Yesterday was an exciting day of education and action at the U.S. Social Forum!
JwJ coalitions convened and spoke at a variety of workshops, including: Uncovering the Truth on Police & ICE Collaborations (DC JwJ), Social Networking for Social Justice (KY JwJ), Writers’ Circle (Missouri JwJ), The Impact of Financial Restructuring on Michigan Workers and the Union Response (SE Michigan JwJ), Good Jobs for All: Winning Full and Fair Employment for a New Economy (National JwJ), and The TRADE Act as a Tool for Global Justice (Southern Oregon JwJ).
Jobs with Justice members participated in the Excluded Workers Congress People’s Movement Assembly which focused on how we can expand workers’ rights to organize. We heard inspiring testimony from a variety of workers who are fighting for their rights on the job (stay tuned for more on this, including video).
In the evening, JwJ co-sponsored a march and rally with AFSCME Council 65 and the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO to demand, “Money for JOBS, not Banks!”
The AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice went another round against big banks this week.
Jobs with Justice mobilized this week with the AFL-CIO’s “Make Wall Street Pay” week of action. Building on our week of action to save jobs earlier this month, JwJ Coalitions participated in actions in at least 12 cities this week. Some 200 actions are reported nationwide, and the profile of these actions is rising as well, as this week’s New York Times article illustrates.
In Washington, DC the Billionaires for Bailouts asked lunchtime passersby to spare a few million dollars for their bonuses. Actions are escalating in several cities as anger mounts against CEO pay and consumer gouging. Over 1,000 people rallied at a Bank of America branch in Philadelphia, with 50 entering the bank and disrupting business. In Orlando, nearly 100 blocked the Bank of America branch, and 12 withdrew their money from the bank.
This is a critical time for action against Wall Street. After their reckless speculation nearly collapsed our economy they received tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer support. A year and a half later, they are using that money to pay near record CEO bonuses, charge high
The fight for keeping and creating jobs grew stronger in Florida this past week. Central Florida Jobs with Justice mobilized for a rally, organized by the Space Coast AFL-CIO and Florida state AFL-CIO, that brought over 2,000 people from across the state to say “Save Our Space”! Workers and their families traveled to the space coast from Miami, Pensacola, Jacksonville and all points in between to join business and community leaders to rally in support of continued federal funding of this vital economic driver for Florida’s future. The rally featured National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other leaders from the American labor movement who used this dire situation as a backdrop to launch a national jobs campaign that would create 10 million American jobs.
Recent budget proposals working their way through Congress all but eliminate funding for NASA’s human spaceflight operations in Florida. Space operations have long been one of Florida’s most important economic sectors, supporting tens of thousands of good jobs and providing the economic cornerstone for many communities across the state. The loss of funding would eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, decimate many communities, and send shock waves across the state this at a time when Florida is
FAIRLEE – This past weekend, the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO convention delegates representing 9,500-members unanimously voted to:
endorse H.100 and S.88 … (and to) play a leading role together with our allies in the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign … in mobilizing broad public and political support for single-payer healthcare.
Building a powerful movement “to change what is politically possible” with real healthcare reform is the Vermont AFL-CIO’s #1 priority.
Convention delegates also put a parade of politicians, including four Democratic gubernatorial aspirants, on notice that they expected political leaders to work to pass single payer legislation in Vermont this year. Legislative leaders of the Working Vermonters Caucus also pledged to make passing H.100 and S.88 a priority.
In September in a unanimous vote, the national AFL-CIO endorsed the Single Payer Medicare for All approach to healthcare reform as the “most cost-effective and equitable way to provide quality healthcare for all.” United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, who chaired the discussion said, “Whatever the outcome of the current debate over health care reform in the 111th Congress, the task of establishing health care as a human right, not a
A diverse crowd of 65 attended a Town Hall Meeting for Economic Justice on September 25 at UAW 848 Hall in Grand Prairie, Texas. No more than six of them were from any individual union local or organization, and most organizations were represented by two or three activists. Bringing sincere activists together has been the main mission of North Texas Jobs with Justice since it was founded in that same union hall in 1990.
Several of the participants were recognized for the contributions they are making in present-day worker struggles.
The agenda consisted of rousing talks by Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller and internationally renowned theologian Rev. Dr. Joerg Rieger. Audience participation then provided more insights and inspiration.
Some of the points President Moeller made:
“The root ill for this economy is health care!”
“The Dallas newspaper reported that about half of the jobs lost in this recession will be permanent job losses.”
“The truth is that the downturn will not be over for a lot of us.”
As the Florida foreclosure crisis continues to hit property owners, including landlords, renters are often the most vulnerable and least considered.
For three weeks, tenants of Golf Villas apartment complex in New Smyrna Beach, FL were forced to live without water after the owner of this 20-apartment complex inhabited by working class families went into foreclosure and failed to pay the water bill. Tenants had been paying their rent, and were never informed of the foreclosure or neglected water bill.
When the water was cut off, many tenants self-evicted themselves while others purchased bottled water to get by. Residents brought the issue to the City Commissioners, but Commissioners were reluctant to urge the Utilities Commission to work with these tenants to turn the water back on.
Members of the Central Florida Jobs with Justice coalition came together with tenants to fight back. Local faith and community leaders, students, and labor leaders from the Volusia/Flager County AFL-CIO held a press conference to build pressure on the Utilities Commission to follow through with legal proceedings to appoint another person responsible for the account so tenants could have running water. After the press conference, the Utilities Commission met with advocates and started working on getting the water turned on.
As a recent graduate of Florida State University and current National Coordinator for the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), I am one of the few young workers among my friends and family who is a member of a labor union. This means that unlike many of my peers I have a healthcare plan, a retirement savings account, and a say in my working conditions and wages.
Sadly, this is not the case for the majority of young workers in the U.S. As shown in the report released today by the AFL-CIO & Working America, more than half of young workers under age 35 earn less than $30,000 per year. Thirty-one percent of young workers report that they have no health insurance and only forty-seven percent have retirement plans at work.
Even though many young workers have a college degree, they still aren’t able to pay their bills and become financially independent. Twenty-four percent say they do not make enough to pay their monthly bills. More than one in three workers under age 35 live at home with their parents.
These startling statistics clearly show that young workers must become a crucial part of the labor movement.
Carlos Jimenez is the Young Worker Project Coordinator for Jobs with Justice.
Over the last decade, the Bush administration pushed the agendas of the corporate and financial sectors so successfully that they are now deemed “too big to fail.” This trend recently brought our economy to the edge of a cliff until the public bailed out these institutions with our tax dollars. Now the financial “experts” say the economy is recovering, but things down here still look pretty bad to me. The Bush years had a terrible impact on working people – especially young workers.
Now here we are in the Obama era, and the many young people who made it possible continue to face an uphill battle on many issues central to their daily lives like wages and health care.
A new report by the AFL-CIO and Working America highlights a power base noticeably absent in national discussions about the economy in spite of their major contributions to the last election – young workers. Here are just some of the findings:
More than half of young workers earn less than $30,000 dollars! Seven out of ten do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses. More than
