OSHTEMO (WKZO AM/FM) — Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda were back in Kalamazoo campaigning for a higher minimum wage Saturday evening. They say the effort took on added importance following the deadlock by the State Board of Canvassers late Friday on their petition initiative to put a $12-minimum on the November ballot.
The Group’s leader Saru Jayaraman says the vote by the two republican members of the Canvassing board to reject the initiative was purely political, and they will be challenging it in court.
She says they collected more than enough petitions to qualify and defeated all challenges to their validity.
Tomlin, who grew up in Detroit, and Fonda, who visited Michigan when she was married to U of M Grad and activist Tom Hayden, say while they expect the measure to pass if it makes it to the ballot. That’s why they claim powerful opponents in the business community, including the National Restaurant Association, want to keep it off the ballot.
Tomlin and Fonda now share co-billing in a Netflix series, and were first associated with the whole issue of equality in the workplace in the hit movie “9 to 5” decades ago. Both were activists long before the movie came out, and both were very entertaining and informative at the event at the People’s Church in Oshtemo this weekend.
It’s one of a series of campaign and fundraising events they held this weekend in Michigan.
