National Campaign to Create Living Wage Jobs for All
CALL TO ACTION [Updated 03/06/10]
Our country is in the throes of an economic crisis—the most severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment is at the disaster level. And even before the onset of our current, deep recession, chronic unemployment, low and stagnant wages, myriad unmet needs and unprecedented environmental degradation were endemic.
Current Job Crisis
- Nearly 31 million workers fully or partially jobless (October 2009)
- Most rapid job less of any downturn -- and the highest percentage of long-term unemployed workers --since the Great Depression
- 8 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy since the onset of the recession.
- High unemployment expected to persist, even if the economy "recovers."
- Many of the long-term unemployed will lose benefits, their savings, their homes and more
Weak Stimulus By the Administration’s own estimate, the economic stimulus package enacted in February 2009 will only make up for a fraction of the millions of jobs lost since the recession began. Nor will the stimulus stem the continuing job hemorrhage.
The health and well-being of workers and communities suffer greatly when there is inadequate availability of living wage jobs. In addition, the current official high unemployment rate of over 10% is exceedingly costly to the economy as a whole, costing $1 trillion or more annually in output of goods and services. As former Nobel Prize winner Robert Eisner has pointed out, a nation that tolerates high levels of unemployment is "literally throwing away its potential output."
The "Good Old Days"Even before the recent economic meltdown, 5 million or more women and men were officially jobless; hidden unemployment afflicted many millions more; and poverty wages were rampant. Inequality reigned, our infrastructure was crumbling, and human services fell far short of needs.
We must not go back to those "Good Old Days." Instead, we should be guided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933): "We cannot be content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people … is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure."
Real Reform Now is the time to organize and mobilize to create a just economy. We call for:
- Establishment of a long-term, permanent federal jobs program, leading to the legal right to a living wage job.
- Creation of millions of new, publicly-financed living-wage jobs in education and human services, clean energy and environmental conservation, and infrastructure development and repair.
- Priority measures to target new jobs to employ structurally unemployed and underemployed workers, including people living in economically depressed communities, young people, people of color, people with disabilities, ex-offenders, and immigrants, among others.
- Guaranteed income support for those who are unemployed, unable to work, and/or doing vital work in the home (including extension of unemployment benefits, an end to TANF time limits, and support for single adults living without adequate income)
- Continuation and expansion of federal assistance to ailing state governments, to preserve essential services and prevent further job loss in local communities.
- Comprehensive protection of workers’ labor and social rights, including the right to organize, form trade unions and bargain collectively; the right to equal opportunity, with vigorous enforcement of laws and regulations relating to unfair discrimination in hiring and employment against women, people of color and other minorities; worker safety and health; rights to paid sick leave and vacations; and decent working conditions and quality of work life, including autonomy on the job.
- Development of industrial and trade policies to promote comprehensive recovery of the manufacturing and services sectors, and other, complementary policies to promote full employment, community economic stability, environmental sustainability, and a fair global economic system.
- Fair financing for economic renewal through 1) discontinuing or not renewing the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers; 2) reducing military spending to genuine defense needs, and redirecting the savings to the civilian economy 3) enacting a financial speculation tax on short-term securities transactions; and 4) recapturing federal revenue as more Americans return to work and pay taxes, and the devastating financial and social costs of unemployment are avoided.
- Comprehensive measures to ensure public accountability and transparency for the jobs program and public investments, including 1) racial, gender, geographic and social equity in program spending and results and 2) establishment of a national employment accounting office to measure the impact and benefits.
To achieve these goals, we will work together to
1. Document unmet public needs for jobs, infrastructure and public services
2. Inform and educate our communities about those needs, and how can they be addressed through our proposed program
3. Organize a strong, vibrant social movement to inspire grassroots action and arouse the conscience of the public
4. Encourage policy organizations to support this program, and related initiatives to expand availability of living wage jobs, and protect worker rights
5. Develop an effective national advocacy network by reaching out to a wide range of labor, religious, nonprofit and community organizations, and building coalitions and alliances
6. Mobilize regional and national demonstrations in support of this program
7. Design and advocate comprehensive federal legislation to achieve the right to employment at living wages, and develop alliances with members of Congress and other public officials who will support these measures
8. Provide ongoing public oversight of the development and implementation of our proposed program
National Campaign to Create Living Wage Jobs for All
(partial list of interim organizing committee)
Bill Barclay, Chicago Political Economy Group
Chuck Bell, Conference Chair, and Vice Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition
Larry Bresler, Executive Director, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign*
Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Senior Pastor Emeritus, Riverside Church of New York, Pres., Healing of the Nations Foundation
Barbara George, Healing of the Nations Foundation
Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition
Logan Martinez, Miami Valley Full Employment Council/Organize Ohio (Dayton, OH)
Bill Quigley, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
Annie Rawlings, Associate Executive Presbyter for Social Witness, Presbytery of New York City* Elce Redmond, Organizer, South Austin Community Coalition (Chicago, IL)
Melvin Rothenberg, Chicago Political Economy Group
Rev. Marcel Welty (New York, NY)
Organizational Endorsers (Partial List)
Arkansas Interfaith Alliance
Arkansas Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice
Chicago Political Economy Group
Coastal Women for Change (Biloxi, MS)
Disabled in Action, Inc (Atlanta, GA)
Georgia Employee Association, Inc. (Atlanta, GA)
Hospitality House, Inc. (Maine)
Independent Progressive Politics Network (Bloomfield, NJ)
Miami Valley Full Employment Council (Dayton, OH)
Mass Welfare Rights Union / Survival News, (Boston,MA)
Nashville Homeless Power Project
National Jobs for All Coalition
Ohio Empowerment Coalition Women In Transition (Louisville, KY)
[List in formation]
TO ENDORSE THE CALL TO ACTION, please contact us by filling out this form, or sending an email to jobsconference [at] njfac.org
Please indicate if your endorsement is an
ORGANIZATIONAL or INDIVIDUAL endorsement.
Also let us know your
organizing and volunteer interests, and the
names and contact information for other individuals and organizations you think may be interested in this campaign.
Thanks very much!!
Contact:
National Campaign to Create Living Wage Jobs for All
National Jobs for All Coalition
c/o Council on International & Public Affairs [CIPA]
777 United Nations Plaza, Suite 3C
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212-972-9879
Fax: 212-972-9878
Email: JobsConference [at] njfac.org
Web:
http://www.jobscampaign.org/Web:
http://www.njfac.org/Blog:
http://www.drivefordecentwork.org/
