Coalition for Economic Justice
Update to the Presbytery of WNY
April 28, 2009

Abraham Mckinney is in his late 50’s. On a typical morning, rain, sleet, snow, freezing cold or burning sun, Abraham wakes up before daylight to catch the bus to work.  He works for the city of Buffalo as a sanitation worker. He is classified as a seasonal worker, but aside from a 5 day lay-off every year, Abraham works full time, year round. Until recently Abraham was earning just $8.15/hour. Abraham took his job with the city as a stepping stone. He expected after a year that he would become a permanent employee, and be able to support himself and his family and save for retirement. However, Abraham – after 8 years on the job, is still classified as seasonal. He’s never been offered and permanent position and until early 2008 was never given a raise. Staff at the Coalition for Economic Justice met with Abraham Mckinney and some of his coworkers in 2007 as part of our campaign to win full enforcement of the City of Buffalo Living Wage Ordinance.

In 2008 Abraham got his first raise, going from $8.15 to $11.11/hour as well as seven months of back wages.

Abraham’s story is just one of many that make up the Coalition for Economic Justice.

The Coalition for Economic Justice is a permanent coalition of over 60 labor, faith, community and university partners. We run campaigns at the local and state level to support living wages and accountable development. To support these campaigns we organize and empower workers, mobilize our allies, and engage voters – particularly in low-income communities, through a door-to-door canvas.

We believe that poverty is the number one problem facing the WNY region and that poverty must be addressed at its root causes through public policy campaigns.
30% of residents are living in poverty. Most of these people are working. They just aren’t being paid enough. 20% of workers in the WNY region are earning less than a living wage as defined by the City of Buffalo law – less than $20,000/year. These individuals are working as home health aides, nursing home workers, landscapers, food service workers, maids, security guards and the like.

A living wage lifts workers and their families out of poverty and is a proven economic development tool for local communities.

CEJ won passage of local living wage legislation in 1999 and has fought an uphill, very public battle for enforcement. Our efforts have been successful. In total, we have helped 400 workers in the last year win a family supporting, living wage and nearly 1,000 workers since we began our efforts. These raises translate into much needed income for Buffalo families, particularly those in our most impoverished and segregated urban communities.

Most recently we won a passage of a resolution at the Buffalo School Board level. School District employees are not covered by the City of Buffalo Living Wage law so we needed for organize a campaign to advance a district policy. We have an implementation battle yet to fight, but as of March 25th of this year the district has adopted a policy that guarantees School District employees a living wage. This policy will impact nearly 1,000 workers – largely women of color, in food service and transportation.

We have also brought our fight for living wages and strong communities to Albany. We’ve worked with our partners across the state to build a coalition with the power to win precedent-setting legislation aimed at reforming Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs). IDAs are the primary economic development tool at the local level. There are 115 IDAs across the state. These entities give tax breaks to businesses that promise to create jobs. Last year, IDAs gave over half a billion dollars in tax breaks to businesses but research shows that we aren’t getting our money’s worth.
Support from the Presbytery of WNY, local Presbyterian congregations, along with critical grant funding from the national Presbyterian Hunger Program has been essential to our success.

CEJ would welcome the opportunity to share more of work with any of your congregations.