Hundreds of statewide labor activists joined with community leaders and local residents to call on Hollander-Marriott and all Greater Tacoma low-paying, taxpayer-money-taking companies to fuel an economic recovery with good jobs. Washington State JwJ is a leading force calling for responsible development, which led to this event as the largest local worker rights action in recent memory.  Radio and corporate print media more than noticed.

Hollander-Marriott purchased their downtown Courtyard site at a “deep discount” from taxpayers, snatched waterfront-mountain views from the taxpayer’s Convention Center, and “brutalized” the architecture of Tacoma taxpayer-financed luxury renaissance, according to the press.  The City Council agreed to this in the name of jobs as Hollander-Marriott made promises to the Mayor, Council, and residents and their unions.

But Hollander-Marriott “went back on their word” to pay living wages, hire locally, and abide by a labor harmony agreement, according to former Mayor Baarsma.  Hollander built the downtown Marriott using Canadian workers earning poverty-wages.  The hotel continues

Continue reading Hollander-Marriott Takes Tax Money, Fails to Provide Good Jobs

Our country is long past desperate for jobs, and the tools we’ve got for creating them aren’t working.  With nearly one in ten Americans out of work and Congress floundering to pass a jobs bill, it has fallen to cash-strapped states to pick up the slack.  Unfortunately, many states’ job creation programs are nothing more than a shadowy network of corporate ATMs that hand out hundreds of millions in subsidies each year without bothering to ensure that the money goes toward creating jobs, let alone quality jobs.

A new report from New York Jobs with Justice, Urban Agenda and the Coalition for Economic Justice demonstrates how New York’s main job creation entities, Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) have taken advantage of a lack of public scrutiny to spend more and more money while creating fewer and fewer jobs.  According to the report, entitled No Return on Our Investment: The Failure of New York’s Industrial Development Agencies, IDAs waste $135 million a year on subsidies to businesses that cut jobs or fail to create

Continue reading New Report Catches Job Creation Programs Asleep on the Job

In a big policy shift, the Tacoma, WA City Council questioned subsidies for a Hollander-Marriott luxury project that may not benefit the community, bucking developer lobbyists and the City Manager.  For weeks, City Council-members led by Connie Ladenburg held off indemnifying Hollander and sticking taxpayers with toxic liability at the privately owned site.  The hotel is sited for the Thea Foss Waterway next to the bankrupted and nearly empty luxury Esplanade condos, also government subsidized and built on the backs of low-wage workers.

The shift occurred while Urban Grace Church organized for a recent candidate forum on Responsible Development and amidst a now three-year JwJ free speech campaign to press the City Council to embrace justice values linked to the City’s luxury subsidy policy.  Now six candidates are referring to “sustainable development” in two Tacoma Weekly articles although not all seemed to include economic justice in the term.  Some candidates prefer Bush trickle-down welfare that doesn’t address poverty-wage jobs, a root cause of environmental unsustainability.  In their minds, low-wage downtown hotel workers should just commute to homes in affordable places

Continue reading Tacoma Council Challenges Marriott-Hollander to Benefit the Community

The fact that our government often subsidizes the profits of big corporations instead of investing in our communities isn’t new, but it’s time that we say enough is enough.  How are we going to tackle the tough problems facing our country when our state and local governments—often the places where we can make the greatest impact—are unaccountable and unable to implement the change we need?

New York City’s government frequently greenlights massive redevelopment projects that rely on millions of taxpayer dollars.  In one of the most expensive cities in the world, projects that reshape entire neighborhoods get approved without considering if they will meet community needs, or deliver good jobs and affordable housing. 

New York Jobs with Justice was part of a coalition that fought back during the rezoning of Coney Island to win significant community benefits, including 35% affordable housing units, money  to renovate the local hospital’s emergency room, land for a new school, and much more.

Right now, the Kingsbridge Armory project in the Bronx will saddle a community desperate for good jobs with a shopping complex that will create 1,200 permanent,

Continue reading Fighting for Accountable Development in NYC & Beyond

A sampling of what Jobs with Justice coalitions are working on this week.

JwJ coalitions are engaging in health care debate, with some unique approaches.  Central Florida JwJ and Central Indiana JwJ have been rallying to encourage the lawmakers in Florida and Indiana to support a public option in national health care legislation.  Activists from Central IN JwJ, Massachusetts JwJ, DC JwJ, and Utah JwJ also held parties celebrating Medicare’s 44th birthday.  The Vermont Workers Center/JwJ is focused on their “Health Care is a Human Right Campaign”, engaging the grassroots in an effort to win statewide health care reform.

DC JwJ picketed outside a party for Mayor Adrian Fenty’s fraternity in order to bring attention to his recent layoffs of government workers and sale of public property through emergency legislation with little time for public comment.

WalMart’s efforts to build a store on

Continue reading Quick Hits August 1-7, 2009