Amid protests against a Republican proposal to eliminate the city’s Living Wage ordinance, a committee in the Republican-controlled City Council voted to abandon the repeal.
The proposal, introduced in the new 12 to 3 majority Republican Council in December, would have removed from the city ordinances (local laws) a requirement that, if the city contracts with a company for certain services, the workers for that company be paid a certain living wage.
The amount of the living wage in the ordinance is determined by a formula based a federal data. For 2021, that living wage is $15.03 per hour.
Pastor Gervais Barger, Sr., who is the President of the New Britain Black Ministerial Alliance, activist Richard Lacourciere and a number city residents spoke at the January 5, 2022 meeting of the Council’s Administration, Finance and Law Committee and protested against the repeal of the ordinance.
“I’m appalled that it even came up,” said Rev. Barger.
“To me, the living wage should be added onto, not detracted from,” Rev. Barger added, “so that the people of New Britain would have an opportunity to have a leg up, not continuing to get the crumbs from the table.”
The new Building Economic Equality – New Britain (BEE-NB) community group organized people to protest the proposal in December and led even larger protest at the January 5th meeting.
Protesters said that, if any changes were to be made, the ordinance should be strengthened, not weakened or repealed.
But the committee voted, instead, for a “substitute” for the proposal that removed the proposed strikeout of the Living Wage ordinance, and thus, as worded, appears to keep the ordinance intact. The remaining ordinance proposal would repeal other provisions of the ordinances, including an ordinance providing for an independent city auditor employed by the Council.
The city Living Wage ordinance requires a living wage be paid workers under any contracts with the city over $25,000, “for the provision of food, clerical, transportation, building, property, equipment or maintenance services,” as well as, “janitorial cleaning, maintenance or related service.” The ordinance does not apply to construction or contracts for services that are “as-needed” or for fewer than five days.
The ordinance also includes a provision to give first preference to hiring prospective workers who are residents of New Britain when they are hiring.
Editor’s note (1/6/2022): The article was updated with a comment from the public hearing.
