Archive for March, 2006
The Voice of Justice Is Rising
As the U.S. Senate begins its immigration reform work, The Washington Post notes today in a piece subtitled “Bill Proposing Crackdown Spurs Grass-Roots Movement” that attempts on Capitol Hill to demonize undocumented immigrants and criminalize those who help them is building and strengthening the grassroots movement for justice.
After hundreds of thousands of people across the country marched and rallied over the weekend, demonstrations continued Monday. In California, it was César Chávez Day, and at least 8,500 students marched out of eight Los Angeles-area schools—including schools in wealthy districts, CNN reports.
Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Sounds Good. It Isn’t
So-called Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) schemes, now being pushed in states from Arizona to Wisconsin by weird right extremists like Grover Norquist (a buddy of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff), are not just a bad idea, they’re recipes for disaster.
Just look at Colorado.
In 1992, Colorado voters passed a TABOR law that put a rigid spending cap on the state and strict limits on raising revenue to pay for vital services.
After watching Colorado fall to 49th in the nation in spending on education, seeing the number of low-income children without health insurance double and the deterioration of emergency services, roads and law enforcement, voters realized they had been sold a bad bill of goods.
Key to Immigration Reform: Fairness
After a weekend, which saw hundreds of thousands of supporters of immigrant workers rally in Los Angeles, Denver and elsewhere, members of a wide array of immigrant coalitions, faith-based organizations and community groups are gathering on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to support the nation’s long history of providing sanctuary for refugees, according to the low-wage worker advocacy group Interfaith Worker Justice.
This week, the U.S. Senate considers several immigration reform bills, including a version similar to one passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last December that would make it a federal crime to assist immigrant workers—even so much as handing a child a piece of candy. If the bill passes, undocumented workers could be immediately rounded up and deported, no matter how long they have lived and worked in the United States.
Meeting in Los Angeles over the weekend, the executive board of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) asserted that the immigration legislation now under debate requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond border enforcement.
Yale-New Haven Hospital Workers on Their Way to Victory
The 1,800 workers at Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital could soon have a union under a unique agreement reached March 23 between the hospital, Yale University and SEIU 1199, a member of the Greater New Haven Central Labor Council. SEIU 1199 signed an AFL-CIO Solidarity Charter and is working with AFL-CIO affiliates throughout Connecticut.
SEIU spokesman Bill Meyerson told the Yale Daily News the union has been helping the workers form a union for eight years and was very pleased with the agreement, which allows for a nine-month organizing campaign followed by a secret ballot election to be held within 12 months. Typically, secret ballot elections are less fair than majority sign-up because employers drag out the process and often intimidate or harass workers prior to elections.
Retirement Security: How Do Investment Managers Stack Up?
With the retirement security of working families under attack as never before, Daniel Pedrotty from the AFL-CIO Office of Investment notes a timely new AFL-CIO report, Retirement Security: How Do Investment Managers Stack Up?
A new AFL-CIO report aims to help investors keep track of which firms are involved in anti-retirement security efforts and supplement their own information gathering. The AFL-CIO Office of Investment encourages direct dialogue between investors and service providers about these topics.
Many financial firms have overtly or covertly supported recent efforts to privatize Social Security and to convert traditional defined-benefit pensions to 401(k)-style plans.
For some firms that could gain financially from converting retirement systems, such support creates a conflict of interest with many clients concerned about preserving secure retirement programs.
The list of companies with direct links to retirement security privatization includes American Financial Group, Charles Schwab, Citigroup (Smith Barney), Dimensional Fund Advisors, Dodge & Cox Funds, DUNN Capital Management, Fidelity Investments, JP Morgan Chase, Marsh & McLennan Cos. (Mercer), Raymond James Financial and Wachovia (Evergreen).
Click here, or view the updated report at WallStreetgreed.org.
Unions Fight for Us All
Remember the 34,000 New York City transit workers who went on strike last December?
They have long been back on the job and are working out details on a contract agreement.
Writing in Newsday, Gene Carroll, the director of the Union Leadership Program at Cornell University, reminds us what they—and their union, Transport Workers Union Local 100—were fighting for. And as Carroll sees it, they were fighting for all America’s workers.
Cool Tools: Corporate Intrigue and Family-Friendly Ideas
Looking for a good whodunit or a primer on how to care for a sick child and still keep your job? Check out the latest Cool Tools on the www.aflcio.org website and purchase them at The Union Shop Online™.
With two former Enron CEOs, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, in federal court on fraud charges, the latest Cool Tools highlights the DVD “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.” Based on the book of the same name, the DVD shows how Lay and Skilling, along with other Enron officers, intentionally misled the public, regulators, investors and employees about the company’s finances and created one of the biggest corporate disasters in history.
Time to Act: 84 Die and 250 Injured in Bangladesh Workplace Disasters
Rob Wayss, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s representative in Bangladesh, sent us a report on a series of recent workplace accidents there that killed 84 people in two weeks in February and actions that workers can take to make sure the factories are safe.
Bangladeshi workers are asking union members and their allies from around the globe to send letters of concern regarding the ongoing unsafe working conditions in Bangladesh garment factories to the government and to manufacturers. To send a letter, click here.
The Artistry of Women Printmakers
There are lots of events and actions taking place to commemorate Women’s History Month throughout March, and Brother Glenn Scott from Education Austin, AFT/NEA Local 2048, brings to our attention an exhibition of women printmakers in San Antonio.
Find out more about this exhibit at the McNay Art Museum website in San Antonio.
This Weekend When You Turn on the TV, Think About Comcast Workers
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, advertises its products as being “Comcastic,” a play on the word fantastic. But to workers at the nation’s largest cable company, “Comcastic” describes a low-road corporation that pays low wages and benefits, contracts-out services and fires union supporters.
Through a new website launched by the Communications Workers of America and the Electrical Workers, you can keep up with what Comcast is doing in your community and take action to help Comcast workers.
