While the President can’t raise the minimum wage for all Americans, he can attach requirements for federal contractors including labor standards.
Now Senator Sanders and 17 other senators have sent a letter to the President asking him to require several labor standards for all federal contractors.
The letter asked the President to require a living wage, paid leave, and collective bargaining rights for all employees of federal contractors among other standards as well.
The idea of requiring organizing and collective bargaining rights for all federal contractor workers has been around for several years.
This notion first was discussed about 2008 or 2009 when I was still Organizing Director of the national AFL-CIO. If I remember correctly, the idea of requiring organizing and collective bargaining rights for all federal contractor workers was first surfaced by the Service Employees International Union. Of course, organizing and collective bargaining rights should be guaranteed for all American workers, but those rights must be guaranteed by any employer paid by the federal government. Otherwise, the government itself is undermining good wages, the middle class, and workers’ rights.
Given that the Service Employees International Union first floated this idea and that they have been fighting so hard to double the minimum wage for all Americans, that union must be very glad of the efforts of Bernie Sanders and his 17 colleagues.
Image source: @SenSanders