October 2011

Tonight, Tuesday Oct. 18th, PBS will be airing a ground breaking documentary on PBS, Lost in Detention.  Join us as we live twitter chat with the National Day Labor Organizing Network and Detention Watch Network using the hastag #altopolimigra. 

Building upon the hard work we all have done together in the past year to expose the dangers of police/ICE collaborations, Lost in Detention's debut will be a critical moment in swaying the hearts and minds against criminalization and towards human rights.

Click here for more info on Lost in Detention and to find your local listing.

And join the conversation at #altopolimigra Tuesday at 9:00pm Eastern.

There are still over 15 million unemployed Americans, nearly 6 job-seekers for each opening, and about 100,000 workers entering the job market each month.  Public services and education are being wiped out.  Corporate greed and Wall Street recklessness put the squeeze on working people and have created the worst economic crisis in a generation.  Big corporations shipped jobs overseas and Wall Street speculators took more and more of our wealth, getting rich quickly at the expense of workers and families.

But this is not news.

What has developed is the upsurge of workers, youth, and the communities we all live in to Occupy Wall Street, and to be in solidarity with these actions around the country.  This momentum came just in time, as workers around the country have begun to fight back in bigger and more coordinated ways—understanding that the fight is over who has control over what happens in our workplaces and our communities — working people or Wall Street corporations.

Last week, we announced the next stage in the fight for middle-class jobs at Verizon and Verizon Wireless – joining our brothers and sisters at CWA for our nationwide iWon’t Campaign, asking Americans to delay upgrading to the new iPhone on Verizon Wireless until the company stops trying to downgrade middle class jobs.

The iWon’t campaign, which is backed by an impressive coalition including MoveOn.org, USAction, Jobs with Justice, and National People’s Aciton and other groups, will feature advertising, grassroots outreach and leafleting at hundreds of Verizon Wireless stores.

Throughout the CWA / IBEW strike earlier this year, Jobs with Justice stood with hundreds of thousands of Americans who are sick and tired of profitable companies like Verizon and Verizon Wireless showering millions on their CEOs while taking away good jobs.

Now we are asking everyone who cares about the future of the middle class to help us fight back:  Upgrade to the new iPhone on Verizon Wireless only when the Verizon companies stop trying to downgrade their workers and give them a fair contract.

Walmart is the largest private employer in this country and nearly 60% of its hourly employees are women. It sets the standards for the retail industry, its suppliers, and for employers in general. How Walmart treats women ultimately has ramifications for all women, not just those who work in its stores.

And unfortunately, according to many of its Associates, Walmart is not truly a place of opportunity for women. The company avoided accountability recently when the Supreme Court dismissed the class action status of Dukes v. Walmart, the largest sex discrimination case in history. And although (with much public relations fan-fare) Walmart just announced a “women friendly initiative,” the effort doesn’t address a core problem at Walmart: the way women who work there are treated.

Urge Walmart CEO Mike Duke to meet with OUR Walmart and national Women's groups