A group representing service employees has organized a morning of demonstrations and civil disobedience at various locations throughout the capital on Tuesday to protest low pay and alleged wage theft by vendors at federal buildings.
Good Jobs Nation, which represents low-wage employees of government contractors, plans to start the day with a mock trial in an intersection near the Ronald Reagan Building, according to organizers.
The group also plans to hold a press conference at D.C.’s municipal headquarters and “protests, civil disobedience” near the General Services Administration building. [...]
Good Jobs Nation said it represents the interests of more than 2 million low-wage employees who work for government contractors — doing anything from greeting visitors and selling memorabilia to driving trucks and making military uniforms. The group claims the federal government has created more low-wage jobs than Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, based on research from the Demos advocacy group.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, grants, loans, concession agreements, and property leases to to large, profitable corporations that pay their CEOs millions in salaries and bonuses but pay their workers such low wages that they are unable to afford basic necessities like food, clothing, and rent,” Good Jobs Nation said in a statement.
