February 2011

Jobs with Justice partnered with Move On, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, SEIU, and many other progressive organizations to “Rally for the American Dream” on Saturday. 

JwJ coalitions organized rallies across the country to demand an end to the attacks on worker's rights and public services across the country, to demand the creation of decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work, and to demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.   Thousands of workers, community members, students, people of faith, immigrants, and retirees chanted and held signs saying “We are all Wisconsin. We are all Americans.”

While over 100,000 people rallied at the Wisconsin Capitol on Saturday, thousands mobilized in solidarity around the country.  Here are a few highlights of mobilizations JwJ coalitions helped organize.

A collection of active unions and community organizations in Atlanta, Georgia have come to a critical conclusion: It is time to re-build Atlanta Jobs with Justice!

Atlanta has a rich history of struggle, not the least of which boasts the inspiring leadership of the late Reverend James Orange.  It also boasts a vibrant labor movement, which says a lot given their location in the trenches of the right-to-work-for-less southern region.

In light of the severe attacks on workers and their communities around the country, a consensus quickly emerged that unions and community activists needed to build on that tradition and begin the formation of a coalition.

In its early phases of coming together, the Atlanta JwJ organizing committee has already mobilized in solidarity with workers at Rite Aid, TSA and just recently workers in Wisconsin.

All of this is gearing them up for a town hall on the plight of the unemployed in April.

For more information on how to get involved in building Atlanta Jobs with Justice, contact Kwame Ingram at 404-525-3559 or AtlantaJwJ@gmail.com.

VIDEO:

Georgians Rally in Solidarity with Wisconsin\'s workers

Members of the Excluded Workers Congress had their first exchange with the Department of Labor on February 9, 2011 where, in addition to each of the sector updates, the Congress’ priorities were shared—including the fight to pass the Power Act, a bill that would give protections to guestworkers trying to organize in the United States, the fight to increase the minimum wage and a pledge for on-going discussions with the DoL on where/how to protect excluded workers.

The Excluded Workers Congress also used this discussion as an opportunity to request the DoL take the historic action of debarring Vanderbilt LLC from the H-2B guestworker program after their gross mistreatment and prevention of workers from organizing in Nashville, TN last year.  This was lifted up as a benchmark case that, if done, could expand the right of guestworkers trying to organize around the country.

Excluded workers, covering sectors from farm-workers to restaurant workers, represent workers living in the shadows of some of the only industries that are growing in the US.  As Ai-jen Poo put it, “the future of the country is represented in these sectors.”

In response, the Department of Labor gave updates of their own—including updates on their new web capabilities and a warning that OSHA and Wage/Hour, two of the worker protection agencies, are under threat of deep budget cuts in the next congressional session.

Americans are becoming clearer that conservative politicians in WI, IN, OH and elsewhere are simply fronting for the Wall Street and Corporate CEOs that wrecked the economy, got richer doing so and are now demanding political payback for funding election campaigns.  Polls show that most Americans support worker rights, but the corporate-backed spin machine continues in high gear.

Across the country, the corporate-driven campaign against workers and communities is meeting stiff and growing resistance.  Republican lawmakers are attacking workers as political payback to the Wall Street and Corporate CEOs that financed their elections – the very people that created the economic crisis in the first place.  JwJ activists will not let them continue to amass record cash reserves and bonuses while leaving the rest of us in a permanent “jobless recovery.” 

Jobs with Justice coalitions have been mobilizing in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.  At this writing, Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin and Indiana are boycotting their legislative sessions, to prevent radical undermining of worker rights.