Today, in cities across the U.S., communities are coming together to educate and take collective action to stop H.R. 2164, legislation presented by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith.  H.R. 2164 will make the use of E-Verify mandatory for nearly every employer in the United States.  This legislation is expected to be taken up by the House Judiciary committee for markup at the end of this week.

Mandatory E-Verify is a jobs killer. It is bad for working people, bad for business and bad for the economy.  That is why community leaders, small business owners, and workers are speaking out today against the E-Verify program.

In Portland, Portland Jobs with Justice will join community leaders in a press conference telling Congress that forcing employers to use the flawed E-Verify system will harm U.S. workers and employers and undercut the country’s economic recovery.

A mandatory E-Verify system would require employers to perform a computer check for every job applicant

Continue reading Communities United as Part of National Day of Action Against E-Verify

One year ago, what was long known to be a laboratory for the Right also became recognized as an epicenter for human rights efforts today. On April 23, 2010 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070 into law, elevating the state of Arizona into the national spotlight as both the capitol of prejudice and the heart of a vibrant migrant and human rights movement.  While Russell Pearce, Sheriff Arpaio, and Jan Brewer entered the courts to defend their unconstitutional and inhumane work, families, neighbors, workers, people of faith, and students mobilized in the tens of thousands to send the clear message that “we will not comply” with the criminalization of our communities.

One year later, with the exception of a few states like Georgia and Florida, the country has turned away from the wrong direction of Arizona and its 1070 copy cats.  Yet, while the Obama administration has sued Arizona for its law, its also bragged about deporting one million people while in office via the expansion of police-ICE collaborations.  The organizers of

Continue reading National Summit to Turn the Tide on Anti-Immigrant Enforcement

To read mainstream media’s celebration of official unemployment rate dropping from 8.9% to 8.8%, you wouldn’t know that the jobs deficit remains dire for millions of Americans (not coincidentally,  corporate profits are going through the roof).

Let’s look through the hoopla:

Nearly 10,000 people rallied in 14 cities across Ohio, standing up for Good Jobs and Strong Communities.  Jobs with Justice coalitions were lead organizers of rallies outside of Cleveland and Columbus, and mobilized to actions near Toledo, Dayton, Mansfield, Akron and Cincinnati.

In Cleveland, more than 1,500 persons withstood the rain to hear JwJ Religious co-chair Rev. Bob Strommen denounce the greed of “Big Money” and call us to live by shared values.  Teachers, firefighters and a small businessman and local Catholic priest also spoke against the threats of Governor Kasich’s slash and burn budget and elimination of collective bargaining rights.

After the formal program ended, hundreds of people stuck around in the pouring rain lining Strongsville’s Royalton and Pearl Roads, waving signs and chanting as cars honked horns in support.

Columbus JwJ organized a rally in Gov. Kasich’s home suburb of Westerville.  More than 1,500 persons learned more about the causes of the OH budget shortfall (hint:  it was not workers) and marched to Kasich’s home.

Continue reading Ohio Stands for Good Jobs, Strong Communities

A recent article in the Economist magazine titled “Tough Times for Everyone – Except Public Sector Workers” states that taxpayers are now learning about “the banquet public sector workers have been having at the expense of everyone else” and that many public employees can “retire in their mid-50s on close to full pay.”

These unsubstantiated claims–repeated endlessly in media–stand reality on its head. Such accusations are part of a systematic campaign by corporate America to mislead taxpayers and scapegoat public employees.

California public sector workers, such as teachers, public health nurses, firefighters, librarians, maintenance, park, transit, and social workers are not responsible for the economic crisis that makes drastic cuts to state and local governments necessary. These public employees earn modest, middle-class pay and benefits.

Rather, it was big business and the wealthy who gamed the deregulated financial system to make huge profits. Their speculation in the home mortgage markets triggered the Great Recession; then they proceeded to take billions in bailouts from the government; and last year, Wall Street’s leading investment and financial services firms paid out a record $144 billion in compensation and benefits.

These same corporate

Continue reading Don’t Blame California Public Employees!

Winning the Dodd-Frank Bank Reform bill was an important victory for JwJ groups and our allies, but far from the end of the struggle between working communities and Wall Street.

The nation’s biggest banks, the ones that enriched themselves while driving our economy into ruin, have been foreclosing on homes and evicting families without even filing the proper paperwork.  In a ruling that could shake the very foundation of these bailout bandits, the Massachusetts Supreme Court recently said the banks have to show they have the legal right to foreclose before doing so.

That such a common sense question (should banks follow the law when kicking people out of homes?) went to a state supreme court is a sign of how monumentally out of whack our system has become and how much the big banks have been getting away with recklessness.

Across the country, community groups have been challenging foreclosures and abusive bank practices, including the infamous ‘robo-signing’ of documents.  Some union and community groups have launched a “Where’s the Note” campaign to help families challenge improper foreclosure procedures.

As groups build

Continue reading Wall Street vs. Workers: The Struggle Continues

Right-wingers have historically cried about the deficit when it is convenient to them, and most potently when they are aiming to put more money into the pockets of their wealthy, corporate buddies—all of course while increasing the burden on working people (i.e. “cutting spending”).

So the report coming from the “deficit commission” should come as no surprise, proposing trillions of dollars in cuts and even slicing jobs, including 200,000 government workers.  Meanwhile there was no mention of any tax on the corporate fat cats who got our economy into this mess when it is widely understood that a modest fee on Wall Street’s daily financial transactions would bring in more than enough to say existing jobs, provide new jobs and, yes, get rid of the deficit.  In fact, Republicans are now pitting the extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans against unemployment benefits for the rest of us.

In all of its attempts to “solve the deficit”, the Commission—which did not even get the full 14 votes required to make it an official report to Congress—answered the wrong question.

The real question is how are we going to

Continue reading “Deficit Report” Answers Wrong Question

President Obama created the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility identify policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run.  Specifically, the Commission attempted to propose recommendations designed to balance the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015.  Today, the Commission approved the report but failed to reach consensus that would have pressured congressional leaders to vote on the proposal.

The proposals that the Commission has drafted fail to address the causes of either the current or projected budget deficits.  What’s more, they fail to recognize that a healthy government budget depends on a healthy economy, and a healthy economy depends on jobs.

During the Great Depression, this nation was in a similar situation to the what we’re experiencing now. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal reduced unemployment from 25 percent to 10 percent in three years, but he was then pressured to reduce spending before the economy was fully stabilized, just as President Obama is being pressured to reduce spending now. The result was another sharp increase in unemployment and

Continue reading Opinion: Cutting Spending is A Means to a Grim End