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By Huy Ong, on June 22nd, 2010 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 moving campaigns to
Continue reading Summer is Heating Up! From Phoenix to Detroit and Beyond!
By jwjnational, on May 17th, 2010 We are closer than ever to winning meaningful reform of Wall Street. The work of Jobs with Justice members, activists, and allies is starting to add up to a national movement that is changing the debate in Washington, and our momentum is building.
The Senate is close to finalizing a banking reform bill, and the big banks are trying desperately to weaken or kill banking reforms that might prevent another meltdown, even threatening to filibuster.
Click here to take action and then CALL YOUR SENATORS at 1-888-854-1978
Today, Jobs with Justice and allies will join National People’s Action, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO for a ”Showdown on K Street” in Washington, DC, ground zero for Wall Street’s corporate lobbyists, as the Senate is voting on important amendments to the banking reform bill.
An important amendment to SUPPORT is the Merkley-Levin amendment, which would prevent banks from gambling with government-insured deposits and reduce the kinds of conflicts of interest the Goldman Sachs was involved in. There are also several attempts to weaken regulation of derivatives and swaps, which were a central cause of the financial meltdown.
Please CALL YOUR SENATORS at 1-888-854-1978 with the following message:
It’s time to stand with the people before Wall
Continue reading Support a STRONG Financial Reform Bill
By Maria Escobar, on April 30th, 2010  As a catastrophe unfolds in Arizona, people across the country are preparing to defend their communities against the racist immigrant policies being implemented under the banner of “secured communities” in America.
Arizona has been in the forefront of the most deplorable immigrant enforcement tactics, with Sheriff Joe Arpio’s shameful treatment of undocumented workers, the signing of the SB1070 bill by Governor Jan Brewer that will lead to racial profiling and distrust between the police and immigrant communities, and today the passage of a ban on ethnic studies programs.
These despicable actions in Arizona have led to organizing and involvement of all sectors of the community to show their disgust against these policies and remind elected officials, especially Arizona’s governor, that their actions will lead to massive mobilization at the polls. As one good friend said “Justice delayed, election denied”
Many people across the country are fighting to keep their communities safe from these xenophobic policies and are creating safe communities for all residents, and local Jobs with Justice Coalitions have been supporting these efforts.
Standing Up to Arizona’s Racist Immigration Law
By jwjnational, on April 28th, 2010 It’s hard to believe! Two years after the big banks crashed our economy and took trillions in bailouts (much more than just the TARP), they’re giving themselves record bonuses and going back to business as usual: telling Congress what to do.
Even after Goldman-Sachs was finally charged with fraud by the SEC, none of the rules for the banks has changed – and many of the “too big to fail” bailout bandits used our money to become bigger than ever.
Tell your Senators: Break up the banks; give us real reform, now!
People across the country are taking action to demand bank reform this week. Jobs with Justice activists joined allies in at the Wells Fargo shareholder meeting yesterday in San Francisco, at Bank of America in Kansas City, and today at Goldman Sachs in Chicago. Tomorrow in New York City, JwJ activists will join the AFL-CIO, NPA, and others to mobilize thousands in a march on Wall Street.
The financial reform bill currently being debated in the senate does do some positive things, but it doesn’t go far enough. The bill proposes a weak consumer protection bureau under the control
Continue reading Break up the banks; Give us real reform, now!
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
By jwjnational, on April 19th, 2010 The Arizona State Legislature just passed a law (SB1070) that legalizes unchecked racial profiling by police of anyone they “suspect” is undocumented. It would criminalize all undocumented immigrants as “trespassers” and subject them to misdemeanor, or in some cases, felony charges for a new “trespass” crime.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is expected to sign the bill into law any day now. Tell Governor Brewer to stand up for human and civil rights and veto this anti-immigrant, racial profiling bill. If this bill is signed into law, your state could be next.
Tell AZ Governor Jan Brewer to VETO this bill!
SB 1070 would force police officers to arrest and detain people based on a “reasonable suspicion” that they are undocumented. It’s not surprising that news of this bill has shocked the nation. There is no such thing as looking American or undocumented, and mandating police officers to racially profile sets this country back to a shameful time in its history where racial segregation was the law of the land. The state of Arizona has become home to experimental laws that use immigration as an excuse to criminalize communities of color. We have all seen the devastation caused by Joe Arpaio and
Continue reading Urgent: Stop Racial Profiling and Criminalization of Immigrant Communities
By jwjnational, on April 1st, 2010 Right, like that would ever happen.
While the banks may not see the error of their ways, there is evidence that our government is beginning to recognize that banks do not always play a positive role in our economy. Earlier this week, President Obama signed into law the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. This legislation includes the historic student aid reform proposal originally passed by the House via the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which eliminates wasteful government subsidies to private lenders to issue student loans. It appropriates over sixty billion dollars towards increases funding for the Pell grant, community colleges, Minority-Serving Institutions, and access and completion programs – money that previously was being spent to make private banks into middlemen for student loans. This is a huge victory, but it is just the beginning of reforms needed to rein in Wall Street.
 TAX WALL STREET TO PAY FOR JOBS
For 30 years, corporate CEOs and Wall Street speculators have put the squeeze on workers with globalization, privatization and union-busting.
A tax on the speculators of the Wall Street casino could put 3 million people to work
Continue reading Banks Agree to Sweeping New Financial Regulations
By jwjnational, on February 24th, 2010 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
 – March 27-April 4: National Student Labor Week of Action: Students and Workers Unite for Education and Jobs
You can get involved!
1) Find your local JwJ coalition and ask how you can join the action
2) Organize your own event during the weeks of action
3) Circulate the “I’ll Be There” in the fight for jobs with justice pledge to your lists
By Sean Rudolph, on December 10th, 2009 Editor’s Note: In October, Jobs with Justice released a report warning about the working conditions at the American Red Cross and the safety of its blood supply.
December 10- One week ago, more than 100 frontline blood collection workers employed by the American Red Cross and members of Teamsters Local 929 went on strike to educate the public about working conditions in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey area that could potentially put the region’s blood supply at risk.
These blood collection workers often work 14 hours a day, up to twenty one days in a row, driving to and from blood drives, unloading and loading heavy equipment, labeling blood donations, assuring the safe disposal of used needles, packaging blood, and transporting it for processing and testing. Workers are standing strong in Philadelphia, expanding picket lines around the city, and getting the word out about the Red Cross.
You can send a message to the Red Cross supporting these workers here: TAKE ACTION
Sean Rudolph works for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
By jwjnational, on December 8th, 2009 More than a year after the big banks crashed our economy and took their bailouts (without delivering on the promised help for the economy), these bailout bandits are planning record bonuses and trying to block a recovery for the rest of us (note to Goldman Sachs: There is no such thing as a “jobless recovery”).
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and other measures to add some accountability and responsibility to our financial system. The bill is called the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” (HR4173).
The bailout bandits, of course, are furiously fighting all these reforms.
Please take a moment to tell your Representative to pass a strong, pro-consumer reform bill.
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