Tell the Banks: This Home Is Occupied
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The Occupy Wall Street movement has given a voice to the 99 percent of us who have suffered at the hands of the Big Banks. In cities across the country, “Occupy” protesters have highlighted our nation’s growing economic inequality, high unemployment and the foreclosure crisis that continues to ravage our communities. We saw another inspiring example of the 99 percent standing together in recent days in Atlanta.
Last week, Occupy Atlanta mobilized to protest the foreclosure of the family home of a police officer in Gwinnett County, Ga. The family invited Occupy Atlanta to help publicize the fact that their bank had refused to modify their mortgage to prevent foreclosure. On the eve of the expected foreclosure, protesters set up tents in the front yard and a “This Home Is Occupied” sign on the porch.
Gwinnett County has been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis, according to data from the website RealtyTrac.com. Last month, more than 1,100 homes in Gwinnett County received a foreclosure filing and the county’s foreclosure rate is more than double the national average. This pain is compounded by the fact that homeowners in Georgia can lose their home in less than two months under the state’s bank-friendly foreclosure laws.
We stand in solidarity with Occupy Atlanta who is protesting our nation’s foreclosure crisis, as well as those state attorneys general like Eric Schneiderman of New York, Beau Biden of Delaware, Kamala Harris of California and others who are fighting to hold the banks accountable. We need a full investigation into law-breaking like “robo-signing” by the Wall Street banks who brought us the foreclosure crisis.
Georgia Crisis Center Gets TLC from Union Volunteers
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AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer describes union volunteer efforts at a community crisis center in Georgia.
Nearly 50 union brothers and sisters from across the state of Georgia took time out in recent days to lend a hand to a Georgia community. Working with the United Way of Coastal Georgia, participants in the Georgia AFL-CIO Community Services’ Legislative and Organizing Conference provided much-needed repairs, maintenance and sprucing up at the Glynn Community Crisis Center.
The center is a nonprofit organization located in coastal Georgia, providing services to women and children in domestic violence situations.
Union volunteers brought their skills, muscle and caring to the project and completed a long list of repairs. These repairs and installations included rewiring light fixtures, installing exterior lighting, rebuilding a rotted porch, replacing and re-plumbing sinks, constructing a storage bin, installing fencing, installing shower curtain rods and much, much more. Said Georgia AFL-CIO Program Support Specialist Carol DuBose: Read the rest of this entry »
European Unions Shine Spotlight on Georgia’s Attacks on Workers
Representatives of trade union organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from across Europe are meeting in Brussels today to discuss serious violations of human and workers’ rights by the government of Georgia.
Among the countries of the former Soviet Union, only in Georgia has the once government-dominated union federation reformed and become a truly free trade union federation. However, since 2008, the Georgian government has waged a wholesale and vicious attack against the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) and many of its affiliates.
The country’s labor laws were gutted in 2006. Meant to attract investment, the new code leaves workers and trade unionists with few rights on the job in law or in practice. For example, in the public sector, the government has blocked dues deductions from union members to the unions, starving the organizations of funds. The government has installed police watchdogs in schools and intimidated union representatives and teachers, all while promoting a fake, government-controlled union and encouraging or threatening members of the legitimate union to disaffiliate.
Georgia Education Union Growing Stronger Despite Threats
Tim Ryan of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center sends this report on the trade unions in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Among the countries of the former Soviet Union, only in Georgia has the once government-dominated union federation reformed and become a truly free trade union federation. However, its work to promote workers’ rights and democracy has apparently rubbed the Georgian government the wrong way.
Since 2008, the Georgian government has waged a wholesale and vicious attack against the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) and many of its affiliates, including the largest union, the Educators and Sciences Free Trade Union of Georgia (ESFTUG). In the public sector (e.g., railways, hospitals and schools), the government has blocked dues deductions from union members to the unions, starving the organizations of funds. The government also has installed police watchdogs in schools and intimidated union representatives and teachers, all while promoting a fake, government-controlled union and encouraging or threatening members of the legitimate union to disaffiliate.
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.
Martin Misses in Hard-Fought Georgia Senate Runoff
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In yesterday’s runoff election for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, working family-friendly candidate Jim Martin made a strong effort but wasn’t able to unseat incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Chambliss won with 57 percent of the vote, while Martin took 43 percent.
Martin’s presence in the runoff and the votes he won last night are thanks, in part, to the efforts of hundreds of union volunteers who have been working hard contacting active and retired members around the state. Union volunteers knocked on 100,000 doors, sent 300,000 pieces of union mail and leafleted more than 150 worksites. Union phone bankers made more than 300,000 phone calls, and Martin himself took part in a union phone bank as the election approached.
Throughout the race, union volunteers identified and mobilized union voters. Though they weren’t successful this time, they’ll be ready to turn out votes in future Georgia races.
Tomorrow: Georgia’s Senate Runoff Race
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Tomorrow, Georgia voters go to the polls to vote in the runoff election for U.S. Senate. AFL-CIO-endorsed Jim Martin is in a close contest with anti-worker incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss in a race that could determine the ability to pass a pro-working family agenda in 2009 and beyond.
Union volunteers are putting in long hours and mobilizing around the state to get out the vote in the Senate runoff. If Martin wins, he’ll be the 59th pro-worker vote in the Senate, providing a critical voice for policies that will rebuild America’s middle class and strengthen the economy. Chambliss would continue to stand in the way of progress on health care, job creation and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Sen. Chambliss Gets Angry When Asked About Role in Sugar Dust Blast
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Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the anti-worker senator fighting for his career in a tight Georgia runoff election, is facing a subpoena to testify about his relationship with Imperial Sugar. As we’ve noted, Imperial Sugar—an ally and patron of Chambliss—is hoping to evade responsibility for a deadly sugar dust explosion that killed 14 workers last February.
Yesterday, Chambliss responded to a question about the subpoena by swatting away a camera held by a volunteer (see video). Not only is he dodging a court order, but he doesn’t want to discuss his relationship with the company or his attacks on a whistle-blower who exposed the dangerous conditions at the Imperial plant.
As Firedoglake reported, Chambliss received $21 million in campaign contributions this election cycle from the sugar industry.
Sen. Clinton, Rep. Lewis, Sweeney, Holt Baker Rally Seniors for Obama
Today in Pittsburgh, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joined members of the Alliance for Retired Americans to rally on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama. Meanwhile, in Georgia, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker joined the Alliance and Rep. John Lewis for a forum on seniors’ issues in Atlanta.
Clinton and Sweeney spoke to more than 1,000 seniors in Pittsburgh, highlighting why Obama is the right choice for retirees in this critical state. Obama will protect Social Security benefits, eliminate income taxes on low- and middle-income seniors and ensure Medicare cuts costs for seniors by negotiating for lower drug prices.
