Following Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray’s veto Thursday of a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores such as Walmart, backers of Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) are mounting a campaign to override the veto.

The bill, which sets a $12.50 wage for workers, passed the D.C. City Council in June by an 8–5 vote, and an override requires nine votes. The Metropolitan Washington Council’s e-news Union City reports that LRAA backers are focusing on D.C. Council member Tommy Wells for the ninth vote. 

The Large Retailer and Accountability Act of 2013 (LRAA), passed by the Council of the District of Columbia last week, arrived on Mayor Vincent Gray’s desk Wednesday. The bill establishes a minimum wage of $12.50 an hour for workers at retail stores with more than 75,000 square feet and whose parent company makes more than $1 billion in gross revenues annually.

This bill was not controversial until Walmart, with plans to bring six stores into the District of Columbia, threatened to cancel three of those projects if the bill passed. Despite that threat, here are five reasons Mayor Gray should sign the LRAA when it gets to his desk. Are you listening, Mr. Mayor? Here we go:

A cross-post from Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council.

Dave McCord, a 25-year member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), is bringing his passion for riding bicycles and changing lives together. As the director of the IBEW Local 26 Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (JATC), McCord joined other electricians and union-organized contractors last April on a bike ride in Southern Maryland to benefit End Hunger in Calvert County.

A union construction and building trades career can put workers on the path to the middle class. The Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council Community Services Agency's Building Futures pre-apprenticeship construction program can be the first step on that path.

The next course begins in October and applications are due by Sept. 14. Click here for a brochure, or call 202-974-8223 for more information.

The family of Abe and Irene Pollin and Enterprise Homes Inc. broke ground on a new development offering affordable housing in Northeast Washington, D.C., in recent days. MetroTowns at Parkside: The Linda Joy and Kenneth Jay Pollin Community will offer 83 new three-bedroom townhouses that will be built to meet green building standards and create more housing for D.C.’s working people. In fact, employees of the District were given the first opportunity to purchase the homes.

After weeks of picketing hotels across the District of Columbia and months of contract negotiations, area hotel workers have won groundbreaking contracts, says UNITEHERE! Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Boardman.

We had five goals for this negotiation round and we reached them all.

The Theater of the First Amendment will present the world premiere of “Can’t Scare Me: The Story of Mother Jones at Washington, D.C.’s Atlas Performing Arts Center beginning with preview performances Oct. 12 and 13 and running through Oct. 30.