Leaders of COPS/Metro will hold a press conference on the north steps of the Bexar County Courthouse on Tuesday, November 18 at 9:00am to announce a Living Wage strategy for the lowest paid County workers and for outsourced & subcontract service jobs. County Judge Nelson Wolff will join COPS/Metro leaders, who are also scheduled to make a formal presentation during
the Commissioners Court meeting later that morning.

This follows a Leaders Assembly held on Sunday afternoon, November 16, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church Civic Center, where approximately 350 community leaders gathered in support of the plan to raise wages. Bexar County Commissioners Paul Elizondo and Tommy Adkisson, State Representative—and mayoral candidate—Mike Villarreal, and State Senator Leticia van de Putte supported the strategy. They committed to work with COPS/Metro leaders in raising wages for the lowest paid public sector workers, establish living wages for outsourced & subcontract jobs, and close the loopholes that allow some companies to apply for tax incentives without paying living wages.

“The unemployment rate in San Antonio is less than 4.7%,” remarked Esmeralda Rodriguez, a St. Timothy parish member, during the assembly. “That means that the vast majority of us are working, and we’re working very hard, sometimes multiple jobs. The problem is that many people are not being paid enough to make ends meet.”