MOBILIZE FOR THE FIGHT FOR $15, WORKERS’ RIGHTS TO ORGANIZE, AND A FUTURE WITH DIGNITY FOR ALL

Join the Alamance People’s Assembly and the NAACP and ride our free bus to Raleigh at 4:00 pm on April the 15, from Life’s Journey UCC ( at 1908 S. Mebane St., in Burlington) to support RAISE UP and the FIGHT FOR $15 and a living wage.

Our community’s low-wage crisis is the current focus of the Alamance People’s Assembly coalition. In anticipation of Raise Up’s National Day of Action for the Fight for $15, the NAACP and other local advocates gathered recently to hear the painful stories of teachers, home care workers, fast food workers, farm workers, and others in essential but low wage positions.

Their stories disprove the falsities promoted by those who put profits over people. It is a misconception that workers making the minimum wage of $7.25 are work part-time with low levels of responsibility and education. In fact over half work full time; a quarter of households have children; over a third have a high school education, over a third have some college education, and ten percent have a college degree. And by often being cast as young, black men, minimum wage workers share the injustices of racial marginalization, despite the fact that the majority of low page positions are held by white women over the age of 35.

In our Great Recession’s low-wage jobs recovery, sixty percent of job losses were by middle income earners but sixty percent of job growth has been in low income jobs, accelerating a forty-year trend of wages not keeping up with inflation and productivity gains, loss of manufacturing jobs without meaningful countermeasures, and attacks on labor representation.

Low wages lead families to depend on public assistance. This is the equivalent of a tax subsidy for employers and a diversion of tax revenues away from essentials, such as infrastructure improvements and educational funding. Many low-wage earners struggle with unmet medical needs, severe debt problems, family breakups, and homelessness, all hardships that make jobs advancement a monumental task.

To confirm your seat or to work to help mobilize, contact the Alamance People’s Assembly Coordinator, Noah Read, at commalanaacp@gmail.com or 336.260.4399.