Living Wage Battle: Community vs. Corporations

By Rev. Sandie Richards

Among a broad coalition of community activists, the most personal support for Measure JJ, the living wage, comes from workers like Maria Mena. For eighteen years, Maria has worked as a housekeeper at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel. Cleaning 16 rooms a day gets her no vacation, no health benefits and $8.25 an hour.

Hundreds of workers share her situation -- barely able to take care of their families despite full-time jobs. Maria's struggle to overcome poverty in the shadow of luxury embodies the argument for the living wage. It is a struggle that has won broad, deep support in Santa Monica and beyond. From educators to elected officials, religious leaders to community organizations, health care advocates to labor groups, people are uniting around Measure JJ and the basic value that hard work deserves a living wage.

So who is against Measure JJ? For the most part, large corporations and the conservative consultants who they've hired to stop the living wage.

Opponents began to surface soon after community activists started searching for a remedy to the cycle of poverty under our palm trees. In 2000, after the City Council commissioned a study on a proposed living wage ordinance, a petition appeared for a ballot measure that would have effectively prohibited pay raises for tourism workers. The political group formed for that campaign was called "Santa Monicans for a Living Wage" -- even though the corporations behind it were strenuously opposed to a living wage.

The million-dollar campaign for this deceptive ordinance was largely funded by a handful of luxury beachfront hotels. The biggest donors, Shutters and Casa del Mar, are owned (with partners Goldman-Sachs) by multi-millionaire brothers Edward and Thomas Slatkin. They contributed over $400,000. Loews Hotel came in second with more than $350,000. Le Merigot kicked in more than $100,000.

That war chest hired top talent, including the Dolphin Group, the political consultants who created the notorious "Willie Horton" ad that helped elect George Bush in 1988. Dolphin also packaged Ronald Regan, Pete Wilson and other leading Republicans in both state and national elections going back decades. Other Dolphin clients include Philip Morris and the agribusiness industry; Dolphin has steadfastly opposed the United Farm Workers, and, more recently, strawberry pickers.

The Dolphin Group has once again been enlisted to oppose the living wage. They have been joined by lobbyists Bell, McAndrews, Hiltachk and Davidian. Two of the law firm's partners, Charles Bell and Thomas Hiltachk, got their start at Nielsen Merksamer, one of the biggest Republican lobbyists in the state, and took some of Nielsen's big tobacco clients with them when they set up shop.

Bell serves as General Counsel to the California Republican Party, a post he has held going back to 1982. Bell also chairs a committee of the Federalist Society, a self-described "conservative intellectual network" in the legal community that attacks "liberal bias" in law schools. Ed Meese and Robert Bork figure prominently on their Visitors Board.

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On the positive side of Santa Monica's living wage debate are hundreds of individuals and organizations who have endorsed Measure JJ, including:

*Elected officials such as Congressman Henry Waxman, State Senator Sheila Kuehl, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and former State Senator Art Torres, now chairman of the California Democratic Party.

*Educators such as Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District President Julia Brownley, Santa Monica City College Trustees Annette Shamey and Dorothy Ehrhart-Morrison, and USC law professor Erwin Chermerinsky.

*Religious leaders such as Episcopal Bishop Jon J. Bruno, Southern California Board of Rabbis President Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, Rev. James Lawson and Santa Monica Bay Interfaith Council President Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels.

*Labor leaders such as AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, L.A County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary Miguel Contreras and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 11 President Maria Elena Durazo.

*Local community leaders such as Denny Zane, Nancy Greenstein, Paul Rosenstein, Dolores Press and Rev. Jim Conn.

*Community organizations such as Santa Moncians for Renters' Rights, the Santa Monica Democratic Club, Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, Progressive Jewish Alliance.

But in that flurry of well-known names, let us not forget the names we barely recognize, like Maria Mena. She can't understand spending that may exceed $3 million to prevent her from earning $10.25 per hour for a job that includes health benefits. All she wants is a living wage.

That's a value that fits with Santa Monica. Measure JJ is fair and long overdue. Please join me in voting Yes on JJ, for jobs and justice.