Responding to the continuing massive jobs deficit, Chicago Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky proposed to create 2 million jobs, introducing the “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act.” Surrounded by Chicago JwJ coalition leaders and other groups, Schakowsky declared:
“Unlike the long disproven claims that more tax breaks for wealthy corporations will lead to more employment, I have a bill that will actually work. How can we guarantee this bill will get 2 million people back to work? By hiring them!”
The proposal, which could be more than paid for by taxing millionaires or financial speculation, establishes:
1) School Improvement Corps – Creates 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs through new funding to public school districts for needed school rehabilitation improvements ($100 billion)
2) Park Improvement Corps – Creates 100,000 jobs for youth between the ages of 16 and 25 through new funding to the Department of the Interior and the USDA Forest Servi
ce’s Public Lands Corps Act. Conservation projects on public lands include restoration and rehabilitation of natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational and scenic resources. ($400
On November 18th, a group of students from University of Illinois-Chicago and University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign gathered at the Board of Trustees meeting in Chicago to voice their concern with the rapidly growing cost of tuition. After being denied a one-on-one meeting, a student stood up at the end of the Board of Trustees meeting and yelled, “Our concerns haven’t been addressed!” As other students started to chant “Tuition freeze now!” security guards rushed towards the bandanna-covered students to quiet them down. As the students refused to budge, the security guards got physical—pushing a student outside.
All over the nation, students are being denied an education because they can’t afford tuition costs. Student debt has surpassed all other forms of debt, but the Pell Grant will be underfunded by $5.5 billion in the coming year—denying hundreds of thousands of students a right to an education. As Pell Grants are targeted towards students from low-income families, underfunding is another way to discriminate against students.
A recent college graduate, I entered the working world in one of the
Earlier today, members of the Chicago Jobs with Justice Unemployed Workers’ Council and allies paid a visit to Representative (and Illinois Senate candidate) Mark Kirk’s office in Northbrook, Illinois to protest his opposition to extending unemployment benefits.
Jorge Ramirez, President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, spoke to Rep. Kirk’s staff, “that’s the primary reason why a lot of these folks are here. They’re unemployed, their unemployment benefits are getting cut off… he needs to know that the votes he makes in Washington are directly accountable to the people you see in this room.”
The House has already voted to extend unemployment benefits (without Rep. Kirk’s support), but it has yet to pass the Senate. A Senate vote is expected Tuesday.
As the U.S. Senate prepares to take up a comprehensive bill to extend the deadline for unemployment benefits through the end of the year, anti-hunger and labor advocates in Chicago want lawmakers to remember just how intensely people are struggling here in the Midwest.
After days of Republican obstruction, the U.S. Senate approved legislation late last night that will extend temporarily the deadline for unemployment benefits. While the end to the stalemate is welcome news, anti-hunger and labor advocates in Chicago aren’t entirely thrilled with the outcome. As the upper chamber prepares to take up a second bill to extend the deadline through the end of the year, these advocates want Senators to remember just how intensely people are struggling here in the Midwest.
This afternoon, Chicago Jobs With Justice (CJWJ) organized a “Senate Soup Kitchen” in Federal Plaza to dramatize the need for relief. Specifically, the group is demanding federal action to extend (and expand) eligibility for jobless benefits and fund a federal jobs program. “What’s
On October 27th, more than 400 JwJ activists came from Detroit, Buffalo, Columbus, Indiana, DC, Chicago, and across Illinois to join the 5,000+ protestors at the American Bankers Association meeting in Chicago. Our delegation included workers, union members, students, and working people who are tired of watching Wall Street get in the way of meaningful reform on issues like Healthcare and financial reform. (Our coalitions in several other cities, including Orlando, FL and South Bend, IN, held solidarity actions.)
In Chicago we joined allied organizations including National People’s Action, SEIU, AFL-CIO, and many more to send a message to the bankers that we will no longer will be idle bystanders in the fight for the direction and future of our country.
Our message was summarized by new AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, “Business as usual is over. We are shutting you down now!”
One of the noteworthy pieces to lift up from this mobilization is
Looking to get fired up before heading to the Showdown in Chicago, October 27? Here are a few reasons we’re looking forward to facing the American Bankers Association meeting in person next week.
After driving their companies and the entire economy into the ground, Wall Street took bailouts that add up to $15,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. They claimed they were ‘too big to fail.’
We consider these to be corporate crimes, which is why JwJ coalitions across the country have been staging actions, wrapping the ‘bailout bandits’ with crime scene tape and demanding new regulations and a major jobs program.
The simple fact is that “too big to fail” is as much a political as an economic
More than 200 people gathered in front of Wells Fargo in downtown Chicago yesterday to hold them accountable for their corporate crimes. Protestors demanded justice for the workers at Quad City Die Casting and an end to evictions and foreclosures.
Quad City Die Casting was forced to close after Wells Fargo cut off operating credit to the company. Since the plant closure, UE Local 1174 has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board because Wells Fargo has denied payment of $200,000 in back-pay and benefits owed to workers. Deb Johann of UE Local 1174 said:
“Wells Fargo first ends financing, forcing our company to close, and now they won’t pay us what we are owed by law. To us, our vacation, insurance and wages mean everything to our families. But to Wells Fargo it’s pennies, not even a blip in their billions. Yet they choose to cheat us out of what we have earned. And to think we helped them out when they needed it!”
Protestors also demanded that Wells Fargo stop home foreclosures and tenant evictions from foreclosed
Responding to the continuing massive jobs deficit, Chicago Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky proposed to create 2 million jobs, introducing the “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act.” Surrounded by Chicago JwJ coalition leaders and other groups, Schakowsky declared:
Join the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka and Change To Win’s Anna Burger as we demand an end to these corporate crimes!
