Over 400 immigration activists met May 26-28 in Arlington, Virginia, for the Turning the Tide National Summit hosted by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and supported by National Jobs with Justice. The summit focused on how communities can and are pushing back against the program known as “Secure Communities”*. This program allows for collaboration between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The program actually makes communities less safe as they fear being reported to ICE if they seek out help from police officers, and it means that folks can be detained or deported if they come into police custody for even minor violations.
It is clear we are at a time when attacks on labor and immigrants is extremely high and the need for these movements to have a united front is critical. One strategy session focused on the work being done in Georgia in response to the passage of HB87 (an Arizona copycat bill). This legislation which is set to go into effect on July 1, is already having an impact in the way of labor shortages. Amid all of this, there has been little discussion about how to make work more available with fair wages
Rite Aid Negotiating Committee after signing Tentative Agreement on May 1, 2011.Rite Aid workers at the company's massive Southwest Distribution Center in Lancaster declared victory on Sunday, May 1 in their five-year effort to form a union and improve working conditions.
Workers signed a 3-year tentative agreement with management on May 1 – subject to a May 12 ratification vote – that will improve conditions at the million-square-foot facility in California’s high desert by guaranteeing:
Health insurance rates that are fair for both individual workers and their families,
Job security provisions to prevent work from being sub-contracted,
A worker voice in production standards and ability to challenge unfair standards,
Protection against intense summer heat and winter cold, using innovative indoor-temperature standards,
A fair and impartial process for resolving disputes,
Wage increases in each of the next 3 years.
“We’re excited about winning this victory, even if it took longer than it should have,” said Carlos “Chico” Rubio, a 10-year warehouse worker who helped negotiate the union contract with a team of eight co-workers.
Coalitions in cities targeted for new Walmart stores gathered and took strategic actions on April 21, 2011 to urge elected leaders to make sure Walmart’s desire to open or expand stores is rejected or met with enforcement of strong standards.
In cities across the United States, Walmart is seeking access to new markets and customers, spurring local and national debate for good reason. Local coalitions of community members, elected officials, religious leaders, small business owners and others are joining together and speaking out to voice their concern and ensure the jobs being offered by Walmart meet strong standards for healthy, growing communities.
Jobs with Justice is playing a key role in these coalitions, either coordinating or participating in a number of cities including: Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Other cities where local coalitions held aligned events include: Los Angeles, Seattle. Here are some highlights:
In San Francisco:
Jobs with Justice joined together with a number of community organizations to publicly announce the formation of the coalition to “Keep San Francisco Walmart-Free”. They held a rally and press-conference with roughly 30 community activists, people of
Arizona and Wisconsin may seem like a world apart. But they have more in common than you think. In these states and many others, working people – immigrant and native-born alike – are under fierce attack by corporate-backed politicians.
From Arizona laws that mandate racial profiling to Wisconsin laws that strip workers’ rights to collectively bargain for a middle class way of life, working families everywhere are under assault. Corporate CEOs and the politicians they finance benefit from creating a toxic environment where immigrants, public employees and working men and women are scapegoated for all the problems we face. They tell us immigrants steal our jobs – hoping we forget the millions of American jobs they ship overseas. They say firefighters and policemen are overpaid – hoping we ignore Wall Street’s colossal bonuses, million-dollar salaries and endless corporate greed. They say immigrants don’t pay taxes – hoping we don’t notice that corporations like GE and Exxon Mobil rake in billions in profit and pay nothing in taxes.
Never mind the $11.2 billion in taxes immigrants just paid in
From March 29 through April 4, garment workers from the Bangladesh Worker Solidarity Center toured the US in an effort to hold WalMart and other multinational corporations that buy garments from Bangladeshi suppliers accountable for the treatment and conditions of workers. Making stops in Chicago, Boston, Rhode Island, New York, Philadelphia and DC, workers demonstrated that as the world’s biggest company, WalMart impacts communities around the globe. The tour instilled the importance of building unity between workers representing multiple points in the WalMart supply chain including WalMart associates, warehouse workers, and Bangladeshi garment workers among other suppliers.
The speaking tour was launched after 21 workers in a Bangladeshi garment factory were trapped and killed in a fire with no chance of getting out on December 10, 2010. Many of the workers jumped to their deaths, a haunting parallel to Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York that claimed the lives of 146 workers 100 years ago. The International Labor Rights Forum and Sweatfree Communities led the tour with support from Jobs with Justice, the UFCW, and local community groups and unions
On Thursday, February 17, New York City once more showed up in force to turn back Walmart’s plans to build its first stores in the city. Close to 100 community members from all over NYC gathered in front of City Hall to voice their opposition and stayed to listen as witness after witness testified against Walmart’s cut-throat labor practices.
The stars of the day were the WalMart workers who were brave enough to stand up and tell their stories of abuse at the hands of the world’s richest employer. We collected the stories of two workers, Sandra and Kenneth, in this short video:
We hope you’ll check out the video, pass it along to your friends and ask them to sign the petition to keep WalMart out of New York City. WalMart is a threat to the livelihoods of working people across the country that we can’t allow to run roughshod over our communities – in New York City or anywhere else.
(Portland, Oregon) State Senator Chip Shields chaired a public hearing on February 21st, on the problems besetting the U.S. Postal Service in the Portland area. Over one hundred people crowded into the Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland to hear testimony from customers, mailers, and postal employees. Speakers revealed a postal service in crisis: deteriorating customer service, substandard working conditions, threatened post office closures, and financial debt. Notwithstanding the doom and gloom, many of those at the microphone brought forward ideas for positive change.
Portland Area Workers Rights Board
“The issues facing the public postal service are of deep concern to all community members,” said Senator Shields. “I found particularly troubling certain management practices, especially with regard to under-staffing and “transitional” employees, but I also came away with a sense of hope because of some great ideas for the future.”
Jim Cook, president of the local National Association of Letter Carriers, a 33-year year postal employee, declared that “National postal management has refused to allow local hiring of career letter carriers for more than three years resulting in chronic mandatory overtime, late, irregular
“As you probably know, SB 6 passed the Senate but never actually came before the House for a vote. We had several committee hearings on the bill but the significant and vocal opposition to the measure derailed it for the session.” ~State Representative David Osborne
We won! For the first few months of 2011, Kentucky Jobs with Justice was part of a powerful group of individuals and organizations from across our state who fought back against anti-immigrant Senate Bill 6. SB6 is Arizona SB1070 copycat legislation that would target anyone for detention who does not speak English or who appears to have been born outside of the U.S. It would target anyone who “assists” an undocumented worker or their undocumented children. Furthermore, SB 6 would make many immigrant crime victims, including victims of domestic violence, think twice about reporting crimes or cooperating with police it they fear racial profiling or bias.
Kentucky Jobs with Justice stands in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters who are facing anti-immigrant attacks from those who prefer to divide our country instead of build our communities. Many of the immigrants who would be racially profiled in Kentucky represent working families that are contributing members
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, and 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
Building on the surge of popular protests across the Midwest, over 30,000 Hoosiers will rally in Indianapolis to call for an end to the legislative attack on workers, women, and immigrants engineered by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
Under the slogan ‘Seven Days of Solidarity,’ an unlikely coalition of community organizations and trade unions organized by the group Jobs with Justice have planned 5 rallies between March 8th and March 15th to attempt to defeat over 30 laws under consideration in the state legislature. The legislative package, authored by Governor Daniels and his allies in the legislature included bills that slash public school budgets, defund women’s healthcare, and eliminate public sector unions.
“The Governor’s laws will hurt the vast majority of Hoosiers,” said Jobs with Justice Steering Committee member Georgia Cravey. “He’s out of touch with real people, and his attempts to divide us won’t work. Workers, women, students, and immigrants will stand together because we know we’re all in the same boat.”
Today, tens of thousands are gathering at the Statehouse to protest a package of more than 10 bills that would suppress workers’ rights in Indiana. Among the speakers and performers
