"It's pretty tight these days with the climbing gas prices," said Pat Lynch, a member of Carpenters Union Local 28. "About the only thing going down is the size of my paycheck."
When asked about Montana's labor market and labor conditions in general, most everyone at the Kiwanis Park picnic shared Lynch's perspective.
"We need living wages in this country, we need to pay our teachers more and we need to invest in our children, our children who are our future."
If Chris Kuhns, a member of Laborers Union Local 1638, were king for a day, he would boost minimum wage to at least $7 an hour. Raising minimum wage, he said, will help grow communities and make them healthier places by helping families pay for necessities such as health insurance and car insurance.
A healthy community, he said, depends on the financial health of its residents, and minimum wage in Montana is not enough for most families to make ends meet.
"Montana should do a cost-of-living wage raise for everyone," he said.
While the state's economic outlook is grim, and wages are too low for families to thrive, Kuhns said he is optimistic that Gov. Brian Schweitzer will help turn things around.
"Our new governor is doing a really good job so far," Kuhns said. "He's got a lot of issues going that I think will really help this state. I just hope he gets it all done while he's in office."
"Brian is a bulldog for the working man," agreed Dennis Daneke, a carpenter with Local 28.
While most in Montana's labor movement have high hopes for Schweitzer and the changes he will initiate to improve the lives of workers, organized labor in Missoula also believes progress has been made in the Legislature on both sides of the aisle, said Mark Anderlik, organizer of the Labor Day picnic and a member of the Restaurant, Hotel and Nursing Union Local 427.
"Governor Schweitzer is someone who we can work with, and that's what we want," Anderlik said. "We are not automatically for one party or another; we are looking for people who will work with us on our issues and who is willing to really talk with us."
Aside from the problem of Montana's low wages, another pressing issue facing the state is the crisis of health care affordability, Anderlik said.
"It's a problem for even our union workers who have some of the best coverage in this state," he said, "and that's because the whole system is collapsing."
Other problems that need to be addressed are the issues of dignity and respect in the workplace, which is something the government isn't going to enforce, Anderlik said, "And we are losing our 40-hour work weeks. Laborers in this country are being asked to do more for less pay.
"Who in this country is going to stand up for these issues? The political parties aren't going to stand up; private corporations aren't going to stand up.
"It's the labor movement who will because there is nobody else."
In Montana, organized labor plans to put a $7.15 minimum-wage ballot initiative before voters in the 2006 elections.
The initiative will ask for the minimum wage to be raised to $6.15 an hour in 2007, then to $7.15 in 2008, after which it would be indexed to inflation and raised with cost-of-living increases.
"In Montana, there are about 60,000 workers who make less than $6 an hour," Anderlik said. "How can we have healthy communities when those communities have many families who are struggling to afford basic necessities?"
With fuel prices rising, the United States is fast approaching a time when minimum-wage laborers will be spending one hour's pay on one gallon of gas, said Jacquie Helt, president of the state AFL-CIO and executive officer of Local 427.
"Certainly what we are faced with here in Montana is that our mode of transportation is vital to our survival and our economic livelihood, and that is just one reason we need to see an increase in minimum wage," Helt said.
"The devastation that has happened this past week in Louisiana and Alabama is due to a natural disaster, but the truth is the problems people are facing there is the problem all low-income workers face every day," she said. "People ask why didn't those people get out of there? Well I can tell you from working with people here, the overwhelming answer is they couldn't afford to leave.
"We don't have to look any further than our own backyard to see people faced with the same challenges - many people don't make enough money to feed their families and pay for gas or have the money to own a car.
"Raising minimum wage in this state won't fix everything," she said, "but it's a start."
Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com
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