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ITPI's Donald Cohen Speaks at Conference
Partnership for Working Families | October 24, 2012As the ongoing privatization of public sector work continues to influence the lives of more and more Americans, In the Public Interest, a project of the Partnership, continues to provide people with the knowledge to recognize the risks of privatization and the tools to fight against these risks. On October 15, Donald Cohen, chair of the project, spoke at the LIUNA Pacific Southwest Regional Conference in Monterey, CA on these issues.
Partnering with community organizations – in part by creating real and lasting opportunities for low-income workers and workers of color – yields real dividends for building trades unions. That was the message delivered at the 2012 Central Regional Conference organized by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, where the Partnership’s Deputy Director, Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, and Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s Matt Brusky both spoke to about 100 IUPAT business managers, organizers and member-leaders.
Concrete Roadmap to Create and Improve Good Jobs, Tackle Inequality
Partnership for Working Families | September 13, 2012The Partnership for Working Families and more than 20 of America’s leading organizations on work and the economy today released a plan with 10 ways to rebuild America’s middle class. The new report details ten concrete proposals to strengthen the economy for the long-term by creating good jobs and addressing the economic insecurity that has spread to millions of U.S. families.
In July 2012, ALIGN and dozens of other members of the New York-New Jersey Coalition for Healthy Ports conducted a series of observational surveys at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey container ports to assess compliance with the Port Authority’s dirty truck ban and the efficacy of the two-year-old Clean Truck Program, designed to take dirty port trucks off the road.
Mayor Frank Jackson of Cleveland, Ohio and head of the city's building trades unions, Loree Soggs, at a forum of community, labor, business, and union leaders, both publicly pledged that they would work to advance a community benefits agenda for development in the city.
As part of the effort to raise consciousness about the solid waste crisis in New York City, ALIGN and a growing coalition of community, labor, and policy organizations are coordinating the North American premiere of Trashed, a documentary film about the impact of solid waste on public health, the climate, and the environment.
Time to let staff bid for work now contracted out, CPI argues
Center on Policy Initiatives | September 11, 2012In San Diego, Center on Policy Initiatives' long battle to prevent privatization of the city’s Miramar Landfill ended in July, when city workers won a direct competition to keep their jobs.
For years, the waste and recycling system servicing Los Angeles businesses and apartment buildings has been a "Wild West" -- resulting in over-reliance on landfills, unnecessary truck impacts, unfair customer rates and a safe haven for abusive employers. But a critical City Council hearing on August 29 brought us one big step closer to cleaner air, better jobs and recycling for all.
Through rap, “spoken word” poetry and music, one strong message permeated a room full of supporters for a November ballot initiative to raise San Jose’s minimum wage: “It’s time for ten.”
Secretary-Treasurer of the National AFL-CIO Liz Shuler offered her unwavering endorsement of the increase as she lauded the group of young activists who launched the effort to create an ordinance mandating a $10 an hour minimum wage in San Jose. The current state minimum is $8.
How can we boost the economies of our cities, support our local small businesses and sustain thriving communities? The Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community, an organization supported by LAANE, has a suggestion: Pass the Hotel Living Wage initiative on the November ballot.
The initiative would set a minimum wage of $13 an hour; provide up to five paid days off per year for sick, vacation or personal needs; and protect worker tips for an estimated 2,000 hotel workers in the 16 largest hotels in Long Beach.