Victory or defeat
Minimum Wage Campaign
By: Jon Thomas-Weger, President
Central New Mexico Labor Council
The recent minimum wage campaign, launched by ACORN (Association for Community reform Now) and supported by most of all organized labor, suffered a recent disappointing defeat in the October City Elections. The Chamber of Commerce and their Committee of Deceptions were clearly happy with this event. But should supporters actually regard this as a defeat, or as a victory on the path to get the minimum wage significantly increased at the State/Federal Level and indexed for inflation.
The campaign
The campaign actually started in March with an effort to get the minimum wage increased at the City Council level. It was hoped that we would be able to get enough votes and convince the mayor to sign the bill, but we knew that was probably wishful thinking. Failing that we were determined to get enough signatures to place an even better law on the ballot. Instead of a flat $7.15 we were determined to get $7.50 indexed for inflation.
The City Council hearings
The City Council hearings were quite revealing. This was when the future Committee on Deception’s weaknesses became apparent. All the Chamber of Commerce and their allies tried to claim that raising the minimum wage would not only hurt business but would also hurt low-wage workers and the entire community. Jobs would flee to Rio Rancho. Minimum wage workers would have to be laid off. Businesses would close. And even crazier, they claimed that reducing dependence on welfare would cause a massive loss of Federal dollars through lower Medicaid, food stamp and other welfare benefits. In other words they were just beginning their lies.
The petition drive
When the measure failed by one vote on the City Council, the committee began working in earnest to get the 13,000 plus valid signatures necessary to place the measure on the ballot. This was no easy task, it had been tried before, and never successfully.
Every effort possible was done to secure signatures. Some unions like the Letter Carriers and AFSCME distributed petitions through their shop steward systems. Others posted the petitions at their Union Halls and passed them out at union meetings. Union volunteers worked their neighborhoods, public events and churches. But, in the end the real success came from ACORN’s organization of petitioners. Their coordination of petitioners and signatures helped greatly in the eventual outstanding success of the petition drive. Not only was it successful, showing broad public support, but it also brought the issue forward.
Our polls showed that the vast majority of people knew that $5.15 was too low. Even a majority of Republicans supported an increase. Again the future Deception Committee tried their best to circumvent the petition drive, by spreading negative publicity about ACORN, and using anti-union scare tactics.
When this failed they tried to thwart validation of signatures by using their mouthpieces in the commercial media. All efforts failing, they went to court to have the measure kept off the ballot or nullified were it to pass.
While ACORN was the key to success in the unprecedented petition campaign, it would never have been successful were it not for the financial support from Local and International unions. AFSCME Council 18 is to be praised for its unstinting efforts in making the petition campaign successful. Other unions that gave money in the earlier stages were, the Steelworkers, NMFL and AFT/NM. The Operators also supplied a lot of back-up support. There were also some other Locals that contributed financially during the petition campaign.
The October Elections
As the elections approached and unions began to see this as an important issue on the ballot more support poured in. AFSCME and UFCW 1564 contributed more money and AFT/NM considerably upped its ante. NEA, the Operators, Steelworkers, NM Fed, the Central New Mexico Labor Council, and others made significant financial contributions. Also Local unions such as the bakery Workers, NALC 504, UA 412, SMWIA 49, UBC 1319, teamsters 492, IAM 794, IAM State Council, 1199NM, the Building Trades Council Ironworkers 495 and others made smaller contributions and pledges.
In addition to union monies helping to fuel the campaign, many unionists played a consistent role in the Albuquerque Living Wage Committee. Those included: Carter Bundy and Josh Anderson of AFSCME; Isidoro Herrera and Clayton Benally of IUOE 953; Emil Shaw of AFT Retirees; Danny Rivera of the State Federation of Labor, and myself.
Regardless, we did not have enough money, nor enough bodies, nor enough friends in the media to help us get out the word and get out the vote. But the Committee Against Ballot Deception might not have had the bodies, nor the grass root public support, but… they did have the money. They did have the friends in the media.
In a very short period the enemies of working people were able to amass three times the money (and more) than the Living Wage Committee was able to acquire in several months of hard work. The Committee of Deception, along with the Albuquerque Journal then launched a scare campaign which implied the devil would descend on Albuquerque if the minimum wage was increased. Of course, in the interest of fairness, the Journal did run some “objective” articles, but their editorial opposing the Minimum Wage increase showed whose side they were really on. The attack was on the enforcement provisions, not on the real issue — the need to significantly raise the minimum wage.
Even the attack on the enforcement provisions was a sham. They claimed that this would allow any body or group to come in to any business anytime they want. The fact is: anybody can do that now. But, when a business tells someone to leave… well you have to leave. That is the law, this law was not changed by the enforcement provisions of the Minimum Wage Bill. In fact, they even claimed it would give access to all kinds of private records. A total lie!
Election day
Unfortunately, election day involved not only the Minimum Wage Initiative but also Mayoral and City Council elections. A sham and unnecessary voter ID measure was also on the ballot. Many unionists found a hard time balancing their efforts between the Initiative , and the other races and issues in the election.
But, on election day, ACORN was ready and focused solely on Minimum Wage. A group of more than one-hundred paid and volunteer workers gathered in red minimum wage t-shirts to hit the streets to get out the vote. This effort was well organized and coordinated, had broad public support, but ultimately we failed to get it passed.
Defeat or Victory?
There is no doubt that the loss was a big defeat for low-wage workers. The lack of a big increase in voter turnout was a major factor in this defeat. A mass of new voters, youth, low-wage workers and others who rarely vote in City Elections failed to materialize. The youth, most of whom are also low-wage workers, continue to feel disenfranchised as do other low-wage workers. Getting working people out to vote and have their votes counted will become even more difficult with voter ID.
But, it was a victory in many ways. It was the first time any ballot initiative has ever been placed on the ballot by petition. Despite concerted opposition by the Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Commerce and Industry, the NM Restaurant Association and other groups, despite opposition from the Mayor and most of the City Council, despite the continuous prattle on talk radio, despite the “Silence of the Governor”, despite the fact that so many working people feel so alienated that they rarely or never vote, despite the deception Committee’s use of behavioral psychology and scare tactics. Despite an overwhelming victory for the Mayor, and similar victories for most of the City Councilors who opposed raising the Minimum. Despite our having virtually no money and them having hundreds of thousands. Despite all these things we came quite close to victory.
And this is only the beginning.
Other individuals and organizations who need to be recognized for their outstanding efforts are: Matthew Henderson, Bill Kysar, Bonnie Greathouse, Dave Perkins? and Josh Geise, all of ACORN. Rachel Lazar of ENLACE; Bill Robinson of Voices for Children; Barbara Duá of the New Mexico Council of Churches; The Archdiocese of Santa Fé; and many other supportive organizations and businesses.
This was a great effort and thanks to all.
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