January 2013

United Workers Congress Response to Latest Immigration Proposal from President Obama January 29, 2013 and the Senate proposal from January 28, 2013

Submitted by Jonathan Williams on January 31, 2013

Cross-posted from the United Workers Congress

The United Workers Congress is encouraged that the Senate’s announcement and President Obama’s statement on immigration this week mark the long-awaited beginning of the country's immigration reform. Our members have fought for decades to protect the rights of low wage, undocumented workers who were intentionally excluded by labor laws and denied basic human rights to work, receive fair compensation and have a safe and healthy work environment. We represent millions of domestic workers, farm workers, day laborers, taxi drivers, workfare, restaurant, guest workers and formerly incarcerated who are ready to be fully included and striving for workers’ rights and political equality.

Advancing Workers’ Rights for all in Immigration Reform

Submitted by Jonathan Williams on January 29, 2013

Mackenzie Baris, Jobs with Justice organizer, speaks at Restoring Trust rally

Sitting on the sidelines isn’t an option when the push for immigration reform is shaping up to become one of the key political and economic debates in 2013. We--along with many workers’ rights and immigration reform advocates--are working to ensure that our nation’s leaders take a broad, inclusive, and humane approach to immigration reform policymaking to protect and advance bedrock civil, labor, and human rights for all workers in this country.

Through 25 years of our history of supporting employees taking a stand to fight for dignity and respect on the job, we have witnessed the particularly inhumane and unjust treatment of immigrant workers across the country. It’s one key reason we joined with key allies to start the POWER campaign.

Let’s Get Going & Fix the Senate

Submitted by Jonathan Williams on January 22, 2013

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In the coming days, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a series of proposals to reform its own rules in an effort to prevent gridlock and ensure that our elected leaders are held accountable to actually casting votes on critical issues.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is reportedly prepared to use the constitutional option to enact reform.

Help us seize the moment by placing a quick call to your Senators to sponsor SR 4. Just click here for talking points and phone numbers.

We’ve joined a broad network of progressive and labor partners to push for real reform through the Fix the Senate coalition. Vermont Workers' Center  and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice are mobilizing their members to demonstrate community support for this critical issue.

The need for reform is long overdue. As our Executive Director Sarita Gupta  explains in a statement released yesterday:

Making an impact in the budget debate

Submitted by Jonathan Williams on January 17, 2013

imageJobs with Justice leaders meet with New York Senator Chuck Schumer

Congress narrowly avoided a crisis by passing last minute legislation on New Years to avoid the implementation of the so-called fiscal cliff. The agreement secured key goals: taxes were raised on the wealthy and Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security went untouched.

Immediately after the election, Jobs with Justice/American Rights at Work and our network of local coalitions swiftly moved to ensure working people were heard in the budget debate. We worked in coordination and alignment with the Caring Across Generations campaign, and a host of labor partners, and community groups to be nimble and impactful. Here are some of the ways we organized and broke through on this critical economic fight:

We Need Senate Rules Reform

Submitted by Emma Chadband on January 14, 2013

Originally published on The Huffington Post. 

For several years now, Communications Workers of America has been working with Fix the Senate Now, a broad coalition of democracy, community, women, faith-based and civil rights groups that are fed up with a Senate that functions more like Cicero's Senate of ancient Rome than a 21st century democracy. Despite being considered the world's model deliberative body, in reality it's a place where little gets done because of the abuse of the Senate rules. This isn't news.

But there is a one-day opportunity on the first day of a new Congress when senators can adopt new rules by a majority vote, as provided by the Constitution. It's called the "constitutional option."

Two years ago, our coalition hit the airwaves, spawned 40,000 supportive calls to Senate offices and gathered more than 100,000 signatures on a petition in favor of such a change. Unfortunately, the resulting "gentlemen's agreement" of reforms did nothing to curb the rampant obstructionism in the Senate.

But Fix the Senate Now hasn't stopped fighting to end the gridlock.

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Jobs with Justice is a national network of local coalitions that bring together labor unions, faith groups, community organizations, and student activists to fight for working people. Our members are in the streets in 46 cities in 24 states across the country.

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