Black & Green Wed October 2: Low Wage Workers

Submitted by rhunt
on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 12:36pm

FORUM: Low Wage Workers

WHEN: 7:30 pm, Wednesday, October 2, 2013

WHERE: Legacy Books and Café, 5249 Delmar (near Union) 63108

*  Fred Raines, Gateway Green Alliance

*  Rasheen Aldridge, Fast Food Worker

*  Rabbi Susan Talve, Central Reform Congregation

*  Molly Gott, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment

*  Jonathan McFarland, Scene Everywhere [moderator]

What would wages be today if they had kept up with workers ability to produce?  During the first two plus decades after WWII real earnings of workers increased at the same rate as worker productivity.  But over the past 30 years wages adjusted for inflation have barely increased while productivity has nearly doubled.  The 1% have pocketed almost all of this differential, resulting in income inequality not seen since the Gilded Age.

Today, low wage workers do not earn enough to cover basic necessities.  Organizing is going on in St. Louis and around the country to counter this immoral job exploitation.  Workers are making connections with other issues of social fairness.  Is it time to link efforts for wage justice to struggles for climate justice?