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!

That’s what is likely to happen if the Senate doesn’t vote to extend the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund, which is set to expire next week.

The TANF Emergency Fund is an emergency jobs program through which 37 states have provided subsidized jobs for nearly 250,000 otherwise unemployed parents and youth – helping families, businesses, and communities across America weather the recession.

"We have seen our future again. Our life, our hope, our happiness has begun to bloom. Please don't let it wither." - Juandi S.

If the program is allowed to expire on September 30, tens of thousands of people will most likely lose their jobs and join the ranks of the unemployed. Most state programs are already shutting down or scaling back greatly, even though the programs are still needed.Extension of the TANF Emergency Fund would allow states to build on their current efforts and to maximize the investments they have already made.

The House has already

Continue reading Can we afford to let another 250,000 jobs disappear?

On September 15, Jobs with Justice coalitions and allies in more than 100 cities nationwide brought the voices of workers, community members, and the unemployed into the debate on how to move forward on a jobs plan that would put people back to work immediately.  With 15 million people out of work and one in seven  Americans living below the official poverty line, the time is now for Congress to take bold action to move the country towards full and fair employment and to ensure that Wall Street pays their fair share.

“Joblessness is the central issue for voters in this election,” said Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice Executive Director.  “People are angry, and for good reason.  Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions.  If Congress won’t act to create jobs, then

Continue reading Thousands Hit the Streets to Declare a Jobs Emergency

Over 300 unemployed workers and members of labor and community organizations across Chicago united to protest recent votes of 10th District Congressman Mark Kirk on jobs and unemployment.

Led by the Chicago Jobs with Justice’s Unemployed Workers Council, the activists united to demand immediate action to create jobs.  “We need jobs and until we get them of course we need unemployment benefits.  Mark Kirk is voting against both”, said Carole Ramsden, an unemployed union electrician and member of the Chicago JwJ Unemployed Workers Council.

On August 10th, Kirk promised to vote to support legislation that would have prevented layoffs of teachers for local school districts facing budget shortfalls due to the ongoing economic crisis.  One day later, in Washington, Kirk reversed himself and voted against the legislation saying that the bill would have added to the deficit, even though the analysis of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office showed that the legislation would actually reduce the deficit in the long term by a billion dollars.  Congress passed the bill without his support.

“Our kids need teachers, and our economy can’t withstand more job

Continue reading Illinois Unemployed Demand Mark Kirk Vote with Working Families not Wall Street

Today, Jobs with Justice coalitions and allies in more than 100 cities nationwide will bring the voices of workers, community members, and the unemployed into the debate on how to move forward on a jobs plan that would put people back to work immediately.

ADD YOUR VOICE!

1. Find a LOCAL ACTION near you
2. Tell Congress:  Fix the Jobs Crisis NOW!

Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions. Banks are making bumper earnings and corporations are raking in record profits and sitting on more than $8 Trillion in cash reserves. Meanwhile, 15 million Americans are out of work.  There is no such thing as a jobless recovery!

Today we are sending a message to Congress: If you won’t act to create jobs, maybe you don’t deserve to have job.

OUR DEMANDS:

People are angry, and for good reason.  Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions.

Banks are making bumper earnings and corporations are raking in record profits and sitting on more than $8 Trillion in cash reserves.  Meanwhile, 15 million Americans are out of work, and without a major federal investment in creating jobs, (official) jobless rates will be 8-13% into the next decade.

There is no such thing as a jobless recovery!

On Wednesday, September 15, we are taking action in cities across the country to send a message to Congress:  If you won’t act to create jobs, maybe you don’t deserve to have a job.

OUR DEMANDS:

The labor movement is the largest and most powerful economic justice organization in the world. From its beginning, the union movement and some parts of the religious community have worked together to help bring justice to our society.  The American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1909 recognized this connection by designating the Sunday before Labor Day as Labor Sunday, a day dedicated to the spiritual and educational dimensions of the labor movement.

Labor organizers have often drawn from the deep wells of religious imagery to lead struggles for economic justice.  As scholar and author Perry Bush points out, “They have been able to do so because a great mass of U.S. workers have held religious convictions that were not easily stripped away or transmuted into mindless obeisance to the power of the wealthy.”

Labor Day and Labor Sunday are times for the religious community and the labor movement to not only celebrate working people and their contributions to society. It also is a time to remember the struggles that workers endured to achieve the many benefits we now enjoy but take for granted.  Benefits such as the eight-hour

Continue reading Labor Day: Recommit to Full Employment

Reviving a core demand from the August 28, 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” Jobs with Justice is declaring a national “jobs emergency” and calling for Full and Fair Employment.  Protests are expected in dozens of cities across the country on September 15.

“It’s time for corporate apologists in the Senate, who are blocking a recovery for the rest of us, to recognize what workers already know:  we are in a jobs emergency that requires a bold, emergency response,” said Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice Executive Director.  “With record long-term unemployment and communities losing vital public services, it is time to put Full and Fair Employment and a massive federal works program, core demands from the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom that Glenn Beck wants us to forget, back on the national agenda.”

The demands of the September 15 protests are full and fair employment – including passage of legislation

Continue reading 47 Years After King’s March, JwJ Revives Call for Full & Fair Employment

The economic news continues to demonstrate that workers are facing a jobs state of emergency.  Some pundits call it the “horror show” and many economists predict a ‘double dip’ recession.

Corporate America calls it a “jobless recovery,” – and likes it.  Wall Street bailout bandits are making bumper earnings, and corporations are sitting on so much reserve cash that only 20% of that money could hire 5 million Americans at $70,000/year … for 5 years! But the private sector cannot and will not put America back to work without government intervention.

For the past year, JwJ has brought together community, religious, student and labor organizations to challenge bank greed and foreclosures, fight plant closings and layoffs, oppose outsourcing and call on congress to act on the jobs emergency with the same urgency as the financial crisis.  JwJ coalitions and our allies won financial reform and a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saved jobs at Hugo Boss and Hartmarx, won several extensions of emergency unemployment benefits, and federal funding for

Continue reading Who Will Build the Base to Fight for Jobs with Justice?