Houston Democrats

All the old scarce stories on why we can't up the minimum wage have failed the Repugs , but campaign money and ideology have never been trumphable by the facts. The last increase in Federal minimum wage was in 1997. You will note that it took George Bush to turn the economy south, the higher minimum wage was followed by the 3 more years of Clinton prosperity. That meant more jobs for young people , strong job creation in general .

Stimied at the national level, Progressives in the states, with the support of what is left of organized labor, have been scoring big time with this. A group called ACORN also is at the forefront of the fight, helping to take it the next level, provisions for "living wages".This is a winner issue for us and for unions, if we push it!

LINK Several states recognize the value of the federal minimum wage has been declining and have taken steps to ensure the minimum wage in their state supports working families. Every year, state legislatures consider minimum wage increases. In 2005, state minimum wage legislation or ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage are active in Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. In addition, 15 states and the District of Columbia have set minimum wage rates above the federal floor.

Minimum wages increase is a populist and popular issue:

LINK Americans Support an Increase in the Minimum Wage
"# A January 2005 report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center shows Americans overwhelmingly support an increase in the minimum wage: 82 percent say it is an important priority and only 6 percent oppose an increase.
# A January 2002 poll by Lake Snell Perry & Associates for the Ms. Foundation found that 77 percent of likely voters surveyed support raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $8 per hour. Some 79 percent of likely voters support regular increases in the minimum wage to address the effect of inflation on the real value of the minimum wage.
# A November 2001 survey conducted by Techno Metrica Institute of Policy and Politics for Investor’s Business Daily and The Christian Science Monitor found that 75 percent of the survey respondents supported raising the minimum wage as a way to stimulate the economy.
# An October 2001 survey by the Gallup Organization for Gallup, CNN and USA Today found that 81 percent of the respondents supported an increase in the minimum wage."

And , if they don't cut us off with preemptive legislation or court rulings, city level initiatives have meet with striking success also. One hundred thirty-nine cities and counting have adopted LINK " local living wage laws tying wage and/or benefits requirements to government contract eligibility or other government financial assistance."

The other matter of concern is so called "Free Trade Agreements". Having pushed through CAFTA by almost literally twising arms, there is an effort to strike similar agreements with individual states. We can't reverse (for now) the NAFTA or CAFTA abominations, but we can fight anymore of them. The Oman Free Trade Agreement, signed Jan. 19, 2006 and awaiting Senatorial approval, would be another conduit for outsourcing American jobs and undercutting the efforts to provide better working conditions and wages for American workers. Oman is still an Emirate, that alone should warn us about any deal with them that would honestly protect workers rights, hell even human rights in an binding way.

For example, in an effort to window dress its non-existent labor protections, it has recently permitted the formation of labor representative groups. Don't be fooled:

LINK But global union leaders point out that the worker committees are not independent at all because Oman’s government reserves the right to attend the committee meetings, approve the agenda beforehand and prevent the committees from affiliating with international labor organizations, all practices that violate workers' standards approved by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization.

In June 2005, the AFL-CIO filed a petition with the Bush administration to remove Oman as one of the countries receiving special trade deals under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) because Oman did not enforce internationally recognized workers’ rights.

“There is no right to freely organize and bargain collectively; workers do not have the right to association; and conditions of work do not meet the standard of acceptable as required for GSP designation,” the petition said.

In June 2006, a coalition that includes the AFL-CIO and more than 350 labor, religious, consumer, farm and environmental groups sent a letter to Congress urging rejection of the trade deal. The coalition wrote:

“OFTA would expand the failed model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). This model has accelerated job loss and lowered living standards in the United States while exacerbating poverty and social disparities in the developing nations with which we trade.”