Tonight, Tuesday Oct. 18th, PBS will be airing a ground breaking documentary on PBS, Lost in Detention. Join us as we live twitter chat with the National Day Labor Organizing Network and Detention Watch Network using the hastag #altopolimigra.
Building upon the hard work we all have done together in the past year to expose the dangers of police/ICE collaborations, Lost in Detention’s debut will be a critical moment in swaying the hearts and minds against criminalization and towards human rights.
Click here for more info on Lost in Detention and to find your local listing.
And join the conversation at #altopolimigra Tuesday at 9:00pm Eastern.
Also, check out Detention Watch Network amazing new short video to call for an end to mandatory detention with their launch of their Dignity, Not Detention Campaign.
Today, in cities across the U.S., communities are coming together to educate and take collective action to stop H.R. 2164, legislation presented by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith. H.R. 2164 will make the use of E-Verify mandatory for nearly every employer in the United States. This legislation is expected to be taken up by the House Judiciary committee for markup at the end of this week.
Mandatory E-Verify is a jobs killer. It is bad for working people, bad for business and bad for the economy. That is why community leaders, small business owners, and workers are speaking out today against the E-Verify program.
In Portland, Portland Jobs with Justice will join community leaders in a press conference telling Congress that forcing employers to use the flawed E-Verify system will harm U.S. workers and employers and undercut the country’s economic recovery.
A mandatory E-Verify system would require employers to perform a computer check for every job applicant against an error-prone government database, before any American worker could start a new job. If a worker’s
One year ago, what was long known to be a laboratory for the Right also became recognized as an epicenter for human rights efforts today. On April 23, 2010 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070 into law, elevating the state of Arizona into the national spotlight as both the capitol of prejudice and the heart of a vibrant migrant and human rights movement. While Russell Pearce, Sheriff Arpaio, and Jan Brewer entered the courts to defend their unconstitutional and inhumane work, families, neighbors, workers, people of faith, and students mobilized in the tens of thousands to send the clear message that “we will not comply” with the criminalization of our communities.
One year later, with the exception of a few states like Georgia and Florida, the country has turned away from the wrong direction of Arizona and its 1070 copy cats. Yet, while the Obama administration has sued Arizona for its law, its also bragged about deporting one million people while in office via the expansion of police-ICE collaborations. The organizers of Arizona always told visitors, “the best way to support us is to confront ICE in
Members of the Community and Workers' Rights Board
A diverse array of 200 residents, workers, and leaders gathered yesterday in San Francisco City Hall to hear testimony on the $2.3 billion hospital development plans of Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and the effects it would have on local access to health services. The testimony was given in front of the Community and Workers’ Rights Board which is comprised of local faith, community and elected leaders. The Board was convened by Jobs with Justice San Francisco and featured Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Board of Education member Sandra Fewer, Sierra Club leader John Rizzo, health policy expert Laura Thomas, and Democratic Party leader Jane Morrison and was chaired by the Reverend Deborah Lee of the United Church of Christ. The Board heard testimony from patients, residents of surrounding neighborhoods, representatives from California Nurses Association and Service Employees International Union, as well as advocates for healthcare, affordable housing, and community development
Few development projects have been as controversial in recent San Francisco history as CPMC’s efforts to concentrate services to a high-rise hospital in the congested central city, while cutting services and facilities
May 29th marked one moment in the ongoing fight to stop SB1070. Over 100,000 merged to Phoenix to denounce legalizing racial profiling, demand that President Obama intervene, and call on people of conscious everywhere to join the fight to address the human rights crisis in Arizona as the implementation date of July 29th approaches.
From a candlelight vigil organized by JwJ of East Tennessee and others, to Diamondbacks Boycott held in San Francisco, over 70 other solidarity actions occurred leading up to and on the day. And more followed. Organizers, activist, people of faith, teachers, students, and community members took the call for solidarity back into their communities, cities and states.
Following a visit to Arizona on Mother’s Day, A group of women from a broad array of social justice movements, organized an ad-hoc hearing in Congress where women and children from Phoenix shared their stories. Catherine Figueroa, Silvia Rodriguez, Sylvia Herrera
Communities and organizations are unveiling the truth about Police/ICE collaboration and the direct link it has for creating a pathway for SB1070 type legislation and
Phoenix, Arizona. This weekend 100,000 people marched six miles from Steele Indian School Park to the State Capitol to denounce SB1070 and demand President Obama intervene in the growing human rights crisis in Arizona. We were joined by supporters ranging from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to the voice of her people, Grammy Nominated Singer, Jenni Rivera, and attendees who drove from as far away as Boston to support the local people leading the effort to overturn SB 1070.
In a gathering Sunday morning, movement-building organizations from across the country share their commitments to bring the Arizona human rights crisis fight back to their communities.
Participants heard from local leadership, national allies, and from veterans of the Mississippi Freedom Summer the urgency of a national response. Organizations shared ways to connect their struggles, campaigns, and creativity in breakout sessions and committed to ongoing peaceful resistance. A global call for escalating resistance to stop SB1070 was made.
Tens of thousands are mobilizing to Phoenix on May 29 to show the world that people from all backgrounds across the country are unified in denouncing SB1070. From Seattle to Miami, the demands are clear, that President Obama needs to end the criminalization of people of color in the state of Arizona and stop SB1070.
Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, stated, “The eyes of the world are watching and President Obama must act. SB1070 is where we draw the line and say enough is enough. Enough of a disastrous and dangerous ‘enforcement first’ strategy to immigration reform. Enough to the criminalization of workers and families. We will escalate our struggle if the President does not act concretely and immediately to stop the implementation of SB1070.”
Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Eliseo Medina, International Executive Vice President of SEIU, Luis Gutierrez (Illinois, D), Raul Grijalva (Arizona, D), and artists such as Alex Lora of El Tri and Jenni Rivera will all be present in this historic moment with the resistance. In addition, the original
On Friday, April 16th, Jobs with Justice coalitions in Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Boston joined protesters in front of British Consulates in those cities to demand justice for 570 California miners who have been locked-out of work by the Rio Tinto mining corporation, a British-based mining conglomerate, since January 31, 2010 at the world’s 2nd largest borax mine in Boron, CA.
Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has a history of human rights abuses around the globe. In Boron, California, the company retaliated against employees, members of the ILWU, and instituted the “lock-out” after workers rejected a company ultimatum that included illegal contract demands and provisions allowing the company to convert good full-time jobs into part-time, temporary, and outsourced positions with little or no benefits.
“Today’s action was a powerful demonstration of solidarity by ILWU locals and other labor and social justice groups in the SF Bay Area for the mineworkers in Boron, which is in a relatively remote part of California,” said Gordon Mar of Jobs with Justice San Francisco.
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
Families across the state of Oregon will be gathering over this holiday season to share updates, latest news, gossip and whose side are you on in the upcoming greatest civil war football game between the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers. (For full disclosure, Go DUCKS!)
On many people’s minds, but less talked about, are our worries. Jobs security, health care cost, and our family’s future. In January, in a special election, Oregonians will decide on two very important ballot initiatives, measures 66 and 67 which would fund vital services, preserve jobs, and safeguard working families from this recession. Measures 66 and 67 would increase the corporate minimum tax from $10 – which has not been changed since 1931 – to $150. Two out of three corporations pay just $10 a year in income tax. Just $10!
Oregon’s five Jobs with Justice Coalitions recognized the importance of the upcoming election for working families and the communities and collectively worked on a statement for the upcoming voter guide. JwJ encourage Oregonians to talk to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers about the need for to pass measures 66 and 67 in January. So, get a second or third
Join us as we live twitter chat with the National Day Labor Organizing Network and Detention Watch Network using the hastag #altopolimigra. 
