Midway through Black History Month, the only Black member of the Bay State’s Capitol Hill delegation has reintroduced what she’s describing as a “historic resolution” aimed at reaching full employment and closing racial and gender income gaps.
The “federal job guarantee” resolution backed by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, comes more than 60 years after the equally historic March on Washington in 1963, where some 250,000 people rallied in front of the Washington Monument to call attention to the ongoing economic and civil rights challenges that Black Americans faced at the time.
“It’s long past time we actualized the radical dream and legislative blueprint that leaders like Coretta Scott King and Sadie Alexander presented us with to affirm the fundamental right to dignified work and a living wage,” Pressley said in a statement.
“I’m honored to mark Black History Month by introducing this bold resolution and standing on the shoulders of the civil rights leaders who came before us. Congress must pass our resolution without delay and make the investments necessary for everyone to thrive with dignity, not just survive,” she said.
Pressley first introduced the jobs resolution in February 2021, according to her office. Later that year, Pressley argued the case for the proposal with an op-Ed published an op-ed in The Nation.
As it’s currently written, Pressley’s resolution would “provide every person with an enforceable legal right to a quality job,” and for the creation of “federal jobs that meet long-neglected community, physical and human infrastructure needs.”
The latter could include jobs that deliver care for children and seniors; the construction and maintenance of transit system; positions that “strengthen” neighborhoods, and jobs that help protect the environment, Pressley said.
The positions would be funded through the federal government, and would implemented through partnerships with the communities they serve, she said.
Pressley argued Thursday that such an initiative, if enacted, would close the income gaps for Black, Latino and Indigenous workers whom she said “continue to face discrimination and are often the “first ones fired, last ones hired” during economic crises.
The program also would open opportunities for people living with disabilities, returning citizens, and others who face discrimination in the job market.
Advocates and experts welcomed the proposal.
The resolution “recognizes and promotes the infrastructure to put our most productive resources to work for a greener, more just and inclusive economy that works for us all,” Dr. Darrick Hamilton, the founding director of the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School in New York City, said.
Such a guarantee would provide “more access to good union jobs will help create a stable future for working people of all races and backgrounds.” said Mary Kay Henry, the international president of the Service Employees International Union. “It will help us to join together to build a balanced, inclusive economy that works for all of us.”
