Letter to the Editor: "It's time to endorse a living wage for all Valley workers"

Motivated by a desire to staunch criticism of a 59-room Plaza hotel project that will be blocked by the Initiative, its developers recently declared they would pay a “living wage” ($15.12/hr.) to employees.  Boasting a labor agreement to that effect, they also endorsed the importance of strong unions.

It was a heretical departure from Chamber of Commerce dogma that typically takes a dim view of living-wage advocates and union organizers, insisting instead that labor markets should determine employee pay. 

But “labor markets” explain why incomes of Americans (battered by inflation) have stagnated or declined.  As good-paying jobs are shipped to low-wage countries  - i.e., “labor markets,” where workers earn a pittance and die when their sweatshops collapse  - workers here are forced to scrap for jobs that remain, eroding everyone’s pay as employers join the ‘race to the bottom.’

Many local vineyard, retail and tourism jobs (non-union, seasonal and/or part-time) don’t pay enough now.  But those jobs can’t be moved to other labor markets; like our vines, they are rooted here.  Raising pay for those workers is therefore critical to the health of our Valley’s families and the businesses that count them among their valued customers. 

Increasing pay for those forming the backbone of our economy is the right thing to do.  The hotel developers’ living-wage announcement signaled to the Chamber of Commerce (and newspapers owned by those same developers) that it’s time to endorse a living wage for all Valley workers earning less than that now.  They could do that by Labor Day.   

And if our City Council wants to embrace a cause more vital to Sonoma than the oysters in Drakes Bay, they would do the same. 

Bob Edwards
Sonoma

Attorney Bob Edwards serves on the Preserving Sonoma committee.