February 2005 Jobs with Justice Update

February 2005 Jobs with Justice Update
Available online at http://www.jwj.org

Contents:

- DC Hotel Workers Win New Contract!
- National Student Labor Week of Action March 31- April 4, 2005
- JwJ Joins Delegation to the 2005 World Social Forum
- Janitors win Justice at Providence College!
- Jobs with Justice Tour with Indian Allies a Success!
- NE JwJ Coalitions Take on Verizon Wireless
- Victory at Intelicoat!!!
- Central OR JwJ Organizes Panel and Discussion on Immigrant
Rights
- Atlanta JwJ WRB Holds Hearing on Public Transit
- JwJ Celebrates International Human Rights Day
- St. Louis WRB Delivers Report to Angelica
- Local and National "Grinch of the Year" Winners
- Community Organizing and Technology Institute

-----------------------------------------------------------

DC Hotel Workers Win New Contract!

After more than five months of negotiations, 5,000 DC area hotel
workers represented by UNITE-HERE Local 25 won a new contract on
January 14th, narrowly averting a potential strike that would
have interrupted inaugural activities at some of DC¿s largest
hotels. The contract provides for wage increases as well as new
protections from workload increases and harassment at the
workplace. In addition, the workers were able to hold off the
creation of a two-tier health-care system, under which new
employees would have had to pay premiums for their health
benefits. DC JwJ supported the hotel workers throughout the
campaign, turning out supporters for several large rallies,
recruiting volunteers to leaflet hotels, helping to organize a
clergy breakfast, arranging for union members and organizers to
speak at community events, strategically engaging allies in
reaching out to major hotel customers, and lining up support for
a possible strike.

JwJ coalitions across the country have been fighting alongside
hotel workers fighting for a new contract throughout the fall
and winter: Chicago JwJ sent delegations to with hotel
management; Washington State JwJ organized civil disobedience to
demand a fair contract for workers; and JwJ coalitions in
Boston, Utah, and Atlanta have been leafleting at hotels.

-----------------------------------------------------------

National Student Labor Week of Action March 31- April 4, 2005

The rising cost of college tuition, federal and state financial
aid cuts, and harsh anti-immigration policies have made it
almost impossible for many students to attend college. And while
the salaries of university administrators are on the rise,
attacks on worker's rights, decreasing wages, lack of
healthcare, unsafe and unsanitary working conditions and glass
ceilings have made the campus workplace all but "ivy league".
Sisters and brothers, it's time for us to take back our
campuses!

For these reasons and many more, students and workers will unite
this spring to celebrate the Sixth Annual National Student Labor
Week of Action. From March 31- April 4, 2005 we will commemorate
the lives of Cesar Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as we
highlight the plight of campus workers nationwide.

Partnering organizations for this year's National Student Labor
Week of Action include: The Student Labor Action Project of Jobs
with Justice and the United States Student Association, United
Students Against Sweatshops, National Movimiento Estudiantil
Chicana/o de Aztlan, Student/Farmworker Alliance , Not With Our
Money!, the American Medical Student Association, and Student
Action with Farmworkers.

To sign up, learn more, or download an organizing manual for the
Week of Action, visit http://www.jwj.org/SLAP/A4/2005.htm or
contact Student Labor Action Project Coordinator Carl Lipscombe
at carl [at] jwj.org or (202)393-1044 x221.

-----------------------------------------------------------

JwJ Joins Delegation to the 2005 World Social Forum

The World Social Forum V was held January 26-31 in Porto Alegre,
Brazil. More than 150,000 leaders and activists from social
movements in 135 countries participated in more than 2,500
activities during the WSF. Jobs with Justice was part of the
Grassroots Global Justice delegation that sent 100 grassroots
activists and leaders from the U.S. to the World Social Forum.
The JwJ delegation included National Board Members Michael
Guerrero, Coordinator of Grassroots Global Justice, Rev. Calvin
Morris, Director of the Community Renewal Society in Chicago,
Njoki Njorge Njehu, Director of the 50 Years is Enough Network,
and Tim Waters, Rapid Response Coordinator of the United
Steelworkers of America. Other participants from JwJ included;
Fred Azcarate and Anannya Bhattercharjee from the National
Staff, Aletha Richardson and Tracey Tabacek from CWA Local 3204
and Atlanta JwJ, and Laurie King, Mark DeRienzo and Robin Cash
from Portland JwJ.

Jobs with Justice helped coordinate and participated in
workshops and panels on a variety of topics, including: Global
Outsourcing; Cross-Border Solidarity; Organizing Post Elections;
Women in the Trade Union Movement; New Forms of Worker
Organization. The World Social Forum also provided an
opportunity for JwJ to deepen its collaboration with the New
Trade Union Initiative in India. Concrete proposals were
developed on a number campaigns, particularly global
outsourcing. In addition to meetings with NTUI, Jobs with
Justice activists also held several meetings with other key
global allies from South Africa, Hong Kong and Latin America.

The International Council of the WSF made a decision that in
2006 rather than a World Social Forum several decentralized
continental and thematic forums would be held. The next WSF will
take place in 2007 at a site to be chosen in Africa. Jobs with
Justice participation along with Grassroots Global Justice in
the World Social Forum once again reinforced the understanding
that in order to successfully oppose global corporations, trade
agreements and financial institutions we need relationships
across borders to build the power necessary to win.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Janitors win Justice at Providence College!

When the fifty Janitors at Providence College, members of SEIU
615, were threatened with the College¿s decision to put their
janitorial contract out to bid without requiring job security or
maintaining their hard won right to a voice at work, JwJ was
there! Rhode Island JwJ brought the power of their Workers¿
Rights Board to weigh in on behalf of the janitors. Thirty-three
elected officials, including State legislators, the Providence
Mayor and City Council Members, faith-based leaders, and
academics from institutions around the state signed onto the
call for Providence College to do the right thing and make job
security and union recognition a requirement of the new
contract. WRB chair Providence Councilman Miguel Luna and State
Rep. Joe Almeida joined students and workers to hand-deliver the
letter to PC President Father Smith. Although they were barred
from entering the administrative building at PC by campus
police, the students took up the fight and delivered the letter
to college officials.

Individual JwJ activists generated 161 letters to Fr Smith and
joined workers to leaflet basketball games alerting students and
alumni to what was happening. Because of the pressure from
workers and the community, PC awarded the contract to a union
contractor, Hurley of America, who immediately began
negotiations with the bargaining committee. The workers won a
fair 2 year contract with 3.5% annual raises, 100% employer paid
individual medical insurance, improved pension benefits, and
additional paid time off. RI JwJ is planning a victory party at
City Hall for workers and JwJ activists to celebrate this
community victory and to thank everyone for standing up for
justice for janitors.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Jobs with Justice Tour with Indian Allies a Success!

Jobs with Justice organized a 10-city tour with Indian labor
leaders from the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) in December
2004. Local coalitions in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland,
Erie, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, DC, and Atlanta hosted Ashim
Roy, V. Chandra, and Anannya Bhattacharjee for strategic
discussions on organizing rights, outsourcing, immigration, and
other pressing concerns that the two organizations share. Ashim
is the President of unions in Gujarat numbering more than 20,000
members, including workers at GE. Chandra has worked in the coal
industry for 25 years and is the Organizing Secretary of the
Koyla Mazdoor Sanghatana Union representing nearly 50,000 coal
mine workers. Anannya is primarily based in India and works with
JwJ to coordinate the partnership with NTUI.

In each stop on the tour, JwJ organized public events for the
NTUI leaders to speak about current conditions in India as well
as strategic meetings with key unions and community allies. The
leaders met with community allies including Domestic Workers
United in New York City, Northwest Labor & Employment Law Office
in Seattle, City Life in Boston, and the South Asian Progressive
Action Coalition in Chicago. In addition to meeting with union
locals, JwJ and NTUI held national-level meetings with unions
and union affiliate groups including UNITE-HERE, CWA, SEIU,
UMWA, SPEEA, APALA, and the AFL-CIO¿s Solidarity Center. Both
the Institute for Policy Studies in DC and the Cornell Global
Labor Institute in NYC helped to organize public events and JwJ
will continue working with them on research activities to deepen
the JwJ-NTUI collaborative.

JwJ and NTUI held follow-up meetings to the tour at the World
Social Forum in Brazil (see separate story), to solidify next
steps in the collaborative. Ideas for future JwJ-NTUI activities
include strategizing on international campaigns; an
international garment tribunal in India; tours of US groups to
India; building relationships with Indian workers in the US; and
broadening the collaboration between JwJ and NTUI to include
worker formations in other countries.

-----------------------------------------------------------

NE JwJ Coalitions Take on Verizon Wireless

Workers at Verizon Wireless (VZW) lack basic workplace rights
and receive inadequate health and retirement benefits. When they
have tried to organize to fix these problems, VZW has conducted
a campaign of illegal firings, threats, intimidation, and worker
surveillance and has even shut down Northeast call centers and
moved them to "right to work" states.

On December 2nd and 11th, Boston JwJ joined CWA Local 1400 and
IBEW members for creative actions outside of VZW stores to
inform customers of VZW's anti-union tactics. Vermont Workers
Center/JwJ organized a demonstration outside a downtown VZW
store on International Human Rights Day. Congressman Bernie
Sanders addresses the crowd, saying, "In many ways there's a war
being waged by corporate America against the working people of
Vermont and the United States of America. And we have got to
stop that."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Victory at Intelicoat!!!

After more than a year without a first contract, workers at
InteliCoat in South Hadley, MA, won a fair agreement in January!
IUE-CWA Local 81246 members at InteliCoat testified at the first
hearing of the Western Massachusetts Workers' Rights Board last
October about their struggle to organize a union and win a first
contract. That hearing and pressure from the community was
crucial in the victory!

-----------------------------------------------------------

Central OR JwJ Organizes Panel and Discussion on Immigrant
Rights

As part of a week of activites celebrating the life and work of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Central Oregon Community College,
Central Oregon JwJ organized a January 19 panel and community
discussion about immigrant rights. Local panelists, including an
immigrant activist, an immigrant rights attorney, and the labor
council president, were joined by representatives of the United
Farm Workers and Enlace, the Portland-based immigrant organizing
group. The panel discussion brought together over 50 Latino and
Cambodian immigrants with white residents for the first time.
Central Oregon Jobs with Justice is following up with
participants to determine how to continue to forge stronger
bonds in our communities.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Atlanta JwJ WRB Holds Hearing on Public Transit

On January 20, 2005, Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
(MARTA) riders and workers joined forces to give testimony to a
panel of local leaders at Atlanta's first Workers' Rights Board
Hearing at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church about the impact of
several rounds of cutbacks in jobs and services. The most recent
cuts of 15% in jobs and services has delivered a heavy blow to
working families and riders trying desperately to reach
destinations such as hospitals, jobs and schools. Many low
income communities of color, elderly, and disabled people are
finding it increasingly difficult to keep good jobs and maintain
their independence when their only means of transport has been
cut off.

The hearing was chaired by former Bell-South employee and
concerned resident Carol Davis-Sutton. Other WRB members
included: Ajamu Baraka, U.S. Human Rights Network, Homero Leon,
Coordinating Council of Latino Community Leaders, Angel Torres
of the Environmental Justice Resource Center, and Rev. Brenda
Wallace of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

"What we, the disabled, desire most is the opportunity to
participate in society. We can only do so, however, when we have
accessible and affordable transportation. We use MARTA to go to
our jobs, our medical appointments, and to visit our friends,
etc. When services are cut our independence is seriously
diminished." - Adam Shapiro, South Metro Council for the Blind

Witnesses at hearing included: Jamie Olson, disabled
rider/activist with Citizens for Progressive Transit; Janice
Ibrahim, MARTA rider; Adam Shapiro, Vice-President of the South
Metro Council of the Blind, Radio Talk Show host, and member of
the Elderly Disabled Access Advisory Committee (EDAAC); Bryan
Hagar, Director of Georgia Chapter of Sierra Club; and Leon
Brewton, MARTA employee in Electrical Maintenance.

-----------------------------------------------------------

JwJ Celebrates International Human Rights Day

In honor of International Human Rights Day on December 10,
Eastern Massachusetts JwJ joined Amnesty International and a
number of other organizations in co-sponsoring a conference
called "Workers' Rights are Human Rights." Over 350 activists
came together to learn about abuses of workers' rights at home
and abroad and how they can get involved in the movement to
defend workers' rights. Activists participated in two
demonstrations - one outside a Verizon Wireless store to protest
VZW's anti-union tactics, and one outside the Colombian
consulate, where every protestor wore a sign with the name of a
Colombian union activist and the date they had been
assassinated.

On December 10, The Capitol District Labor-Religion Coalition/
Albany JwJ held a press conference to release their Workers'
Rights Board report on working condition's for Albany's
janitors. The report recommends amending New York State labor
law to better protect workers and extend prevailing wage
protections to building service workers, and it was covered by
two of the area's major newspapers.

-----------------------------------------------------------

St. Louis WRB Delivers Report to Angelica

On Thursday, January 16 at 11am a delegation arrived at Angelica
Headquarters in Chesterfield, MO to hand-deliver a copy of the
National Workers Rights Board Report on Angelica Laundries. The
delegation included WRB members State Rep. John Bowman and Bill
Ramsey of the Human Rights Action Service as well as St. Louis
Area JwJ Director Lara Granich. While they weren't able to see
CEO Stephen O'Hara, they sent a clear message that leaders in
the St. Louis community are unhappy with Angelica's treatment of
workers.

The report they delivered was based on a September 23rd National
WRB hearing in St. Louis, and detailed the testimony given by
Angelica employees who are struggling to organize a union with
UNITE-HERE. The Capital District Labor-Religion Coalition/Albany
JwJ also contributed to the report by investigating the firings
of two union activists at an Angelica facility there. The
Board's recommendations included: Members of Angelica's Board of
Directors should meet with the WRB to discuss the findings of
this hearing; Angelica should make workers' health and safety a
top priority by implementing a national effort to reduce hazards
on the job in cooperation with its employees and their union;
Angelica should pledge to remain truly neutral towards their
employees desire to form a union and agree to a card-check
process for determining majority support for a union; Angelica
should re-hire the wrongly dismissed Ballston Spa, New York,
employees with full back pay.

Now, St. Louis JwJ is working to deliver the report to other
members of Angelica's board. To view the full report, visit
http://www.jwj.org/WRBs/National/AngelicaReport.pdf

-----------------------------------------------------------

Local and National "Grinch of the Year" Winners

There was no shortage of worthy candidates in this year's
national and local contests recognizing the person or company
that does the most harm to working families. St. Louis JwJ
elected their Governor as Grinch of the Year. Read on to learn
about additional winners in this year's contests!

Nationally, the retailing giant Wal-Mart was named "Grinch of
the Year" in a national online poll held December 6 -22 by Jobs
with Justice. Over 60% of the more than 2,300 votes cast in this
year's election were for Wal-Mart. Uniform provider Cintas and
Cable company Comcast were the runners-up in the national
election. Lmore about why Wal-Mart is such a deserving recipient
of this award at
http://www.jwj.org/updates/media/12-22-04Grinch.htm .

There were so many worthy candidates for Grinch of the Year in
Rhode Island this year that the dubious honor was bestowed on
two individuals. The week before Christmas, as part of an
ongoing campaign for justice in the temporary worker industry,
JwJ and the United Workers' Committee of Progreso Latino brought
40 immigrants, community activists, union representatives, and
WRB members, and of course, Santa Claus, to the home of Ed
Hickey, the owner and president of temporary agency ADD TEMPS.
ADD TEMPS often contracts employees for a job but then doesn't
pay them, using the vulnerability of the immigrant community to
their own advantage. Carrying candles and armed with carols
like, "We want you to pay your workers..." to the tune of "We
Wish You a Merry Christmas," JwJ challenged Ed Hickey on his own
terms to stop the cycle of injustice in the temp industry. After
caroling and being asked to leave the property, JwJ delivered
Christmas cards and carols to Ed's neighbors, to let them know
what type of neighbor he is.

Rhode Island Governor Carcieri also received a visit from Santa
asking him to do right by RI's working families in 2005. Santa
joined with RI JwJ members AFSCME Council 94, Parents For
Progress, SAFE RI, IBEW 2323, Ocean State Action, RI for Health
Care, DARE, and other community activists at a State House press
conference to lay out the reasons for the award and to call for
reform. The Governor has hurt working families by opposing the
state's 1,300 child care providers the right to a union voice,
threatening the secured pensions and health care coverage of
public employees and teachers, threatening the livelihood and
safety of Rhode Island's immigrant families by denying
immigrants access to drivers' licenses, and slashing childcare
and education funding and cutting other social programs.

Cleveland Jobs with Justice awarded Cleveland Cinemas CEO
Jonathan Forman with the 2004 Scrooge of the Year award. Forman
earned the award after he took over several theatres in the
Cleveland area and fired all of the union workers. The Cedar Lee
theatre, a popular spot in Cleveland and Forman's most
profitable location, has been the target of a boycott led by
Cleveland JwJ and IATSE Local 160. The two organizations have
been working together to mobilize the mostly progressive patrons
of the theatre, reminding them that union-busting is NOT a
progressive value. Recently, new charges have been filed against
Forman who is seeking to lock the union out of the Cleveland
Film Festival in March by offering more money and theatres for
the event if the promoters agree not to let the union work the
festival.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Community Organizing and Technology Institute

Three JwJ staff recently completed a series of trainings held by
the Progressive Technology Project on how to use technology to
organize communities more effectively. The trainings, held over
the course of 2004, were attended by Alyce Gowdy Wright of South
Florida JwJ, Carlos Fernandez of Chicago JwJ, and Allison
Fletcher Acosta of National JwJ. About 15 grassroots
organizations from across the country participated in the
training. An important focus of the training was how to improve
database systems to mobilize members more effectively, track
donations, and more. Other topics included graphics and graphic
design, websites, technology planning, messaging and
communications, and security. Participants shared information
through case studies from their own organizations and got
hands-on training with computer programs. Plans are in the works
to share the knowledge gained at this training to help the
entire JwJ network use technology more effectively.
--------------------------------------------------

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://www.unionvoice.org/join-forward.html?domain=jobswithjustice&r=ddaBG8K1VudE

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
Jobs with Justice at:

http://www.unionvoice.org/jobswithjustice/join.html?r=ddaBG8K1VudEE