With the delivery of petitions Wednesday to put a $15 minimum wage on the ballot in Minneapolis, organizers kicked off a several week campaign to win support for the measure.
Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, People of Color Union Members, Communications Workers of America, Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, Socialist Alternative and Sierra Club delivered nearly 20,000 signatures in support of a $15 minimum wage to Minneapolis City Clerk Casey Carl.
The signatures, nearly three times the number required to put the question on the ballot, were collected in just nine weeks.
“Our campaign aims to speak to thousands of workers across Minneapolis to get active in this historic fight,” said Kip Hedges, a retired Delta baggage handler and organizer with 15 Now. “We don’t want the voices of 20,000 supporters silenced, and we are building the campaign to win in November.”
A Feldman Group poll last fall showed 82 percent of likely Minneapolis voters support a $15 minimum wage.
More than 35 cities across the country have passed municipal minimum wages since the Fight for 15 began in 2012. Many of these wage increases have been decided by voters at the ballot box.
“For the first half of my kids’ lives, I was working up to ninety hours a week, never making more than $11 or $12, and still struggling to keep my lights on,” said TeCara Monn, co-canvass director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC).
“I wanted to be there for my kids, make them breakfast and dinner, go to their school events. But they were cooking for themselves at age seven because I couldn’t be home with them. A $15 minimum wage isn’t just about workers, it’s about our families. I registered to vote for the first time so I could vote for $15. This shows we can really make a change.”
The City Clerk’s office will verify the signatures, and report in the coming weeks whether the $15 for Minneapolis campaign qualifies for the ballot.
In a Workday interview with with Ginger Jentzen, Executive Director of 15 Now Minnesotq, during a raise-the-wage rally for airport workers in October 2014, she predicted that the campaign would spread to Minneapolis, like successful drives in Seattle and Los Angeles, that raised the minimum wage in those cities.
This article is based in part on information provided by 15 Now Minnesota, CTUL and NOC.
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With the delivery of petitions Wednesday to put a $15 minimum wage on the ballot in Minneapolis, organizers kicked off a several week campaign to win support for the measure.
Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, People of Color Union Members, Communications Workers of America, Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, Socialist Alternative and Sierra Club delivered nearly 20,000 signatures in support of a $15 minimum wage to Minneapolis City Clerk Casey Carl.
The signatures, nearly three times the number required to put the question on the ballot, were collected in just nine weeks.
“Our campaign aims to speak to thousands of workers across Minneapolis to get active in this historic fight,” said Kip Hedges, a retired Delta baggage handler and organizer with 15 Now. “We don’t want the voices of 20,000 supporters silenced, and we are building the campaign to win in November.”
A Feldman Group poll last fall showed 82 percent of likely Minneapolis voters support a $15 minimum wage.
More than 35 cities across the country have passed municipal minimum wages since the Fight for 15 began in 2012. Many of these wage increases have been decided by voters at the ballot box.
“For the first half of my kids’ lives, I was working up to ninety hours a week, never making more than $11 or $12, and still struggling to keep my lights on,” said TeCara Monn, co-canvass director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC).
“I wanted to be there for my kids, make them breakfast and dinner, go to their school events. But they were cooking for themselves at age seven because I couldn’t be home with them. A $15 minimum wage isn’t just about workers, it’s about our families. I registered to vote for the first time so I could vote for $15. This shows we can really make a change.”
The City Clerk’s office will verify the signatures, and report in the coming weeks whether the $15 for Minneapolis campaign qualifies for the ballot.
In a Workday interview with with Ginger Jentzen, Executive Director of 15 Now Minnesotq, during a raise-the-wage rally for airport workers in October 2014, she predicted that the campaign would spread to Minneapolis, like successful drives in Seattle and Los Angeles, that raised the minimum wage in those cities.
This article is based in part on information provided by 15 Now Minnesota, CTUL and NOC.