Dear Editor,
The country observed Labour Day last Friday. The state of the working class is met with mixed reviews. Salary has not been keeping pace with cost-of-living increases. There is a need to increase salaries across the board as well as to raise the minimum wage — at least to $100,000 monthly that can barely maintain a family of four. Even that amount is not sufficient, but it is still higher than $60,000 that can hardly support a family for two weeks.
Our political leaders should give serious thought on raising the minimum wage. Dr. Jagan was supportive of a livable wage and would have found money to raise minimum wage across the board.
Politicians and labour leaders, like Jagan, for example, who champion workers and have been or were engaged in long-term activism to uplift their lives often have an astute understanding of the life of the working class. And they seek to improve the life of the working class by raising minimum wage and creating employment. Politicians like Jagan foreground workers’ rights. They side with workers over the business owners.
The working class and the country are better off because of trade unions and worker movements and politicians who cared about them — be it the 8-hour working, universal suffrage, health insurance, and more.