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Rally attracts hundreds

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD "The minimum wage just isn't enough for a single mother to live on," Rachel Maximo of Holyoke told over 200 people who filled the basement of Blessed Sacrament Church in the city's North End on May 12. The audience responded with applause during a rally in which problems confronting working class and working poor people in the area were presented.

State Representative Michael Kane (D-Holyoke) attended the event, as did aides for State Representatives Sean Curran (D-Springfield) and Gail Candaras (D-Wilbraham). Springfield City Councilor Jose Tosado also was in attendance.

The rally was sponsored by Neighbor To Neighbor, the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO, Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the Massachusetts Public Health Association.

The rally sponsors called on legislators to support raising the state minimum wage from its current $6.75 to $8.25 and to index it for inflation. A press release handed out at the event noted that the 1968 state minimum wage of $1.60 an hour when adjusted for inflation would be $8.89 today.

Dan Clifford of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union told the audience that thousands of workers in the area make minimum wage and "can't make ends meet on that money."

Clifford noted that Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island all have the same wage level of $6.75, while Vermont is more at $7 an hour and New Hampshire uses the federal minimum wage of $5.15. Connecticut's legislature recently passed an increase to $7.65.

Indexing the minimum wage to the rate of inflation means that people "won't have to take a pay cut every time the cost of gas or milk goes up," Clifford explained.

Maximo recently graduated from Springfield Technical Community College with an Associate's degree. She is working a fulltime job that doesn't offer benefits.

"Because the minimum wage is so low, I can't afford to pay rent in my own apartment. My son and I have to share one room because that's all I can afford. I was offered an apartment, but had to turn it down because the rent was too high. And I don't have the help of public housing because the waiting lists are so long. I'm required to have a phone and a car for work and I can barely afford my bills...

"And how am I supposed to get a better job, when I can't afford to go back to school to get my Bachelor's degree? I applied to go to Springfield College for my final two years and was accepted, but when I got the bill, I choked! On my low wages, I can't afford to go to school," Maximo said at the rally.

Peter Gagliardi, the executive director of HAP, the region's housing partnership, stressed the importance of Section Eight housing vouchers the number of vouchers have been cut in the proposed federal budget.

"If you work full time and make minimum wage you're lucky if you bring home a $1,000 a month," said Gagliardi. "Seven-hundred dollars goes for the rent for a family which means you have $300 left over for food, your car, childcare and healthcare." Richard M. Brown of the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO criticized the Commonwealth for lowering corporate taxes to the extent that Massachusetts has the lowest levels in the nation.

"Wal-Mart and their ilk can afford to pay the fair share of taxes and they don't," he said.

Brown also criticized the state-appointed Finance Control Board in Springfield and its lack of process negotiations with municipal unions.

"We need a legislative resolution to the Springfield debacle," he told Kane and the legislative aides. "We need your help.'