The Chamber’s narrow, radical agenda advocating for anti-worker, profit-focused solutions to the broken health care, labor, and environmental systems garnered them the most votes for the national Jobs with Justice “Scrooge of the Year” award.
Thousands of votes were cast in the Jobs with Justice annual contest to determine which greedy, cold-hearted organization or person deserves the title “Scrooge of the Year.” Voters chose the Chamber of Commerce as their winner this year as it’s became increasingly clear that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has developed into a front group for a few narrow interests, not a membership association that represents the voice of mainstream American businesses. The Chamber has spent millions of dollars lobbying against legislation that would benefit workers and families like the Employee Free Choice Act, health insurance reform, paid sick days, and environmental regulations. Their extreme positions have led some companies and local chapters of the Chamber to disaffiliate from the national group.
This year’s Scrooge contest pitted the Chamber of Commerce against Bank of America, nominated for their role in the sub-prime lending crisis and failure to extend credit to small businesses, Hyatt Hotels for their Scrooge-like firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston and other anti-worker actions,
When word came down that the USPS had slated to close 5 post offices in the Orlando area, Central Florida JwJ teamed up with APWU 1462 to build community pressure against the closures. Central Florida JwJ set up a 6 week mobilization plan to engage their member organizations, residents, and the media to pressure elected officials and the USPS to keep these post offices open.
JwJ mobilized their member organizations and residents to send letters and emails to their Congressperson. Every Friday, JwJ activists and postal workers collected signatures in front of a one of the 5 set to be closed post office. Local press was invited to cover these events every week, and the story got bigger every time.
On December 14th, the USPS announced that 4 of the 5 post offices slated to close in Orlando were removed from the closing list! This is a great win for the affected communities and the workers. More than 100 jobs were saved in Orlando, and more importantly essential services were saved for thousands of people. It these concrete victories that lead to greater wins together in the end!
Ten years after the Battle in Seattle, two thousand came together on a cold windy Saturday in Portland to once again say No to the WTO.
Spearheaded by the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign and Jobs with Justice and backed up by 75 labor, environmental, immigrant rights and social justice organizations, the D5 mobilization against the WTO was a great success. People came from throughout Oregon and the Northwest. JwJ Chapters in Eugene, Bend, Southern Oregon and Salem as well as Portland were well represented.
The March and rally were loud and spirited. Teamsters and turtles were back together again as the Teamster truck led the march with protesters dressed in turtle outfits close behind. Union locals and other organizations marched behind their colorful banners while radical cheerleaders and a rousing drum corps led us in chants and cheers. As there were in 1999, large puppets were sprinkled throughout the crowd. A contingent of unemployed workers marched behind an “Organize the Unemployed” banner.
The action highlighted the role “free trade” has played in the loss of jobs, environmental destruction, “forced” migration and the erosion of workers’
Fran Ansley and I have been involved with the JwJ network since 1995 when our local Central Labor Council invited us to help organize our local East Tennessee JwJ. For the past several years, we have made a monthly automatic contribution to both the Jobs with Justice Education Fund (national JwJ) and to our local JwJ coalition, JwJ of East Tennessee.
Early on, we got to witness the power and significance of union/community solidarity in the Mineworkers’ strike against Pittston Coal Company in the hollows and on the ridges of Southern Appalachia. We saw what the union and its members meant to the community and what the community, its churches and civic organizations brought to the struggle for labor justice and workers’ rights. To win that fight, it took national and even international support, and I think most fundamentally, the shoulder-to-shoulder daily support of neighbors, pastors, and local community organizations. Across the board Solidarity of material support and mutual reinforcement was necessary to win. We have seen those lessons multiplied in years since.
That is why Fran and I give regularly scheduled contributions to both
‘Twas the night before the unemployment reports, and all through the clearing,
Young workers slept haunted by jobs disappearing;
Having gone into debt for training and education,
Only to discover no jobs available in their vocations;
Barely scraping by to cover bills and the rent,
Of all unemployed, young workers are 48 percent ;
God forbid they are allowed to build a savings,
Work only one job, buy a house or a haven;
And the cultural implications go often unknown,
Like 1 in 3 young workers still live with parents at home;
And their parents’ situation is no less dire,
Working multiple jobs, and no hopes to retire;
Even grandparents still work to maintain their healthcare,
Too young at 63 to obtain Medicare;
And thus the labor pool is older, no room for the youth,
Unless they join the military, become yet another troop;
Joining those looking for security and a steady income,
Enough to start a family and maybe save up a sum;
So long as they aren’t killed in an unjustifiable occupation,
A lost generation of youth who only wanted paid vacation;
It was a tragedy indeed, that made young workers anxious,
Until something in the distance created a ruckus;
It was then the young workers saw some figures on the horizon,
President Trumka? Arlene Holt-Baker?
Editor’s Note: In October, Jobs with Justice released a report warning about the working conditions at the American Red Cross and the safety of its blood supply.
December 10- One week ago, more than 100 frontline blood collection workers employed by the American Red Cross and members of Teamsters Local 929 went on strike to educate the public about working conditions in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey area that could potentially put the region’s blood supply at risk.
These blood collection workers often work 14 hours a day, up to twenty one days in a row, driving to and from blood drives, unloading and loading heavy equipment, labeling blood donations, assuring the safe disposal of used needles, packaging blood, and transporting it for processing and testing. Workers are standing strong in Philadelphia, expanding picket lines around the city, and getting the word out about the Red Cross.
You can send a message to the Red Cross supporting these workers here: TAKE ACTION
Sean Rudolph works for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Ten years ago this week I marched with labor activists and environmentalists (dubbed “Teamsters and Turtles”) and indigenous people from across the world against the corporate policies of the World Trade Organization.
The famed “Battle in Seattle” that shut down the meetings wasn’t at its core about the police vs. demonstrators or even about free vs. fair trade. It was about the power and rights of people and their elected representatives to set labor, consumer, environmental and commercial laws vs. the power of transnational corporations to abolish those laws and prevent new ones from being enacted.
The WTO’s agenda of trade liberalization and deregulation (i.e. fancy words for abolishing democratically-enacted laws passed by nations, states and regions) includes not only cars, toys, clothing and other stuff manufactured in one nation and shipped to another. Very relevant to today, it also includes a Treaty enacted under the WTO called the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which has gutted banking, financial, and insurance rules across the planet over the past decade.
Virtually unpublicized in the corporate press, WTO’s financial deregulation provisions under GATS locked in domestically, and exported internationally, the model of extreme financial service deregulation
As the semester winds down and students retreat to their classrooms and studies, is a good time to reflect on the struggles that young people are facing and our willingness to fight back and demand a real change in the system that will protect young people in this fragile economy.
Last week AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler posted a blog on the Huffington Post about the dire situation of young workers and the AFL-CIO’s proposed five point initial steps to support workers in this economy. In these steps, you can see the immediate connection to the current work that students nationwide are engaged in against budget cuts and layoffs. Two points in the AFL-CIO’s plan for addressing the jobs crisis speak directly to the needs and demands that we have been pushing for in the student movement.
Rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems and invest in green technology and green jobs.
Increase aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services.
It is not surprising that the labor movement and the student movement see the same problems and solutions. We share the need to fight back against the corporatization of our lives and for a real change in the current economic system we live in.
More than a year after the big banks crashed our economy and took their bailouts (without delivering on the promised help for the economy), these bailout bandits are planning record bonuses and trying to block a recovery for the rest of us (note to Goldman Sachs: There is no such thing as a “jobless recovery”).
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and other measures to add some accountability and responsibility to our financial system. The bill is called the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” (HR4173).
The bailout bandits, of course, are furiously fighting all these reforms.
Jobs with Justice is saddened to announce the passing of longtime friend and Jobs with Justice supporter Tim Costello on December 4th at the age of 64. Tim was a lifetime activist and visionary of the U.S. and global progressive and labor movements. His hard work deep thinking and good humor will be sorely missed at a time when we are confronting a deep crisis. Tim’s contributions have been, and will be, invaluable in developing new strategies for working people moving forward.
We will be working with Tim’s family, friends, and colleagues to remember Tim and his work. For now you can go to the website that Tim helped to develop to read more about Tim’s life and to write your tributes and condolences, http://www.laborstrategies.blogs.com.
When word came down that the USPS had slated to close 5 post offices in the Orlando area, Central Florida JwJ teamed up with APWU 1462 to build community pressure against the closures. Central Florida JwJ set up a 6 week mobilization plan to engage their member organizations, residents, and the media to pressure elected officials and the USPS to keep these post offices open.
Fran Ansley and I have been involved with the JwJ network since 1995 when our local Central Labor Council invited us to help organize our local East Tennessee JwJ. For the past several years, we have made a 
