Nevada rally participants ask officials, candidates to boost minimum wage

CARSON CITY — About 50 people, many from Las Vegas, marched around the Legislative Building and state Capitol on Monday calling for a $15 minimum wage, union rights, health care and other social reforms.

The protesters called on elected officials and candidates to support the minimum wage hike.

The Carson City march, which brought in two bus loads of protesters from Southern Nevada, coincided with the Higher Ground Moral Day of Action in 27 other participating states.

AJ Buhay, an organizer of the Carson City event with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada’s Las Vegas office, said the purpose of the march was to focus on a moral declaration to support the higher minimum wage and to stand against racism, sexism, discrimination and attacks on voting rights.

The Rev. Neal Anderson of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada spoke at the rally, saying the country has let itself become divided on too many issues critical to working people.

Anderson vowed to fight for the rights of those seeking to improve their lives and make a better world for their children.

Anderson minsters at the state’s only sanctuary church where undocumented immigrants can seek protection if they fear deportation. The church had one such case earlier this year. The individual left the church after his deportation proceedings were put on hold.

The protests are part of a national effort spearheaded by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, an architect of the Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina and founder of the social justice group Repairers of the Breach.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.