They certainly had high expectations.  And why shouldn’t they have?  Just before they got on stage, workers with the National Guestworkers Alliance from a previous campaign against Signal had just been there claiming victory against the company and a reunion with their families.  So, the 30 that had come stood up and told a story about how they each paid $3,000-$6,000 to come to the U.S. this summer for what they thought would be a cultural exchange program through the State Department’s J-1 visa. Instead, they found themselves packing chocolates at the Hershey’s plant in deeply exploitative conditions. After automatic weekly deductions for rent in company housing and other expenses, they net between $40 and $140 per week for 40 hours of work.

One

Continue reading Victory at Hersheys!

Congress needs to hear from all of us today because they plan to vote on the bill as soon as tomorrow. If you haven’t already, please CLICK HERE to find the phone number for your Member of the House of Representatives and tell her/him:

1. The CLASS Act should not be repealed.
2. Repealing CLASS ignores the needs of millions of Americans with disabilities and seniors who need long term services and supports to maintain their independence and dignity.
3. Repealing CLASS ignores the needs of the direct care workforce for quality jobs.

Click here to let us know that you have told your representative to oppose repeal of the CLASS Act. If you have called already — thank you — please share this email with friends and invite them to call their representative so that we can protect the

Continue reading TAKE ACTION: Don’t repeal CLASS Act!

As this was the tone set by the Verizon corporation going into negotiations, and we soon realized that the game was changed completely for the workers bargaining. At that same time, what felt like it sprouted from out of thin air, Occupy Wall Street began, igniting simultaneous occupations all over the country from Oakland to DC.  With that a new base of people that had just as much to lose from this particular contract negotiation, as it embodied – and still does – the fight of the 1% vs. the 99%.

During the 2 week strike in August, unions, faith leaders, occupiers, students and the community

Continue reading A Verigreedy campaign

In 1997, Florida’s legislature created a scholarship program called Bright Futures. It was a program that allowed high school seniors with high academic merit to earn a scholarship for any public university in the state of Florida. Based on Georgia’s successful HOPE scholarship, this program would be paid for by the Florida Lottery, and based merit on GPA as well as standardized test scores. Bright Futures was divided into three types of scholarships, designed for three different types of students. There was one created for those high school seniors’ pursuing vocational degrees, one for the “B” students, and another for the “A” students. The “B” students earned a 75% scholarship for university, 100% for community college. The “A” students were granted a 100% scholarship for any public university.

I was one of those “A” students.

Growing up, I knew the importance of a college education. Immigrants, my parents moved from Iran and met here in the United States. While working two jobs with three young kids, my father

Continue reading Bright Futures or Student Debt?

This week, in over one hundred cities and towns, thousands will launch a series of actions building towards the Shareholder Spring, delivering letters to the executives of the corporations in this country most responsible for undermining our democracy, crashing our economy, poisoning our environment and widening the gap between rich and poor.

By coming together around a joint strategy to confront corporate power, this effort could shape the 2012 electoral debates.  The negative roles unregulated corporate power has on our economy and our elections would be front and center of the national conversation.  In races nationwide candidates would have to decide which side they are on:  Corporations, the structures of the 1%, or the rest of us.

Committing to such a broad-based effort to further expand the space opened by Occupy will create new possibilities for each of our campaigns.  In isolation our campaigns on jobs and worker rights, revenue, banking, health care, immigrant justice, and the environment are not big enough.  But together, we have the potential to shift the political landscape that all of us operate in.

We are

Continue reading Joint Effort Launched to Confront Corporate Power

Today, 282 Brooklyn Cablevision technicians and dispatchers in Brooklyn voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 1109 in a union election administered by National Labor Relations Board, overcoming a vigorous anti-union campaign led by Cablevision.  They are the first Cablevision workers to join a union.  Cable TV is an overwhelmingly non-union industry while the traditional telecommunications industry remains highly unionized.

“I’ve waited 13 years for this,” said Cablevision technician Clarence Adams.  “United, as members of Communications Workers of America, we now have the power to negotiate a fair contract that will give us the dignity and respect on the job we deserve.”

Cablevision workers are currently subject to arbitrary discipline and favoritism by managers, their health care coverage is inadequate, their workload is unreasonable and they have insufficient 401(k) retirement plans.  Cablevision workers also make at least one-third less than Verizon workers, who are represented by CWA.

“This is about my son, his future, and the future of the Cablevision 99%,” said Cablevision technician Marlon Gayle.  “We can now negotiate

Continue reading Cablevision Workers Triumph: Brooklyn Technicians Vote To Unionize