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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.
By jwjnational, on December 7th, 2009 Each year, national Jobs with Justice gives an “award” to the greediest, most cold-hearted company or person of the year. Nominations for the 2009 Scrooge of the Year are in, and it’s time to vote!
 The nominees are:
Bank of America
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Hyatt Hotels
Publix Supermarkets
Student Loan Companies Sallie Mae & Citibank
or write in your own candidate
VOTE NOW!!!
This is JwJ’s tenth annual online contest to determine the national figure who does the most harm to working families. READ BELOW about why these nominees are so deserving of the title “Scrooge of the Year”.
Bank of America
Bank of America had a hand in the worst of the subprime lending excesses, providing financing to the four of the top five largest subprime lenders during the years prior to the crash including Countrywide Financial, Ameriquest, New Century Financial Corp, and First Franklin. Between them, these four firms issued over $320 billion in subprime loans from 2005-2007. As a result of these kinds of abuses, Bank of America helped crash the economy and then needed a bailout.
Bank of America accepted bailouts and backstops totaling $199.2 billion, with taxpayers still on the hook for
Continue reading VOTE NOW for Scrooge of the Year!
By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on November 12th, 2009  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.
The Healthy Families Act is an alternative to the Continue reading Do your co-workers make you sick?
By jwjnational, on November 6th, 2009 15.7 million officially unemployed. 27 million Americans without full time jobs. Six people looking for every job opening.
Tell Congress this has to stop – NOW!
We knew it was coming. That’s why JwJ coalitions have been mobilizing for an economic recovery and working with partners to develop a national jobs plan. While the big banks took their bailouts and spend millions lobbying against a recovery for the rest of us, unemployment has officially topped 10%.
The intense struggle over health insurance reform is coming to a head (call your Rep. at 202-224-3121), and legislation to reform the big banks has been introduced. Extending unemployment for people that have already been out of work for many months is a necessary step, but we need good jobs – both public and private sector.
Despite what the big banks might say, there is no such thing as a ‘jobless recovery.’ Tell Congress the next big agenda item has to be creating millions of good jobs — and to get started now.
TAKE ACTION.
By jwjnational, on October 26th, 2009 Too Big To Fail is just plain TOO BIG.
Activists will be in the streets of Chicago tomorrow to protest the American Bankers Association meeting. These banks took bailouts that add up to $15,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. They claimed they were “too big to fail.”
But instead of using the bailout to help the economy, they actually reduced lending that would keep people working, increased foreclosures, charged outrageous overdraft fees and – surprise, surprise – gave themselves record salaries, bonuses and perks.
The reality is that these corporate criminals are too big and powerful politically. Explaining why even minor reforms have been bottled up in Congress, Senator Durbin from Illinois admitted that the banks “frankly own the place.”
TAKE ACTION NOW!
They spend hundreds of millions of dollars on politics and they’re using our bailout money to become bigger and more powerful (rather than helping people and the economy through a crisis).
These ‘too big to fail’ banks are a threat to democracy as much as they are a threat to the economy. Even Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker, and Mervyn
Continue reading Tell Congress: Break Up the Banks; Make the Economy Work!
By jwjnational, on October 22nd, 2009 First our political leaders said health care reform would cover everyone. Now we hear that Congress is considering barring legal immigrants from health reforms that would enable low and moderate income families to secure affordable coverage.
As the House of Representatives moves to finalize its health reform legislation this week, immigrants continue to be left out. As it stands now, most recent legal immigrants are forced to wait 5 years to use Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP, even though they pay the same taxes as citizens to support these programs.
Your voice is needed to urge the House of Representatives to act right now to give immigrants a fair opportunity for affordable health insurance.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
By jwjnational, on October 15th, 2009 WANTED For Crimes Against American Families
CitiGroup | Wells Fargo | JP Morgan Chase | Bank of America
Protest the American Bankers Association
Activities October 25-27, culminating
Tuesday, OCTOBER 27th, 11am
Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers
301 East North Water Street, Chicago, IL
Bailout Bandit Bankers…
They crashed the economy
They robbed Americans of $11 trillion
They took our homes, jobs, and life savings
They set aside $74 billion for bonuses & pay
They fought against common sense reform
 Join the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka and Change To Win’s Anna Burger as we demand an end to these corporate crimes!
Check out http://showdowninchicago.org/ and http://www.stopbankgreed.org/ to learn more about activities happening.
SIGN UP HERE IF YOU ARE COMING TO CHICAGO!
DOWNLOAD A FLYER
By jwjnational, on October 8th, 2009 The Missouri Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board released a report today on the steps of the Red Cross Blood Services headquarters in St. Louis that raises concerns about donor safety and the security of the nation’s blood supply at the country’s largest supplier of blood and blood products.
Take Action Now! Send an email OR Sign our petition on twitter
The investigative report, which also details the treatment of Red Cross employees and the impact this has on the organization’s work, underscores the need for a new round of reforms at the troubled organization.
“Few national institutions have a prouder name or a more storied history than the American Red Cross,” writes Philip Dine, an award-winning labor reporter and the author of the report. “But many frontline blood workers see the Red Cross as an employer that is increasingly determined to cut expenses and increase revenues, even to the potential detriment of donor safety, employee wellbeing and the security of the nation’s blood supply.”
Among the practices detailed in the report that jeopardize donors’ safety and the integrity of the blood supply detailed are:
Lengthy hours of service for front line blood workers that workers themselves
Continue reading Tell Red Cross: Don’t Cut Corners with Our Blood Supply
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