“The most remarkable dodge I’ve ever seen”: Ellison blasts inaction on government-backed poverty
Source: Salon.com
Congressman Keith Ellison sounds off on rampant wage theft alleged in government-owned buildings
Josh Eidelson
One day after a top Obama administration official deflected a congressman’s call for executive action to raise labor standards for contractors, activists Wednesday announced the filing of a new Department of Labor complaint over alleged wage theft in a government building. The complaint alleges that dozens of workers in D.C.’s government-owned Union Station are owed over $3 million in back pay and damages for rampant failure to pay minimum wage or overtime.
“If a federal contractor thinks that they can steal the pay of workers, it’s very hard to believe that they would voluntarily pay those workers more money,” Rep. Keith Ellison told reporters on a call with Change to Win. “Of course they’re not going to do that.” Ellison and fellow Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva are among 50 members of Congress who’ve urged Obama to wield executive authority to enact more pro-labor standards for federal contracting. Grijalva told Salon last month that he and his colleagues’ months-old urgings had received “no response.”
On Tuesday, Ellison took a different tack: showing up to an Economic Policy Institute panel on which Council of Economic Advisors chair Jason Furman was discussing the federal minimum wage, and asking a question from the audience. After Ellison asked about the prospects for the administration to make a move “outside of legislative action” to help low-wage federal contract workers, Furman answered, “There’s no doubt that the biggest thing we could do is something legislative.” After noting the millions who would be affected by a federal minimum wage increase, Furman said, “I think the biggest question that we should all be asking ourselves is what’s the best way to advance and get to that goal, because that’s what we want to get to ultimately, is everyone, you know, having … that poverty floor, with then the other things on top of that … How can we make sure that there’s no one in this country that’s paid less than $10.10 an hour?”
“Really, it was the most remarkable dodge I’ve ever seen,” Rep. Ellison told Salon Wednesday. Still, he said, “we hope that they’re going to do” an executive order. “We believe it is the right thing to do. It would be federal government leading by example, and that’s all I can say.” Ellison and Grijalva told Salon they still had not received any official response from the White House.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/01/15/the_most_remarkable_dodge_i%E2%80%99ve_ever_seen_ellison_blasts_inaction_on_government_backed_poverty/
Keith Ellison (Credit: AP/Alex Brandon)
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