Issued April 01, 2016
WASHINGTON—The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) issued the following statement in response to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's announcement of a path forward on raising the state’s minimum wage to $15, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement:
"New York is where the Fight for $15 started, and New York is now the site of a monumental victory that now extends beyond fast-food cooks and cashiers who won their minimum wage of $15 an hour to millions more New Yorkers.
"The 200 brave working women and men who led the first fast-food strike — and the tens of thousands who have joined the movement over the past three years from coast to coast — knew that by standing up and sticking together, they could win. They knew it, and today in New York they were shown to be exactly right.
"Thank you, New Yorkers who have fought so hard for this, and thank you, Gov. Cuomo, for hearing working people and leading the state to respond.
"Now so many more families will have wages they can sustain a family on, from New York and California, where wins came this week, to places like Seattle that first showed what a movement of people in the streets could do. Both those who have won wage increases and those who haven't are going to bring their power to the ballot box this November to make sure candidates respond to their demand for $15 and union rights."