Monday: Call for Biden to meet with poor people gains support

Contact: Martha Waggoner | mwaggoner@breachrepairers.org 

The AFL-CIO, labor unions & organizations will partner with the Poor People’s Campaign on upcoming March on Washington & low-wage workers will echo the campaign’s call to meet with President Biden 

Labor organizations representing millions of workers will partner with the Poor People’s Campaign to mobilize for the upcoming Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls & will join a news conference Monday with workers & faith leaders who are urging President Biden to meet with a delegation of poor people and low-wage workers ahead of the assembly on June 

Reporters can register here to cover news conference

Over the past year, millions of workers have walked off their jobs in protest of unsafe working conditions, poverty wages, corporate greed and the refusal of elected leaders to take immediate legislative action that can drastically improve their lives. Following the Biden administration’s announcement of a month-long campaign to communicate economic improvements, workers leading grassroots labor uprisings across the nation are joining the Poor People’s Campaign’s request to President Biden for a meeting on developing a concrete plan for centering the voices of poor and low-income workers, religious leaders and economists in the administration’s ongoing economic plan.

“Our nation is experiencing a historic wave of labor uprisings led by the workers who are demanding that the value of their work be represented in their pay, their working conditions, and in our nation’s laws.” said Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. “The widespread worker-led actions we are witnessing in America today are alarm bells that should force the nation to pay attention to the economic emergency that includes everything from the lack of a federally mandated living wage to the devastating impact of COVID on poor and low-wealth communities. It is time for the president to act on his pre-election promise to address poverty. More jobs alone, with a $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage, equal more poverty. This is why labor unions are joining our call to the president to use his power to lift the voices of impacted people and to act now.” 

The AFL-CIO, representing 57 unions, released a video on June 1 in support of the moral march and mass assembly. “Working people are fed up and fired up, and in work places across the country, we are saying enough is enough.” said Liz Shuler, AFL–CIO president. “We are tired of the rich getting richer while breaking the rules as working families just struggle to get by. The AFL-CIO is proud to support the Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. We will join together in DC to call for an end to poverty.”

The news conference will begin at 10 a.m. ET Monday, June 6, at National City Christian Church at 5 Thomas Circle NW in Washington, D.C. Reporters can attend in person or watch the live stream here.

Speakers include: SEIU President Mary Kay Henry,  AFSCME President Lee Saunders, and Keturah Johnson, international vice president of AFA-CWA. They will join Bishop Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the campaign, and a South Carolina worker from the Fight for $15; a Dollar General worker from Louisiana; and a  Starbucks worker who support the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18th.

The Poor People’s Campaign’s labor union and organization partners include:

AFL-CIO ( representing 57 unions)

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

American Postal Workers Union (APWU)

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA)

Communications Workers of America (CWA)

Dollar General Workers

Fight for $15

National Education Association (NEA)

Starbucks Workers United

UNITE HERE

United Steelworkers (USW)

United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW)

United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE)

1199SEIU, UHWE

The Poor People’s Campaign delegation to the White House would be made up of Black, low-wage medical workers, white farmers, Latino meat plant workers and Indigenous fast-food workers from Mississippi to Massachusetts to North Carolina to New York to Kansas to Kentucky to Texas to California to Illinois to Georgia. The campaign urges the White House to act quickly in the midst of the nation’s economic and public health challenges. The president has a historic opportunity to change the lives of the 140 million poor and low-wealth people and shift the trajectory of the American political economy.