February 15, 2021

As the Poor People’s Campaign continues to pressure the U.S. Senate to include a minimum wage of $15/hour in any COVID relief, Sen. Joe Manchin has requested a meeting with the campaign. 

The campaign agreed to the meeting but only if it included a diverse group of low-wage workers and moral leaders from the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign, said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. 

Rev. Barber said the meeting could happen as early as this week. He plans to release more details during the campaign’s third Moral Monday at 3 p.m. ET today. All three Moral Mondays have focused on the urgent need for $15/hour, which Rev. Barber says is as big an issue as the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the New Deal. 

The campaign has postponed its plans for an in-person event outside Sen. Manchin’s office in Charleston because of an ice storm.The virtual program will be available here: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream/. 
Sen. Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have publicly opposed the proposal to increase the federal minimum wage that’s included in President Biden‘s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.

CONTACT:
Martha Waggoner: [email protected]  | 919-295-0802