Low-wage workers working at federal contractors continue to push for an executive order guaranteeing federal contract workers
a living wage—and Wednesday they did it with a strike at one of the government's most iconic buildings:
Non-union cleaning and concessions workers at the Pentagon plan to walk off the job for the first time Wednesday morning, the latest in a series of federally contracted worker strikes designed to force the president’s hand. Organizers hope dozens from the Pentagon will participate today. They’ll be joined on strike by workers from the Air and Space Museum, Ronald Reagan Building, and Union Station, government-owned buildings where workers have staged a series of past one-day work stoppages for the same purpose.
As I’ve reported, the strike campaign by the coalition Good Jobs Nation – backed by the union federation Change to Win – aims to urge President Obama to wield executive authority to raise labor standards for those employed under federal contracts. Taxes fund around 2 million jobs that pay no more than $12 an hour, according to the progressive think tank Demos; federal contracts worth $81 billion went to companies that had collectively paid out close to $200 million in penalties and back pay, according to congressional Democrats. “Mr. Obama,” said [Pentagon cooking and cleaning worker Jerome] Hardy, “I work hard to serve American heroes, and I shouldn’t end up with zero.”
In December, 220 food service workers at
two Smithsonian museums got a union, a significant step but a tiny one in comparison with what the president could do with an executive order.