JwJ News
JANUARY 2005
- DC Hotel Workers Win New Contract!
- National Student Labor Week of Action March 31- April 4, 2005
- JwJ Joins Delegation to the 2005 World Social Forum
- Janitors win Justice at Providence College!
- Jobs with Justice Tour with Indian Allies a Success!
- NE JwJ Coalitions Take on Verizon Wireless
- Victory at Intelicoat!!!
- Central OR JwJ Organizes Panel and Discussion on Immigrant Rights
- Atlanta JwJ WRB Holds Hearing on Public Transit
- JwJ Celebrates International Human Rights Day
- St. Louis WRB Delivers Report to Angelica
- Community Organizing and Technology Institute
DC Hotel Workers Win New Contract!
After more than five months of negotiations, 5,000 DC area hotel workers represented by UNITE-HERE Local 25 won a new contract on January 14th, narrowly averting a potential strike that would have interrupted inaugural activities at some of DC's largest hotels. The contract provides for wage increases as well as new protections from workload increases and harassment at the workplace. In addition, the workers were able to hold off the creation of a two-tier health-care system, under which new employees would have had to pay premiums for their health benefits. DC JwJ supported the hotel workers throughout the campaign, turning out supporters for several large rallies, recruiting volunteers to leaflet hotels, helping to organize a clergy breakfast, arranging for union members and organizers to speak at community events, strategically engaging allies in reaching out to major hotel customers, and lining up support for a possible strike.
JwJ coalitions across the country have been fighting alongside hotel workers fighting for a new contract throughout the fall and winter: Chicago JwJ sent delegations to with hotel management; Washington State JwJ organized civil disobedience to demand a fair contract for workers; and JwJ coalitions in Boston, Utah, and Atlanta have been leafleting at hotels.
National Student Labor Week of Action March 31- April 4, 2005
The rising cost of college tuition, federal and state financial aid cuts, and harsh anti-immigration policies have made it almost impossible for many students to attend college. And while the salaries of university administrators are on the rise, attacks on worker's rights, decreasing wages, lack of healthcare, unsafe and unsanitary working conditions and glass ceilings have made the campus workplace all but "ivy league". Sisters and brothers, it's time for us to take back our campuses!
For these reasons and many more, students and workers will unite this spring to celebrate the Sixth Annual National Student Labor Week of Action. From March 31- April 4, 2005 we will commemorate the lives of Cesar Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as we highlight the plight of campus workers nationwide.
Partnering organizations for this year's National Student Labor Week of Action include: The Student Labor Action Project of Jobs with Justice and the United States Student Association, United Students Against Sweatshops, National Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan, Student/Farmworker Alliance , Not With Our Money!, and Student Action with Farmworkers.
To sign up, learn more, or download an organizing manual for the Week of Action, follow this link or contact Student Labor Action Project Coordinator Carl Lipscombe at carl@jwj.org or (202)393-1044 x221.
JwJ Joins Delegation to the 2005 World Social Forum
The World Social Forum V was held January 26-31 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. More than 150,000 leaders and activists from social movements in 135 countries participated in more than 2,500 activities during the WSF. Jobs with Justice was part of the Grassroots Global Justice delegation that sent 100 grassroots activists and leaders from the U.S. to the World Social Forum. The JwJ delegation included National Board Members Michael Guerrero, Coordinator of Grassroots Global Justice, Rev. Calvin Morris, Director of the Community Renewal Society in Chicago, Njoki Njorge Njehu, Director of the 50 Years is Enough Network, and Tim Waters, Rapid Response Coordinator of the United Steelworkers of America. Other participants from JwJ included; Fred Azcarate and Anannya Bhattercharjee from the National Staff, Aletha Richardson and Tracey Tabacek from CWA Local 3204 and Atlanta JwJ, and Laurie King, Mark DeRienzo and Robin Cash from Portland JwJ.
Jobs with Justice helped coordinate and participated in workshops and panels on a variety of topics, including: Global Outsourcing; Cross-Border Solidarity; Organizing Post Elections; Women in the Trade Union Movement; New Forms of Worker Organization. The World Social Forum also provided an opportunity for JwJ to deepen its collaboration with the New Trade Union Initiative in India. Concrete proposals were developed on a number campaigns, particularly global outsourcing. In addition to meetings with NTUI, Jobs with Justice activists also held several meetings with other key global allies from South Africa, Hong Kong and Latin America.
The International Council of the WSF made a decision that in 2006 rather than a World Social Forum several decentralized continental and thematic forums would be held. The next WSF will take place in 2007 at a site to be chosen in Africa. Jobs with Justice participation along with Grassroots Global Justice in the World Social Forum once again reinforced the understanding that in order to successfully oppose global corporations, trade agreements and financial institutions we need relationships across borders to build the power necessary to win.
Janitors win Justice at Providence College!
When the fifty Janitors at Providence College, members of SEIU 615, were threatened with the College's decision to put their janitorial contract out to bid without requiring job security or maintaining their hard won right to a voice at work, JwJ was there! Rhode Island JwJ brought the power of their Workers' Rights Board to weigh in on behalf of the janitors. Thirty-three elected officials, including State legislators, the Providence Mayor and City Council Members, faith-based leaders, and academics from institutions around the state signed onto the call for Providence College to do the right thing and make job security and union recognition a requirement of the new contract. WRB chair Providence Councilman Miguel Luna and State Rep. Joe Almeida joined students and workers to hand-deliver the letter to PC President Father Smith. Although they were barred from entering the administrative building at PC by campus police, the students took up the fight and delivered the letter to college officials.
Individual JwJ activists generated 161 letters to Fr Smith and joined workers to leaflet basketball games alerting students and alumni to what was happening. Because of the pressure from workers and the community, PC awarded the contract to a union contractor, Hurley of America, who immediately began negotiations with the bargaining committee. The workers won a fair 2 year contract with 3.5% annual raises, 100% employer paid individual medical insurance, improved pension benefits, and additional paid time off. RI JwJ is planning a victory party at City Hall for workers and JwJ activists to celebrate this community victory and to thank everyone for standing up for justice for janitors.
Jobs with Justice Tour with Indian Allies a Success!
Jobs with Justice organized a 10-city tour with Indian labor leaders from the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) in December 2004. Local coalitions in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Erie, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, DC, and Atlanta hosted Ashim Roy, V. Chandra, and Anannya Bhattacharjee for strategic discussions on organizing rights, outsourcing, immigration, and other pressing concerns that the two organizations share. Ashim is the President of unions in Gujarat numbering more than 20,000 members, including workers at GE. Chandra has worked in the coal industry for 25 years and is the Organizing Secretary of the Koyla Mazdoor Sanghatana Union representing nearly 50,000 coal mine workers. Anannya is primarily based in India and works with JwJ to coordinate the partnership with NTUI.
In each stop on the tour, JwJ organized public events for the NTUI leaders to speak about current conditions in India as well as strategic meetings with key unions and community allies. The leaders met with community allies including Domestic Workers United in New York City, Northwest Labor & Employment Law Office in Seattle, City Life in Boston, and the South Asian Progressive Action Coalition in Chicago. In addition to meeting with union locals, JwJ and NTUI held national-level meetings with unions and union affiliate groups including UNITE-HERE, CWA, SEIU, UMWA, SPEEA, APALA, and the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center. Both the Institute for Policy Studies in DC and the Cornell Global Labor Institute in NYC helped to organize public events and JwJ will continue working with them on research activities to deepen the JwJ-NTUI collaborative.
JwJ and NTUI held follow-up meetings to the tour at the World Social Forum in Brazil (see separate story), to solidify next steps in the collaborative. Ideas for future JwJ-NTUI activities include strategizing on international campaigns; an international garment tribunal in India; tours of US groups to India; building relationships with Indian workers in the US; and broadening the collaboration between JwJ and NTUI to include worker formations in other countries.
NE JwJ Coalitions Take on Verizon Wireless
Workers at Verizon Wireless (VZW) lack basic workplace rights and receive inadequate health and retirement benefits. When they have tried to organize to fix these problems, VZW has conducted a campaign of illegal firings, threats, intimidation, and worker surveillance and has even shut down Northeast call centers and moved them to "right to work" states.
On December 2nd and 11th, Boston JwJ joined CWA Local 1400 and IBEW members for creative actions outside of VZW stores to inform customers of VZW's anti-union tactics. Vermont Workers Center/JwJ organized a demonstration outside a downtown VZW store on International Human Rights Day. Congressman Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd, saying, "In many ways there's a war being waged by corporate America against the working people of Vermont and the United States of America. And we have got to stop that."
After more than a year without a first contract, workers at InteliCoat in South Hadley, MA, won a fair agreement in January! IUE-CWA Local 81246 members at InteliCoat testified at the first hearing of the Western Massachusetts Workers' Rights Board last October about their struggle to organize a union and win a first contract. That hearing and pressure from the community was crucial in the victory!
Central OR JwJ Organizes Panel and Discussion on Immigrant Rights
As part of a week of activites celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Central Oregon Community College, Central Oregon JwJ organized a January 19 panel and community discussion about immigrant rights. Local panelists, including an immigrant activist, an immigrant rights attorney, and the labor council president, were joined by representatives of the United Farm Workers and Enlace, the Portland-based immigrant organizing group. The panel discussion brought together over 50 Latino and Cambodian immigrants with white residents for the first time. Central Oregon Jobs with Justice is following up with participants to determine how to continue to forge stronger bonds in our communities.
Atlanta JwJ WRB Holds Hearing on Public Transit
On January 20, 2005, Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) riders and workers joined forces to give testimony to a panel of local leaders at Atlanta's first Workers' Rights Board Hearing at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church about the impact of several rounds of cutbacks in jobs and services. The most recent cuts of 15% in jobs and services has delivered a heavy blow to working families and riders trying desperately to reach destinations such as hospitals, jobs and schools. Many low income communities of color, elderly, and disabled people are finding it increasingly difficult to keep good jobs and maintain their independence when their only means of transport has been cut off.
The hearing was chaired by former Bell-South employee and concerned resident Carol Davis-Sutton. Other WRB members included: Ajamu Baraka, U.S. Human Rights Network, Homero Leon, Coordinating Council of Latino Community Leaders, Angel Torres of the Environmental Justice Resource Center, and Rev. Brenda Wallace of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
"What we, the disabled, desire most is the opportunity to participate in society. We can only do so, however, when we have accessible and affordable transportation. We use MARTA to go to our jobs, our medical appointments, and to visit our friends, etc. When services are cut our independence is seriously diminished." - Adam Shapiro, South Metro Council for the Blind
Witnesses at hearing included: Jamie Olson, disabled rider/activist with Citizens for Progressive Transit; Janice Ibrahim, MARTA rider; Adam Shapiro, Vice-President of the South Metro Council of the Blind, Radio Talk Show host, and member of the Elderly Disabled Access Advisory Committee (EDAAC); Bryan Hagar, Director of Georgia Chapter of Sierra Club; and Leon Brewton, MARTA employee in Electrical Maintenance.
JwJ Celebrates International Human Rights Day
In honor of International Human Rights Day on December 10, Eastern Massachusetts JwJ joined Amnesty International and a number of other organizations in co-sponsoring a conference called "Workers' Rights are Human Rights." Over 350 activists came together to learn about abuses of workers' rights at home and abroad and how they can get involved in the movement to defend workers' rights. Activists participated in two demonstrations - one outside a Verizon Wireless store to protest VZW's anti-union tactics, and one outside the Colombian consulate, where every protestor wore a sign with the name of a Colombian union activist and the date they had been assassinated.
On December 10, The Capitol District Labor-Religion Coalition/ Albany JwJ held a press conference to release their Workers' Rights Board report on working condition's for Albany's janitors. The report recommends amending New York State labor law to better protect workers and extend prevailing wage protections to building service workers, and it was covered by two of the area's major newspapers.
St. Louis WRB Delivers Report to Angelica
On Thursday, January 16 at 11am a delegation arrived at Angelica Headquarters in Chesterfield, MO to hand-deliver a copy of the National Workers Rights Board Report on Angelica Laundries. The delegation included WRB members State Rep. John Bowman and Bill Ramsey of the Human Rights Action Service as well as St. Louis Area JwJ Director Lara Granich. While they weren't able to see CEO Stephen O'Hara, they sent a clear message that leaders in the St. Louis community are unhappy with Angelica's treatment of workers.
The report they delivered was based on a September 23rd National WRB hearing in St. Louis, and detailed the testimony given by Angelica employees who are struggling to organize a union with UNITE-HERE. The Capital District Labor-Religion Coalition/Albany JwJ also contributed to the report by investigating the firings of two union activists at an Angelica facility there. The Board's recommendations included: Members of Angelica's Board of Directors should meet with the WRB to discuss the findings of this hearing; Angelica should make workers' health and safety a top priority by implementing a national effort to reduce hazards on the job in cooperation with its employees and their union; Angelica should pledge to remain truly neutral towards their employees desire to form a union and agree to a card-check process for determining majority support for a union; Angelica should re-hire the wrongly dismissed Ballston Spa, New York, employees with full back pay.
Now, St. Louis JwJ is working to deliver the report to other members of Angelica's board.
Community Organizing and Technology Institute
Three JwJ staff recently completed a series of trainings held by the Progressive Technology Project on how to use technology to organize communities more effectively. The trainings, held over the course of 2004, were attended by Alyce Gowdy Wright of South Florida JwJ, Carlos Fernandez of Chicago JwJ, and Allison Fletcher Acosta of National JwJ. About 15 grassroots organizations from across the country participated in the training. An important focus of the training was how to improve database systems to mobilize members more effectively, track donations, and more. Other topics included graphics and graphic design, websites, technology planning, messaging and communications, and security. Participants shared information through case studies from their own organizations and got hands-on training with computer programs. Plans are in the works to share the knowledge gained at this training to help the entire JwJ network use technology more effectively.
