New Goal: TWO Million for the Employee Free Choice Act.  Write a letter to the editor for the Employee Free Choice Act!  Great videos at www.araw.org.

 

Monday March 16

            SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEES DISCUSS PRO-WORKER ORDINANCES

            4:30pm, Rebecca Johnson School Cafeteria, 55 Catherine St, Springfield. The Veterans, Administration and Human Services Committee and the Planning and Economic Development Committee of the City Council will jointly discuss ordinance amendments initiated by the Pioneer Valley Building & Construction Trades Council (734-7137, dandalma@gmail.com), entitled "Springfield Residents Construction Employment", "Living Wages", and "Responsible Employer Policy" (copies available by email from mail@pvaflcio.org). Info: City Council Aide Robert Arieti, 787-6170, rarieti@springfieldcityhall.com.

 

Tuesday March 17 (Happy St Pat’s!)

2009 WMJwJ MAY DAY ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

6:30-8pm, Student Government Assn office, room 420, Student Union, UMass Amherst (C3 on map grid here; parking info here). Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice traditionally celebrates International Workers Day. The event is also a fundraiser for WMJwJ. There are suggested donation ticket prices, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. 

Lately we’ve produced Voices of Working People's History – readings, music, and slides that tell the origins of International Workers Day in the US in the 1880s and carry its themes up to the present.

However, this year we will build the event around a visit by Stewart Acuff (Special Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO, National Jobs with Justice Board Member, long-time union and community organizer). He is a stirring speaker (you can watch many of his speeches at YouTube) and will focus us on an economic recovery that puts Main Street before Wall Street, passes the Employee Free Choice Act and restores workers’ right to organize, ensures health care for all, creates good green jobs, and holds bailed out corporations accountable to the people.

            The program will include lots of music. 

Want to work on a committee: Organizing? (primarily the Chairs of the other, work committees) Program? Publicity? Day-of Volunteers?

Want to receive planning notices? Contact 827-0301, wmjwj@wmjwj.org.

 

Tuesday March 17 (Third Tuesday)

            FRANKLIN/HAMPSHIRE HEALTH CARE COALITION

7pm, Lathrop Village Community Room, Shallow Brook Drive, off Bridge Rd, Northampton. Organizing for the Massachusetts Health Care Trust Fund Bill - a universal health care system, providing universal access, a comprehensive range of physical and mental health benefits, choice of provider, quality, unified financing and cost controls, accountable governance, and stability. A Massachusetts Health Care Trust Fund will be a “single-payer” of all health care costs, statewide. Also organizing for the national alternative to state action: Medicare for All – HR 676. Info: info@fhhcc.org. Please visit www.masscare.org and www.healthcare-now.org.  

 

Wednesday March 18 (Third Wednesday)

MASS SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL – WESTERN MASS MONTHLY MEETING

1:30-3:30pm, Independence House, 1475 Roosevelt Av, Springfield. Guest Speaker: Jackie Wolf, Amherst League of Women Voters: “Why the Mass. health care reform plan is failing and why only Single Payer can dave the day.” MSAC was founded in 1981 to promote the rights, well being, and dignity of all people, particularly vulnerable senior citizens. Open to people of all ages. MSAC has a proud history of effective community organizing and legislative advocacy on health care, housing, transportation, and other issues. Info: 543-2334, mbewsee@masssenioraction.org, http://www.masssenioraction.org/.

 

Thursday March 18 (Third Wednesday)

PIONEER VALLEY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL

5:30pm, AFL-CIO Hall, 640 Page Blvd, near corner of Osborne Ter, across the street from the old Westinghouse, Springfield. Community and labor activist guests are welcome, but RSVP to Jon at 732-7970, mail@pvaflcio.org, or Rick at 374-1492, rbrown@pvaflcio.org.

 

Thursday March 19

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION ~ PICKET BANK OF AMERICA ~ CHICOPEE, NORTHAMPTON, GREENFIELD, AMHERST …

and across the country. When US taxpayers gave Bank of America a $25 billion bailout, the country's largest bank was supposed to use the funds to help jump start the economy. Instead, Bank of America is one of the leading banks foreclosing on Massachusetts communities and fighting workers’ rights to fair wages, health care, and unions. Four Western Mass opportunities to protest corporate power:

Chicopee: 9-10am at 638 Memorial Dr, Route 33, across from Wal-Mart, just north of Mass Pike Exit 5 (park at Stop & Shop just north of BoA)‎. Contact: Ron Patenaude, (413) 427-3785, ronpatenaude@hotmail.com

Northampton: 11am-Noon at 144 Main St, next to Thorne’s Market. Contact: Jesse Martin, (717) 991-5611, jmartin@seiu615.org.

Greenfield: 2-3pm at 208 Federal St. Contact: Jon Weissman, (413) 827-0301, wmjwj@wmjwj.org.

Amherst: 4:30-5:30pm at 1 South Pleasant Street, corner of Amity St. Contact: Chris Patterson, (508) 344-7325, cpatterson@seiu615.org.

 

Thursday March 19 (Third Thursday)

            NORTHAMPTON LIVING WAGE COALITION

7:30pm, Western Mass Legal Services office, 20 Hampton Av #100, Northampton (enter near Pleasant St, south of, right angle to Sylvester’s). The NLWC is organizing for a City Council resolution updating the 1998 Northampton Living Wage Resolution for employees with health insurance to $9.52, and to $11.44 for employees without health insurance. Collecting petition signatures supporting the resolution. Asking local business owners to commit to paying a living wage or at least commit to working toward a living wage. Publicly recognizing them if they do.

On the agenda: meeting with City Councilor Michael Bardsley; meeting with Suzanne Beck, Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce; meeting with Human Rights Commission; time line for getting the resolution passed by the City Council.

Info: Kitty Callaghan, kcallaghan@wmls.org.

WMASS JOBS WITH JUSTICE HAMPSHIRE WORKERS' RIGHTS COMMITTEE meets with the NORTHAMPTON LIVING WAGE COALITION. Info: 827-0301, wmjwj@wmjwj.org.

 

Thursday March 19

PEACE & TRUTH FOR REEL: AFFLUENZA

7-9pm, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, 24 Miles St, Greenfield. Affluenza diagnoses the “disease” of materialism and prescribes its antidote, simple living. Part of film series by GCC Peace & Social Justice Club and Traprock Center for Peace and Justice. Info: 773-7427. See also March 20.

 

March 19-22

FIRST NATIONAL FORUM ON THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY: BUILDING ANOTHER WORLD

UMass Amherst. The current economic crisis and the possible death throes of neoliberalism (corporate-led globalization), offers us an historic opening to advance a new framework for economic development. We have an opportunity to push for a fundamental transformation in our economic and social system, one that puts people and planet before private profits and power. This four day conference will include an inspiring range of solidarity economy tours, workshops, plenaries and cultural events.

What is the solidarity economy? It isn't abstract theory or pie-in-the-sky utopianism. The Solidarity Economy is an alternative framework for economic development that is grounded in principles of solidarity, equity in all dimensions, participatory democracy, sustainability and pluralism. The solidarity economy framework seeks transformation rather than band-aid solutions, yet rejects one-size-fits-all blueprints. Rather, it pulls together and builds upon the many elements of the solidarity economy that already exist. Some are new innovations, some are old. Other elements have yet to be realized or even imagined, and the journey of creation is ongoing.

            See next and March 21 below. Info, registration: http://www.populareconomics.org/ussen/?q=node/99 or www.ussen.org, or contact Emily Kawano, Coordinator, US Solidarity Economy Network, 545-0743, emily@populareconomics.org.

 

Friday March 20

FILM PREMIER: WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY?

3-4:30pm, School of Management, UMass Amherst. John de Graaf, producer of Affluenza, will discuss and premier his latest film, What's the Economy For, Anyway? at the Forum on the Solidarity Economy, a humorous and visual  monologue by ecological economist Dave Batker, with a focus on the US economy and its poor performance regarding health, social justice, security, work-life balance, and sustainability. Info above.

 

Friday March 20

TURNING HOPE INTO ACTION: HEALTH CARE & THE ECONOMY

7:30pm, Northampton High School auditorium, 380 Elm St, Northampton (587-1344). The Western Mass chapters of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) will host a public forum on the state of the economy and its implications for Universal Single Payer Health Care. Moderator: John Nichols, political reporter for The Nation. Panelists:  

Congressman JOHN CONYERS, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, author of HR 676 – United States National Health Care Act; ROBERT POLLIN, Professor of Economics, UMass, Co-director of Political Economy Research Institute (PERI); JACKIE WOLF, Co-chair of MassCare; DONNA SMITH, National Co-chair of Health Care Not Warfare, featured in Michael Moore’s film SICKO. Info: wendy@pdamerica.org.

 

Saturday March 21

HURT ON THE JOB?

10:30am, AFL-CIO Hall, 640 Page Blvd, near corner of Osborne Ter, across the street from the old Westinghouse, Springfield. A free informational meeting on workers compensation, sponsored by the Western Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. Nancy Foley, director of the Alliance for Injured Workers, will give a presentation about what is involved in fighting for workers compensation benefits. No preregistration is required. Copies of Hurt on the Job: A Guide to the Massachusetts Workers Compensation System will be on sale. Info: 731-0760, nancywrites@verizon.net.

 

Saturday March 21

SOLIDARITY ECONOMY FORUM CABARET

8:30pm, Mahar Auditorium, UMass Amherst. See March 19-22 above. Free Cabaret includes the Raging Grannies; Red Valley Fog (Ben Grosscup, Dan Inglis, and Carolynn O'Donnell); excerpt from WMass Jobs with Justice’s May Day performance, Voices of Working People’s History;

Kalia Lydgate's hip hop group: Brick by Brick youth: “I Thrive Alive”; Jay Mankita; Villa Jidiots; Ethan Miller. Info: www.populareconomics.org/ussen/?q=node/99.

 

Tuesday March 24 (Fourth Tuesday)

HAMPSHIRE/FRANKLIN CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL

7:30pm, Northampton Fire Station Community Room, 26 Carlon Drive at King St/Route 5, Northampton (587-1148). Community and labor activist guests are welcome, but RSVP to Pres. Fiore Grassetti, 877-725-0357, org7@comcast.net.

 

Wednesday March 25 (Fourth Wednesday)

WESTERN MASS GREEN ECONOMY WORKING GROUP

5:30-7:30pm, Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO Hall, 640 Page Boulevard, Springfield (732-7970). This Working Group consists of advocates for a Green Economy which serves local communities; guarantees workers' rights to organize; and promotes community-owned sustainable projects. Subscribe to the WMGEWG listserve (“GreenWork”) at http://lists.gaiahost.coop/mailman/listinfo/greenwork or send an email to greenwork-subscribe@lists.gaiahost.coop. Info: Jon Weissman, 827-0301, wmjwj@wmjwj.org, or Eduardo Suárez, 335-6224, echonyc@hotmail.com.

 

Thursday March 26

MASSACHUSETTS JOBS WITH JUSTICE ANNUAL DINNER

6pm, Reception, 7pm, Dinner & Program, Suffolk Downs, 111 Waldemar Ave, East Boston. Please join Jobs with Justice in celebrating the past year of fighting for workers’ rights and looking forward to a year of building an economy that works for everyone. Click Here to Buy Your Tickets Now! Western Mass carpooling: 827-0301 x1, wmjwj@wmjwj.org.

 

Thursday March 26 (Fourth Thursday) NOTE LOCATION

            FRANKLIN COUNTY WORKERS' RIGHTS COMMITTEE

7-8:30pm, First Congregational Church, 43 Silver St, Greenfield (774-3449). Organizing local solidarity for Franklin County workers and unions; nurses and other workers at Franklin Medical Center; Greenfield municipal employees; and statewide and national workers' rights campaigns, including People's Bail-Out and Employee Free Choice Act. Info: 827-0301, wmjwj@wmjwj.org.

 

March 27-April 4

10th NATIONAL STUDENT LABOR WEEK OF ACTION (NSLWoA): "Resist and Reclaim our Future"

+ RESISTANCE & RECOVERY WEEK OF ACTION

This year's NSLWoA features actions on college campuses and in cities across the country. This year—in a time of political transition and national economic turmoil—we also want to ensure students and workers have a role in shaping the economic recovery and building a future in which student and labor issues are prioritized rather than ignored. Join us as we demand:

•               Living wages for all campus employees and the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act

•               University codes of conduct that support workers' rights both on campus and overseas

•               Development of "green jobs" that support workers in our communities and promote a healthy environment

•               Access to higher education for all and the passage of the DREAM Act

•               Fair wages & working conditions for the people who grow our food and harvest our crops

SIGN UP to be part of the movement. Download an ORGANIZING KIT.

Jobs with Justice is calling a Resistance and Recovery Week of Action March 27 to April 4, in conjunction with the 10th Annual Student Labor Week of Action. JwJ local coalitions will take action supporting local struggles for worker justice while making the connection to and building and demonstrating support for the Employee Free Choice Act, targeting a corporate and/or financial target that embodies opposition to EFCA, workers’ rights in general, and that has a connection to the TARP bail-out. Info: wmjwj@wmjwj.org.  

 

Tuesday March 31

            THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL

            7pm, Gamble Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College, Rt 116, S Hadley. Kirstin Downey will read from and sign her new book, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience. Frances Perkins is no longer a household name, yet she was one of the most influential women of the twentieth century. Based on eight years of research, extensive archival materials, new documents, and exclusive access to Perkins’s family members and friends, this biography is the first complete portrait of a devoted public servant with a passionate personal life, a mother who changed the landscape of American business and society.

Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. As the first female cabinet secretary, she spearheaded the fight to improve the lives of America’s working people while juggling her own complex family responsibilities. Perkins’s ideas became the cornerstones of the most important social welfare and legislation in the nation’s history, including unemployment compensation, child labor laws, and the forty-hour work week. Written with a wit that echoes Frances Perkins’s own, award-winning journalist Kirstin Downey gives us a riveting exploration of how and why Perkins slipped into historical oblivion and restores Perkins to her proper place in history.

            Info: Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St (Routes 116 at 47), in the Village Commons, S Hadley, 534-7307 or 800-540-7307; odysseybks@aol.com; www.odysseybks.com.

 

More events at http://www.westernmassafsc.org/calendar/calendar.html & http://people.umass.edu/jgerber/SustEvents.htm.

A NOTE ABOUT PUBLIC MEETINGS & CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES:  Men and women are requested to avoid wearing scented personal products when attending public meetings. Scents trigger adverse responses in those with chemical sensitivities, allergies, and asthma. Note that many workers develop chemical sensitivities on the job.

 

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TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send an email to wmjwj@wmjwj.org with a Subject of "Unsub Workers' Rights".

[Workers' Rights] posts opportunities for you to learn about and show solidarity with workplace and working class struggles. And these events are opportunities for JwJ members to fulfill their pledge: "I'll be there for workers' rights at least five times a year!" This is the core mission of Jobs with Justice (www.jwj.org), affirming that workers' rights are human rights. To subscribe, send an email to wmjwj@wmjwj.org with a Subject of "Subscribe Worker's Rights".

Western Mass Jobs with Justice
640 Page Blvd #101
Springfield MA 01104
(413) 827-0301