12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin
By Joshua Holland | Sourced from AlterNet
What's happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the beginning of this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP Governor Scott Walker then " signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit." (Update: please see this note for more detail on the cause of the budget gap.)
Walker then used the deficit he'd created as the justification for assaulting his state's public employees. He used a law cooked up by a right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I described the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and corporate money." Similar laws are on the table in Ohio and Indiana.
Statement by Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on extending expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance program
WASHINGTON — Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement regarding the extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program as amended by the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009:
"It is vital that Congress take action before this Saturday to extend the Recovery Act"s expansions to the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. These expansions to the TAA program have helped tens of thousands of trade-impacted workers get the job training, placement assistance and income support they need to succeed in a tough job market. On behalf of the workers whose livelihoods and families depend on this vital program, and every American who wants our country to compete and win in the changing global economy, I urge Congress to act before the end of this week.
Making Business SucceedStan Sorscher WEAR RED!IF IT'S THURSDAY..... WEAR RED http://www.endicottalliance.org/ifitsthursdaywearred.htm It has been a custom since 1989 for the members of the CWA to show their solidarity by wearing red on Thursdays, but why and where did this day of red begin? Well for one, it represents the color of blood that was lost in the strife to gain fair and equal rights for workers through out the years. The day of red is also in remembrance of Gerry Horgan, CWA’s chief steward for Westchester County who died as a result of being struck by a car driven by Tricia McNamara, a daughter of a second line manager as he worked a picket line in August 1989. In the time before unions there were no child labor laws, pensions, no medical coverage on or off the job, no medical coverage for family members, unsafe working environments, no forty hour week, no overtime pay, and no other "rights" and benefits workers have today. The American worker was totally at the mercy and benevolence of the employer. If you were to look back at the working conditions of the late 1800's to the 1930's, you would be appalled at the mistreatment of the worker. Fortunately, union workers trying to gain fair and equal rights in the work place also lobbied to get Federal laws passed; resulting in some of the protections we have today.
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Invasion of the Body-ShoppersSpecial visa allows firms to fill jobs with foreigners for less By John Lasker In the age of the Great Recession, if you tell any well-educated and out-of-work professional from Greater Cincinnati that thousands of non-citizen foreigners with advanced skills are employed locally and making bank, they just might flip their lid. And if you take into consideration that one of the globe’s largest outsourcing firms bringing these non-citizen guest workers to the United States has a major office in Milford, any unemployed Cincinnatian probably should hold onto to the top of their skull. The visa bringing these foreigners to Cincinnati and across America is the H-1b, which allows American corporations to hire foreigners with advanced skills — mainly IT professionals, engineers and professors — to come work in the U.S. for six years.
FILIBUSTER!!Follow the filibuster on C-SPAN America’s Senator, Bernie Sanders, is filibustering the tax cut deal worked out between the President and the Republican leadership. Bernie is laying out the argument against tax cuts for the wealthiest while expressing the necessity for tax cuts for the middle class and un-employment extensions for our more unfortunate brothers and sisters that have lost their jobs. We know what is at stake and how urgent the situation is. Please call or email Bernie Sanders and let him know that we appreciate his stand for us. Don’t forget to call your Senators and Representatives. Ask your Senators to join Bernie on the Senate floor for the filibuster, and ask your representative in the House to stick with Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic caucus in opposing this legislation in its present form. This is an historic moment! The last time there was a REAL filibuster in the Senate was when Strom Thurmond filibustered civil rights legislation. Let’s stand with Bernie and tell the agents of privilege, ENOUGH! |
