‘Fifteen Bucks and a Union’: Bernie Sanders Marches With Striking Workers

Bernie Sanders secured the endorsement of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union on Thursday, marking the largest labor union to back his Democratic presidential campaign.

The postal workers’ union said Sanders has a long history of supporting its workers and pointed to his efforts to keep open post offices and mail-sorting plants in rural communities, oppose slower delivery standards and fight attempts to privatize the mail service.

On Tuesday, over 270 cities across the nation joined the “Fight for $15” strikes and protests by low wage workers who have organized walk outs from their jobs urging for all underpaid workers take the campaign to the ballot box during elections in 2016.

Tens of thousands of employees are demanding a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour. “You did. You started the movement”.

Fast-food and other minimum wage workers in hundreds of cities across the us are walking out of the job Tuesday. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to bump the wage floor for such workers to $10.10 per hour, but many say that amount is still not enough to live on in the Washington area. “That’s the bottom line”, Massey said.

Fight for 15, which is funded by the Service Employees global Union, has always been backed by Sanders who is extremely outspoken on issues involving income inequality. Sanders has introduced a bill in Congress that would set a federal minimum wage of , compared to the current level of $7.25.

“There are a number of senators who get served by people right here, and they should know that if you are serving them, they have got to start serving you”, he continued.

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Though Sanders has won endorsements from several local labor groups, Clinton has picked up far more support in recent weeks from national unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a massive public-sector union, which endorsed her late last month.