Today: National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft
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Workers, community leaders and religious activists are holding rallies, prayer vigils and other actions in more than 40 cities around the country today as part of a National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft.
Wage theft is a national epidemic, which robs millions of workers of billions of dollars they’ve worked for but never seen, says Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) and author of the book Wage Theft in America.
During a Capitol Hill press conference this morning, Bobo said:
Too many workers can’t buy a Thanksgiving turkey because employers have stolen their wages. Wage theft is not a small, isolated situation. It’s a national epidemic.
Wage theft affects workers like Cleve Williams, who worked for a city contractor in Cincinnati. Williams told the press conference he was fired after he organized his fellow workers to fight for a living wage. The city’s law required the comapny, which holds a city contract, to pay a minimum wage. But Williams says it took three years to get the wages raised to the legal level.
Workplaces, Laws Fail to Keep up with Growing Role of Women Workers
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For the first time in our nation’s history, working women make up nearly half of all U.S. workers, and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families.
This dramatic shift from just a generation ago marks a permanent cultural change, yet most institutions, including the workplace and government have not caught up with this new reality.
“The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” released earlier this month by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Maria Shriver, looks at the changing face and attitudes of the American worker. The multi-faceted report includes a national poll on attitudes about the rising role of women.
AFL-CIO, NFL Players Association and United Way Team Up in Detroit
Tomorrow, local union leaders, current and retired NFL players in Detroit will join the United Way to hold a food drive benefiting families affected by the economic crisis. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) organized the food drive. Saundra Williams, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, will be among those joining Detroit Lions offensive lineman Stephen Peterman at the food drive.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says the food drive is an important way for union members to reach out to hard-hit communities:
In these times of crisis, it’s heartwarming to see my union brothers and sisters joining together to help those in need. The proud residents of Detroit are suffering from some of the highest unemployment rates in the country and they need our help now more than ever. What the people of Detroit need, and all of America’s working men and women need, are quality, family-supporting jobs.
For those of you in the Detroit area, bring your non-perishable items to the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO building at 600 West Lafayette Blvd. between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and you’ll be entered in a prize giveaway.
Women and People of Color Down for the Count in Jobless Recovery
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In this cross-post from Huffington Post, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says women and people of color are being hit hardest by the recession.
A close look at the unemployment figures shows that while white males are taking it on the chin in this recession, women and people of color are down for the count.
Although, in this recession, unemployment is rising faster for whites than for African Americans, the fact is that the jobless rate for minorities is still significantly higher than that of whites and has been for a long time. And with this recession looking to be long and deep, these higher rates of unemployment could have dramatic consequences for economic security, homeownership and child poverty rates, among other things.
Holt Baker in New Mexico: Protect the Most Vulnerable
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Around the country, states are getting squeezed by the economic crisis, and state budgets are feeling the pressure. It’s imperative that we fight to make sure state budgets are not balanced at the expense of children and the services they need.
Today, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker is in New Mexico, leading a rally of more than 2,800 people to ensure a just budget that protects children and vital public services.
Standing with New Mexico Federation of Labor president Christine Trujillo, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss and four state legislators, Holt Baker said the proposal for big cuts in the education budget will cost the state jobs and competitiveness in the future.
New Mexico’s schools, universities and state agencies could face 3.5 percent cuts in funding, and employees could face pay cuts as well, as legislators seek to avoid a $650 million deficit. Holt Baker said the cuts to education will fall most heavily on families already reeling from the economic crisis.
New AFL-CIO Team at G-20: Working Together for Jobs and Fair Global Economy
The newly elected leaders of the AFL-CIO are kicking off their participation around G-20 summit events in Pittsburgh today by meeting with global union leaders to deliver a strong, unified message: We all must work together to fix the world’s economy.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said he’s seeing broad agreement among union leaders from around the world about the need to put workers first:
“I’m amazed at the solidarity here. The problems in all the G-20 countries are like our own, and the solutions are jobs, more jobs and regulating the economy. And there is consensus worldwide among all the trade union movements that we’re meeting here at the G-20 on all those items.
“It’s comforting to know that our brothers and sisters around the world are willing to stand up to help create jobs everywhere, to help create a better life for working people and to re-regulate the financial economy and make it the servant of the real economy, rather than the master.”
AFL-CIO Leaders Headed Back to Pittsburgh to Fight for a Fair Economy
The new leaders of the AFL-CIO will meet up today in Pittsburgh to prepare for the G-20 conference, finishing up a listening tour among workers to kick off their administration and set out a strong progressive agenda.
Advocating on issues like housing, financial reform and health care reform that includes a public option, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker have been sending a clear message to big banks, insurance companies and others whose greed and irresponsibility have left us with a broken economy.
Holt Baker: We’re Sick of Insurance Company Abuses
The new AFL-CIO leadership team’s cross-country effort to lay out a progressive vision continues in multiple states today. In Philadelphia, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker led a rally of hundreds outside the headquarters of CIGNA, a major insurer, demanding health insurance reform that puts people first, not insurance company profits. (AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is in New York, calling for tough new regulations on the financial industry.)
The rally in Philadelphia is part of a National Day of Action on health care, as well as a national push by the AFL-CIO’s newly elected officers to mobilize for an economy that works for everyone.
Holt Baker led a march from City Hall to CIGNA headquarters, saying the time had come to declare independence from the insurance giants who dominate the nation’s health care system.
In Georgia, New AFL-CIO Leaders Take on Banks, Support Flight Attendants
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The AFL-CIO’s new leadership team is kicking off its first days with a tour around the country, listening to workers and energized to turn around the economy. Today, they visited Atlanta to focus on the foreclosure crisis that has driven millions out of their homes—and the banks that enabled it.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker brought a message to an area hit by more than 40,000 foreclosures in just the past six months: We need an economy that protects everyone, not just finance-industry CEOs.
Speaking to a breakfast of faith leaders and community activists in Atlanta, Trumka said the finance industry undermined the economy by engaging in predatory practices in the hopes of profiting off of the most vulnerable:
It’s time banks are held accountable for the pain they’ve inflicted on families now faced with financial ruin, even foreclosures and bankruptcy. The banks and their fly-by-night business partners took advantage of people who wanted to buy a home, knowing full well they’d have to default, and lose their homes to the bank.
Trumka said that our economic crisis is due to the greed and irresponsibility of an economy that worked for only a few, while most workers struggled with stagnant wages and debt:
Our financial system is a shambles and we’re not going to restore its luster until we rein in the abuse by financial institutions like Wachovia that threw our economy into crisis.
Trumka, Shuler, Holt Baker Hit the Road for Jobs, Fair Economy
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The AFL-CIO’s new leadership team isn’t wasting a second. Hours after the close of the AFL-CIO 26th Constitutional Convention, they’re riding the momentum of this week’s high-energy union gathering with a listening tour across the country.
And they’re starting in Ohio, the center of recent political battles and heart of the tough questions the nation faces about our economic future. The team’s tour continues Sunday and Monday in Atlanta, including a rally outside Wachovia, where Trumka will condemn its predatory financial practices, such as foreclosures. On Monday night and Tuesday, the team travels to New York City where Trumka will issue a strong warning to Wall Street at a press conference outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker held an energetic rally in Cleveland before fanning out across the state to hear from workers and fire up the union movement for the battles ahead.
At the Great Lakes Science Center, Trumka said workers can and must take the lead in reversing the economic crisis that has hit the nation and particularly Ohio. All of us need to hold corporations accountable, not go back to an economy that’s rigged against workers, Trumka said.
The labor movement will do everything in its power to help create good jobs….That’s our most important goal. But when you buy into a community, you become part of the family. You have an obligation. Too many corporations today want to walk away from their communities, even companies that were nurtured right here in these same communities.
We need an economic system in this country that rewards work as well as it rewards investment. We need an economic system that gives everybody a fair opportunity to work hard and succeed.
