STATEMENT BY REV. SHERRY OF THE LET JUSTICE ROLL CAMPAIGN AT SENATE MINIMUM WAGE PRESS CONFERENCE

For Immediate Release: November 16, 2006
Contact: Betsy Leondar-Wright, Let Justice Roll
781-704-4039 (cell), betsy@classmatters.org

"Minimum wage was the foremost values issue of the 2006 election, bringing people together across all lines. It is immoral that workers who care for children, the ill and the elderly struggle to care for their own families. A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.

"It is fitting that we are rededicating ourselves to a higher federal minimum wage just days after Monday's groundbreaking for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial.

"As visitors enter the King Memorial, they will see carved in stone these words from the prophet Amos: 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.'

"Let us remember that a key demand of the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. King delivered his 'I Have a Dream' address, was 'a national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living'. Dr. King could not have dreamed that the buying power of the minimum wage would be lower today than it was in 1963. It is time, long past time, to fulfill the dream.

"The six minimum wage ballot victories on November 7 were part of a groundswell that had already led to minimum wage hikes in states as diverse as Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

"Together, we of the Let Justice Roll Campaign will continue to work at the state and federal level until everyone who works for a living can earn a living wage."

Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, National Coordinator of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage campaign, is the co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future."

He will speak on Capitol Hill today at 2 pm at 430 Dirksen, along with Senators Kennedy, Schumer, Harkin and Clinton, John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, Alicia Russell of ACORN and Lenny Jones of SEIU.

The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is a nonpartisan coalition of more than 80 faith, community and labor organizations, as well as business people who know that a higher minimum wage is vital for workers, communities and our economy. For more information: http://www.letjusticeroll.org.

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