What REALLY Goes On In Organizing Campaigns

Submitted by IBEW on April 23, 2010

The debate over measures to fix America’s broken labor laws took a back seat during the long debate on health care.  Now that the focus has shifted to efforts to stimulate economic growth and job creation, it’s time to put workers’ rights front and center.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with right-wing noise groups with shady sources of funding put out numerous talking points and videos painting unions as the problem as citing union intimidation as the biggest threat to the rights of working people to decide whether to unionize or not.  They even went so far as to hire an actor from The Sopranos (union actors by the way) to create a cartoonish vision of this imagined reality.

Protestors Demand: Tax Wall Street. We Need Good Jobs Now!

Submitted by JwJNational on April 22, 2010

On April 15, 2010, tax day, Jobs with Justice activists and allies in 40 cities across the country protested at banks and post offices to highlight the need for jobs -- and a way to pay for them.  Activists held rallies calling on Congress to create millions of good new jobs, tax the Wall Street speculators who broke our economy, and reign in the Big Banks and protect consumers, demonstrating support for legislation like the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), which will create 1 million jobs, and for the Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act (H.R. 4191). 

Tell Supervalu to be good Parents! Support Striking Shaw's Grocery Workers

Submitted by JwJNational on April 22, 2010

Supervalu, the parent company of New England grocery store chain Shaw's, is behaving badly.  The 310 workers from Shaw's Supermarkets Distribution Center in Methuen, MA, members of UFCW Local 791, have been on strike for almost 7 weeks.  Although Supervalu is the driving force behind negotiations, they refuse to take responsibility and come back to the bargaining table to negotiate in good faith.  They claim that they are not responsible for their subsidiary Shaw's.

Call and write Supervalu today to tell them to be good parents and settle the strike now!

Solidarity with Rio Tinto Locked-Out Miners

Submitted by Huy Ong on April 20, 2010

Additional reporting by Rand Wilson.

On Friday, April 16th, Jobs with Justice coalitions in Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Boston joined protesters in front of British Consulates in those cities to demand justice for 570 California miners who have been locked-out of work by the Rio Tinto mining corporation, a British-based mining conglomerate, since January 31, 2010 at the world’s 2nd largest borax mine in Boron, CA.

Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining companies, has a history of human rights abuses around the globe.  In Boron, California, the company retaliated against employees, members of the ILWU, and instituted the "lock-out" after workers rejected a company ultimatum that included illegal contract demands and provisions allowing the company to convert good full-time jobs into part-time, temporary, and outsourced positions with little or no benefits.

Urgent: Stop Racial Profiling and Criminalization of Immigrant Communities

Submitted by JwJNational on April 19, 2010

The Arizona State Legislature just passed a law (SB1070) that legalizes unchecked racial profiling by police of anyone they "suspect" is undocumented. It would criminalize all undocumented immigrants as "trespassers" and subject them to misdemeanor, or in some cases, felony charges for a new "trespass" crime.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is expected to sign the bill into law any day now. Tell Governor Brewer to stand up for human and civil rights and veto this anti-immigrant, racial profiling bill.  If this bill is signed into law, your state could be next.

Tell AZ Governor Jan Brewer to VETO this bill!

SB 1070 would force police officers to arrest and detain people based on a "reasonable suspicion" that they are undocumented. It's not surprising that news of this bill has shocked the nation. There is no such thing as looking American or undocumented, and mandating police officers to racially profile sets this country back to a shameful time in its history where racial segregation was the law of the land. The state of Arizona has become home to experimental laws that use immigration as an excuse to criminalize communities of color. We have all seen the devastation caused by Joe Arpaio and others like him. The result of this struggle in Arizona will set the tone for the national debate.

Groups, Economists Call for Financial Speculation Tax

Submitted by JwJNational on April 15, 2010

In Washington, D.C. today, Jobs with Justice Executive Director Sarita Gupta joined Wall Street and economic experts and consumer, development and global health advocates for a press conference to push for a Financial Speculation Tax.

Sarita Gupta"Jobs with Justice will be in the streets today in over 40 cities demanding that Congress tax Wall Street to pay for jobs," said Gupta. "Wall Street bankers recklessly gambled away our economy, and they should be made to pay for recovery programs like the Local Jobs for America Act."

The group called on President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to embrace this tax and called on Congress to move swiftly to enact it. The tax is a very small levy on financial short-term transactions, which will curb excessive speculation by Big Banks, but with minimal impact on long-term investors. It also would raise an estimated $100 billion a year for job-creation, important public goods like investment in rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and clean energy, and providing global health and development aid.

Top Five Reasons to Protest on Tax Day

Submitted by JwJNational on April 14, 2010
  1. Two thirds of U.S. corporations paid no U.S. income tax from 1998-2005.  Corporations like Exxon-Mobil and Walmart find ways to evade taxes, and get taxpayer money to pick up their tab.
  2. Wall Street speculators pay themselves record pay and bonuses and spend millions lobbying against financial regulations -- subsidized by the rest of us.
  3. Tax rates on millionaires keep dropping.
  4. The income gap between the richest 10% of Americans and the rest of us has been widening for 30 years.

Step Forward in Vermont's Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign

Submitted by Allison Fletche... on April 8, 2010

In 2008, the Vermont Workers’ Center/JwJ launched the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign.  On May 1, 2009 their “Healthcare Is A Human Right” Rally at the Statehouse drew over 1,200 participants and was the largest weekday rally in the state capitol's history.  They are gearing up now for an even bigger rally this May 1st.  Over the past few months the campaign has organized a series of People’s Forums across the state with almost 100 state legislators and over 1,000 total participants.  They have released two videos about the campaign, “If Vermont Leads, the Rest of the Nation Will Follow” and “We Ain’t No Fools Day.”

Big Banks are a Threat to Democracy

Submitted by Fran Tobin on April 8, 2010

Tax them, break them up, rein them in - www.taxwallstreet.org.

"Trust-buster" Teddy Roosevelt understood.  Jobs with Justice has been calling it out.  Even Robert Reich seems to get it.

This whole "too big to fail" idea is more than just a threat to our economy.  So much economic power in so few hands is a fundamental threat to democratic process.  "Too Big To Fail" lets these Wall Street speculators turn our national financial system into their personal casino, where they get the winnings and pass the losses to us taxpayers.  "Too Big To Fail" lets them accumulate obscene amounts of money, with which they seduce Congress to further weaken consumer protections and job-killing trade and economic policy.  When a Senator can say the banks "own" the Congress, we've reached a crisis indeed.

As Reich, Dean Baker, and others note, even if all the banks pay back their TARP money,

Banks Agree to Sweeping New Financial Regulations

Submitted by JwJNational on April 1, 2010

Right, like that would ever happen.

While the banks may not see the error of their ways, there is evidence that our government is beginning to recognize that banks do not always play a positive role in our economy.  Earlier this week, President Obama signed into law the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.  This legislation includes the historic student aid reform proposal originally passed by the House via the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which eliminates wasteful government subsidies to private lenders to issue student loans.  It appropriates over sixty billion dollars towards increases funding for the Pell grant, community colleges, Minority-Serving Institutions, and access and completion programs – money that previously was being spent to make private banks into middlemen for student loans.  This is a huge victory, but it is just the beginning of reforms needed to rein in Wall Street.

TAX WALL STREET TO PAY FOR JOBS

For 30 years, corporate CEOs and Wall Street speculators have put the squeeze on workers with globalization, privatization and union-busting.

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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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