Coalition that fought for minimum wage increase demands that business interests withdraw their referendum that tries to overturn new minimum wage ordinance.
Workers, faith leaders, and community activists gathered at Pioneer Park in midtown today to express public outrage at the Missouri Restaurant Association’s attempt to block a local minimum wage increase from taking effect. Activists marched through the Westport area and handed out leaflets denouncing the Missouri Restaurant Association’s actions. The group demanded Vic Allred, Chairman of the Missouri Restaurant Association, immediately withdraw the referendum that seeks to overturn the minimum wage ordinance passed by a 12-1 City Council vote two weeks ago.
“We are outraged that minimum wage opponents would resort to dirty tricks in order to stop working people in KC from getting a raise,” said Sharon al-Uqdah, APWU 67 member and leader in Jobs with Justice. “Vic Allred and the Missouri Restaurant Association are trying to take money directly out of the pockets of our city’s lowest paid workers.”
“We know what it’s like to work hard and still struggle to get by,” said Russell Clay, member of SEIU Local 1. “It’s not right that Vic Allred is trying to take away the raise we have won and the raise we deserve.”
“After all the work of rallying, phone banking, lobbying, calling council members, and fasting on the steps of City Hall to show that a strong majority of Kansas City residents support an increase in the local minimum wage, now a small group of restaurant and hotel bosses have found a loophole to try and dismiss all of our work,” said Judy Ancel, leader in Jobs with Justice. “We demand Victor Allred and his cronies end their cynical gambit and withdraw their referendum, and withdraw it now.”
The Kansas City Council voted 12-1 on July 16th to gradually increase the local minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2020. The first increase to $8.50 per hour is to come on August 24th. The Restaurant Association’s referendum is an attempt to block the wage increase from going into effect.
Kansas City workers, faith leaders, and community members fought hard to win a local minimum wage increase. Proponents held rallies, lobbied council members, negotiated with the business community, and provided countless studies to demonstrate a local wage increase was right for Kansas City. The City Council’s near unanimous decision to increase the local minimum wage came at the two year anniversary of low-wage workers in Kansas City organizing and going on strike for higher wages and the right to unionize.
