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Campbell shoots down minimum wage boost despite lobby effort, mounting public pressure
November 2, 2007
B.C. Fed "definitely not giving up" on $10 NOW efforts.
On the sixth anniversary of the last increase in B.C.`s minimum wage, a broadly based delegation including low income earners lobbied politicians in Victoria for a raise and delivered to the Campbell government the names of 40,000 British Columbians who have so far signed the $10 NOW petition at bcfed.ca.
The $10 NOW lobby team met Oct. 31 with Labour Minister Olga Ilich and NDP leader Carole James. And they hosted a lunch attended by more than 30 MLAs from both parties to make the case that B.C.'s minimum wage should be boosted to $10 an hour to give 250,000 low paid workers a long overdue raise.
The delegation led by B.C. Federation president Jim Sinclair and secretary treasurer Angela Schira included representatives of young workers and students, poverty experts, people with disabilities, and an Anglican priest along with low wage earners Valerie Rogers and Brent Frain who work at a McDonald's restaurant in Langley.
"How is a person making $8 an hour supposed to live," Rogers asked in the meeting with the labour minister. And while Ilich pointed to B.C.`s average wage to suggest that the minimum wage wasn`t really an issue, Rogers responded "I don`t care what the average wage is, I don`t make it."
"What are you going to do to help low income earners?," Rogers wanted to know.
Although Ilich told the delegation they had made a compelling case that she would take back to her colleagues in the Legislature, Gordon Campbell had a different message. The Premier told reporters that the door was closed on an increase.
A request from the Federation to meet with Campbell went ignored.
Sinclair says the lobby efforts in Victoria were positive and he pledged that the labour movement's campaign would continue until the minimum wage is increased and tens of thousands of workers brought up to the poverty line.
"We're definitely not going to give up," he says.
"Campbell is a supreme hypocrite," Sinclair charges. "He had no problem voting himself a 54 per cent wage increase, but won't do the same for minimum wage earners."
Sinclair says that if low income earners received the same increase as the Premier, the minimum wage would be $12.32.
During question period, NDP MLAs Jenny Kwan and Raj Chouhan made the case for a $10 minimum wage and pressed Ilich to act. The NDP also presented to the petitions to the legislature, which included 5,000 signatures from people who signed on to show their support at events in the Premier's Vancouver riding.
