In the face of an impending government shut-down, Good Jobs Nation, a workers? advocacy organization, has organized upwards of 200 federal government workers to strike today and has gathered over 250,000 signatures on a petition which will be presented to President Obama. The petition demands that the President issue an executive order guaranteeing a living wage for all federal workers. It is a strategy tailored for a Republican-controlled congress which opposes raising the minimum wage. Good Jobs Nation says that they would have the President enforce a living wage among all federal contractors, which would constitute approximately one-fifth of the U.S. workforce. Today?s strike is the second by the same organizers. The first took place on May 21 and was significantly smaller.
See "Workers ask President Obama to raise their wages", Claire Gordon, Al Jazeera, September 25, 2013