We highly recommend watching this extremely engaging footage of the historic June 2nd Seattle City Council meeting that adopted the highest minimum wage in the country. In this video, you can see Socialist Alternative and 15 Now supporters packing the City Council chamber, demanding that the 8 Democratic Party City Councilmembers remove the corporate loopholes in the $15 minimum wage legislation. It is extremely revealing how a majority of the Democratic councilmembers voted down Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s amendments to the legislation.
While we in Socialist Alternative and Councilmember Kshama Sawant fought for these improvements up until the very last minute before the final vote, we then supported the final deal as a major step forward. This strategy proved to be extremely effective in securing the best deal possible, given that the leaders of the major unions are unwilling to support a ballot initiative campaign which would have likely faced tens of millions of dollars in TV and radio ads from corporations.
The 15 Now discussion begins at 7:00
Re-posted from the Seattle Channel
Video: Seattle City Council Sub-committee Debates and Votes on Amendments to $15 Minimum Wage Legislation (May 29, 2014)
Re-posted from the Seattle Channel