People with disabilities are fighting for better conditions

Living and minimum wage movements immediately distinguished themselves by the extraordinary coalitions they elicited, and by their success during a period that for social activists was depressingly bleak. Trade unionists, people of faith, the elderly, the young, people of color, people with disabilities, and women, all angered by the growing disparity between rich and poor in a time of inordinate prosperity, were more than ready to unite in support of low-wage workers. Theirs was a powerful moral imperative. As Maria Elena Durazo, a leader in the Los Angeles living wage campaign and president of Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees, Local 11, commented: We cannot be isolated for the very simple reason that we are not alone. The things we are fighting for—respect, dignity, a living wage, the chance for our children to have a better future—these are things that all people want. . . . We also have justice in our corner. And patience as well (quoted in Luce, 2004, p. 207). Critically, the movements provided the strongest challenge in decades to economic development policies that focused on building a “positive business climate” at the cost of people’s needs, and reasserted the responsibility of government to ensure “that fairness and justice for all prevail in our communities” (Luce, 2004, p. 13). It was these concepts that the authors wanted to introduce to Nevada citizens through Working Hard, Living Poor.