Rally for $15 Minimum Wage Across the U.S.A.

By KAT LLOYD

A wide range of low-wage workers such as airport, car wash, and retail employees rallied in Brooklyn on Thursday morning, to demand that the recent $15 minimum wage expand from California and New York to the rest of the nation.

“We want to spread Fight for $15 so that all low-wage workers will be able to support themselves and their families,” said Rebecca Cornick, a spokesperson for the organization. The rally occurred in front of a McDonald’s in downtown Brooklyn one week after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill increasing the minimum wage for all workers in New York by 2022 and not long after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a similar bill.

“I’m surprised how quickly it happened, but we’ll continue to fight until we’re unionized,” she added.

Cuomo was joined by presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton last week at the Javits Center, for a rally celebrating the hike in income for New Yorkers, despite her opposition to a nationwide raise.

“I’m still looking for that politician who is on our side. I’m listening very closely to what they’re saying,” said Cornick.

As the rally continued, protestors took the microphone and pointed to government and big business the major contributor to inequality.

“We have to send a message to big corporations,” a demonstrator said. “Until the system changes, the same system that oppresses workers and people of color, we will not have justice. I don’t want my sons and daughters marching for the same cause, we need to fight.”

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been a consistent supporter of a nationwide $15 minimum wage.

“The whole country is going to benefit from your $15, and we’re not stopping there,” shouted Jarvis Tyner, executive vice chairman of the U.S. Communist Party. Tyner and other speakers at the rally said that they would continue to fight eventually hoping to reach $20.

“Don’t believe the people who say it’s going to bankrupt business,” said Tyner.“$20 ain’t greedy, because the people at the top,they have made trillions of dollars off of your labor.”