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By jwjnational, on March 2nd, 2010 The Jobs with Justice National Week of Action to Save & Create Jobs is underway!
Over 200,000 jobless workers will lose unemployment benefits this week as the cut-off to extend benefits lapsed yesterday without Senate action. 1.2 million people will lose access to Emergency Unemployment Compensation over the next year if Congress does not act. The average duration of unemployment is now a record high of 30.2 weeks, with a historic 41.2% of the unemployed remaining out of work for six months or longer. 11.5 million Americans are collecting some form of unemployment insurance.
1) Take action today to make sure Congress extends emergency unemployment insurance.
2) Find an action near you below.
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senators’ office.
Suggested Talking Points for your call to your Senator:
Millions of Americans are surviving on unemployment insurance and simply can’t find jobs. It would be irresponsible for Congress to allow benefits to lapse due to inaction. Enough is enough! The Senate must extend unemployment insurance through the end of the year. Support the unemployment extension and push your leadership to act now!
Join local JwJ coalitions at actions across the country this week!
State
City
Coalition
WoA plans
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Continue reading Tell Your Senator to Extend Unemployment Benefits Now!
By jwjnational, on February 24th, 2010 People across the country are angry – for good reason. Corporate greed and Wall Street recklessness drove our economy into a crisis. Sky high unemployment has created a state of emergency – but political leaders in Washington D.C. have not yet offered a real solution to this crisis, while Wall Street and corporate executives are trying to block a recovery for the rest of us and go back to business as usual.
In this environment, corporate flacks have been able to manipulate grassroots frustration, deflect it from the real causes of the crisis and shift the main stream discussion from the emergency of joblessness to a phony concern for the budget deficit (about which they said nothing while bailing out Wall Street or invading Iraq).
JwJ and our partners will not allow our anger to be deflected from the real causes of this crisis: corporate greed that has been putting the squeeze on workers for decades, through globalization, privatization and the free-for-all deregulation of Wall Street.
   
   
It’s become clear that we cannot wait on Congress to come up with a solution. It is up to us to create the mobilization on the ground that helps them “get it”: We are in a state of emergency, and need a bold, emergency response to save and create jobs. Washington needs a wake-up call from the grassroots.
Several local JwJ coalitions have been leading the charge for jobs, building local campaigns and developing unemployed councils. In coordination with the “Jobs for America Now” Coalition, the AFL-CIO and other partners, we aim to make March into “jobs month” — coordinated actions around the country that send a wake-up call to Congress and urge them to recognize unemployment as the emergency it is.
 – March 1-7: Week of Action to save public services and stop layoffs
Endorsers include: United Steelworkers of America, AFSCME, Communications Workers of America, Amalgamated Transit Union, United States Student Association, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Jobs for America Now. Local actions will range from student walk-outs to protest education cuts to town hall meetings to rallies against social service and transit cuts to marches against plant closings proposed by Whirlpool, Hugo Boss, Toyota and others.
 – March 15-19: Protest Wall Street Greed; demand fair taxes & money for jobs Led by the AFL-CIO
 – March 27-April 4: National Student Labor Week of Action: Students and Workers Unite for Education and Jobs
You can get involved!
1) Find your local JwJ coalition and ask how you can join the action
2) Organize your own event during the weeks of action
3) Circulate the “I’ll Be There” in the fight for jobs with justice pledge to your lists
By Denise Diaz, on February 11th, 2010 As President Obama announced in Tampa that High Speed rail jobs were coming to Orlando, local community and labor activists came together to understand the uphill battle for workers accessing these jobs. Central Florida Jobs with Justice along with the Central Florida AFL-CIO hosted a townhall to discuss how this economic crisis will impact the city’s outlook for jobs.
With over 40 people in attendance, people heard passages from the study Battered by the Storm: How the Safety Net is failing Americans and How to fix it which shows the severity of families quickly falling into poverty. We also heard from the report Beyond the Quick Fix: ARRA Contracting, Jobs and building a fair recovery that highlighted the lack or transparency and impact of Stimulus dollars on communities of color and low income.
A diverse panel of speakers responded to these reports based on their experiences throughout this economic recession. Paul Wilson, President of Amaglated Transit Union local 1596 representing Lynx, MV and Grant bus operators, spoke on how local counties use the stimulus dollars on things besides operating costs, resulting in no wages increases for bus drivers. David Fernandez, an undergraduate senior at the University of Central
Continue reading Central Florida Townhall and Call to Action on the Economic Crisis
By jwjnational, on January 21st, 2010 During his election victory speech Obama said, “This victory alone is not the change we seek — it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.”
Over the last year there have been some steps forward in the struggle to build a more just society, and unfortunately some missteps along the way. Corporate interests are manipulating frustrations over lack of progress in fixing health care, the economy, labor law, Wall Street and the financial sector. Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce are attempting to deflect their own responsibility for the economic crisis and use grassroots anger to block the very reforms we need for a new economy.
This last year has served as an important reminder that it takes a movement to make real change. The transformation of our country will not come from Capitol Hill, but from people like us taking action to demand change.
We have the opportunity to create positive change for working people in this country. We know that the road to a real economic recovery
Continue reading Change Cannot Happen Without You.
By Carlos Jimenez, on January 8th, 2010 A new year is here. Usually this means new resolutions, new hopes, and new goals are being set. Some things, however, are hard to shake off. Take for example the great recession and jobs crisis. Today the official numbers came out, and they’re a sad reminder that 2010 is going to be a bumpy ride.
From the AP:
Lack of confidence…led employers to shed a more-than-expected 85,000 jobs in December… The unemployment rate held at 10 percent. The rate would have been higher if more people had been looking for work instead of leaving the labor force because they can’t find jobs.
The sharp drop in the work force – 661,000 fewer people – showed that more of the jobless are giving up on their search for work. Once people stop looking for jobs, they are no longer counted among the unemployed.
For reasons unknown to me, media outlets are writing about something relevant and covering one of the biggest issues affecting the nation – the lack of jobs. Not only are they covering jobs, they’re writing about the impact of the crisis on young workers!
The Wall Street Journal writes about “best and worst jobs in 2010”, Huffington
Continue reading New Year, Same Problem. Young Workers Can Overcome the Recession and Jobs Crisis
By Gene Lantz, on January 7th, 2010 North Texas Jobs with Justice and our affiliate, the Workers Rights Board, are throwing ourselves into the battle against the jobs crisis, along with national Jobs with Justice, the NAACP, and the AFL-CIO. The 17 million American families suffering unemployment and underemployment may feel like they were hit by a tornado, but it was no natural disaster. The economic crisis we’re in was man-made! Human beings made this mess, and human beings have the power to fix it.
Texas, of course, is the worst place in the union to be unemployed. It’s harder to get Unemployment Insurance, food stamps, and just about any kind of help. Food banks and other charities are straining to keep up. The people on the street aren’t the same ones; some of them had good jobs and homes just a few months ago!
A lot can be done. For openers, we can demand that Congress act on the jobs bill that’s pending. If they don’t extend unemployment benefits and the subsidy for COBRA, a million more families will be left without health care and income in January! The AFL-CIO has put forward a five-point
Continue reading Let’s Fight This Jobs Crisis
By Smiley, on December 14th, 2009
Cross-posted from politicalaffairs.net.
‘Twas the night before the unemployment reports, and all through the clearing,
Young workers slept haunted by jobs disappearing;
Having gone into debt for training and education,
Only to discover no jobs available in their vocations;
Barely scraping by to cover bills and the rent,
Of all unemployed, young workers are 48 percent ;
God forbid they are allowed to build a savings,
Work only one job, buy a house or a haven;
And the cultural implications go often unknown,
Like 1 in 3 young workers still live with parents at home;
And their parents’ situation is no less dire,
Working multiple jobs, and no hopes to retire;
Even grandparents still work to maintain their healthcare,
Too young at 63 to obtain Medicare;
And thus the labor pool is older, no room for the youth,
Unless they join the military, become yet another troop;
Joining those looking for security and a steady income,
Enough to start a family and maybe save up a sum;
So long as they aren’t killed in an unjustifiable occupation,
A lost generation of youth who only wanted paid vacation;
It was a tragedy indeed, that made young workers anxious,
Until something in the distance created a ruckus;
It was then the young workers saw some figures on the horizon,
President Trumka? Arlene Holt-Baker?
Continue reading Put Young Workers to Work! A Poem
By jwjnational, on December 8th, 2009 More than a year after the big banks crashed our economy and took their bailouts (without delivering on the promised help for the economy), these bailout bandits are planning record bonuses and trying to block a recovery for the rest of us (note to Goldman Sachs: There is no such thing as a “jobless recovery”).
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and other measures to add some accountability and responsibility to our financial system. The bill is called the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” (HR4173).
The bailout bandits, of course, are furiously fighting all these reforms.
Please take a moment to tell your Representative to pass a strong, pro-consumer reform bill.
By Fran Tobin, on December 7th, 2009 As President Obama considers his proposals to respond to the jobless crisis and Wall Street prepares to shower executives with record bonuses, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has put a hold on Ben Bernanke’s re-nomination as Federal Reserve Chairman.
Bernanke is widely seen as one of the causes of the financial crisis. In his efforts to keep his job, Bernanke testified that he was committed to the Fed’s “dual mandate, which is growth and inflation.”
In fact, the Fed has a “dual mandate” to promote full employment and stable prices.
Bernanke and the rest of the banker crowd seem to have long ago forgotten that full employment (defined as 3% unemployment for persons age 20 and over) is supposed to be a fundamental goal of federal reserve and government policy.
Corporate bigwigs and Wall Street financiers are selling us the idea of a ‘jobless recovery,’ telling the unemployed to wait while they give themselves record bonuses. They want policy makers to accept high unemployment, low wages and economic insecurity as the new normal.
For the 1,500+ organizations that make up Jobs with Justice coalitions around the country, it’s long past time to take full employment seriously, beginning with the government creation of
Continue reading Does Bernanke Know What the Fed is Supposed to Do?
By Elce Redmond, on December 4th, 2009 On December 3rd, unemployed workers and their supporters who are angered about the lack of public funding to address the continued economic assault of unemeployment and
underemployment on communities of color, people with disabilities, and youth, held a “Jobless Summit” in Chicago to discuss innvovative strategies to put people back to work.
The summit was in direct response to the “Jobs Summit” called by President Obama. While we applauded the President’s effort, we were concerned about the fact that the voices of the communities most affected by the crisis were ot invited to the table.
The “Jobless Summit” brought together a broad based sector that included unemployed workers, union representatives, economists, religious leaders, and people with disabilities who outlined specific recommendations to increase employment, including a National Jobs Program that puts the most vulnerable members of our communities back to work.
Aronzo Davis, an unemployed worker, said:
This Summit was the first step of a long-term organizing campaign to win a National Jobs Program. The epidemic of joblessness in the African-American community has become a social catastrophe. Unless something is done soon, I’m afraid our nation will head down a long road of endless violence. But we want to create vibrant communities, not desolate ghettos. We need our President and other elected officials to
Continue reading Unemployed Workers Hold Jobless Summit
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