Coalition Announces Series of Monday Demonstrations Supporting a $15 Minimum Wage Ordinance for Pasadena

A coalition of clergy and lay leaders who say they have joined “low-wage workers in their struggles for justice” announced plans for a series of marches and actions on Mondays near City Hall to press the City Council to pass a $15 per hour minimum wage ordinance for Pasadena.

The Pasadena City Council regularly meets on Monday evenings. Next Monday, July 27, the Council will hold its first formal discussion of raising Pasadena’s minimum wage.

Not coincidentally, the coalition’s first “Mondays for Economic Justice” march is scheduled for July 27, said Robert Cristo, one of CLUE LA’s Young Religious Leader Fellows.

CLUE LA, which stands for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, says its members include community organizations, religious and business leaders and labor unions and that it is one of the oldest interfaith worker justice organizations in the country.

The group has been mobilizing the religious community to support low-wage workers efforts to win wage increases, additional health benefits, and, the group says, respect and a voice in the corporate and political decisions which affect them.

Cristo said Monday’s march will form in the courtyard of All Saints Church at 132 N. Euclid Avenue in Pasadena at about 5 p.m., and then proceed to the Robinson Memorial across from City Hall.

“We will rally around the Jackie and Mack Robinson statues where we’ll have a chance for people to speak, whether there are people who are personally affected by the minimum wage in Pasadena, or there are people who have been doing work to raise the wages in Pasadena. We would also give a chance for community members to express their concerns and voice their opinions about this issue,” Cristo said.

Speakers will also discuss how the cost of living has affected workers, about union organizing rights, wage theft reparations enforcement and the sick days guarantees.

CLUE LA has mounted a campaign for a “livable wage” for Pasadena workers, saying that at the current minimum wage, a full-time worker “makes less than $18,720 a year, which is hardly enough to survive, let alone raise a family in Pasadena.”

The group is campaigning for at least $15 per day in the city.

“From my experience, $15 in itself is not enough,” Cristo said. “The reality is here in Pasadena, we are facing alarming push-outs of people from the low income community because they think they cannot afford to remain living where they are living. We have a situation where you could be living in Pasadena, working a full time job, and that full time job may not pay your rent. And if it does pay your rent, you’re making hard choices such as water versus heat, heat versus electricity. People who are working full time jobs shouldn’t have to be making those types of decisions.”

CLUE LA claims among its accomplishment the successful 1997 Living Wage campaign in Los Angeles.

The group also created dramatic actions in support of hotel workers in Santa Monica and Los Angeles and played an important role in the public policy and corporate campaigns of healthcare workers and janitors.

To connect with the organizers of Mondays for Economic Justice in Pasadena, email Robert Cristo at rcristo@cluela.org, or call him or Rev. Samuel Pattten at (323) 708-9284.

The section of the group’s website which relates to Pasadena may be seen at http://www.cluela.org/livingwagepasadena