Sanders and Clinton platform committee allies spar over minimum wage, workers rights

Friday’s meeting of the Democratic National Party Platform Committee in St. Louis Friday brought a mixed bag for Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters.

In a Friday press release Sanders said he was pleased with language added to the platform that would call for breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and enacting a modern-day Glass-Steagall Act, as well as a unanimous vote for a proposal to abolish the death penalty.

Sanders added that he was “disappointed and dismayed”, however, that the committee turned back a proposal by Sanders supporters that would align the party against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Both Sanders and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have reportedly opposed an up-or-down vote in congress on TPP, despite Clinton’s supporters vote.

“It is hard for me to understand why Secretary Clinton’s delegates won’t stand behind Secretary Clinton’s positions in the party’s platform,” Sanders said.

Also up for debate was a Sanders-backed proposal to institute a $15 federally mandated minimum wage.

With 15 delegates – six appointed by Clinton, five by Sanders and four by DNC chair Deborah Wasserman Schultz – the committee aligned with Clinton and Wasserman Schultz’s delegates shooting down the proposed platform plank.

The drafting committee was considering amendments to a document that will go before the full Platform Committee when it meets next month in Orlando, Florida.

“If our pro-worker amendments do not carry in St. Louis we will reintroduce them before the full platform committee in Orlando, Florida. If we do not win in Orlando we can carry them to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Our job is to pass the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party.”

Sanders was in Syracuse, New York, on Friday at a campaign appearance featuring Eric Kingson, a candidate for Congress.