Jobs with Justice coalitions and our partners are continuing to build grassroots pressure for bold federal action in this economic crisis. We need to immediately save and create millions of good jobs as a first step towards Full and Fair Employment and a New Economy that Works for Everyone.
Last week you helped Jobs with Justice, in coordination with the Jobs for America Now Coalition, holdactionsincitiesnationwide and make phone calls that pushed Congress to extend emergency federal Unemployment and COBRA benefits — but only for one month. Obviously, officials in Washington still don’t get it. They need a wake-up call that unemployment is at emergency levels.This campaign is just beginning. And you can help build the momentum!
March 15-26, the AFL-CIO is calling for local actions at the “bailout bandits” that broke the economy. JwJ is supporting the AFL-CIO in the call to “Make Wall Street Pay”. Find local events.
As the U.S. Senate prepares to take up a comprehensive bill to extend the deadline for unemployment benefits through the end of the year, anti-hunger and labor advocates in Chicago want lawmakers to remember just how intensely people are struggling here in the Midwest.
After days of Republican obstruction, the U.S. Senate approved legislation late last night that will extend temporarily the deadline for unemployment benefits. While the end to the stalemate is welcome news, anti-hunger and labor advocates in Chicago aren’t entirely thrilled with the outcome. As the upper chamber prepares to take up a second bill to extend the deadline through the end of the year, these advocates want Senators to remember just how intensely people are struggling here in the Midwest.
This afternoon, Chicago Jobs With Justice (CJWJ) organized a “Senate Soup Kitchen” in Federal Plaza to dramatize the need for relief. Specifically, the group is demanding federal action to extend (and expand) eligibility for jobless benefits and fund a federal jobs program. “What’s going on in
Over 200,000 jobless workers will lose unemployment benefits this weekas the cut-off to extend benefits lapsed yesterday without Senate action. 1.2 million people will lose access to Emergency Unemployment Compensation over the next year if Congress does not act. The average duration of unemployment is now a record high of 30.2 weeks, with a historic 41.2% of the unemployed remaining out of work for six months or longer. 11.5 million Americans are collecting some form of unemployment insurance.
1) Take action today to make sure Congress extends emergency unemployment insurance.
2) Find an action near you below.
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senators’ office.
Suggested Talking Points for your call to your Senator:
Millions of Americans are surviving on unemployment insurance and simply can’t find jobs. It would be irresponsible for Congress to allow benefits to lapse due to inaction. Enough is enough! The Senate must extend unemployment insurance through the end of the year. Support the unemployment extension and push your leadership to act now!
Join local JwJ coalitions at actions across the country this week!
People across the country are angry – for good reason. Corporate greed and Wall Street recklessness drove our economy into a crisis. Sky high unemployment has created a state of emergency – but political leaders in Washington D.C. have not yet offered a real solution to this crisis, while Wall Street and corporate executives are trying to block a recovery for the rest of us and go back to business as usual.
In this environment, corporate flacks have been able to manipulate grassroots frustration, deflect it from the real causes of the crisis and shift the main stream discussion from the emergency of joblessness to a phony concern for the budget deficit (about which they said nothing while bailing out Wall Street or invading Iraq).
JwJ and our partners will not allow our anger to be deflected from the real causes of this crisis: corporate greed that has been putting the squeeze on workers for decades, through globalization, privatization and the free-for-all deregulation of Wall Street.
It’s become clear that we cannot wait on Congress to come up with a solution. It is up to us to create the mobilization on the ground that helps them “get it”: We are in a state of emergency, and need a bold, emergency response to save and create jobs. Washington needs a wake-up call from the grassroots.
Several local JwJ coalitions have been leading the charge for jobs, building local campaigns and developing unemployed councils. In coordination with the “Jobs for America Now” Coalition, the AFL-CIO and other partners, we aim to make March into“jobs month” — coordinated actions around the country that send a wake-up call to Congress and urge them to recognize unemployment as the emergency it is.
– March 1-7: Week of Action to save public services and stop layoffs
Endorsers include: United Steelworkers of America, AFSCME, Communications Workers of America, Amalgamated Transit Union, United States Student Association, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Jobs for America Now. Local actions will range from student walk-outs to protest education cuts to town hall meetings to rallies against social service and transit cuts to marches against plant closings proposed by Whirlpool, Hugo Boss, Toyota and others.
– March 15-19: Protest Wall Street Greed; demand fair taxes & money for jobs Led by the AFL-CIO
On January 30, 2010, consumers and union members performed a hilarious flash mob dance at the Washington, DC auto show to protest Fiat/Chrysler’s broken promises.
The $14 billion taxpayer bailout of Chrysler was meant to help save good jobs. Instead, Chrysler is threatening to throw professional auto delivery drivers onto the unemployment lines and replace them with less experienced independent contractors and “alternative” carriers, some of which are using flat bed trucks or other transporters that are not designed to protect cars over long distances. More than 5,000 jobs are at stake.
You can help the Teamsters and their consumer allies to end Chrysler’s dangerous new transportation policy in three ways:
Watch the video. Fiat Chrysler may be forced to back down from their plans to jeopardize car safety and union jobs if enough people view this video. It’s better than writing a letter.
Send it to your address book or post it to all your friends on Facebook or MySpace, AND ask them to get their friends to do the same thing.
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 immigration system that tears
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.
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 real economic recovery
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.
