Today, May 1, is May Day, the international day for the celebration of the labor movement that has its origins here in the United States. On this date in 1886 a national strike for the eight-hour workday ended in violence and the unjust prosecution of labor leaders in Chicago, eight of whom were subsequently executed. May Day celebrates the legacy of these martyrs for economic justice and all those past who died for the rights taken for granted today.
Over a century later those rights are endangered and many new problems face workers here and abroad. A whole new class has been created in the U.S. through anti-labor practices like downsizing, outsourcing and privatization. These are the "working poor": people with jobs that do not keep them out of poverty.
In 1995 Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development got Baltimore City to enact legislation protecting city workers receiving "poverty wages." By mandating a "living wage," the city ensured that workers were paid a wage that keeps a family of four above the federally determined poverty level, adjusted yearly for cost of living increases and inflation ($8.49 this year in Baltimore).
In 1996 professors and students started a living wage campaign at Hopkins and formed the Student Labor Action Committee (SLAC). Its goal was to get Hopkins to ensure that all direct or subcontracted employees in the Hopkins system are kept out of poverty.
The first phase of the campaign forced the Hopkins administration to admit that it controlled Broadway Services, its subcontractor that paid poverty wages to hundreds of workers, and could affect its policies.
This led to raises in 1997 and more significant increases in February 1999. But the raises were not the then-current living wage so SLAC led a sit-that led to the "sit-in agreement," benefiting over a thousand workers.
Since that time, SLAC has continued to call for an indexed living wage policy resulting in another set of increases being put into effect. These will bring the wages of all direct and subcontracted employees at the university and hospital to the current Baltimore living wage of $8.50, effective today, May 1, for the university and July 1 for the hospital.
Without militant action, SLAC's ongoing pressure moved Hopkins to "internalize" regular raises to eliminate poverty wages at Hopkins, even if it has not adopted an officially indexed living wage policy. But the effect, for now at least, is the same: virtually no worker will be paid poverty wages at Hopkins this year. In addition, a series of other positive measures are being implemented, benefiting temporary workers and upholding the right of students and workers to talk without interference.
SLAC applauds Hopkins for these steps and encourages all members of the Hopkins community and Baltimoreans to celebrate this victory for workers on May Day. The cause of labor is much more complex, difficult and enduring than the living wage can address.
It is a reform only and does not represent the far-reaching institutional changes that are needed for true economic justice, the goal that May Day reminds us to keep in sight. But the long-term success of the living wage movement is an encouraging sign of the power of people who believe in economic justice to effect change through organized action.
