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By Attica Woodson Scott, on November 22nd, 2011
Did you know that Fund for the Arts monies continue to flow to the Louisville Orchestra while no musicians have been employed since May 2011? Those funds have been used to fund the Louisville Orchestra in bankruptcy court an in an attempt to strip the musicians of the Orchestra of their jobs, provisions of their Contract, their positions and the unemployment compensation some have received since the Orchestra last produced a performance six (6) months ago.
The Louisville Orchestra is trying to impose making the jobs of all Orchestra musicians PART-TIME rather than FULL-TIME and cannibalizing our Musicians’ bargaining unit by breaking the orchestra into three tiers, each with less employment and fewer benefits than the last.
Our Louisville Orchestra musicians provide Making Music concerts to every 4th and 5th grader in Jefferson County Public Schools and provide the highest quality symphonic music to our community. We cannot teach our children that we accept the abuse and disrespect of any group of workers so that the elite 1% in our city can be entertained at the expense of human rights.
Do you give to the Fund for the Arts (directly or via check-off contributions)? If so, request that your donation(s)
Continue reading Stand with Louisville Musicians Against Union-Busting Tactics!
By Chris Hicks, on November 2nd, 2011
October 12th was a cloudy and rainy day, but spirits remained high as hundreds gathered at Farragut Square for a rally that included local janitors, community members and labor leaders. Speaker after speaker gave passionate  speeches about why they need not just jobs, but good jobs in the current economy. As jobs become harder to find, quality jobs seem to be more scarce than ever. At the end of the rally, the crowd, which included DC Jobs with Justice staff and members, DC Student Labor Action Project and United States Student Association, responded by marching a mile and a half to join Occupy K Street in DC, as janitors embraced the 99% struggling to make ends meet.
Less than 24 hours before their contract expired, area office cleaners won a tentative agreement with wage increases on Sunday night. “This is not just a win for working families and our communities, but it ensures tenants will receive professional service and gives our economy a much-needed boost,” said Jaime Contreras, SEIU Local 32BJ Capital Area Director.
Here’s what this new contract means to hard working local families in the area:
WASHINGTON,
Continue reading Justice for Janitors in DC! New 4 year contract!
By Mike Hall AFL-CIO, on June 21st, 2011
Cross posted from the AFL-CIO blog.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this morning released proposed changes in the way union representation elections are conducted that the NLRB says will “reduce unnecessary barriers to the fair and expeditious resolution of questions concerning representation.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the proposed changes are a “modest step to remove roadblocks and reduce unnecessary and costly litigation—and that’s good news for employers as well as employees. But he adds:
The proposed rule does not address many of the fundamental problems with our labor laws, but it will help bring critically needed fairness and balance to this part of the process.
Trumka says the rules “appear to be a common sense approach to clean up an outdated system and help ensure that working women and men can make their own choice about whether to form a union.”
When workers want to vote on a union, they should get a fair chance to vote. That’s a basic right. But our current system has become a broken, bureaucratic maze that stalls and stymies workers’ choices. And that diminishes the voice of working people, creates imbalance in our economy and shrinks the middle
Continue reading New NLRB Rules ‘Modest Step to Election Fairness’
By Richard L. Trumka, on April 28th, 2011
 Original Posted on The Hill’s Cogress Blog 04/28/11 09:22 AM ET
Arizona and Wisconsin may seem like a world apart. But they have more in common than you think. In these states and many others, working people – immigrant and native-born alike – are under fierce attack by corporate-backed politicians.
From Arizona laws that mandate racial profiling to Wisconsin laws that strip workers’ rights to collectively bargain for a middle class way of life, working families everywhere are under assault. Corporate CEOs and the politicians they finance benefit from creating a toxic environment where immigrants, public employees and working men and women are scapegoated for all the problems we face. They tell us immigrants steal our jobs – hoping we forget the millions of American jobs they ship overseas. They say firefighters and policemen are overpaid – hoping we ignore Wall Street’s colossal bonuses, million-dollar salaries and endless corporate greed. They say immigrants don’t pay taxes – hoping we don’t notice that corporations like GE and Exxon Mobil rake in billions in profit and pay nothing in taxes.
Never mind the $11.2 billion in taxes immigrants just paid in
Continue reading Workers must unite for better immigration policy
By Chris Hicks, on April 12th, 2011
 By Hanan Nicola Bumpus
Inspired by the recent activity by citizens in Wisconsin, the UMass Amherst community gathered on Tuesday April 5th in solidarity along, with over 222 campuses, for a national teach-in. These students and other community members came together in order to learn about issues that are relevant to them, and how to organize, fight back, and take back their rights.
Issues that were addressed included the recent economic crisis, the targeting of workers unions by politicians, and the ever increasing tuition and fees that students are facing. Local celebrities, such as Communications professor Sut Jhally, Michael Thelwell, who is the founding chair of the Afro-American department, Dan Clawson from the Sociology department, Gerald Friedman and David Kotz from the economics department, and former SGA president Malcolm Chu, among others, came out to address these issues and inform the student body.
Melissa Urban, a senior at UMass and an organizer with CEPA, spoke about a very salient issue for her, student debt. “[Many students] are leaving school with mortgage-sized student loans but no hope of finding a job… We need to have our voices heard”.
Students walked away with
Continue reading UMass Amherst Community Solidarity with Workers – Participates in National Teach-In
By Fran Tobin, on March 28th, 2011
 The longest sustained protest in Indiana history reached a transition point, as concessions from corporate-backed Republicans led Democratic lawmakers to end their boycott of the legislative session. Jobs with Justice coalitions across the Hoosier state, in coalition with faith-based, student, community and labor groups, were in the thick of high energy mobilizations over a series of weeks, including sit-ins, skits, teach-ins and a rally of more than 15,000.
Democratic lawmakers say they’ve secured concessions on several key issues, including worker rights and education:
* So-called “right-to-work” legislation will be shelved, and the attempt to permanently prevent collective bargaining for state employees, already eliminated by Gov. Mitch Daniels’s executive order, will be dropped.
* School privatization, a major priority of Gov. Daniels, will be severely curtailed, setting a cap on the number of school vouchers and dropping the plan to allow private companies simply taking over public schools that are deemed unsatisfactory.
Democratic lawmakers say their effort, and the unprecedented grassroots mobilization, prevented serious undermining of community and worker standards, but the corporate agenda is not going away. Gov. Mitch Daniels and his corporate-backed allies will to push for privatization,
Continue reading Concessions won; Indiana lawmakers end boycott
By jwjnational, on March 26th, 2011
Sarita Gupta joins Maine State Representative Diane Russell with Lara Flanders on GritTV to discuss the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and parallels that workers and our communities are facing today.
More GRITtv
By jwjnational, on March 25th, 2011
 On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: the right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME.
On April 4, 2011, join union members, community activists, people of faith, students, youth, LGBTQ, civil rights, and immigrant rights allies to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for: the freedom to bargain, to vote, to afford a college education and justice for all workers, immigrant and native-born. It’s a day to show movement with actions, teach-ins, worksite discussions, vigils, faith events – a day to be creative, but clear: We are one.
Visit www.we-r-1.org to find a local event, or add your own event to the growing list of activities. Some ideas for action:
Worksite actions. Recruit co-workers to carry out a worksite activity – wearing red shirts, ribbons,
Continue reading April 4 Call to Action: We are One
By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on March 18th, 2011
This morning, Dane County judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order blocking Wisconsin’s new law that limits collective bargaining rights for public employees.
The Dane County District Attorney brought a lawsuit to block the bill on the grounds that a vote to pass the law was invalid. Fourteen Wisconsin Democrats stayed away from the state capitol for weeks in order to prevent a vote on the law as part of a state budget bill. On March 9, Walker switched tactics, bringing the law instead for a vote before a legislative committee in the middle of the night.
It appears that this scheme violated the 24 hour notice required by the state’s Open Meetings Law.
The State is expected to appeal the ruling, and the order does not prevent the legislature from taking another vote on the law, with 24-hours notice. But for now, the bill cannot be published nor take effect.
Stay tuned for more developments in Wisconsin and in states across the country.
By Charlie Edelen IV, on March 17th, 2011
 On Friday, March 11, a crowd of almost 5,000 people packed St. Louis’ Kiener Plaza to stand up against bills in the Missouri Legislature that would hurt working families, including Right-to-Work-for-Less legislation (SB 1), Minimum Wage Repeal (HB 61 and SB 110), and the Child Labor Repeal (SB 222). Carpenters, laborers, pipefitters, boilermakers, teachers, autoworkers, teamsters, janitors, nurses, policemen, glaziers, machinists, electricians, insulators- just about every local in the St. Louis metropolitan area was represented at this rally.
“We-Are-One” chants recurred throughout the event- before, after and during almost every speaker. Speakers voiced their opposition to the attacks on the middle class, tax breaks for the wealthy, tax incentives for corporations and legislators who are overturning the will of the voters.
Chant leaders JwJ St. Louis Organizer Aaron Burnett And SEIU Local 1 Union Representative Kevin Oliver kicked off the event. Speakers at the event included: St. Louis Labor Council President Bob Soutier, Pastor Teresea Danieley, Father Richard Creason, Coalition of Black Trade
Continue reading Following Huge Protest in Missouri, Senators drop Right to Work Bill
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