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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Elected Jobs with Justice "Grinch of the Year" With 52% of more than 10,000 votes cast, Goodyear won the 6th annual online "Grinch of the Year" election sponsored by National Jobs with Justice. Nominated by the United Steelworkers, the company is criticized for forcing 15,000 US workers out on strike on October 5th. Despite concessions given by workers in the last round of contract negotiations that led to a billion dollar turn-around, Goodyear wants to close plants, off-shore jobs, and gut retiree health insurance. "Goodyear truly is the Grinch Who Stole Christmas from working families this year" said Fred Azcarate, Executive Director of National Jobs with Justice. "15,000 families have been living on strike pay and their savings for almost three months, and their health benefits are set to expire on January 2nd." Smithfield Tar Heel Division Chairman Joseph Luter III came in second place with 39% of the vote. Smithfield was nominated by the UFCW for paying workers poverty wages, failing to provide adequate medical care to injured workers, and suppressing workers' right to organize a union. The additional 9% of votes went to write in candidates. The most popular write-in candidates were Wal-Mart (winner of the 2005 and 2004 Grinch elections), the Bush administration (2003's Grinch winner), McDonalds, and Starbucks. The 'Grinch of the Year' awards began locally with Jobs with Justice Coalitions around the country highlighting the greedy grinch in their hometowns. That tradition has remained in many areas with the Valley Park Board of Alderman winning the St. Louis Area Grinch of the Year Award for their anti-immigrant ordinance and Tacoma Macy's Vice President winning the Pierce County, WA Grinch award for promoting credit-card debt, failing to raise most workers' wages for 3 years, shifting health care costs to workers, and yelling at workers for excercising their legal right to organize a union. Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers' rights. Around the country, local Jobs with Justice Coalitions unite labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations to build power for working people.
Jobs with Justice Stands in Solidarity with Striking Goodyear Workers
About 15,000 Goodyear workers, members of the United Steelworkers, have been on strike since October 5th. Goodyear refuses to back away from its contract demands that include shutting its third U.S. plant in four years and gutting retiree health care. The storefront demonstrations were designed to spotlight the unreasonable contract demands Goodyear is making despite posting huge profits. The actions also protested the elimination of U.S. manufacturing jobs by Goodyear and other corporations.
Earlier this month, JwJ turned out to support Goodyear workers at the NASCAR Awards Dinner in New York City. Goodyear makes all of NASCAR’s tires, and a spirited group of 300 labor and community activists turned out to let Awards Dinner attendees know about the strike. Led by USW District 4 Director Bill Pienta and USW National Rapid Response Director Tim Waters, more than 20 of the striking Steelworkers from across the country were joined by key labor leaders from the NY AFL-CIO, AFSCME District Council 37 and the United Auto Workers. Rev. Dave Dyson from the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church represented the religious community support for the strikers. Charlie Kernaghan from the National Labor Committee exposed Goodyear’s outsourcing of jobs to China. Fred Azcarate, Executive Director of National Jobs with Justice made clear to the strikers and to Goodyear that the Steelworkers have the support of Jobs with Justice Coalitions across the country. Hearing the stories from Goodyear Strikers, many of whom are 2nd and 3rd generation Goodyear workers was truly inspiring. They each spoke of how they sacrificed in 2003 to help the company and now when the company has returned to profitability it wants to turn its back on workers and retirees. The fight at Goodyear is a critical one not just for the 15,000 strikers at Goodyear, but for their families, their communities and working and poor families everywhere fighting for good jobs and a decent standard of living. You can donate to the strike fund here. Children, Massachusetts JwJ Lead Action Supporting Smithfield Workers
Poverty wages, brutal conditions, crippling injuries--5,500 workers in Tar Heel, North Carolina face this every day at the world's largest hog processing plant. Cited by Human Rights Watch for violating international human rights standards, Smithfield Packing has created an environment of intimidation, racial tension, and sometimes violence for workers who want a voice on the job. A delegation of fifth graders attempted to deliver a letter about Smithfield's workers' rights violations to the manager of the Alewife Johnny's Foodmaster, but the manager refused to accept it. To learn more about how you can support the workers at Smithfield, visit http://www.smithfieldjustice.com. JWJ COALITONS GET OUT THE VOTE! Several JwJ coalitions across the Midwest and Northeast played key roles in voter mobilization efforts this year. From campaigns to raise the statewide minimum wage in Ohio and Missouri to going door-to-door to do voter education on issues like health care and immigration, JwJ coalitions helped make a difference in 2007! In St. Louis, Jobs with Justice worked alongside dozens of ally organizations including the AFL-CIO and Missouri Pro-Vote in the “Give Missourians a Raise” campaign to increase the state minimum wage. In the initial stages of the campaign, JwJ collected more than 7,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. St. Louis JwJ led the faith outreach campaign, coordinated local coalitions of grassroots leaders in Kansas City, Mid-Missouri, St. Louis, and Springfield, and reached out to low-income workers through the organizations that serve them in St. Louis. St Louis JwJ built new relationships with organizations, donors, and added nearly 500 new activists to their statewide mobilization database. During the voter mobilization phase of the campaign, JwJ targeted a few key neighborhoods and knocked on 2,300 doors; most of them twice. On election day, an overwhelming 76% voted to Give Missourians a Raise! In Ohio, Jobs with Justice played a key role in a successful ballot initiative that raised the state minimum wage, collecting signatures to put the measures before the voters and mobilizing faith leaders, rank-and-file union members, and other activists to help educate their neighbors about the importance of fair wages. Starting in the spring and summer, Toledo JwJ and Cleveland JwJ began working with Let Justice Roll to collect thousands of signatures that put the minimum wage initiative on the ballot. These coalitions then continued to build support for the initiative, working with key allies to develop a Labor in the Pulpits educational piece to mobilize congregations. The Raise Your Voice Campaign (RYVC) of RI Jobs with Justice, DARE and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association was a huge success! Beginning in August, their team of organizers worked the streets of Providences’ Southside, West End, and Olneyville neighborhoods. RYVC registered new voters and talked to people who usually don’t vote about why voting is an important step in building community power. Throughout the project, RYVC knocked on 12,000 doors and got 3,500 people to pledge three things: 1) to vote on election day; 2) to vote yes on ballot questions 2, which restored the right to vote to those with felony convictions and 9, which will provide more funding for affordable housing; and 3) to continue the community’s fight beyond Election Day for the right to organize, for living wage jobs, for immigrant justice, for health care for all, for an end to the systematic incarceration of our young people, for schools that value every student, and to fight against gentrification and for affordable housing. During election weekend and on Election Day their team knocked on 10,000 doors and spoke with thousands of people at the door and on the phone reminding them to vote. RYVC drove people to the polls and helped people make sure they knew how, why and where to raise their voice. And the hard work paid off – voter turnout in Rhode Island topped 55% (more than any other in recent mid-term elections) and both ballot questions 2 and 9 were passed! For the second year, New York City JwJ coordinated NY VOTE, an alliance of NYC organizations that is giving community residents the skills and materials to go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, educating voters about progressive issues, and turning these voters out to the polls. NY VOTE aims to do more than mobilize voters at election time – it also seeks to build organizations with roots in the community that know how to organize voters at election time and how to engage them in meaningful policy and organizing campaigns between elections. NY VOTE used the spring and summer to recruit and train the local election district captains as well as develop the platform for this year's mobilization. The captains have taken the lead throughout the summer and into election season on recruiting, training, and coordinating other volunteers who will knock on doors and phonebank their families, friends and neighbors on the issues facing their communities and eventually to turn them out to the polls. In 2006, NY VOTE visited more than 28,000 people in Flushing, Bushwick, Kingsbridge, South Bronx, Upper Manhattan, and Downtown Brooklyn and got more than 6,000 people to sign up as supporters of the NY VOTE platform and to make a commitment to vote on election day based on its principles. To learn more about their platform, visit the NY JwJ website. The VOTE Buffalo effort was successful as well. Buffalo CEJ/JwJ partered with seven community organizations to talk to voters and get out the vote. 20 volunteers helped to knock on 3,000 doors, talking with 900 people about community issues. 500 pledged to vote and 200 pledged to participate in ongoing community campaigns beyond election day. In the months leading up to the election, the Vermont Workers Center-JWJ canvassed four of Vermont's largest cities, Burlington, Brattleboro, Barre and Rutland, going door-to-door in working-class neighborhoods to discuss the crisis in health care and invite people to sign a petition and get involved in the movement to make universal health care a basic right for everyone. Thousands of pieces of literature were distributed; hundreds signed a petition and filled out a health care survey. VWC-JWJ is working with its union partners to stop the "race-to-the-bottom" and practice of public sector employers pitting union workers against strapped taxpayers and fight to take healthcare off the bargaining table and make quality affordable health care a right to everyone. In Massachusetts, Jobs with Justice sought to educate working people on key issues. Massachusetts JwJ published Union Voter Guides on Immigration, CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) Reform, Education, Question 2 supporting the fusion voting initiative, and the Question 3 Child Care referendum. These guides were sent out to unions across the state for use by activists going door to door as part of Labor 2006 and other similar efforts. The goal was to provide talking points on controversial issues being used as points of attack by anti-worker candidates, and they were well received across the state. On question 3 (which narrowly lost), JwJ hired a summer intern to organize community outreach efforts statewide. Many community leaders were contacted, and Briefings were organized in Lowell and Somerville. In the fall, JwJ focused primarily on labor outreach. Louisville Community Leaders Share Vision for West End Development On Saturday, December 9th, Kentucky Jobs With Justice and the Sierra Club hosted a community visioning session in Louisville’s predominately Black West End. After recruiting volunteers to help with door knocking and phone banking, local residents, community activists, faith leaders, labor leaders, elected officials and youth came out to share their vision for community and economic development in the western part of the city. The focus of the day was on "New Models for Success!" Workshops included community gardens, local foods and independent groceries, healthcare as a community development issue, and youth perspectives on community and economic development. The documentary "Waging A Living" was screened during lunch. Community Visioning co-sponsors included ACORN, AFSCME Council 62, Community Farm Alliance, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Kentucky Jobs With Justice, Kentucky Resources Council, Sierra Club, UFCW, and State Representative Reginald Meeks. A follow-up action session is planned for January and KY JWJ is working on a written summary report. The event was covered by all of our local tv news stations, local NPR affiliate, and the newspaper. |
MEDIA LINKS IU will make outsourcing recommendation this weekThe Herald-Times (subscription) - Bloomington,IN,USA ... Elsewhere, IU employee groups have been gearing up to fight outsourcing, and Bloomington’s labor-affiliated Jobs with Justice group has been compiling ... Smithfield chairman nominated for 'Grinch of the Year' award How to pass the Employee Free Choice Act County's control board now 'hard' Commentary: A Hard Control Board Can't Solve the Problem One word captivates ND panel ACORN Celebrates Overwhelming Ohio Wage Increase Victory... Workers' Rights Board to put Wal-Mart on Trial Election could drive minimum-wage hike As Ohio goes, so goes the nation Awaiting the political aftershocks Workers’ advocates hail minimum-wage hike win For one proposed education reform, 65 percent doesn't add up. By ... Why the Minimum Wage Landslide, What's Next? Post-Election ... On the picket line Wage debate outlasts vote Business Leaders, Minimum Wage Organizers On Victories, What's ... Mayor intervenes in COTS dispute Social activists win awards Homelessness a wet lesson at Bellarmine Greyhound workers rally for justice Calling for changes at Wal-Mart Pizza delivery driver's complaint sparks protest Pizza drivers to vote on union December 2006— issue 17 Mass. Labor Notes — December 2006 Battle in Seattle Extras Needed Johnny’s protest planned A new vision for West Louisville 100 attend rally for housing assistance Steelworkers launch campaign for Goodyear strikers Raytheon strikers get a boost
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On Saturday, December 16th, Jobs with Justice coalitions in 25 cities across the country participated in a day of action at Goodyear tire stores. Nationally, more than 75,000 people joined striking Goodyear workers at 150 tire stores.
United Steelworkers (USW) members and retirees gave concessions in 2003 to insure that Goodyear remained in business, contributing to a billion dollar turnaround at Goodyear; 
On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, hundreds of children, their parents, and JwJ activists joined together to protest Smithfield's mistreatment of workers at their Tar Heel, MC plant. The protest, held at local grocery store Johnny's Foodmaster, was co-organized by JwJ and the Workmen's Circle, a Jewish school where the children have been studying sweatshops.