As the Jobs with Justice National Conference came to an end this weekend in Washington D.C., we heard from Larry Cohen, President of the Communication Workers of America and one of the founding members of Jobs with Justice. He urged local chapters to support Verizon workers, 45,000 of which went on strike on Midnight, Sunday.
In the past four years, Verizon made more than $19 billion in profits and paid its top five executives more than a quarter of a billion dollars. But it is still trying to outsource even more jobs, demand workers pay more for benefits and undermine their retirement security.
Jobs with Justice supports these workers, who are in the fight of their lives, and need our solidarity.
Dear Nation Reader,
In the debt-ceiling melodrama that has consumed Washington this hot summer the values and priorities of most Americans were early casualties.
The passage of this week's compromise bill — featuring the spectacle of how much Tea Party Republicans are able to extort for agreeing not to blow up the economy — will cut billions from schools, clean water, mass transit, clean energy and public health with no — zero — contributions from the wealthy or corporations through increased taxes or the closing of loopholes. The terms of the agreement are remarkably cruel.
It is astonishing how out of touch this bill is with what people seek in these tough times. Poll after poll showed us that. And that makes it even more important that we continue to mobilize and organize to challenge the corporate corruption of our politics and media.
Oppose Overdraft Abuse and Bank Payday Lending
Tell the OCC to Crack Down on Predatory Practices
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has proposed new guidance for the banks it regulates regarding overdraft programs and “deposit-advance products,” which are bank payday loans. These practices are clearly abusive. While the OCC acknowledges the problems with these practices within their guidance, the solutions they propose will not stop the abuses. In fact, they effectively give banks the green light to step them up.The OCC is accepting public comment on their proposed guidance until August 8, 2011. Please send the OCC a note now asking them to strengthen their guidance.
Bank payday and overdraft abuses trap low-income Americans in cycles of high-cost debt, saddling them with triple-digit interest rates and draining their checking accounts through unfair fees.
Petition to Wall Street CEOs
Your Outrageous Pay Practices Are Hurting Our Economy. Tie Pay to Creating Long-Term Value, Not Short-Term Risk
In 2010, Wall Street firms, big banks and hedge funds spent more than $135 billion on record-breaking payouts. What did they do to deserve all that cash?It’s a gross injustice that these bailed-out institutions are reaping unspeakable profits while millions of Americans are still struggling because of the crisis Wall Street caused.
And here’s what’s worse: The astronomical Wall Street bonuses are rewards for creating spikes in short-term gain – the types of gimmicks that caused the financial crisis. The payouts have no link to creating real value or a sound economy in the long term.
In other words, these outrageous bonuses are actually incentives for Wall Street to continue engaging in the same risky behavior that collapsed our economy in 2008.
Join us in sending a message to Lloyd Blankfein (CEO, Goldman Sachs); James Dimon (CEO, JP Morgan Chase); Brian Moynihan (CEO, Bank of America); John J. Mack (CEO, Morgan Stanley); John G. Stumpf (CEO, Wells Fargo), Richard Fairbank (CEO, Capital One); and to the rest of the executives on Wall Street: citizen.org
What makes your hotel room sparkling clean? Ask housekeepers at Hyatt's hotels, who scrub bathroom floors on their hands and knees every day.
The pain can be excruciating. Some workers even become permanently disabled.
A California bill that will be voted on within weeks would require companies to adopt a few common-sense practices to protect housekeepers from getting hurt. Workers say it could change their lives.
But shockingly, hotel giant Hyatt is publicly opposing this critical bill!
The bill would require California hotels to provide housekeepers with fitted sheets (so housekeepers don't have to lift 100-lb mattresses to tuck the bottom sheets underneath) and mops (so they don't have to scrub bathroom floors by hand). Hyatt is the only hotel chain to publically oppose the bill. But in a 2010 study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine examining 50 hotel properties from five major hotel companies, housekeepers working at the Hyatt hotels in the study were found to have the highest injury rate for housekeepers by hotel company.1
Eleazar Dumuk, who has worked at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara for six years, suffers from chronic knee pain and swelling because she has to get on her knees to scrub 16 bathroom floors and bathtubs each day.
"If Buster Posey, the catcher from the San Francisco Giants, can wear a helmet, face guard, knee pads, chest and rib protectors to protect his body, then housekeepers can also have the right to fitted sheets and long-handled tools to protect our bodies," said Eleazar. www.AmericanRightsatWork.org
Dear Mark, Unfair and discriminatory practices by meat industry giants have been squeezing independent farmers and ranchers out of business at an alarming rate. But after decades of failure to enforce antitrust legislation against Big Meat, the 2008 Farm bill required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enact and enforce Fair Farm Rules. Now, the rules have been written, but the USDA has yet to finalize them. And the meat industry has been putting enormous pressure on Secretary Vilsack and the Obama Administration to weaken these rules that would, for the first time, provide fair market protections for small and midsize farmers. The dominance and consolidation of large meat processing companies has led to a situation in which independent farmers are essentially powerless to fight the unfair deals and prices they are offered by the large companies. Most poultry producers operate under take it or leave it contracts that can require expensive, unnecessary equipment upgrades. The farmers are forced to take the contract, because there is only one local processing company, and many companies have retaliated against farmers that complain. 1 Meat packers also commonly pay higher prices to large producers, simply because they are large. Paying an independent farmer a price of five or six cents less per pound makes a huge difference — $56,000 a year less at market for a family farmer with 150 sows.2 The Fair Farm Rules would stop these discriminatory practices. They prevent meat packers from giving undue preference to large producers and factory farms, protect farmers who make expensive investments in upgraded equipment, and prohibit retaliation against farmers who speak out. One of the great benefits of membership in the National Cooperative Business Association is the opportunity to connect with people from different sectors and regions of the country who are passionate about the cooperative business model. This year, NCBA has assembled a diverse group of co-op CEOs to discuss how the cooperative principles have contributed to their organization's success. It promises to be an informative discussion--and you can participate by asking questions of these visionary leaders. Among the CEOs on the stage will be Carl Casale , CEO of CHS, the largest co-op in the United States; Mary K. Brainerd, CEO of Health Partners that could be the model for the new health care CO-OPs currently under formation; and Maurice Smith, CEO of Local Government Federal Credit Union that has used its cooperative status to lift people and communities. Please join us for this inspiring program, which takes place October 5, 2011--and for the entire meeting, which is focused on the "Power of the Principles." Register at www.powerofprinciples.coop/register. The History of the “Money Changers”
-- I collect news from friends, thank you, and newsletters. Please write to me if you do not want to receive these bulletins. I am just sharing what I myself am reading to keep abreast of "the shift".... The shift is all about people waking up and demanding accountability. I call it "The Honesty Movement" which will only build as more and more crlimes, like us not being told about radiation levels from Fukushima, creates legitimate concern, and then rage, and then people power. If it is not your style to get angry, how much abuse will it take? We must demand accountability now in order to save anything for future generations. |