Democratic senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined striking workers at the United States Capitol Tuesday morning. The low-wage workers are employed by federal contractors to provide services in federal buildings, yet they earn less than a living wage and some even face weeks without pay when Congress is on recess. The workers are trying to get the pope's attention as he arrives in Washington, DC, with a group of them
writing a letter asking him to meet with them:
We want you to know that even though we serve the wealthy and the powerful in the Congress, we earn so little that we live in utter poverty.
We sleep on the streets because we cannot pay the rent.
We go to bed hungry because we can’t put food on the table.
We endure sickness because we cannot afford health care.
We earn so little that we sacrifice our dignity to support our kids.
We work such long hours that our unborn babies have died.
We may be invisible to the wealthy and powerful we serve everyday – but we know we are worthy of a more abundant life as children of God.
"In my view, when we talk about morality and when we talk about justice we have to understand that there is no justice when so few have so much, while so many have so little," Sanders said in an emailed statement. "The time has come for President Obama and the U.S. Senate to end this injustice by requiring all contract workers to be paid at least $15 an hour with the right to form a union. The time has come to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour."