[May 28, 2020 – Longport, New Jersey] – Three months ago, in a packed house at Teamsters Local 331, labor unions across Atlantic County including – AFT NJ, UNITE-HERE 54, Painters District Council 711, Ironworkers Local 399, South Jersey Building and Construction Trades Council, IATSE 917, UAW, SMWIA State Council, NALC 903, Teamsters Local 331, IBEW 351, Southern New Jersey Building Trades Council, Atlantic/Cape May Central Labor Council, UFCW Local 360, BAC New Jersey & Area District Council,  IFPTE Atlantic Council and Local 195, UA 322, IBEW 827 – united to rally their support for Brigid Callahan Harrison, Democratic candidate for the second congressional district.  During that event, Harrison released her policy plan to support Working Families, Organized Labor and Job Creation, among the issues listed were an increase on the mimimum wage.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrison has continued to rollout core priorities and plans she will bring to Washington after securing the party nomination and a November victory against turncoat Jeff Van Drew.   Today, Harrison provided greater detail and specificity in ensuring an increase in the federal minimum wage:

“I have worked for minimum wage. I know that it is nearly impossible to support oneself, let alone try to support a family while earning a minimum wage.

“Today, the COVID-19 crisis is shining a light on the difficulties faced by America’s working families: in my conversations with minimum wage workers, we see that unemployment insurance and their federal emergency supplement is meaning that many workers are being paid more than when they are working.

“Everyone knows that the best social program is a job, and being able to support one’s family with dignity and just one job rather than two or three means that families and communities are strengthened.

“The fight for a living wage, led by organized labor, is one of the most important fights of our lifetime, and Congress has failed in its obligation to help hard-working families because it has not increased the federal minimum wage —  which stands at $7.25 an hour -– in more than a decade, rendering those who earn the minimum wage below the poverty line.

“Working families have been struggling to make ends meet for some time. And while costs of everything – from housing, to health care, to a college education – increase, larger numbers of working families are getting left behind as wages stagnate. Congress must work to ensure that the American dream is achievable for all.

“For the first time, many young Americans – those most likely to earn a minimum wage – don’t believe that their lives will be better than their parents’. And a disproportionate number of minimum wage earners are women and people of color.

“While New Jersey has passed a law bringing our minimum wage to $15/hour by 2024, in Congress I will fight to increase wages for working men and women by increasing the federal minimum wage, which will make New Jersey’s workers more competitive and level the playing field for many workers. Increasing the federal minimum wage gradually and predictably will enable businesses to plan and will be the first step to ensuring that South Jersey will be a place where working families can live and prosper.

“In the Second Congressional district, six percent of our workers — 20,000 people — earn a minimum wage, including 13,000 between the ages of 25 and 55. These are people raising families, struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, and never, ever having anything leftover. This is not fair. Increasing their wages means pumping money into our economy, supporting the very businesses they work for.

“For too long, rich elites in Washington, DC have rigged the system against hard-working people. In Congress, I’ll fight for a fair deal for working people that includes increasing the minimum wage, so that American workers can support their families with the dignity and respect they deserve.”