$25 An Hour?

“Women in red” — aka the Deltas — push lawmakers on 2019 agenda, including minimum wage & expunging of criminal records.

The New Haven Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., which serves New Haven and the towns around, hosted the event. Delta Sigma Theta is an international sorority founded in 1913 at Howard University. It’s dedicated to public service with a focus on the black community. Its ​“five-point programmatic thrust” ncludes educational development, economic development, international awareness and involvement, physical and mental health, and political awareness and involvement.

The chapter called the conversation to discuss its statewide policy agenda with local politicians and the community weeks before the legislature reconvenes in Hartford.

“We want people to know the women in red … will advocate, educate, act as needed, and hold our elected officials to do the same,” chapter President Karimah Mickens-Webber told the crowd at the beginning of the meeting. 

According to Social Action Chair Karen DuBois-Walton, the social action committee’s members got together to discuss the issues they were most concerned about nationally and in their own communities. From those discussions, they generated a seven-goal policy agenda, which the whole chapter then voted on.

Inner City News editor and WNHH radio show host Babz Rawls-Ivy served as the moderator. She facilitated a panel discussion with Paul Nuñez, a New Haven-based lobbyist, New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon, and New Haven/West Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield.

Sorority sisters, many of whom wore red, got up to introduce each piece of proposed legislation. The three guests then gave their opinions of the proposals and advice on how to pursue them.

$15? Or $25?

The first item on the agenda was increasing the minimum wage to the ​“housing wage.” According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the ​“housing wage” is the hourly rate a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rent while spending no more than 30 percent of his or her income on rent. There is currently legislation in the works to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour from the current $10.10. The sorority concluded that is not enough to pull people out of poverty; it advocates that Connecticut’s minimum wage be raised to the state’s housing wage of $25 an hour.

Gary Winfield was the first to respond. Though he would support a $25 minimum wage, he said, it’s a ​“non-starter” because it would be next to impossible to get the votes to pass it. ​“Twenty-five is way outside the range of conversations we’re capable of having right now,” he told the crowd. He explained that just $15 has been a stretch; oftentimes in negotiations there has been pushback even at $12.

Pat Dillon cosponsored a bill to raise minimum wage to $15, which didn’t pass last year but has new momentum because of Democrats’ gains in the November elections.

Dillon explained that the income levels that determine cutoffs for certain benefits are determined by the federal government. So even though a $15 minimum wage is not always a sufficient wage in Connecticut, it could disqualify some people from eligibility for certain benefits. She added that a higher minimum wage would generate a substantial pushback from restaurants and from nonprofits. Many nonprofits, such as youth and arts organizations, are not adequately funded, and they said they would not have the money to pay their workers any more than they do now.

Paul Nuñez took a more tactical angle in answering the question. Connecticut, he said, is a ​“land of steady habits.” Change happens in increments here. ​“By and large it’s moving the ball forward little by little,” he explained. Though he called the $25 wage ​“laudable,” perhaps $15 is the right goal at the moment, he argued. He added that such a major piece of legislation could be a many-year fight.

Clearing The Record

The next point introduced was the expungement of criminal records for misdemeanor crimes upon completion of a sentence.

“I’m cool with it,” sad Winfield.

He added that he wouldn’t stop at misdemeanors. He would extend the legislation to cover felonies as well.

But the main question for him is whether whoever introduced such a bill would do the work to mobilize a broad enough array of people to show that this issue does not just affect those who have been in prison. The trick, he explained, would be in proving that this issue affects the whole community.

The sorority’s agenda also calls for the state to:

• Implement paid family leave
• Mandate a racial equity curriculum in all CT public schools
• Implement certification of Community Health Workers
• Implement automatic voter registration for residents of state funded/financed affordable housing
• Implement early voting

Can They Get A Witness?

The discussion at many points focused more on strategy for passing the legislation than on the policy itself.

Before the legislative agenda was introduced, Nuñez gave a short talk on the process of getting legislation through the two chambers of Connecticut’s state legislature. Before either chamber votes, he explained, a piece of legislation goes to the appropriate committee, which will hold a public hearing on the legislation. That is one opportunity for a group like Delta Sigma Theta to lobby lawmakers.

But testifying at the hearing is only a part of the effort. The sorority would also do well to study who is on the labor committee and create longer-term relationships with certain members.

“Your connections are really where you can influence legislation the most,” he told the room.

After the public hearing, the committee votes on the bill, and if it passes, it’s introduced as either a house or a senate bill. It must pass through both chambers and then finally receive the signature of the governor before it becomes law.

He said that a group like Delta Sigma Theta could influence the process by offering ​“real-life anecdotes,” which can be powerful in the lawmaking process.

Winfield agreed that anecdotes are powerful tool. He said that in a public hearing, each group presenting has only three minutes. It’s best to tell stories, because storytelling often has a more profound impact, he said.

All three guests agreed that in order to pursue the agenda, coalition building and relationships are key.

Winfield said that he supports the whole agenda, but that it’s more important to the New Haven area than it is to other parts of the state. That means that the sorority would have to build relationships with groups and lawmakers from other parts of the state who don’t have this as their agenda. Only then could it become a statewide agenda.

Dillon said that the sorority should not write off Republicans and more conservative towns, because outreach to them could in fact be fruitful.

Rawls-Ivy ended the discussion by asking the guests to say how they felt about the incoming governor and legislature.

Nuñez said he is hopeful. Theother two riffed off the theme of hope.

“Hope is a choice, not an emotion,” Dillon said. She said that attitude had helped her create allies out of people she had expected to be opponents.

“Hopeful is nice. I’m trying to figure out the strategy,” Winfield remarked. He said it is time to start building relationships with people he does not yet know very well.

“Proud Of The Work We Do”

Te New Haven Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta has been around since 1959. The chapter has been hosting community discussions like the one Wednesday evening since November, 2016.

According to Karen DuBois-Walton, the chapter started hosting these conversations in response to the 2016 presidential election. She explained that the sorority is a nonpartisan organization, ​“but with the election of 2016, we were really concerned about what that meant for members of our community.”

The first such meeting was at the Bethel AME church right after the election. The meeting offered an opportunity for the community to come together to articulate what they feared was at risk for them, and what to do.

The next meeting took place in Beth El Keser Israel synagogue. It was during the cabinet selection process; participants explored the records of the different appointees and figured out what concerned them about each one.

DuBois-Walton said that she and the rest of the chapter had decided to host the Wednesday evening meeting because they thought it would be good to do so right after the midterm elections.

For DuBois-Walton, as for the other members of the sorority, motivation for social action comes from the circumstances of her community. New Haven, she said, is so different from the America that elected Trump. It’s a progressive city with large immigrant and Muslim populations. During the day, she serves as executive director of Elm City Communities, New Haven’s housing authority. She said she is concerned for the families she serves. Many of the policy changes introduced by the Trump administration have made New Haven families, who were already vulnerable, even more so by stripping away safety nets.

Like DuBois-Walton, many of those in the audience cited personal experiences that influence the way they think about the agenda. Sorority member Marsha Harrison said that expungement of criminal records is a big issue for her. She used to work in corrections, which she called ​“a swinging door.” If there is no support for inmates after they’re released, they’ll go right back into prison, she said. Expungement of criminal records could help them be participating members of society.

Dee Marshall said that the proposal to mandate a racial equity curriculum had piqued her interest. A teacher at Hill Central School in New Haven, she said she believes that a racial equity curriculum would have to start at the collegiate level. If teachers were taught to teach a diverse group of students, they would ​“already come in with the mindset to create a diverse curriculum.”

For the members of the sorority, meetings like this provide a way to come together and connect over issues people in their communities face. Chapter president Karimah Mickens-Webber said the core of the chapter centers around the sisterhood it fosters. It allows the social action the group does.

“I’m proud,” Mickens-Webber told the Independent. ​“I’m proud of the work we do.”