September 2010

On Saturday, October 2, 2010, hundreds of thousands of people from across the country will gather at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to help reorder our national priorities so that investments in people come first.

Fifteen Jobs with Justice coalitions from Vermont to North Carolina to Illinois are sending more than 500 workers, community members, unemployed, and others impacted by the economic crisis to Washington, DC to demand Congress put people back to work.  Eleven more Jobs with Justice coalitions will participate in solidarity actions in their own cities.

Congressman Stephen Lynch, Fall River Mayor William Flanagan and community leaders representing the Massachusetts Workers' Rights Board reviewed a list of employees at Comcast's Fall River and Fairhaven locations and then checked it against union authorization cards voluntarily signed by employees at the same locations requesting IBEW Local 2322 to represent them.

Based on their card count, an overwhelming majority of Comcast employees in the above named locations desire to unite in IBEW Local 2322.

Rep. Lynch and Mayor Flanagan sent a letter immediately afterwards, "urging Comcast management to respect the employee majority and voluntarily recognize IBEW Local 2322 as their representative and begin collective bargaining for an agreement covering their wages, benefits and working conditions."

"We requested the certification because we wanted to prove beyond a doubt to management that a genuine majority of our co-workers want to form a union and begin collective bargaining," said Brian Almeida, a Comcast technician from the Fall River office who stared with the company in 2001.

Almeida was accompanied at the certification event by about 25 other Comcast employees and many union and community supporters. It took place at the IBEW local 2322 union hall in Middleboro, MA on September 24.

Think about working in temperatures, upwards of 100 degrees on hot days.  Finding used hypodermic needles; human body parts, fluids and excrement; umbilical cords and other biohazard material from the Cleveland Clinic hospital system.   No safety harnesses for workers climbing over 10 feet in the air on scissor lifts.  Nonexistent water breaks and a minimal amount of fans to cool the facility on extremely hot days.   Now think about enduring all of this while earning $8.34 an hour.  Think I am talking about a sweatshop located in a third world country?  Well, think again.

I have just described some of the horrible conditions Sodexo Laundry workers in Cleveland, Ohio face on a daily basis.  It doesn’t stop there either.  Poor ventilation and circulation of the air causes oppressive heat inside the plant, even during cold weather.   One worker described going in and out of the plant like, “going from a stove to a refrigerator.”   Doors are thrown open in the winter, sending bone chilling drafts into areas of the facility, just increasing the uncomfortable surroundings the workers have to face.   Machines are overloaded and workers are expected to meet production by any means possible.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act - more commonly known as the DREAM Act - would allow undocumented youth raised in the United States who have completed their K-12 education with no criminal record to earn their citizenship through either a college education or military service.  Although the legislation has widespread support, the DREAM Act has stagnated in Congress for nearly a decade.

But the long wait could be over!  Today at 2:15 ET, the Senate is scheduled to vote on cloture for the defense authorization bill, which currently includes the DREAM Act.  If passed today, a vote on the DREAM Act amendment is expected on Thursday.

Call your Senators at 1-888-254-5087 and tell them:  Vote 'YES' on the cloture motion for H.R. 5136 and 'YES' on the DREAM Act amendment, and ask them to give a speech on the Senate floor in support of the DREAM Act.

With the DREAM Act passed, qualifying undocumented youth would be given the chance to invest in themselves and their futures through education or the armed services, shattering the glass ceiling impeding these young people from reaching their full potential. Communities, which have already invested so much in these youth through the primary education system, would benefit from a more qualified, better-educated pool of citizens.

With Persistent Unemployment & Record Numbers in Poverty, Protesters Demand Bold Action on Jobs.

On September 15, Jobs with Justice coalitions and allies in more than 100 cities nationwide brought the voices of workers, community members, and the unemployed into the debate on how to move forward on a jobs plan that would put people back to work immediately.  With 15 million people out of work and one in seven  Americans living below the official poverty line, the time is now for Congress to take bold action to move the country towards full and fair employment and to ensure that Wall Street pays their fair share.

“Joblessness is the central issue for voters in this election,” said Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice Executive Director.  “People are angry, and for good reason.  Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions.  If Congress won’t act to create jobs, then maybe they don’t deserve to have jobs.”