Did you know that Fund for the Arts monies continue to flow to the Louisville Orchestra while no musicians have been employed since May 2011?  Those funds have been used to fund the Louisville Orchestra in bankruptcy court an in an attempt to strip the musicians of the Orchestra of their jobs, provisions of their Contract, their positions and the unemployment compensation some have received since the Orchestra last produced a performance six (6) months ago.

The Louisville Orchestra is trying to impose making the jobs of all Orchestra musicians PART-TIME rather than FULL-TIME and cannibalizing our Musicians’ bargaining unit by breaking the orchestra into three tiers, each with less employment and fewer benefits than the last.

Our Louisville Orchestra musicians provide Making Music concerts to every 4th and 5th grader in Jefferson County Public Schools and provide the highest quality symphonic music to our community.  We cannot teach our children that we accept the abuse and disrespect of any group of workers so that the elite 1% in our city can be entertained at the expense of human rights.

Do you give to the Fund for

Continue reading Stand with Louisville Musicians Against Union-Busting Tactics!

“As you probably know, SB 6 passed the Senate but never actually came before the House for a vote.  We had several committee hearings on the bill but the significant and vocal opposition to the measure derailed it for the session.” ~State Representative David Osborne

We won!  For the first few months of 2011, Kentucky Jobs with Justice was part of a powerful group of individuals and organizations from across our state who fought back against anti-immigrant Senate Bill 6.  SB6 is Arizona SB1070 copycat legislation that would target anyone for detention who does not speak English or who appears to have been born outside of the U.S.  It would target anyone who “assists” an undocumented worker or their undocumented children.  Furthermore, SB 6 would make many immigrant crime victims, including victims of domestic violence, think twice about reporting crimes or cooperating with police it they fear racial profiling or bias.

Kentucky Jobs with Justice stands in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters who are facing anti-immigrant attacks from those who prefer to divide our country instead of build our communities.  Many of the immigrants who

Continue reading Victory in KY against Anti-Immigrant Copycat Bill

Originally appeared in the July 26th edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Are you unemployed? Are you receiving unemployment compensation? Are you about to lose your unemployment benefits? Do you care about people who are unemployed?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you most certainly will want to join Kentucky Jobs with Justice on Sept. 15, along with allies from organized labor, community groups, faith leaders, student activists and progressive elected officials, as we hold a day of direct action on full and fair employment.

This day of direct action stems from energy generated at the July 7 march and rally in downtown Louisville at Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office and the U.S. Social Forum, which drew over 25,000 national activists to Detroit (including more than 125 from Kentucky) for issue awareness and massive networking to solve social ills on the principle of: “Another world is possible, another U.S. is necessary.”

A month before the Sept. 15 day of direct action, we will begin building relationships with individuals who are directly impacted by the jobs crisis by visiting

Continue reading Kentucky JwJ Challenges Community to Call for Full Employment

On Wednesday, July 7th, as a prelude to our first big action following the US Social Forum (which will be on September 15th), Kentucky JwJ stood in solidarity with millions who have lost their jobs and face a desperate future.

Although this was a last minute call to action, at least 50 protesters showed up to march outside of the office of Senator Mitch McConnell in Louisville.  Our demand was an immediate extension of unemployment benefits and protection of Social Security and Medicare — our precious social safety net programs won by generations of struggle.

Several individuals on unemployment spoke, including longtime Kentucky Jobs with Justice activist Gail Helinger.  She has been laid off for over a year now, and her unemployment compensation will end soon unless Congress acts quickly!

Gail and several other unemployed workers marched into Senator McConnell’s office to speak with him about this issue but, of course, he was unavailable.  They were able to speak to an aide who informed them that the Senator will vote for extension of unemployment benefits that is fiscally responsible.

We then marched several blocks to the unemployment office to

Continue reading Kentuckians Demand Unemployment Benefits Extension

After a rally supported by the Kentucky AFL-CIO, Ironworkers, Kentucky Jobs with Justice, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Nurses Professional Organization, Kentuckians for Single Payer and more on Thursday, October 29th, more than a dozen activists took over the lobby of Humana headquarters in downtown Louisville to show their support for universal health care. After being locked in the Humana building overnight and awakened at 5AM by local news media, the 24-hour take-over ended on Friday, October 30th as eight powerful people exited the Humana building and were greeted by a welcoming crowd of folks gathered for a closing rally.