|
|
By Joe Uehlein, on September 22nd, 2011
This article originally appeared at Labor4sustainability.org
Sometimes a decision forces you to think deeply about what you believe in and how you act on those beliefs. It happened to me when climate protection leader Bill McKibben asked me to sign a letter calling for civil disobedience to block the building of a pipeline designed to carry tar-sands oil from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Opposing the pipeline might strain ties with unions that I’ve worked with and been part of for my whole adult life. And yet the pipeline might be a tipping point that could hurtle us into a desperate acceleration of climate change. Amid these conflicting pulls, what should I do? Having lived at the confluence of trade unionism and environmentalism, I struggled with the right course of action. What has my life’s work meant?
I was born into a union family. My dad worked in the steel mills in Lorain, Ohio and was a founder of the Steelworkers Union. My mom had been an organizer in the Clothing Workers Union in Cincinnati. I grew up near Cleveland and I walked the picket line with my dad during the 1959 steel strike.
My own trade union
Continue reading Opinion: Why I’m Protesting the Keystone Pipeline With Bill McKibben
By jwjnational, on August 16th, 2011
 Today, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and others including Jobs with Justice made public an authoritative report condemning the Secure Communities deportation program and recommending its termination.
The report includes testimony from former District Attorney of New York Robert Morgenthau, heads of law enforcement, and victims of Secure Communities like Isaura in Los Angeles whose 911 call for help resulted in her deportation proceedings.
In contrast to the DHS appointed taskforce which has failed to enlist the voices of affected communities, scholars, or critics on the subject, this report constitutes a real deliberative and representative review of the program.
The report recommends that the Secure Communities be terminated, that the current OIG investigation of S-Comm be expanded to all ICE Access programs, that the Department of Justice begin its own investigation into the mysterious role of the FBI in Secure Communities, and that states not be compelled to share biometric data with ICE.
The following statement can be attributed to the National Community Advisory Commission
“This report confirms what immigrant communities have long known.
Continue reading Authoritative National Report Condemns Secure Communities Program
By jwjnational, on June 22nd, 2011
Today, Jobs with Justice and the United Students against Sweatshops released an “investor alert” showing how Rite Aid’s mismanagement and corporate greed have contributed to the company’s poor performance during the past four years. The release of the investor alert coincides with Rite Aid’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 23 at the Hilton Hotel in Harrisburg, PA. The alert is available on the Jobs with Justice website here.
Jobs with Justice has been an active supporter of Rite Aid workers across the country who have struggled to form unions and to win union contracts. Over the last several years, Jobs with Justice has leafleted stores, met with store managers, sent emails to top Rite Aid executives, and held rallies in support Rite Aid workers in their local communities.
Rite Aid has been struggling to return to profitability since the disastrous acquisition of the Brooks and Eckerd chains in 2007, which left the company deeply in debt. Rite Aid has consistently under-performed its top competitors, CVS and Walgreens, and has reported losses in 15 straight quarters (results for the 16th quarter ended on 5/31, will be reported on June 23). Despite sagging share prices, Rite
Continue reading Mismanagement & Corporate Greed Plague Rite Aid
By Kristi Barnes, on April 6th, 2011
 On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. He was in Memphis to support sanitation workers, represented by AFSCME Local 1733, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment on the job. He famously said, “It is a crime to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”
Dr. King’s legacy teaches us that workers’ rights, civil rights and human rights are inexorably linked. On the anniversary of his death over thirty years ago, we are also reminded just how far we are in fulfilling his dream of equality and dignity for all people.
Right now, we’re witnessing an unprecedented attack on public sector workers around the country. Here in New York State, our legislature and new Governor passed a budget of tax breaks for the wealthy and austerity for the rest of us. The budget features across-the-board cuts to vital public services, major concessions from public sector workers, and leaves unanswered many more questions about future concessions and layoffs. At the same time, our elected leaders
Continue reading Honoring Dr. King’s Legacy in New York
By rand wilson, on April 6th, 2011
 Cross-posted from In These Times.
Last Friday, more than two dozen Rite Aid drugstores across the country had some unexpected visitors. Activists in 10 states converged on 30 stores on April 1 to protest the company’s unfair labor practices and management’s efforts to impose unaffordable healthcare costs on employees.
Workers at six Cleveland Rite Aid stores—whose employees are members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 880—have been on strike since March 14. After nearly a year of fruitless contract negotiations, the strike started because Rite Aid management committed dozens of unfair labor practices, violating members’ rights through illegal threats, harassment, retaliation, surveillance and refusing to bargain in good faith.
Rite Aid resorted to these illegal tactics in Ohio as part of a nationwide effort to convince workers to move into a more expensive company health insurance plan. Many Rite Aid retail employees are paid such low wages that if their union accepted Rite Aid’s plan, they would be forced to decline company coverage and instead rely on taxpayer provided benefits such as Medicaid for their medical needs.
According to UFCW
Continue reading Rite Aid Workers’ Strike in Cleveland Sparks Nationwide Protest
By Denise Diaz, on March 31st, 2011
On Friday, March 25th, the Florida Governor signed legislation into law that ties teacher’s salaries to test scores and removes tenure. On the same day, the Florida House passed legislation to make union dues deduction of public workers illegal.
Workers and students united in Orlando to say “Enough is Enough” to these attacks on working people. Protesters demanded the Speaker of the House Dean Cannon stop the scapegoating of workers and students. Rep. Cannon is following the Governor’s agenda of prioritizing corporate interests at the expense of middle class families dealing with the effects of economic crisis. Its time to find real solutions and sensible policies and not keep it as politics as usual.
The delegation loudly marched into Rep. Cannon’s office. A person dressed as the Notorious Governor Rick Scott left a huge box of money behind congratulating the Representative on blaming working people on behalf of their corporate cronies. People carried framed testimonials from a student, an unemployed worker, a professor, a parent and an immigrant advocate: we will not be framed for the state’s revenue shortfall!
Protests will continue to escalate throughout the legislative session. Coordinating groups include Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Central Florida AFL-CIO, and
Continue reading Florida House Votes to End Pay Deductions for Public Workers’ Union Dues
By Central Indiana JwJ, on March 11th, 2011
Thursday’s We Are Indiana rally in Indianapolis capped off nearly three weeks of historic protests at the Indiana statehouse by Indiana’s labor movement. The protests are the longest sustained protests in Indiana’s history, an d they rivaled labor’s famous 1995 march on the Indiana Statehouse.
Perhaps more importantly, the 2011 showdown at the state capitol will be remembered for their place amongst popular protests around the world by everyday people standing up to undemocratic government and corporate power. The gathering of nearly 15,000 workers and their progressive allies from around the state and country yesterday marks a new era in American history, in which the unprecedented corporate consolidation of the past four decades is no longer an unchecked political force controlling the future of American workers and working-class communities.
The rally was intended to force Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to abandon the 30 pieces of legislation he’s attempting to push through the legislature that attack Hoosier workers, women, immigrants, students, and gays and lesbians. The governor is a leader in the Republican Governor’s Association which is closely allied with the Koch brothers, the billionaire family funding the tea party and spearheading
Continue reading Historic Indiana Mobilization Builds on Season of Struggle
By jwjnational, on February 25th, 2011
 Congratulations to all of the workers, students, faith leaders and community groups that have organized Jobs with Justice in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin and all the other states where workers are facing drastic cuts in their right to organize and collectively bargain. Your efforts have led to the recognition of Jobs with Justice and other groups among Glenn Beck’s top 10 list.
So, keep up the good fight! The most updated list of actions in below.
More details are coming in all the time, so check back for updates. Please post in the comments if you’re planning something or email us & we’ll add it to the list.
(Last updated February 25, 2011 at 2:30pm)
Juneau, AK Tuesday, February 22nd at 12:00pm, State Capitol
Little Rock, AR Tuesday, February 22nd at 11:30am, State Capitol
Phoenix, AZ Tuesday, February 22nd at 12:00pm, State Capitol February 26th -28th. Various. See website for details.
Tuesday, March 1st at 9:30 AM at State Capitol, 1700 W. Washington Day of Action
Tucson, AZ Friday February 25th at 5pm. University of Arizona, on the Mall
Los
Continue reading Jobs with Justice makes Glenn Beck’s Top 10
By jwjnational, on February 25th, 2011
 Now more than ever we need to stand together for the right to a decent standard of living, a strong voice at work, and to fight for secure family-wage jobs in the face of corporate backed attacks on working people in Wisconsin and beyond!
For nearly 25 years, Jobs with Justice has mobilized tens of thousands to take direct militant actions for workers and communities across the country. We have done this through a simple JwJ Pledge that “during the next year, I’LL BE THERE at least five times for someone else’s fight, as well as my own. If enough of us are there, we’ll all start winning.”
CEO and corporations have millions of dollars to put out lies, elect anti-worker puppets, and try to buy our democracy! We will need millions of people to fight back and defend the fundamental human rights of all workers to organize and bargain collectively, and to preserve the right to form unions without intimidation.
Join the fight and take the Jobs with Justice I’LL BE THERE Pledge!
Check out on-going action updates here and help
Continue reading I’LL BE THERE with Wisconsin and working people everywhere!
By Debbie Kline, on February 18th, 2011
  So our latest example of Corporate Greed at its finest is Rite Aid, who tries to hide behind the slogan, “with us it’s personal.” BUT, do not be fooled by a silly slogan. HMMMM….. let’s see, Rite Aid CEO, John Stanley, doubles his salary in one year from $2.3 million to $4.5 million while trying to make health insurance unaffordable for his company’s low wage workers. Is that being personal with your employees? Well I guess you could say it is personal, but probably not in the way Rite Aid would want you to think.
While taking a 100% pay increase, John Stanley is trying to raise health care costs even though Ohio workers accepted meager wage increases so they would be able to keep the costs affordable. The employees in stores in Lancaster, CA are facing an astounding 2800% increase in their health care costs. I guess someone has to pay for John Stanley’s increase in salary.
In the 2010 letter to shareholders, Stanley brags about decreasing costs and projecting a growth in
Continue reading Stop Corporate Greed at Rite Aid!
|
|
