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Hello? Sen. Kyl? Arizona Has a Minimum Wage Initiative. Hello? |
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Arizona union and community activists are taking their campaign to educate voters about a November ballot proposition to raise the state’s minimum wage to one very prominent Arizona voter—U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R).
Or you might say, they’re just calling his bluff.
Yesterday, wage activists delivered a copy of Proposition 202, which would boost the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.75. While the heart of the issue seems pretty simple—a $1.60-an-hour pay raise for the state’s lowest-paid workers—Kyl says he can’t take a stand on the issue because he hasn’t read it!
It’s not hard to guess where Kyl stands on raising the minimum wage. His 15 votes against raising the minimum on the federal level means he joins congressional Republican leaders with a decade-long record of killing legislation to raise the minimum wage, even though congressional pay has jumped by more than $30,000 a year in the same time.
Arizona is just one of many states in the past year where activists in the AFL-CIO America Needs a Raise campaign, working with community allies such as ACORN, have won minimum wage increases though legislation or won overwhelming public support to qualify for a place on the November ballot.
Unlike Kyl, the voting public strongly supports raising the minimum wage—with recent polls showing 88 percent back raising the federal minimum wage.
According to the Arizona AFL-CIO, Kyl earlier this year refused to take a position on Prop. 202. He then changed his tune somewhat when he said he would have to wait to see if enough voters signed petitions for Prop. 202 to win a ballot spot. Well, by golly they did—some 210,000, 90,000 more than were needed.
Kyl danced and ducked again, when he said he just wouldn’t take a position on any state initiative. But that didn’t stop Arizona activists from pressing the senator. After all, there are only two choices—support it or oppose it.
Finally, Kyl offered the lame excuse that he hadn’t read Prop. 202. Senator: It’s actually not complicated. Raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.75 or don’t.
Michael McGrath, executive director of the Arizona AFL-CIO says:
All we are asking the senator for is a “yes” ”no” answer. Does he support Proposition 202, which would raise the minimum wage for Arizona workers? Does Sen. Kyl believe that if you work full time you should not live in poverty? Does Senator Kyl believe that hard work should be rewarded?
For folks who couldn’t make it to the senator’s Phoenix office, give him a call at 602-840-1891. Tell him it’s time to take a stand.
In related minimum wage news from Arizona and elsewhere, early voting and absentee voting begins soon. In Arizona, early voting starts Oct. 5 and voters there can cast their ballots for Prop. 202 and the rest of the ballot before Election Day, Nov. 7. Early and absentee voting also will take place in four other states where minimum wage initiatives are on the ballot, Ohio (absentee ballots are in the mail and people can vote and return them as soon as they receive them), Montana (beginning Oct. 6), Nevada (Oct. 21) and Colorado (Oct. 23). Missouri voters will have to wait until Election Day to raise the minimum wage.
Don’t forget to check out the AFL-CIO Political Action Center at http://www.votenov7.org/, where you can register to vote, learn about working family issues and download candidate comparison fliers.
If you’re a union member, sign up to volunteer to get out the vote and find events in your area here. If you’re not a union member, join Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, and join the fight for good jobs, affordable health care, quality education and secure retirements.
This portion of this website is paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006, with voluntary contributions from union members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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[...] No one said they were the smartest men in Congress, but you’d think after years of voting for legislation they haven’t read, they could handle to give a clear “Yes” or “No” to the question of where they come down on the minimum wage. Arizona’s Senator Kyl is finding that difficult, though, because he hasn’t read a couple paragraph initiative increasing the minimum from $5.15 to $6.75. [...]