Monday, April 11, 2016

$15 Minimum Wage

Rights and Democracy
Press Conference
March 9, 2016
Cedar Creek Room

Every town in Vermont voted for Senator Sanders in the recent Democratic primary.

Like Bernie, people are angry.
Oppressed by a rigged economy.
Working harder, longer hours for less pay.

Especially those in the retail, tourism and service industries.
The salesman, the waitress, the handy man, the chambermaid, the house keeper, the nursing assistant, the home care provider.
The creators of our economy and providers of our human services.
By use of head, heart and hand every one of them already earns a livable wage.
They're just not paid that.
Through wage theft, they are relegated to servitude.

No business that does not pay a livable wage, according to FDR, has a right to exist.
And I say that no business is entitled to tax considerations in Vermont that does not create jobs that at least pay a livable wage..

In a country where twenty individuals possess as much wealth as one hundred, sixty-five million Americans, it is safe to say that our economic system is not working.

It is time to join Rights and Democracy and Senator Bernie Sanders in a call for economic/social justice and environmental sanity.

And let us start with a livable wage of at least fifteen dollars an hour for all Vermonters.