Blake,

I write in reply to your letter to Paul Gaston.

The unfortunate truth is that no hotel in the City of Charlottesville or in the surrounding area pays a living wage to all of its employees. It has been one of the Virginia Organizing Project's (and LAG's and CAGE's) goals to persuade one or more hotels to take this first step. At that point it is our hope that we, city government, and many of its citizens would create an economic advantage for that hotel through public praise and recognition, part of which would be encouraging city visitors to stay there rather than at hotels that continue to exploit workers. If other hotels see that business increases if they pay a living wage, hopefully they will follow suit.

As you know, City Councilors are in a unique position to communicate this to hotel owners and managers. We have been disappointed that in the last year, to our knowledge, no Councilor has put much time or energy into this effort. Perhaps after election season, a Living Wage for our hospitality workers can receive the full support of our city's Council and staff.

We have made a request of Gary O'Connell, our City Manager, for such a study as Mr. Gaston speaks of, but we have received no response. Clearly the city does not have the authority to demand such data, but a voluntary survey on hospitality wages would be an appropriate part of any economic development program. I assume that you and Mr. O'Connell already know this. Unfortunately, he has been less than cooperative around the topic of living wage, and Council seems to be unwilling to take a firm stand and give him direction.

As Mayor, we have not seen that your individual efforts have yielded any fruit. At VOP, we believe that community effort makes change. If community leaders separate themselves from community efforts the process of change slows. When you say one thing to us and another to business leaders, the work toward our mutual goal suffers.

The Virginia Organizing Project wants Charlottesville to be a living wage city. But more importantly, we want Virginia to be a living wage state. We are supporting campaigns in Richmond, Williamsburg, Wytheville, at UVA (contract workers), William & Mary, James Madison, Virginia Tech, and in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Local groups in all those places are working hard. Charlottesville can provide a model for those other campaigns, just as Alexandria did for Charlottesville.

It's not about who gets credit or who wins or loses. It's about putting cash in low-income, working people's pockets. That is how poverty is eradicated.

Ben Thacker-Gwaltney (electronic mail, February 22, 2002)

Virginia Organizing Project