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 The U.S. Social Forum is one month away!
From June 22-27, more than 10,000 activists representing thousands of grassroots organizations will converge in Detroit for the 2nd US Social Forum (USSF). The purpose of the USSF is to effectively and affirmatively articulate the values and strategies of a growing and vibrant movement for justice in the United States.
Are you a local Jobs with Justice activist who is coming to the US Social Forum?
PLEASE LET US KNOW!
We want to invite you to our orientation session on June 22 where you can connect with other JwJ activists from across the country, find out about workshops and other program we are planning, & get an awesome t-shirt to wear as you walk with us during the USSF’s opening march.
Jobs with Justice is very excited about the program that is shaping up for this year’s USSF. Labor is playing a large role in this year’s USSF, with the AFL-CIO, AFGE, AFSCME, UAW, UFCW, USW, UE, Detroit CLC, and numerous local unions planning program and bringing participants to the USSF.
Among the program pieces Jobs with Justice is working on
Continue reading Join Jobs with Justice at the U.S. Social Forum June 22-25 in Detroit
By rand wilson, on March 4th, 2010 (Originally published on Working In These Times blog at http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5639/troublemakers_go_to_school_in_boston)
 BOSTON—More than 90 union members, students and community activists jammed the SEIU Local 888 union hall here on Saturday for a “Troublemakers School” sponsored by Massachusetts Jobs with Justice.
IBEW Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey gave a rousing welcome to kick things off. “We’re not going to get labor’s problems solved in Washington or on Beacon Hill unless we take a page from the civil rights and gay rights movements,” said Calvey, a former New England telecom strike leader. “We’ve got to be a lot more aggressive so that politicians are forced to deal with our issues. We’ve got make our problems, their problems!”
Calvey was followed by a panel of local organizers from the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Angelica Laundry strike, Service Employees’ Local 1199’s Caritas hospital campaign and American Federation of Government Employee’s Transportation Safety Officers organizing drive. Their presentations were followed by a wide-ranging discussion about organizing strategies and reports from other workplace struggles. (To learn more about these campaigns, go to www.ufcwlocal1445.org/Open1445Intro2.htm; http://fairunionelections.org and
Continue reading Troublemakers Go to School in Boston
By Rev. Jim Sessions, on December 14th, 2009  Fran Ansley and I have been involved with the JwJ network since 1995 when our local Central Labor Council invited us to help organize our local East Tennessee JwJ. For the past several years, we have made a monthly automatic contribution to both the Jobs with Justice Education Fund (national JwJ) and to our local JwJ coalition, JwJ of East Tennessee.
Early on, we got to witness the power and significance of union/community solidarity in the Mineworkers’ strike against Pittston Coal Company in the hollows and on the ridges of Southern Appalachia. We saw what the union and its members meant to the community and what the community, its churches and civic organizations brought to the struggle for labor justice and workers’ rights. To win that fight, it took national and even international support, and I think most fundamentally, the shoulder-to-shoulder daily support of neighbors, pastors, and local community organizations. Across the board Solidarity of material support and mutual reinforcement was necessary to win. We have seen those lessons multiplied in years since.
That is why Fran and I give regularly scheduled contributions to both
Continue reading Sustaining the Movement for Jobs with Justice
By jwjnational, on December 2nd, 2009 On the eve of Obama’s “Jobs Summit”, the picture of employment in this country is bleak. Unemployment is at crisis levels: 10.2% unemployment, six job-seekers for every opening, 27 million Americans that need full-time work.
This comes as no big surprise. Jobs with Justice coalitions have been mobilizing for an economic recovery and working with partners to develop a national jobs plan.
“It’s past time to get millions of people back to work with a national jobs program that puts people to work,” said Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice, “but to solve the economic crisis we must create not just jobs, but good jobs that allow workers and their families to lead healthy, stable lives.”
For decades, the economic policies of the United States government have led to a hemorrhaging of the good-paying jobs that built our middle-class. More and more people are working at lower-paying jobs with fewer benefits. Today, we find ourselves living in a country where one in 10 homes is in foreclosure. One in eight people - 40% of whom are in working families - must rely on food stamps. One in six have no health insurance.
Unchecked corporate greed has put workers in a bind, forcing far too many to
Continue reading The Jobs Crisis is About More than Unemployment
By Huy Ong, on November 6th, 2009  On November 3rd, members of the Mid-Willamette Valley Jobs with Justice came out to denounce the anti-union practices of BrucePAC, a private company that packages cooked meats in Silverton, OR. Over 40 community supporters showed at the main BrucePAC facility in Siverton to hand out information about the working condition and demanded an end to the intimidation and harrassment of the 350 workers. Workers there are trying to form a union with LIUNA Local 296.
The horror stories from workers sparked the community into action and is another example of why we need real labor law reform like the Employee Free Choice Act. More than 40 workers say they were fired for supporting the union organizing effort, female workers report being sexually harassed, and injured workers say they have been sent home and denied workers comp. BrucePac is also spending big money on union busting consultants to intimidate workers.
Workers that have been with the company several years still only make minimum wage! With current estimates showing BrucePAC having revenues close to $99 million in 2008, workers know Larry Bruce, President of BrucePAC, can do better.
The good
Continue reading Community Fights Back Against BrucePAC’s Union-Busting
By Carlos Jimenez, on October 6th, 2009 From September 24th through October 1st, activists and workers in dozens of cities took to the streets as part of Jobs with Justice’s week of action demanding economic recovery for working America. We covered a lot of ground, connected some dots along the way, and observed the 1 year anniversary of Bush’s TARP (bailout) program the same way we welcomed it – on the streets and in opposition to corporate welfare.
With a national economy that continues to lose jobs, more and more homes being lost, and a debate around health care going nowhere unless we step up to the plate and mobilize for it, Jobs with Justice coalitions across the country brought diverse communities together to challenge those most responsible for the current crisis.
Jobs
U.S. September Job Cuts Exceeded Forecasts, Unemployment Rose – and many believe that we’ll easily pass the 10% figure officially in terms of unemployment (which some argue puts us closer to 20% unemployment). A report by the AFL-CIO found that workers under 35 are worse off than they were ten years ago, and given the current economic reality are having a harder time getting and keeping a job.
Stop to
Continue reading Shifting Gears: On the Offensive for Jobs, Health Care, and Housing
By rand wilson, on October 5th, 2009 The figures are staggering. Unemployment is at 9.1 percent and new unemployment claims continue to increase. By one measure, real unemployment and underemployment are double the official rate. According to the Labor Department, job seekers now outnumber openings by six to one!
 That’s why more than 1,000 union members, unemployed workers, students, clergy and community leaders came together for an October 1 march and rally to highlight the growing jobs crisis. The group protested on the Boston Common, at Verizon’s New England headquarters and at the Hyatt Regency Hotel against a corporate agenda that has left far too many workers behind.
Eighty labor and community groups sponsored the march and rally. Accompanying the march was the IBEW Local 103 One Hundred and Third Drum and Bagpipe Band and the Somerville Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Marching Band.
The action also focused on how big banks have misused our tax dollars. So far, few of the hundreds of billions in taxpayer money that went to the big banks have reached Main Street. Robert Haynes, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO said:
“Economic recovery isn’t
Continue reading Boston Workers March for an Economy That Works for Everyone
By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on September 18th, 2009 On August 31 all 100 housekeepers at Hyatt’s three Boston area hotels were fired. They were given their last paychecks, told to clean out their lockers and leave. Some had worked for Hyatt for more than 20 years.
The housekeepers had been told they were training workers who would be filling in for vacations, but they had in fact been training their replacements. Upon being fired, they were immediately replaced by workers from an out-of-state subcontractor Hyatt brought in which will pay workers $8/hour with no benefits.
Last night, more than 400 people, including members of Massachusetts JwJ and UNITE HERE Local 26 gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Boston to demand that they give workers their jobs back. Several state and local politicians attended the rally, and Mayor Menino issued a statement in support of the workers. Stay tuned for updates on this story.
By Fabricio Rodriguez, on September 16th, 2009 Cross-posted from the Philadelphia JwJ Blog.
One of the main road blocks that workers face to exercising their rights on the job is the powerful and frightening coercive power that an employer has over an employee.
Imagine an election in which the party in power could force you to attend mandatory meetings to tell you why you should not vote for the other party. Imagine the party in power could also make you lose your job, and harass your neighbors who support the opposition party. The party in power could bring in professional campaigners (lawyers and anti-union consultants) to help them win their election. They were guaranteed access to the voters every day leading up to the election — but the opposition party could only campaign in secret and when their volunteers happened to catch other voters at home. Let’s say that the party in power could also sit you down, all by yourself, and interrogate you to see how you intended on voting?
Sounds pretty intimidating, huh? Well these are the troubles that the security guards at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are bound to face in the next thirty days as they try to form a union.
![]() Continue reading Will your tax money be used to intimidate workers?
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