Photo via Good Jobs Nation
Groups of workers employed in service jobs at federal buildings around D.C. are picketing this morning outside the landmark sites at which they are employed over their low wages. The protest, organized by a new group calling itself Good Jobs Nation, includes people who work at federal building food courts, loading docks, memorabilia shops, and facilities that manufacture uniforms for the military.
The demonstration started about 7 a.m. outside the Ronald Reagan Building, with more than 100 participants filling the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street NW during the morning rush. Similar protests are also planned throughout the day at the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of American History, and Union Station. There is also an afternoon rush hour protest scheduled at Union Station.
Good Jobs Nation cites a recent report by the economic research group Demos that calls the federal government the nation’s “largest low-wage job creator,” with federal funds and contracts paying for nearly two million jobs that pay less than $12 an hour. Most of the employees participating in today’s strikes earn near the minimum wage, which in D.C. is $8.25 per hour. Good Jobs Nation says there are 100,000 such jobs in the Washington area.
The protestors say they want President Obama to guarantee a living wage for people in service jobs. The D.C. Council is currently deliberating a bill that would require large retail employers to pay a minimum wage of $11.75 an hour. A “living wage calculator” created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s urban planning department calculates the living wage for one adult in D.C. at $13.68 per hour.
According to The Washington Post, most of those jobs can be found in the food courts and stores that fill the lobbies and atria of the buildings being picketed today:
At Union Station, for example, that would include Burger King, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Sbarro, the group said. At the Reagan Building, it’s Au Bon Pain. A private firm operates most of the museum restaurants on the Mall.
Good Jobs Nation also has some support on Capitol Hill. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are holding an impromptu hearing on the matter today at 3 p.m.
