This Week in Labor History: In 2012, Walmart workers at over 1000 stores stage demonstrations on Black Friday. This is an early battle of the low-wage workers movement. Victory for the Tito's Workers! An Eight Year Fight Ends in a Momentous and Triumphant Win for Immigrant Workers! For the last 8 years, Jobs with Justice National has fought alongside Tito's workers as they fought against retaliation, simply for wanting to organize. Now, the primarily immigrant former employees of Tito Contractors have won a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling over unfair labor practices. The Tito’s workers case was about far more than winning a union, higher wages, back pay, or other benefits on the job. It was about the dignity of immigrant workers fighting an employer who wielded immigration enforcement like a weapon. Read the full report on the victory and the significant policy shifts the workers' struggle achieved, from JwJ Senior Organizer on Immigration & Workers Rights, Natalie Patrick-Knox. Lawyers & Organizers for Tenant Power
Join Right to the City for a virtual discussion about advancing housing movement goals through collaborations between lawyers and organized tenants. We welcome tenant leaders, legal professionals, organizers, and allies. Our discussion will include panelists speaking to their direct experiences in past campaigns, and time to think forward together about how legal professionals can contribute to the organizing fight for housing justice and tenants rights.
Tuesday, November 30 at 3pm PST
Register here! Rally to Dump DeJoy, Protect the Vote
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must go! His Ten-Year Plan is slowing the mail, raising prices, cutting and closing postal facilities, outsourcing postal work, paving the way for privatization of the US Postal Service. December 8th ends the terms of Trump-appointees Chair Ron Bloom and John Barger of the Postal Board of Governors. President Biden has nominated Derek Kan (Republican) and Dan Tangherlini (Democrat) to the PBOG. Only the PBOG can fire DeJoy. We may be at a turning point. Now it’s time to escalate the pressure to replace DeJoy and save our national treasure, the USPS.
Join JwJ along with Communities and Postal Workers United, American Postal Workers Union Local 128, Portland DSA for a rally: Wednesday, December 8th from 12 - 1pm East Portland Post Office (1020 SE 7th)
Click Here to Share the Event Page and to RSVP! Take Action to Stop McKenzie-Willamette from Outsourcing Jobs! Add Your Name Here to demand that McKenzie Willamette Medical Center protect their patients and their staff and stop outsourcing jobs! If you support good jobs and quality care, let management know that you stand by caregivers at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center! Last month, union workers went out on a ULP strike and continue to struggle against a status quo by which rich investors of their for-profit hospital line their pockets at workers' expense. Demand that McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center management keep healthcare jobs in the community and settle a good contract with essential hospital caregivers now – protect patients, protect jobs! Has someone in your family been impacted by detention or have you witnessed an ICE raid?
Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition (PIRC) has opened a hotline to report and respond to ICE raids happening in Portland and surrounding metro area. The phone number is 1-888-622-1510. This hotline is for reporting raids but also to provide resources for immigration legal services, mobilizing the community, finding accompaniment for immigration appointments, and other community resources. Spanish Version Here.
Protect Tenants from Harassment - Support the Tenant Protection Ordinance! Renters are in crisis. While tenants have organized for safe harbor from evictions, greater relocation protections and caps on rent increases, landlords have increasingly taken to illegal harassment to push tenants to "self-evict." Working people urgently need remedy and safety from harassment and eviction! That is why workers need the Tenant Protection Ordinance! This City of Portland ordinance would create an explicit list of landlord actions that count as harassment, and demand a robust Rental Services Office that can support tenants in addressing their housing issues. Add Your Name or organization in support of the Tenant Protection Ordinance, and help a coalition of advocates pass the first anti-harassment law in the Pacific Northwest! Have you experienced harassment from your landlord? Share your story here. Take Action to Stop Medicare Privatization! Medicare - the efficient, public funder of health care for senior and disabled Americans - is at continued risk of privatization! Join your voice with activists nationwide, who are taking action against Medicare privatization through "direct contracting entities." Direct contracting entities insert a private fiscal intermediary between patients and health care providers, which began as a pilot program under Trump. We cannot allow Medicare to become a profit center for Wall Street and private health insurance corporations! Learn More, Sign and Share Here! Tell General Mills: Stop Manufacturing on Stolen Land! Go Pillsbury Free!
Pillsbury, owned by food-manufacturing-conglomerate General Mills, is a household name, known for its cookie dough, cinnamon buns, and other sweet treats. But the multinational food corporation produces Pillsbury frozen baked goods in a factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone, which Israel illegally annexed after the 1967 war. It violates international law by exploiting land, water, and other resources that belong to the Palestinian people.
In a recent report, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted General Mills as one of seven American companies involved in Israel's illegal settlement activities.
Hold corporations who profit off occupation accountable! Click Here to tell General Mills' CEO that you will boycott Pillsbury products until the company stops doing business in illegal settlements. Is your organization Pillsbury-Free or planning to go Pillsbury-Free? Let us know! Save the Date: 2022 Labor Notes Conference!
You may have seen the recent announcement of 2022 Labor Notes Conference in March. It will be *rescheduled* to Friday, June 17 - Sunday, June 19 in Chicago due to COVID safety concerns. Join thousands of union members, officers, and labor activists who are on the front lines in our workplaces and our communities, organizing new workers and agitating together. Meet troublemakers from across the country and around the world! Volunteer with the Pacific Coast Coalition to Help Vaccinate Seafarers! The Pacific Coast Coalition of Seafarers (PCCS) seeks volunteers to help provide vaccinations when seafarers arrive at Portland docks. For many seafarers, conditions are rough and unrelenting. The lack of access to vaccination is not an exception to this. Many are not able to leave their ships when they are docked so PCCS has been boarding ships to provide vaccination events. The Coalition has administered nearly 3,000 vaccines in Portland since May. The Coalition seeks volunteers to help with tasks other than administering vaccinations, specifically calling for interpreters as the majority of these seafarers do not speak English fluently. To get involved, send an email to Jessie Braverman, she/her, at bravermanjessie@gmail.com. Solidarity with the Honduran people during November elections Honduran elections for President, Congress and all elected offices in the country are November 28th, days away. Solidarity organizations including PCASC (Portland Central America Solidarity Committee) are sounding the alarm on the potential for yet another deeply undemocratic and violent election. It is urgent to closely watch the elections in Honduras as well as the response from the US. The US has played a role in white-washing violence and fraud, trivializing the serious human rights violations observed, and in keeping a narco-dictatorship in power. Take Action! Call Members of Congress to demand the US only recognize fair elections in Honduras. Do so here: bit.ly/hondurascall Steering Committee Are you a worker who is organizing and identifies as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or a person of color; a woman; immigrant; or LGBTQ seeking support for your struggle? Are you organizing campaigns of intersectional social justice, and looking for community support? Portland Jobs with Justice Steering Committee meets on the first Monday of each month. This meeting is open to the public and our membership. At this meeting we discuss and vote on supporting, endorsing, and organizing events that fit into the mission of Jobs with Justice. Request support here and share with us at our monthly Steering Committee, next upcoming on Monday, December6 from 5:30-7pm. Click Hereto send an email to Sarah for information on how to join! All requests must be submitted by Noon on Friday, December 3rd. Portland Rising
Want to get involved with Portland Rising? Interested in working with us on our current programs and helping to develop new ones? Need a bit more information before deciding? If so, come to our online information meeting on Wednesday, December 8, 7-8 pm. Portland Rising members will be there to talk about our work and how you can get involved. You can learn more about our history and activities by visiting our webpage here. But just to flag a few of the activities we have organized: Movie nights—Why Unions Matter presentations at local schools— Talks and discussions on local and national labor struggles and workplace issues—An online library of labor movies—An online library of articles on labor strategies and struggles—A Labor History for Labor Activists seminar—and the list goes on. Send an email to Portlandrisingprograms@gmail.com for the zoom login to attend the meeting. Health Care Committee The JwJ Health Care Committee works to promote healthcare as a human right at the local, state, and national level, to defend union health plans, and to fight for fair, equitable and comprehensive health care that covers everyone and is paid for with public funds. Click Hereto send an email to the Health Care Committee chairperson to get on the committee's email list and for information on how to join the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, December 21st at 5:30pm. Global Justice Committee
Portland Jobs with Justice has long history of international solidarity work. Currently, committee members are actively supporting efforts to uplift the welfare and working conditions of global seafarers and mobilizing in support of the "TRIPS" Waiver to unblock global access to vaccines. From November 30 to December 3, world leaders could decide to end Big Pharma’s stranglehold on global vaccine production by suspending COVID-19 intellectual property monopolies. If you're interested in upcoming local actions to help get COVID vaccines to everyone everywhere, please email Jesse at jesrapo@gmail.com Climate Jobs Committee The Climate Jobs Committee works at the intersections of the labor and climate justice movements. Climate Jobs has been integral to passing the Portland Clean Energy Fund, upholding high-road Labor standards in Climate and Health Policy, as well as working in coalition to create stronger safety standards to protect workers from extreme weather. Click Here to send an email to the Climate Jobs chairperson to join the email list and for information to join our meeting Wednesday, December 15th at 5:30pm! (Art by Molly Crabapple) |