Looking to buy gifts for the holidays AND support workers? We’ve got some ideas for you!
Naturally, we recommend starting off at the Jobs with Justice store, where you can find union-made t-shirts, hoodies, water bottles, buttons, stickers, and even yo-yos with a pro-worker message.
For union made apparel, UNITE HERE keeps a list of companies with the union label, as does the UFCW.
Sweatfree Communities and the International Labor Rights Forum have put together the “2010 Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide” with clothing sourced from sweat-free factories throughout the world.
If you’re one of the 57 million workers in the U.S. without paid sick days, chances are the answer is “yes”. Thirty-nine percent of us have a difficult choice to make when we’re sick: go to work and risk infecting our co-workers (and risk making our illness worse), or stay home and put our finances and our jobs in jeopardy.
Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Rosa DeLauro are leading the charge to pass the Healthy Families Act first introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy last spring. The Healthy Families Act would provide 7 paid sick days to all workers at companies with at least 15 employees, and would prevent employers from retaliating against workers who get sick. The bill has 113 sponsors in the House and 21 sponsors in the Senate, and has been endorsed by the Obama administration.
Passing this bill is an important step in fighting the spread of seasonal and H1N1 flu. Three quarters of workers without paid sick days work in food and service industries where they come into contact with both co-workers and the public.
Under pressure from the community, Jobs with Justice, and other groups, Wells Fargo has agreed to terms that will allow Belva Davis to stay in her home.
Homeowner Belva Davis of Detroit’s East English Village fell behind on her mortgage while unemployed. Last December, Wells Fargo started to foreclose on Belva’s home.
Belva got a new job, and wanted to renegotiate terms and pay the mortgage. For months Wells Fargo refused to modify Belva’s loan, but they weren’t counting on the outpouring of support Belva got from her neighbors and allies throughout Detroit and across the country.
Belva’s struggle to stay in her home turned a corner after SE Michigan Jobs with Justice brought labor into the fight. On September 29, more than 50 people picketed the Wachovia/Wells Fargo branch office in Grosse Point Woods, MI to demand that Wells Fargo not evict Belva Davis and the thousands of homeowners like her who have fallen behind on their mortgages.
Immediately following the rally, the bank called Belva’s attorney, Jerry Goldberg, to begin negotiations to modify her loan, and Belva finally got a payment plan she can
The dead rose to walk the streets of Boston once more yesterday, hungry for revenge against those who put them in the grave — health insurance companies.
The zombies converged on Blue Cross Blue Shield offices, chanting “What do we want? Braaains. When do we want them? Braaaains.”
Whether they were denied coverage for “pre-existing conditions”, had their insurance rescinded upon contracting a serious illnesses, were denied life-saving treatments, or had their medical claims delayed by miles of insurance paperwork and bureaucracy, these undead insurance customers came back to stop insurance company crimes, and they don’t care whose brains they have to eat to make health care reform happen.
The undead were also seen walking the streets of Providence, RI yesterday, driving home the point that “living without health care can be scary.”
Last night, the Providence City Council took a final vote to approve the Hospitality Business Protection and Worker Retention Ordinance. The ordinance will require that hospitality businesses in the district, including the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the Rhode Island Convention Center, Veterans Memorial Auditorium, and three hotels, retain employees for at least six months in the event of a sale or subcontract of the business and maintain the prevailing wage and health insurance standards.
The Vermont Workers Center/JwJ held several town hall meetings in conjunction with their “Healthcare is a Human Right” campaign to pass statewide health care reform.
On October 1st, surrounded by 100+ supporters of the measure from UNITE HERE Local 217 and Jobs with Justice, Providence became the first city to act since the scandal provoked by the firing of the “Hyatt 100” in Boston. These 100 housekeepers were left with no jobs when three Boston Hyatt Hotels replaced them in with low-wage subcontractors.
The Providence City Council, taking the first of two required votes, voted unanimously to approve an ordinance to protect against Hyatt-style subcontracting in the Providence Convention Center District. The Hospitality Business Protection and Worker Retention Ordinance will require that hospitality businesses in the district retain employees for at least six months in the event of a sale or subcontract of the business and maintain the prevailing wage and health insurance standards.
Councilman Solomon introduced the legislation:
I am proud to be working to protect Providence workers from Hyatt-style layoffs. Our cities have invested massive public resources to build the tourism industry. In return tourism employers should provide good middle class jobs, whether at the Hyatt in Boston or the Convention
More than 200 activists marched from Brown University to Whole Foods in Providence, RI as part of the Jobs with Justice national week of action for a real economic recovery. RI JwJ joined with SEIU 615, UFCW 328, and other supporters to march for “Affordable Health Care; Nationally and at Home.”
As food service workers negotiate a new contract, Brown University is looking to cuts costs, causing health care coverage to become the primary issue for workers. The current contract expires October 12, 2009. Students have already come forward to stand in support of maintaining health care affordability for ALL Brown food service workers and families. Baird Bream, a senior at Brown and member of the Student Labor Alliance, explained:
We, as students, are standing in support with the Brown Dining Service workers because we think it is unfair for the university to expect their workers to shoulder so much of the burden of this financial crisis. It is particularly unfair to do so when the University has announced that it
On September 29, more than 50 people picketed the Wachovia/Wells Fargo branch office in Grosse Point Woods, MI. They rallied to demand that Wells Fargo not evict Belva Davis and the thousands of homeowners like her who have fallen behind on their mortgages.
Homeowner Belva Davis of Detroit’s East English Village fell behind on her mortgage while unemployed. She has a new job and wants to pay the mortgage, but Wells Fargo refuses to modify the loan.
Last year, bailout bandit Wells Fargo pocketed $25 billion in taxpayer money. Even after the government gave it another $2.8 billion to modify mortgages, Wells Fargo has restructured only 6% of its eligible loans, well below most banks (see http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/).
Wells Fargo spends millions lobbying against pro-citizen bills like the Employee Free Choice Act, the Foreclosure Prevention Act (S 2636), and House Bill 3609, which would allow judges to modify mortgages. Where is the bailout for Wells Fargo customers & their neighborhoods?
People gathered at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in DC yesterday to protest a meeting of the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), a lobbying group of the US’s top financial institutions. Protestors staged a mock trial of the FSR to try them for their criminal use of taxpayer’s TARP money from last year’s bailout to enrich themselves instead of putting money back into the economy to help end the recession.
The Financial Services Roundtable is a group of 90 companies in the finance and insurance industry who received an estimated $213.8 billion in taxpayer funds as a part of the bail-out. The FSR spent $43.9 million on lobbying from 2000-2008. They have lobbied Congress to:
oppose accountability for TARP recipients
oppose solutions to the housing crisis
oppose basic consumer protections
oppose the Employee Free Choice Act
Thursday’s protest and mock trial was organized by National JwJ, DC JwJ, and SEIU and included participants from the Teamsters, AFSCME, CWA, Americans for Financial Reform, and other union and community groups.
Naturally, we recommend starting off at the Jobs with Justice store, where you can find union-made t-shirts, hoodies, water bottles, buttons, stickers, and even yo-yos with a pro-worker message.
