CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript - Wal-Mart Protesters

Interview

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COSTELLO: The 17-foot Christmas tree will be lit on Thursday.

A special holiday hug for one guy. Check out this video from Thanksgiving of a manatee literally hugging the diver's foot. The diver says the manatee was eight feet long and probably weighed around 1,000 pounds.

All right. In the news this morning, they're not giving up. Fast food workers backed by national labor unions will walk off the job in 100 cities on Thursday. They're pushing for what they call a living wage. That means $15 bucks an hour. Not the $7.25 most make now.

The protest coming days after Wal-Mart workers protested low wages. Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison protested along with them in Minnesota. He called the protesters courageous and urged them to continue to push for change. In case you're not up to doing the math this morning $7.25 an hour translates to $14,500 a year -- well below the poverty level.

Congressman Ellison joins me now. Good morning.

REP. KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA: Good morning. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. You know taking a look at those pictures, those protests seem so small. And frankly many workers who are protesting don't actually work at Wal-Mart.

So in your mind, why do they matter?

ELLISON: They matter because they speak for literally millions of people who are laboring at $7.25, $8.40 below poverty wages. I mean you've got to understand, if you're making $7.25, walking off the job is an enormous sacrifice. Nearly all of these folks need some sort of assistance, whether it's housing, medical, or food stamps or something like that, but they work full-time. So if they walk off the job that means a devastating blow to their family budget. So other folks step up and do it.

But also many of them do too as well. When I was protesting with Wal- Mart workers the other day, several of them were in fact -- left the shop floor and joined me and many others to stand up for higher wages. So it's both workers and non-workers --

COSTELLO: But isn't -- isn't it going to take a large number of workers protesting? It can't just be a couple of people, you know, with some anonymous union workers helping. Doesn't it have to be like a huge movement to make a difference?

ELLISON: Well yes but it has to start somewhere right? And as a matter of fact you've been seeing all summer long, whether they be in you know Milwaukee or Minneapolis or New York or Chicago or L.A. or San Jose, people have been standing up for better wages over the course of a better part of the year.

But these things are growing. They're getting stronger, they are getting longer, they are getting bigger, and more workers are getting encouraged. Remember you know if one person -- the Montgomery bus boycott didn't start with a big crowd it started with one lady saying, "I am not moving." And that's how these things are going to start too.

COSTELLO: I talked with a Wall Street Journal economist who said these strikes were signs of an underlying resentment that's building to something.

ELLISON: You're right.

COSTELLO: But what is that something, do you suppose?

ELLISON: A fairer economy. An economy that really meets our expectations of what the American dream should be. I mean we've seen four decades -- four decades of wage stagnation and it's because of unfair taxation, a tax on union and collective bargaining, unfair trade policies. And the net result has been so many hard working people cannot put food on the table based on the pay that they're offered as they see bonuses from CEOs and Wall Street types. I mean we see these exorbitant types of bonuses folks are getting where other people are getting $7.25. It's not fair. The United States is the richest country in the world. And we can do better.

COSTELLO: But in all honesty I mean the government seems helpless to do anything about the wage gap in this country. There's a bill that's waiting to be introduced in the Senate that would raise the minimum wage to $10 bucks an hour. But you know that's a nonstarter. You guys are working a couple more days this year and then you're going to deal with the budget next year. There's not going to be any time to push for a minimum wage bill. Why not just be honest about it and tell people now?

ELLISON: Well because we believe that where there's a will, there's a way. And we're not going to stop fighting just because the odds are long. I mean the reality is people need better pay. And so it's not for me to say because the odd are tough that we're not going to fight for it, we're going to fight for it anyway.

And if you know John Boehner and others see fit to bring -- put bills on the floor to help hard working people even to make their ends meet, so much the better. But if they don't, then the American people are going to know who is standing in the way between them and a higher minimum wage.

COSTELLO: Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota thanks so much for being with me this morning.

ELLISON: Yes ma'am.

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