Women Workers Strike Against Poverty Wages

WASHINGTON, DC, June 23 — Hundreds of low-wage women workers of 50 federal subcontractors walked off their jobs today to demand the right to form a union. The one-day strike and rally at the National Zoo was aimed to coincide with President Obama’s Summit on Working Families at the White House. “We do not make enough money to survive,” said a woman who works at the zoo.
Hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, grants, loans, and property leases go to low-wage companies, fueling the low-wage economy and growing inequality.  And women hold over 70 percent of low-wage federal government contract jobs. The vast majority are black, Latin and immigrants.
Today’s action, organized by Good Jobs Nation, comes a year after it filed a complaint with the Department of Labor that accused food franchises at federal buildings of violating minimum-wage and overtime laws. They want Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal agencies to contract only with companies that engage in collective bargaining.
The union leaders pulling the strings behind Good Jobs Nation are the same people who got us into this mess in the first place. Most contract jobs used to be full-time union jobs, and the unions did nothing to stop the bosses from eliminating them. Now the unions are trying to rebuild their ranks among low-wage workers who replaced their former members. We need to abolish wage slavery with communist revolution. And the struggle between reform and revolution must be waged within struggles like this one.