 net new jobs.
This low-wage worker candidates forum is sponsored by Working Washington, Poverty Action, Washington CAN!, Puget Sound Sage, and several labor unions, including SEIU, UFCW 21, Teamsters 117, and UNITE-HERE 8.
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Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org