PUBLIC KNOXVILLE / a project of Jobs with Justice

Download the march and rally poster RIGHT HERE!

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:59:30 -0400

Download the march and rally poster RIGHT HERE!

Budgets and Jobs at Stake in Fight Over Knox County Schools' Outsourcing Plan

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:44:00 -0400

The Metro Pulse published a good article about proposed Knox County Custodian outsourcing and our fight against it.

After a temporary reprieve last spring, Knox County School custodians and their allies are girding themselves to fight the outsourcing of their jobs to a local firm come next year.

“At this point, people like us who are concerned about this are just waiting to see what they would pay,” says Lance McCold of Jobs With Justice, a worker advocacy group that has taken up the custodians’ cause. “This is supposed to be a cost-saving measure. As it stands, the custodians aren’t particularly well-paid.

“There are only two ways to save money in custodial service—you reduce service, or you reduce the compensation of the people doing the work. And when you hire a private firm you have to pay for management, for the firm to make a profit. Presumably, this comes on the backs of already poorly paid custodians…”

Read the rest of the article here.

11 Things the 400 Richest Households in the US Could Buy that You Can't

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:19:59 -0400

11 Things the 400 Richest Households in the US Could Buy that You Can't:

We keep hearing that America’s broke, but the hard truth is that the 400 richest households are richer than ever before. This report shows that if they wanted—or if we made them—the 400 richest households in America could:

pay off all the student loan debt in the United States
triple the number of teachers in the United States
pay rent for every renter in the United States for three years
give every worker a $10,000 bonus
replace 70% of all money lost in the financial crisis, which they continue to profit from

…and more. So America isn’t broke, just its poor & working people.

What’s happening to our economy? Former Secretary of Labor...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:07:43 -0400

What’s happening to our economy? Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich breaks it down in two minutes. It’s pretty simple: the rich keep getting richer, and make sure that they’re the ones who stay on top. Please watch!

"We’re going to be there fighting for our jobs! -Jereline Clark, seven-year custodian at Austin East"

Mon, 23 May 2011 14:35:13 -0400

“We’re going to be there fighting for our jobs! -Jereline Clark, seven-year custodian at Austin East”

- Custodians have a face-to-face meeting with School Board members to tell them what they really think about outsourcing their jobs.

Jobs with Justice of East TN members went to Vestival on May 7...

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:40:24 -0400

Jobs with Justice of East TN members went to Vestival on May 7 to collect petition signatures and testimonials from Knoxvillians against the Knox County School Board’s scheme to outsource its lowest paid workers: the custodians.

Here’s what they had to say.

Members of Jobs with Justice’s Public Knoxville group...

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:55:00 -0400

Members of Jobs with Justice’s Public Knoxville group picket outside a meeting between Knox County Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre and prospective corporate bidders who want to help outsource custodial services from our school system so they can make a profit.

We say no!

(photo by Holly Rainey)

"Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market,..."

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:36:29 -0400

“

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, us neither.

”

Kentucky High School Students Stand Up For Teachers, Public Employees

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:12:17 -0400

In the general battering that teachers have received from opportunistic right wing governors like Walker of Wisconsin, an untold story is the support of students. This action in Kentucky shows that students are prepared to stand up for teachers even at the risk of punishment from the very system they support. As student Nash Walley said during the April 4 We Are One rally: “When I thought about the history of the American labor movement…striking workers are being threatened with loss of their jobs, imprisonment and even violent opposition, I decided that several days of suspension was well worth doing what I thought was right.” Watch the video here of students in solidarity with teachers.

Posted by wd

Don't Punish the Poor: Economist Jeffrey Sachs on the Obama-GOP Budget Deal

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:30:12 -0400

From today’s DemocracyNow!, economist Jeffrey Sachs interrogates the Obama-GOP compromise and America’s continued defunding of poor peoples’ communities to fund rich peoples’ pockets:

…This is a miserable step in the wrong direction. It started last December, when Obama and the Republicans agreed to cut a trillion dollars of taxes by extending the Bush tax cuts. And now, even though the details aren’t even worked out, apparently, they’re slashing into programs for the poor. So this is all going in the wrong direction, and many of us who supported President Obama just feel that he’s abandoned the field.

Coverage of the March 15th action from Chattanooga Organized for...

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:44:39 -0400

Coverage of the March 15th action from Chattanooga Organized for Action:

The main thing is because we’re being told the same lies over and over again. I mean everyone’s saying we’re broke…we ain’t broke. This country ain’t broke on any level. The problem is that 400 people in this country own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% combined. The problem is that there are people making astronomical profits on the backs of hard working Americans. … The reason why our economy is in the state it is is because of predatory corporations in this country that have decided to put profit before the needs of the people. Workers aren’t going to stand for it. Parents aren’t going to stand for it. Students aren’t going to stand for it.

Are you read to fight?!

Protests & Occupation in Seattle, Washington as Government Seeks to Cut $5.1 Billion from Budget

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:39:07 -0400

Protests & Occupation in Seattle, Washington as Government Seeks to Cut $5.1 Billion from Budget

Knox County School Custodians and Jobs with Justice members...

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:05:25 -0400

Knox County School Custodians and Jobs with Justice members speak out against privatization of custodial staff at a public forum with School Superintendent Jim McIntyre. You can sign a petition urging the school board to vote against privatization here.

"It’s one thing for demonstrators to make a show of force in a historically pro-union state..."

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:23:42 -0400

“

It’s one thing for demonstrators to make a show of force in a historically pro-union state like Wisconsin. Quite another to do it in the South, where a solid phalanx of the political, industrial, religious, and media elite has remained virulently anti-union for decades. It is that same union-busting phalanx — not Southern workers — that has given the South its anti-union reputation.

Southern politicians don’t want to be outdone by Wisconsin Republicans, so Southern workers need to be prepared for an assault on their rights that goes even beyond the assaults they’ve already weathered in this region of poor pay, poor benefits, and a rich-poor divide unequaled anywhere else in the nation.

”

- from VOICES: “Protests in Tennessee as as workers’ rights are threatened.”

The above editorial appears in VOICES, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, covering and reflecting on the March 15th work in Nashville that brought more than a thousand public sector workers and their allies converge on the Capitol to demand good jobs, living wages, and an end to attacks on workers and public services. It also reflects on the youth-led direct action that took place inside the Capitol later in the day:

I’m thousands of miles away in Taipei, but I’m heartened to see brave young students join union members in taking a stand against anti-union bills before Tennessee’s state legislature in Nashville.

IT AFFECTS ALL OF US Here’s a video from before the March...

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:09:54 -0400

IT AFFECTS ALL OF US

Here’s a video from before the March 15th mobilization that we helped support, produced by one of our coalition’s partners Chattanooga Organized for Action. It does a good job of locating the attacks on workers and poor people within a larger campaign of attacks meant to consolidate the gains of the rich that they are garnering throughout the economic crisis that continues to hurt working people but not Wall Street.

Why Unions Matter: an essay from Nashville's CityPaper

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:08:22 -0400

Nashville’s CityPaper runs the essay “Why Unions Matter” by Charles Maldonado, and it holds no punches about the whole slate of anti-union, anti-worker bills making their way through Tennessee’s legislative houses (and legislatures across the country):

The anti-union legislation now making its way toward passage in our state legislature is not only mean-spirited and unnecessary, but it’s the worst kind of shallow, cynical politics that this shallow, cynical country can produce.

It goes on:

…my wife, Jenny, who is by far the breadwinner in our home…is herself a Metro Nashville Public Schools teacher, and thus, the current target of choice for the state GOP’s campaign of folksy divisiveness and arbitrary, albeit maybe focus-grouped, derision. (Or at least she’s one of a select few that includes women, non-Christians — especially Muslims and to a slightly lesser degree seculars — poor people, sick people, children unless they’re not born yet, the whole LGBT spectrum, all immigrants except the ones from business-y countries, and anyone uncomfortable with the idea of being armed all of the time. I think that covers the big ones.)

Essential reading.

Who's Really Behind The Anti-Worker Bills?

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:36:08 -0400

UW-Madison History Professor William Cronon provides us with a quick primer and notes on of the biggest, secretive Right Wing organizations behind so much of the anti-worker legislation that’s sweeping across the country: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). (We’d link you to their website, but since Cronon’s notes were published it’s been taken down; meanwhile, Cronon’s e-mails have been requested by the Wisconsin Republican Party under its own Open Records Law.)

So, what is ALEC?

Its goal for the past forty years has been to draft “model bills” that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. (Among them was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)

Of course, it’s part of a larger network of conservative organizations, institutions, and groups that are part of the Right Wing attacks that are going on right now. Another important member is the State Policy Network, which has partners in all 50 states, including Tennessee.

As we continue to develop our work to fight for public services and the folks who make those work, and to defend against the Right Wing attack on working people, we need to get better about understanding who our enemies are, what their work is, and what they’re scheming to do.

Two helpful sites are Right Wing Watch & SourceWatch.

Non-Profits Can Fight (or “Work”) City Hall

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:25:38 -0400

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has an article entitled How Non-Profits Can Fight City Hall by Tom Tresser, a former lead organizer of No Games Chicago and a past Green Party candidate. Tresser looks at the absence of the non-profit sector in the mayoral election that put Rahm Emanuel in City Hall. The creative community did hold a candidates’ meeting but failed to have questions about the arts.

But now there are 85 non-profit leaders on the Emanuel transition team out of 115 in total.

Tresser reports on how non-profits can impact a local government after an election where they failed to intervene. John Bouman of the Responsible Budget Coalition (which recently was a leading force in an increase in income tax rates) offers a series of ideas about what to do after election day. The article offers six action commitments and four tactical steps that can be considered anywhere.

The article is available online and you can find it by clicking here.

Post by Walter Davis

from The Bill Maher Show, a hilarious and sharp (if not a little...

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:59:00 -0400

from The Bill Maher Show, a hilarious and sharp (if not a little pg-13) takedown of the US’s tremendous wealth divide and new reality tv that dotes on bosses & millionaires:

The richest 400 people have as much money as the poorest 150,000,000 combined.
Since 1980, 80% of new wealth has been accumulated by the richest 1% of people: “Let’s say 100 Americans order a 100 slice pizza and it gets delivered and when you open it up one guy takes 80 slices.”

—tww

This is what class warfare looks like. -tww

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:16:19 -0500

This is what class warfare looks like.

-tww