Living wage bill dies, but struggle continues.
Last Thursday evening, the Labor Sub-committee of the City Council held a hearing on a living wage bill sponsored by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke. The bill would have required major retailers grossing over 10 million dollars to pay all their employees the City Living Wage. The chamber was packed with low-wage workers, faith leaders, community organizers, union organizers, activists, and other living wage supporters sitting side by side with the city’s business elite, who came out to oppose the bill. After hours and hours of testimony from both sides, the bill died, failing to get one of the two votes needed to move past the Labor Sub-committee.
History was not made that day. But in 1994, Baltimore did make history as the first city to pass a living wage ordinance, which required city contractors to pay a living wage. Bishop Douglas Miles, faith leader with Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), who led the fight for this first living wage ordinance, spoke to Baltimore’s living wage legacy. A legacy which in fact arose from witnessing the poverty created by the Inner Harbor and the seeing the need for setting a basic living wage standard in the city. “At that time we lobbied for this legislation, we were told that such a move, as is being told today, would bankrupt the hospitality industry, drive conventions away from Baltimore, cause other businesses not to want to relocate to Baltimore… We were told that nothing could be done to help such workers gain a living wage without destroying Baltimore’s economy. We did not believe it then and we do not believe it today.”
One by one, supporters of the living wage bill stood up to testify. Sally Dworak-Fisher, an attorney with the Public Justice Center, clearly laid out why living wages matter and how the cries of “unintended consequences” are unfounded. Nicole Jassie spoke on behalf of Legal Aid, who helped Councilwoman Clarke draft the proposed legislation. Matthew Weinstein with Progressive Maryland put Baltimore’s increasing level of poverty in historic and economic perspective and called on City Council to stand up to the “chicken littles” like they did in 1994. Leaders with the United Workers talked about what it means to be one of those low-wage workers being paid poverty wages and how living wages can allow one to live with dignity. Representatives with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), A Beautiful Struggle, Good Jobs First, Bmore Local, NAACP, AFSCME, the newly formed Baltimore CAN coalition, and many more stood before the council to call for living wages.
But the “chicken littles” came up too, crying that big box stores will not find Baltimore appealing if they can’t pay poverty wages, that some workers are just “not worth $10.59 an hour”. One opponent, Jeff Zellmer, legislative director of the Maryland Retailers Association, even drew gasps from the room when he called the bill a “Holocaust for the retail industry”.
When the decision came to make history once again and move towards Fair Development for Baltimore or allow developers and big box stores to continue violating worker’s human rights, poverty-zone development prevailed. But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” And so poverty-zone development might have prevailed today, but we continue building the unity needed to bend that arc towards Fair Development, towards dignity and respect for all low-wage workers, towards freedom from poverty and oppression, towards human rights for all.
Media Coverage of the Living Wage Hearing:
Baltimore Sun- “Bill requiring $10.59 ‘living wage’ dies in City Council commitee”
Baltimore Brew- “Jaw-dropping moments, before Baltimore City Council lets ‘living wage’ bill die”
