When Azeneth de la Fuente's daughter suffered an accident at home last month, an ambulance took 25 minutes to arrive because of terrible road conditions. Ms. de la Fuente has been organizing to fix her neighborhood for over a year. On International Women's Day she testified before Bexar County Commissioners declaring, "we are not second class citizens... my daughter deserves better!"

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Arguing that the "stress of poverty" has a toxic effect on children's developing brains, COPS / Metro leaders stormed a San Antonio Independent School District Board meeting asking for wage raises for the lowest paid district workers, including bus drivers and cafeteria workers, to at least $13 per hour. A low wage job, said Maria Tijerina, "undermines a child's ability to learn."

Cafeteria manager Vanita Rodriguez spoke on behalf of her employees, revealing that every one she works with holds down at least two jobs to make ends meet. As the parent of 7 and the grandparent of 24, most of which are SAISD students, she knows that poverty hampers children's capacity to learn. COPS/Metro joined forces with the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel to raise this issue with the School Board and met with all 7 trustees prior to the board meeting.

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When Maria Bernal's baby stopped breathing after midnight, she called 911. The child turned blue as she waited 90 minutes for ambulances to arrive; the ambulances were stuck in the sand.

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Speaking on behalf of COPS / Metro Alliance, Fr. Walter D'Heedene of Sacred Heart Catholic Church reported to the San Antonio Express News that the organization plans to build on their living wage wins of 2015 by raising all public sector jobs in the city to a living wage of $15 /hour. He also mentioned that the organization plans to address predatory lending and criminal justice reforms, including those related to employment in 2016.

Agenda 2016: Community Leaders' Top Priorities for 2016, San Antonio Express News

When Maria Bernal's baby stopped breathing after midnight, she called 911. The child turned blue as she waited 90 minutes for ambulances to arrive; the ambulances were stuck in the sand.

Over 250 families live in Highland Oaks, an unincorporated corner of Bexar County, cut off from essential services because they have no streets -- only sand. Schools stopped sending buses to Highland Oaks because they, too, would get stuck.

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On Thursday September 10th, at the urging of COPS / Metro Alliance, San Antonio city council members unanimously voted for a living wage increase from $11.47 to $13.00 per hour, benefiting 1,300 of their lowest paid workers. By doing so, the municipality joined Bexar County in their living wage increase. Just ten days prior, Bexar county commissioners voted to increase their lowest wage to $13 / hour.

While this concludes a drama-filled and yearlong saga -- which also resulted in raised wages for workers at Alamo Colleges -- COPS / Metro leaders are not planning to rest long. Their long-term wage strategy includes a push to increase municipal wages to $14 / hour in fiscal year 2017 and $15 / hour the year after. They are furthermore setting their sights on wages paid by public schools and hospital districts.

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According to the editorial board of the San Antonio Express-News:

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According to San Antonio Express News business columnist Michael Taylor, he "might be wrong" in his concerns over living wage hikes -- he publicly acknowledged that economist experts familiar with historical data disagree with him on a couple concerns. Taylor went further to distinguish the local efforts of COPS / Metro from national living wage campaigns in that the organization is focusing on public sector wages. He notes that government sector wage raises "cannot lead to greater unemployment" as those workers cannot generally be outsourced.

He also noted that, "most important, public employers have a greater obligation to address the moral issue of 'a living wage' than do private employers. Unlike private companies, public entities (such as governments) explicitly purport to represent the 'public good' in everything they do. The public good should reasonably include paying workers so they can live above the federal poverty level."

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In a dramatic reversal of her position on living wages, Mayor Ivy Taylor threw her support behind COPS / Metro's proposal to raise the minimum the City pays its employees from $11.47 / hour to $13 /hour. Taylor threw in her support days after City Manager Sheryl Sculley included the measure in the proposed budget for the City of San Antonio.

This raise will directly impact 1,300 - 1,500 City employees who, in the words of Councilmember Ray Lopez, might no longer "have to have a second or third job." An additional 1,500 workers would indirectly benefit through wage compression, in which those currently earning close to $13 / hour will also see their wages rise.

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COPS / Metro leaders and allies are celebrating a huge victory — the city manager and a majority of city council members are now agreeing to COPS / Metro's proposal to raise wages for the lowest paid city workers to $13 / hour for fiscal year 2016. This exceeds the City's current living wage standard of $11.47 / hour.

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