O'Malley: Time to grow labor movement

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley brought a strong pro-labor message to Iowa City on Labor Day, touting his work to bolster wages and workers' rights when he was governor of Maryland.

"Make no mistake about it, if we want our middle class to be stronger, if we want wages to go up and not down, we have to get organized and grow the labor movement in the United States of America," O'Malley said Monday during the annual Labor Day picnic organized by the Iowa City Federation of Labor.

O'Malley has pledged his support to the movement to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — a hot-button issue locally, with Johnson County on the cusp of boosting its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

O'Malley, a former Baltimore mayor who served as governor from 2007-15, said his state was the first in the nation to pass a living wage for workers, and said under his leadership Maryland made strides toward equity in pay, enhancing collective bargaining and extending family leave.

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"What I say to you today here in Iowa City, on Labor Day, is this: that progress is a choice," O'Malley told a crowd of a couple hundred in City Park. "If we're going to give our children a future with more opportunity rather than less, then we have to make the sort of choices our parents and grandparents made. Like raising the minimum wage, and raising it to $15 an hour, however and wherever we can. Choices like paying overtime pay for overtime work, and making it easier for people to bargain collectively for better wages for all of us."

The campaign trail has led O'Malley through Iowa City three times in recent months. He spoke to supporters June 11 at the Sanctuary Pub, and appeared Aug. 30 at the Mill Restaurant. However, the latest Iowa Poll released last week showed O'Malley as the Democratic choice for 3 percent of voters, well behind Hillary Clinton (37 percent), Bernie Sanders (30 percent) and Joe Biden (14 percent), who has not decided if he will run.

"I know when a guy stands before you and he has 4 percent name recognition and he tells you he's running for president, there's a fine line between delusion and imagination," O'Malley laughed. "Well I"m not imagining this: Our country is looking for new leadership."

Iowa City residents Clyde and Kay Seery had attended an appearance by Hillary Clinton earlier in the day in Cedar Rapids before watching O'Malley speak at the picnic.

"We liked his enthusiasm, and he had some direct points," said Clyde Seery, 73, who appreciates O'Malley's focus on boosting the minimum wage and educational funding.

Kay Seery, 68, said that between O'Malley, Clinton, Sanders and potentially Biden, Democratic voters have a strong slate of candidates from which to choose this caucus season.

"It's an interesting choice," she said. "All bring good things to the race, and all of them are qualified."

Deckard Finley, a 16-year-old student at City High, is among the volunteers on O'Malley's campaign locally. He said because many young people get paid minimum wage at after-school jobs, O'Malley's push for $15 an hour makes him a good choice for students. Finley said he also likes O'Malley's talk of providing a debt-free college education.

While Finely said he won't quite be old enough to vote in 2016, he and a couple of his classmates have been working the phones for O'Malley's campaign.

"He's good for students," Finley said.

Reach Josh O’Leary at joleary@press-citizen.com or 887-5415, and follow him on Twitter at @JD_OLeary.