John Conyers: A Champion of Jobs, Justice and Peace
Photo: Dwan Walker of ‘One Aliquippa’ with Rep. Conyers at award dinner
Rep. John Conyers Honored at Labor’s
Human Rights Dinner in Beaver County
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
Over 400 labor and human rights leaders and activists gathered at The Fez in Beaver County’s Hopewell Township Oct. 8 to honor John Conyers, the Congressman from Detroit Michigan, now serving his 23rd term as a long-time champion of labor, civil rights and civil liberties.
Sponsored by the Beaver-Lawrence Central Labor Council, the annual human rights banquet drew local labor unions, the NAACP and African American churches, and activist groups such as the 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America. The elected officials present included County Commissioners Joe Spanik and Tony Amadio, row officers Carol Fiorucci and Nancy Werme, as well as Dwan Walker and his ‘One Aliquippa’ organization. Walker’s recent primary victory has position him to be the town’s next mayor. The event was also honored by the attendance of several youth ambassadors from Aliquippa’s Council of Men and Fathers.
"There’s a high level of energy here," said Tina Shannon, PDA’s president and a member of the dinner’s organizing team. "Many of us have already worked together for years on Medicare for All, and in the recent ‘One Nation’ mobilization in Washington, DC. We’ve built a strong unity by working together, and it’s reflected in the turnout here tonight. It’ll continue as we fight for jobs"
Conyers was an excellent choice for the labor council’s award. Not only is he known worldwide for his leadership in the House Judiciary Committee as a staunch defender of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, he is also responsible for introducing some of the most progressive Bills in Congress. HR 676 ‘Improved and Expanded Medicare for All’ has been widely promoted here in Beaver County by Unions and Progressive Democrats, including the first Citizen’s Hearing on the Bill conducted in Aliquippa featuring Dennis Kucinich as convener. The Beaver County Commissioners and the Beaver/Lawrence Labor Council have both passed resolutions endorsing the Bill. Conyers has also recently drafted another groundbreaking bill, HR 870 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, to be funded by a financial transaction tax on Wall Street speculators.
Continue reading John Conyers: A Champion of Jobs, Justice and Peace
Talking to Local Unions on Jobs, President Presses Hard on GOP and Blue Dogs
President Obama Visits Pittsburgh
to Push His ‘Jobs for America’ Bill
By Timothy McNulty
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Oct. 11, 2011 – President Barack Obama blitzed the city to stump for his jobs plan today, delivering a 20-minute speech at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall on the South Side and then leaving town by 3:20 p.m.
Before his speech the president also met for more than an hour with a job-creating council of nationwide business, labor and academic leaders as they try to wrestle with the nation’s chronic unemployment problems.
Little in the president’s address on his $447 billion jobs plan was new: he touted its calls for tax cuts and construction spending and questioned Republicans for not supporting it. He said he did not know why the GOP was in opposition “other than the fact I proposed it.”
But Democrats have not been rushing to support the effort either, even in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, which is set to take its first votes on the plan tonight, a month after the president forwarded it. Mr. Obama has been barnstorming the country to try to whip up popular support for his plan and left the city for a similar event tonight in Orlando, Fla., before traveling next to Detroit.
Continue reading Talking to Local Unions on Jobs, President Presses Hard on GOP and Blue Dogs
Hip Hop Anthem from ‘Occupy Wall Street’
Steelworkers in Solidarity with Wall Street Protests
USW Supports the
‘Occupy Wall Street‘
Protest Movement
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), North America’s largest industrial union with 1.2 million active and retired members, today issued the following statement in support of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement:
“The United Steelworkers (USW) union stands in solidarity with and strongly supports Occupy Wall Street. The brave men and women, many of them young people without jobs, who have been demonstrating around-the-clock for nearly two weeks in New York City are speaking out for the many in our world. We are fed up with the corporate greed, corruption and arrogance that have inflicted pain on far too many for far too long.
Our union has been standing up and fighting these captains of finance who promote Wall Street over Main Street. We know firsthand the devastation caused by a global economy where workers, their families, the environment and our futures are sacrificed so that a privileged few can make more money on everyone’s labor but their own.
Wall Street and its counterparts on Bay Street (Toronto), The City (London) and across the world tanked our economy in 2008. They caused a crisis that we’re still suffering from – record job losses, home foreclosures, cuts to schools, public services, police, fire and so much more. They’ve gambled with our pension funds and our futures for far too long.
They should have gone to jail. Instead, they got bailed out, while we got left out. And now they want us to go down the same path.
The Occupy Wall Street movement represents what most Americans believe: Enough is enough! It’s time to hold those who caused our economic crisis accountable, to ensure they don’t get away with it again, and to demand that everyone pay their fair share. It’s time to stand and fight for the creation of real wealth by focusing on making real things and creating family- and community-supporting jobs.
The USW is proud to join with the brothers and sisters of the Occupy Wall Street movement as we continue this important fight for a more just economy and a brighter tomorrow.”
The United Steelworkers is the largest industrial union in North America and has 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. It represents workers employed in metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy, airline, health care, public sector and the service sector. For more info: http://www.usw.org .
Contact: Connie Mabin, USW, 412-562-2616 or cmabin@usw.org
SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/usw-supports-the-occupy-wall-street-protest-movement-2011-09-30
Unfair Trade: Call Congress on Oct 4!
Manufacturing Jobs: New Trade Deal Will Hit Us Hard
The 4th Congressional District of Pennsylvania Will Lose 7,623 Jobs If New Trade Deals Pass
4th CD Breakdown:
299 in Motor Vehicles & Parts
158 in Other Transport
812 in Electronics
4092 in Metal Product
2025 in Iron Metals
130 in textiles
116 in Apparel
Join the AFL-CIO National Call in to Congressman Altmire on Oct. 4th to stop the Korea Free Trade agreement.
The history of NAFTA shows that Pennsylvania and the 4th CD suffer from free trade deals. We need fair trade.
Pennsylvania lost 313,839 manufacturing jobs (or 35.8 percent) during the NAFTA-WTO period (1994-2010), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.* This figure is for total manufacturing employment, so it takes into account both jobs created by exports and jobs displaced by imports, among other causes of net job change.
The percentage of all private sector jobs that are manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania declined from 20.1 percent to 11.7 percent during the NAFTA-WTO period.
These are aggregate numbers, but the Department of Labor tracks instances of specific workers at specific workplaces who applied for special benefits for trade-displaced workers. In Pennsylvania, there are 149,519 such workers certified as having lost their job due to imports or offshoring under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. (Note: This program is difficult to qualify for, and this figure only includes those workers who were certified.)
The Economic Policy Institute found that 26,300 jobs have been lost or displaced in Pennsylvania – and over 680,000 in the United States – due to the rise in the trade deficit with Mexico alone since NAFTA was enacted in 1994.
The Economic Policy Institute also found that 95,700 jobs have been lost or displaced in Pennsylvania – and over two million in the United States – due to the rise in the trade deficit with China since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Local Postal Workers Join Nationwide Protest to Defend USPS
Beaver County Mail Carriers Rally
at Rep. Altmire’s Office to Stop
GOP’s Wrecking of National Postal Service
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
Fifty postal workers and their allies rallied outside the Aliquippa office of Congressman Jason Altmire on the afternoon of Sept 27. They joined postal workers around the country demanding changes in special accounting rules imposed on them by Congress. The cost of the rules threatens to end Saturday deliveries, lay off 120,00 workers and close many post office facilities across the country.
“Congress created this problem and Congress can fix it,’ states a USPS TV ad explained the problem. Unlike any other agency, the are required to overpay billions of dollars into their pension fund by the same amount that it would take to clear up the Post Office’s current deficit.
“They could fix this problem with the stroke of a pen and not cost the taxpayers a penny,’ said Charlie Hamilton, a retired mail carrier and Labor Council member who organized the rally. “But the Republicans are determined to destroy anything with ‘public’ in it connected to the government.”
Altmire spoke briefly to the gathering, saying that he agreed with them, and would back legislation to support them. He warned, however, that the fight would be hard.
“What’s with Issa? Why is he doing this?” shouted one of the workers in a question to Altmire. He was referring to California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, the House leader of the drive against the Post Office.
“We have a block of people in Congress with the ideology that government shouldn’t do hardly anything, that wants private businesses to take over things like the Post Office. They’re a minority, but they’re what’s making it a tough fight.”
The workers were glad to get Altmire’s support on the issue, but many were still wary due to his recent ‘Blue Dog’ votes with the GOP on other budget matters.
Altmire Votes to Hold Emergency Aid Hostage
by Randy Shannon
PA 4th C.D. Congressman Jason Altmire voted with the Republican majority in the US House of Representatives to hold hostage emergency aid to flood victims in PA and other states.
Altmire supported the austerity agenda of the far right which says that emergency aid cannot be funded without cutting the funds of programs already in place.
Neighboring Democratic Congressmen Mark Critz and Mike Doyle voted against the bill that ultimately failed due to overwhelming Democratic opposition and the opposition of a handful of Republicans.
‘Jobs, not Cuts!’ – PDA Message to Rep. Altmire
Sept 21, 2011 – 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America at its every 3rd Wednesday ‘Brown Bag Lunch’ vigil at Altmire’s Aliquippa office pressing our Blue Dog Congressman to vote with labor and Obama on the Jobs for America Act
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 