Mass deportations and workplace raids continue to terrorize communities across the United States. Racist immigration policies further divide families and communities and force millions of people to live under the constant threat that any interaction with police—however minor—could lead to detention and even deportation.
On January 26th, hundreds rallied outside the Department of Homeland Security and dozens blocked streets to bring attention to the need for immigration reform NOW. The protest was organized by CASA de Maryland and brought activists from DC Jobs with Justice, Nakasec, National Day Labor Organizing Network, and more.
Mackenzie Baris of DC JwJ explained, “this broken immigration system not only hurts the individuals and families who are caught in raids, but also hurts all workers and the economy as a whole by allowing employers to exploit the differences in immigration status to take advantage of workers and deny their rights.”
Tuesday’s action also drew attention to The Trail of DREAMs. Drawing inspiration from the civil rights movement, four students are walking from Florida to DC to bring public attention to a failed
Goldman Sachs’ speculation and profiteering was a major cause of the recession and now their CEO is giving out $16.7 billion in bonuses. They got a bailout, what do all of us get?
On January 21, Boston community leaders and activists marched on Goldman Sachs to demand that Executive Bonuses be used to fund the Ellison Jobs Bill. The amount of Goldman Sachs’ bonuses would cover more than half of the $30 billion jobs bill that would put unemployed people to work improving our communities.
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of historian, author, teacher, and activist Howard Zinn.
Howard was a long time supporter of Jobs with Justice. He was arrested in in 1996 as part of a Jobs with Justice delegation peacefully supporting striking immigrant workers at the Richmark factory in Everett, MA.
Howard Zinn inspired the Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice “Voices of a People’s History” performance and inspired our “Voices of Working People’s History” May Day Celebration. You can listen to Howard deliver a heart-wrenching and spirited reading of his work incorporating a rich selection of quotations and rememberances of labor history in Western Massachusetts on the W. Mass JwJ website.
His leadership, insight, and inspiration will be greatly missed.
A team of VT Nurses, EMTs, and paramedics from Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT, members of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (AFT), are organizing donations and groups of volunteers to go to Haiti in the coming days, weeks and months to help with the relief efforts.Below is a report from Mari Cordes, RN from the amazing first group of Fletcher Allen nurses and providers who are in now in Haiti. The Vermont Workers’ Center /JwJ is proud that Mari is also a major leader in the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign.
After much effort organizing transport, gathering more supplies and continuing to develop very important infrastructure and network for this and future teams, working with the Cruz Roja in the Dominican Republic, communicating with Partners in Health in Haiti and our own reconaissance team that struck out ahead of us yesterday, we have joined the rest of our group in a large medical compound in Jimani. Jimani is a border town with Haiti on
A large crowd of over 350 people attended the joint hearings held by Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee and House Committee on Healthcare at the Statehouse last Tuesday. Dozens of Vermonters testified urging lawmakers to pass the single-payer healthcare bill, S.88 and H.100 (see summary of the bills here). Senator Bernie Sanders joined hundreds of members of the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign, which is coordinated by the Vermont Workers’ Center.
“We come to you tonight to demand a healthcare system that is based on principles that recognize that healthcare is a human right,” spoke Margaret Dunne from Rutland, reading testimony on behalf of her wife Bela Schrug.
The testimonies of almost 100 Vermonters spoke to the legislature of how deeply and widely the current system of healthcare is impacting the state. Reed Webster, a state worker from Bellows Falls, spoke of chronic back problems that won’t allow him to retire at 55 because he would be unable to afford private insurance.
During his election victory speech Obama said, “This victory alone is not the change we seek — it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.”
Over the last year there have been some stepsforward in the struggle to build a more just society, and unfortunately some missteps along the way. Corporate interests are manipulating frustrations over lack of progress in fixing health care, the economy, labor law, Wall Street and the financial sector. Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce are attempting to deflect their own responsibility for the economic crisis and use grassroots anger to block the very reforms we need for a new economy.
This last year has served as an important reminder that it takes a movement to make real change. The transformation of our country will not come from Capitol Hill, but from peoplelikeustakingaction to demand change.
We have the opportunity to create positive change for working people in this country. We know that the road to a
Union members and their children are eligible for $500 – $4,000 scholarships for college graduate and undergraduate programs. Since 1992, the Union Plus Scholarship Program has awarded more than $2.4 million to students of working families who want to begin or continue their post-secondary education. You can learn more and download the application here.
The Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund provides grants to students actively working for peace and justice. These need-based scholarships are awarded to those able to do academic work at the university level and who are part of the progressive movement on the campus and in the community. Early recipients worked for civil rights, against McCarthyism, and for peace in Vietnam. Recent grantees have been active in the struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression; building the movement for economic justice; and creating peace through international anti-imperialist solidarity. Learn more and download an application here.
National Workers’ Rights Board hearing exposes wage theft, safety violations; highlights need for collective bargaining for car wash workers in Los Angeles, Nation.
Yesterday at Los Angeles City Hall, members of the Jobs with Justice National Workers’ Rights Board (WRB) were joined by other distinguished guests to hear gripping testimony about the hazards facing car wash workers. Over 250 union and community members packed the room to overflowing to hear from workers, consumer, health and safety advocates, and United Steel Workers President Leo Gerard.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed the panel and the audience, thanking the WRBs’ leadership for protecting workers, and praising the courage of the workers who are speaking out. The Mayor pledged to remain engaged in this fight. “We look forward to reviewing the recommendations from this board for addressing abuses in this industry,” said the Mayor. “It’s important the public understand what’s going on at car washes in Los Angeles.”
Car wash workers reported being paid less than half of California’s $8 an hour minimum wage and some reported they are
So we didn’t win the Public Option. It has been replaced with a vaguely defined government-regulated insurance exchange.
Additionally, labor leaders were not able to completely remove the tax on working people to generate money for that program. As of now, they were able to:
delay the tax for those of us who are state/local government employees or who have collectively bargained agreements,
to increase the thresholds for premiums taxed for women, seniors and those with high risk occupations—whose health insurance premiums tend to be higher, and
to exclude dental and vision from the calculations for the tax (starting in 2015).
Nevertheless, the inclusion of any tax on working people instead of taxing the corporate interests that got us in this situation in the first place is a qualitative loss from what we started with.
This is not the bill we fought for.
Single-payer advocates and many others might argue that we did not demand enough in the first place. And there is definitely validity in the notion that organized labor should have done more to support the single-payer movement outside of the beltway, even if they were pushing the public option on Capitol Hill.
The devastating earthquake in Haiti is on everyone’s mind, and union members are among the many who are stepping up to help relief efforts on-the-ground and with financial support.
If you plan to make a financial contribution to support the recovery efforts in Haiti, consider donating to one of the organizations below. You can follow the links to learn more about how each group is contributing to the relief effort.
The Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. You can learn more about what they are doing to help Haitian workers and their families here.
The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the labor movement, suggests donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground in Haiti:
The United Church of Christ, longtime ally of Jobs with Justice and the labor movement, is collecting donations for their mission partners in Haiti. Read about their work here.
From the AFL-CIO blog, here is a sampling of what some unions in the United States
