While the House GOP-engineered government shutdown will have devastating effects on our nation's veterans, women with children and federal workers furloughed without pay, America's working families visiting the U.S. capital were locked out of the national parks and monuments paid for by their hard-earned tax dollars. 

Several dozen Washington, D.C., community, faith and worker activists brought concrete evidence to Mayor Vincent C. Gray that district voters believe workers deserve a living wage, when they delivered 31,917 signatures on a petition urging Gray to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, hundreds of residents, union members, faith leaders and City Council members who back the bill will speak out about why retail workers in the District of Columbia deserve a fair living wage. Join them at 6:30 p.m. EDT at the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, 3000 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray still hasn’t said if he will sign or veto the living wage bill for workers at big-box stores such as Walmart. So, as they say on public television telethons, “keep those phones ringing.”  All you need to do is click here and enter your phone number, ZIP code (you must be a D.C. resident) and email. Within a minute, you’ll get a phone call at the number you entered that will connect you directly to Gray’s office.

We still haven’t heard from Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray on if he plans to sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. So let’s give him a call and urge him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray says he still hasn’t decided if he will sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. If you live in the district, here’s your chance to tell the mayor to do the right thing.

Click here to send Gray an email urging him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Walmart, the country’s largest private employer and huge wielder of political influence, is taking on their greatest challenge yet: A college junior writing an op-ed in her student newspaper. Georgetown University student Erin Riordan wrote a piece for The Hoya, the school’s student-run newspaper, in support of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), which would raise the minimum wage for big-box retail employees to $12.50 an hour.To deal with this threat, Walmart dispatched Steven Restivo, a senior director of communications at Walmart, to write a responding op-ed.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council in its July meeting released a statement commending the Washington, D.C., City Council's passage of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA). LRAA requires large retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales with stores of more than 75,000 square feet to pay a living wage of $12.50 an hour. 

Author and Judge Lise A. Pearlman will be at the 14th Street Busboys and Poets location Monday, Feb. 4, to sign her new book, The Sky's the Limit: People v. Newton, The Real Trial of the 20th Century?

Unlike other major cities where local construction workers share the benefits of a building boom and make up a large portion of the construction workforce, residents of the District of Columbia are grossly underrepresented on area construction sites where suburban residents hold a disproportionate share of the jobs, according to a new report.