People deserve a living wage

I was born in Lawrence

Mass, the “Immigrant City,” home to the 1912 Bread and Roses strike. At its peak 10,000 workers were striking Everett Mills, prompted by a $.32 reduction in their weekly wages of <$9. The greedy mill owners had galvanized the city’s laborers when they cut wages to correspond to the work week being reduced from 56 to 54 hours via state legislative action. Men and women picketed, under the watch of hundreds of bayonet armed state militia, with banners demanding both living wages and dignity—“We want bread, and roses, too!”

The labor movement thrives when workers unite! Unemployment benefits during a global pandemic, working conditions of coal miners in the late 19th century, the 40-hour work week, national holidays and safe and humane working conditions are hard fought Labor Movement wins against the incessant gluttony of entrenched capitalism.

People chastising low-wage workers using federal unemployment, or those who work a few weeks and decide “the jobs not right for them,” are disparaging the right of workers to have living wages and dignity, and to chose what’s best for themselves. Meanwhile the struggle for living wages and dignity continues Labor Day, to Labor Day, to ...

— Bill Mash, Chico