|
|
By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on August 31st, 2010  This morning, New York Governor Patterson signed into law the first-ever U.S. law that upholds domestic workers’ rights. 200,000 nannies, housekeepers, and elder caregivers in New York will be covered under a law that provides guaranteed sick days, overtime pay, a day of rest, protection from discrimination, and notice before termination. This groundbreaking victory is a result of a six-year campaign led by Domestic Workers United and supported by a broad coalition of labor and community organizations, including JwJ coalitions in NY State.
“Today we correct an historic injustice by granting those who care for the elderly, raise our children and clean our homes the same essential rights to which all workers should be entitled,” Governor Paterson said. “I am grateful to the sponsors for their extraordinary efforts to enact this landmark bill, and most of all to those domestic workers who dreamed, planned, organized and then fought for many years, until they were able to see an
Continue reading First-Ever Law Protecting Domestic Workers’ Rights Signed in New York
By MaryBe McMillan, on August 30th, 2010  Forty-seven years after the 1963 March on Washington, the union movement and our allies are preparing for our own march in October. Under the banner of One Nation Working Together, union members, civil rights activists and other concerned citizens will rally in support of good jobs, a quality education for every child, immigration reform and workers’ freedom to form a union. Our rallying cry is that we must reverse the dangerous trend toward greater income inequality and finally create an economy that works for all.
To achieve that goal and to become a truly united nation working together, leaders of the One Nation coalition partners—particularly our nation’s labor leaders—could learn a valuable lesson from that earlier march on Washington: The road to justice and equality must go through the South.
During the 1963 march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently illustrated this point when he said:
“Let freedom ring from the mountains of New York… Pennsylvania…. Colorado…. California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia…. from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee….f rom
Continue reading Opinion: Workers Who Win the South Change the Nation
By Jacob Carton, on August 30th, 2010 Hundreds of statewide labor activists joined with community leaders and local residents to call on Hollander-Marriott and all Greater Tacoma low-paying, taxpayer-money-taking companies to fuel an economic recovery with good jobs. Washington State JwJ is a leading force calling for responsible development, which led to this event as the largest local worker rights action in recent memory. Radio and corporate print media more than noticed.
 Hollander-Marriott purchased their downtown Courtyard site at a “deep discount” from taxpayers, snatched waterfront-mountain views from the taxpayer’s Convention Center, and “brutalized” the architecture of Tacoma taxpayer-financed luxury renaissance, according to the press. The City Council agreed to this in the name of jobs as Hollander-Marriott made promises to the Mayor, Council, and residents and their unions.
But Hollander-Marriott “went back on their word” to pay living wages, hire locally, and abide by a labor harmony agreement, according to former Mayor Baarsma. Hollander built the downtown Marriott using Canadian workers earning poverty-wages. The hotel continues to operate without providing affordable family health care and living wages to Tacoma workers.
Continue reading Hollander-Marriott Takes Tax Money, Fails to Provide Good Jobs
By Treston Davis-Faulkner, on August 20th, 2010  On May 23, 2010, the owner of Mott’s, a subsidiary of the highly profitable Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS), forced 300 workers and members of RWDSU Local 220 on strike at the Mott’s plant in Williamson, NY. Though the company is seeing tremendous success and has turned a profit the past 5 years, Mott’s insists on wage and benefit cuts from workers, saying workers should think of themselves as a “commodity” like “soybeans or oil.”
Basic Facts: Mott’s/DPS is demanding: $1.50 per hour wage cut for all employees, pension elimination for future employees, pension freeze for current employees, 20 percent decrease in employer contributions to the 401K, increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays. Most workers at the Williamson plant make around $19/hr. Mott’s was acquired by DPS in May of 2008, after which workers report a shift in attitude from management.
Mott’s is looking to exploit the economic climate to maximize their profits at the expense of their workers.
While the three highest paid executives at DPS, including CEO Larry Young, doubled their pay between 2007
Continue reading Mott’s Workers Stand Up to Corporate Greed
By Allison Luthe, on July 29th, 2010  For the first time in Indianapolis’s recent history, 43 participants staged a mass civil disobedience in front of the Hyatt Regency downtown. Hospitality workers and community supporters of the hotel workers were there to stand up for the Hyatt workers who have been asking management to stay neutral since November of 2008. Among the 43 were two JwJ staff members, seven steering committee members and many other JwJ pledge signers.
On June 16, reports surfaced that the Hyatt had plans to sell the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis, adding to the uncertainty that Hyatt workers in Indianapolis already face. Over the past decade, taxpayers in Indianapolis have invested $1 billion into the development of the local hospitality industry. The hotel and convention industry in Indianapolis is booming yet at the Hyatt Indianapolis, a non-union hotel, subcontracting of jobs is rampant, hours have been reduced in recent months, and workers earn some of the lowest wages of any
Continue reading Central Indiana JwJ supports Hyatt workers in civil disobedience action as part of nationwide protests
By Sheila R. Tully, on July 29th, 2010  Members of Jobs with Justice San Francisco turned out in force to support UNITE HERE Local 2 hotel and restaurant workers as they took to the streets to demand a fair contract on July 22. Prior to the rally at Local 2 Plaza in downtown San Francisco, community activists, clergy, and union members packed a civil disobedience training session at Local 2 headquarters. There they reviewed plans to close the street in front of the Grand Hyatt in Union Square.
An hour later, as tourists stared in amazement and snapped photos, fifteen hundred people marched through the streets and converged on the Grand Hyatt, cheering and chanting in several languages in support of the hotel and restaurant workers. The boisterous crowd reflected the diversity of San Francisco as youth from POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), PODER (People Organizing to demand Environmental and Economic Rights), Chinese Progressive Association and Young Workers United joined teachers, nurses, clergy, teamsters, longshoremen, many other union members and elected city officials to condemn
Continue reading JwJ San Francisco Sits Down to Support Hotel Workers Rising
By rand wilson, on May 28th, 2010 Cross-posted from Labor Notes.
 Striking workers at the Supervalu- owned Shaw’s Distribution Center in Methuen, Mass., have been marching from Methuen to Boston for justice since Sunday, May 23.
The 310 workers, members of UFCW Local 791, have been on strike since March 7 over the company’s insistence that the burden of increasing health care costs be borne by workers.
As a resident of Somerville, I chose to meet up with the strikers on their march from Medford to Somerville, the third day of their four-day journey. While we marched, the 50 or so workers and supporters enjoyed broad support from passing motorists, as well as cheers from many residents in the neighborhoods along the route.
It was easy to see how bringing the strike into the community gets people mobilized in different ways than just walking a picket line. All kinds of people get involved. I especially liked the opportunity to meet up with other labor activists from Somerville.
I also had a surprising connection with one of the
Continue reading Strikers March from Methuen to Boston to Win Justice at Shaw’s
By Charlene Obernauer, on April 30th, 2010 The Long Island Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board, in collaboration with and the student group the Social Justice Alliance and the Research Assistants Union at Stony Brook University, organized a Hearing yesterday to investigate the negotiating strategies of the Stony Brook Research Foundation, the employer of 740 Research Assistants at Stony Brook University who are members of CWA Local 1104. Initially, the Workers’ Rights Board extended an invitation to the Research Foundation to present their case, but the RF declined, stating that they would rather not negotiate in public.
A day before the Hearing was scheduled to take place, Stony Brook Administration informed the student group that their Room Request, which was approved a month earlier, was revoked. Outraged, one of the students, along with members of the union, met with Associate Dean Dr. Susan DiMonda to demand that they have access to the space. Armed with fallacious excuses and weak rationale, Dr. DiMonda claimed that it was clear that this was a “labor event” and it had to be approved through Human Resources, not student activities.
“As a social justice student group, this Hearing is obviously a concern to us, and we have proof that we are co-sponsoring event. Not
Continue reading Research Assistants at Stony Brook Speak Up Despite Repression
By IBEW, on April 23rd, 2010 The debate over measures to fix America’s broken labor laws took a back seat during the long debate on health care. Now that the focus has shifted to efforts to stimulate economic growth and job creation, it’s time to put workers’ rights front and center.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with right-wing noise groups with shady sources of funding put out numerous talking points and videos painting unions as the problem as citing union intimidation as the biggest threat to the rights of working people to decide whether to unionize or not. They even went so far as to hire an actor from The Sopranos (union actors by the way) to create a cartoonish vision of this imagined reality.
The idea that unions are the problem flies so greatly in the face of the reality experienced by countless workers who have been involved in organizing campaigns, that a lie that big can’t be allowed to stand unchallenged. But rather than earnest position papers and counterpoints, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Continue reading What REALLY Goes On In Organizing Campaigns
By jwjnational, on April 22nd, 2010 Supervalu, the parent company of New England grocery store chain Shaw’s, is behaving badly. The 310 workers from Shaw’s Supermarkets Distribution Center in Methuen, MA, members of UFCW Local 791, have been on strike for almost 7 weeks. Although Supervalu is the driving force behind negotiations, they refuse to take responsibility and come back to the bargaining table to negotiate in good faith. They claim that they are not responsible for their subsidiary Shaw’s.
Call and write Supervalu today to tell them to be good parents and settle the strike now!
Call Supervalu CEO Craig Herkert at
(952) 828-4000
Click here to send a fax to Supervalu.
Last month, union workers at Shaw’s distribution center voted to go out on strike after the company refused to return to the bargaining table. Workers rejected a company proposal that would have increased employees’ health insurance payments, resulting in a net loss of pay.
To make matters worse, the company is threatening to permanently replace all striking workers, placing all the workers at the distribution center jobs in peril. Shaw’s followed up its refusal to bargain with an announcement that they were going to lay off 4% of the workers
Continue reading Tell Supervalu to be good Parents! Support Striking Shaw’s Grocery Workers
|
Sign Up for Jobs with Justice
RSS Feeds from Local JwJ Coalitions
|
