January 31st was a day that I will never forget.

I joined 67 of my fellow brothers and sisters in faith in Springfield, as part of the Raise Illinois coalition, to present petitions to our state legislators to pass Senate Bill 1565, a bill to raise the minimum wage in Illinois.  The petitions we presented were in the form of a scroll that included signatures of over 200 religious leaders from all over Illinois.

I was overwhelmed to be a part of such an action because it is so personal to me. Being the eldest daughter to a widowed mother of five, I felt like it was my responsibility not just for myself, but also for my family. After my father passed away in 2002, money was tight; with no family to turn to, my mother had no choice but to work a minimum wage job.  Remembering this motivated me as I struggled with my wheelchair on the Amtrak train we took from Chicago to the Capitol.

“You are so strong,” said Shon Robertson of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, as we were boarding out of the train. I knew I had to be. A raise of one or two dollars per hour may not seem much for many, but it would make a huge difference for my family. As a Muslim, my faith taught me that I should work hard and try to perfect all that I do because there will be baraka, blessings, in my earnings. Similarly, many faith traditions including Islam stress the importance of just compensation.

Once we arrived in Springfield,  Raise Illinois held a press conference in the capitol rotunda. Revs. Norval Brown, Jackie Lynn, Bonnie Osei-Frimpong and economist Ron Baiman were among those who spoke. Rev. C.J. Hawking, Executive Director of Arise Chicago, brought a great spirit to the conference when she presented a scroll of faith leader signatures stretching 5 feet long to Senator Kimberly Lightford, the lead sponsor of the bill, and led the crowd in an uplifting chant that brought a powerful energy.

The excitement encouraged us as we proceeded to our legislators’ offices.  Although I was not able to meet legislators from my district, I met with State Rep Al Riley.  At first he seemed hesitant to speak to us before the press conference, explaining that this may not be the best time for a raise in minimum wage, but he supported Raise Illinois in the end by saying that we should continue building relationships because strength is in numbers.

Although it was my first time in Springfield, I felt at home. I was comfortable knowing I had made a difference. You can too. Make your voice heard by taking action. If you live in Illinois and/or are a Faith Leader, please sign one of the petitions and join the fight for fair minimum wage in Illinois!

-Aziza is the Zakat Intern at Arise Chicago

On Dec. 11, 2011, the 136 workers of Rolf’s Patisserie in Lincolnwood, Ill., were unceremoniously fired without even a day’s warning. They were paid their final checks four days later–only to have them bounce.

Rolf’s workers began organizing with Arise Chicago to demand that their former boss, Lloyd Culbertson, pay them what they are owed under the law: their final checks and 60 days severance pay, the latter of which is guaranteed to them under the federal WARN Act.

Yesterday, Rolf’s workers gathered to announce a partial victory. After organizing to pressure Culbertson to pay them what they are owed, workers have begun to receive the payment for their final bounced checks and their accrued vacation pay. The fees they accrued at currency exchanges and banks, however, remain unpaid; more importantly, they still have not received their WARN Act pay. Rolf’s workers announced that they remain committed to fighting for all the pay owed them under the law.

Footage from the press conference: 

For pictures, visit our Flickr page.

Nearly 80 Rolf’s workers gathered in the shadow of their former employer to denounce the company’s abrupt and unexpected mass firing, and for stealing workers’ final paychecks. They announced the filing of a class-action lawsuit against Rolf’s president Lloyd Culbertson, charging that their unannounced terminations are in violation of the WARN Act.

Rolf’s workers were told on Dec. 10th that their plant would be briefly closed for cleaning on the 11th, but they should report as usual on Dec. 12. On the 11th, the factory’s president and owner Lloyd Culbertson–a former investment banker–asked the production manager to log him into the company’s web site, then demanded the worker leave the room. Thirty minutes later, workers checked the company’s site. They were shocked to discover a three-sentence announcement that the plant was now closed. Culbertson had not informed any of the plant’s 136 workers of the plant’s impending closure; the site’s announcement was the first any employee had heard that they were terminated.

Arise Chicago had previously assisted one Rolf’s worker to recover his owed vacation and file a health and safety complaint with OSHA, resulting in a fine against the company.  Upon the bakery’s closure, they organized their co-workers and reached out to Arise Chicago.  Arise Chicago worked with the former Rolf’s employees to organize their co-workers and file their lawsuit.

Today, a majority of former Rolf’s workers gathered to speak out about their illegal and immoral treatment. They called on Lloyd Culbertson to pay them the wages and severance that he owes them.

Check back here or on Arise’s Facebook page for more updates on the Rolf’s case. If you’d like to use any pictures from today’s action, feel free. For a PDF of the law suit that has been filed against Rolf’s, click here.

by Adele Stan, Dec 13, 2011

Listen to the conventional wisdom, and you’ll hear that women have fared better than men in the recent recession. In reality, women are not only shouldering the burden of being the sole breadwinner in more families than ever before, they also account for the majority of public-sector layoffs. Single mothers and women in communities of color continue to suffer rising unemployment of more than 12 percent.

Against that backdrop, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), as part of a coalition of 40 national organizations, is launching HERvotes, a nonpartisan campaign to mobilize women around the pressing issues of health and economic rights.

While it’s true that the initial rounds of layoffs after the housing bubble burst in 2007 and the stock market crash in 2008 hit men harder than women, men have now benefited significantly from the jobs added to the economy in the ensuing years. As CLUW Executive Director Carol Rosenblatt notes in a post on the HERvotes blog:

According to an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center, women lost 46,000 jobs from December 2007 – June 2009 while men gained 1.26 million.

She also notes that women comprise nearly 64 percent of laid-off public-sector workers—a number disproportionate to their 57 percent representation in the public-sector workforce. (See our report, here.)

Drawing from the stories of unemployed people that appear on the AFL-CIO site where jobless workers are relating their stories, Rosenblatt highlights the comments of two women among those ranks, including a poignant entry from a Pennsylvania woman named Juli, who writes:

Without unemployment, I have no way to feed my two sons, to pay our rent, to try and find another job.

Rosenblatt’s post appeared in a HERvotes blog carnival, part of a campaign to get Congress to extend federal unemployment insurance benefits to those whose benefits are about to expire in January.

One way you can participate, via Twitter, is to retweet these, which both HERvotes and MomsRising have been sending from their Twitter accounts:

Call Congress: 888-245-3381 Tell your Rep to oppose @RepDaveCamp bill #HR3630 to slash unemployment ins. #extendUI #HERvotes PlsRT

#Unemployment Insurance=critical 4 #women! TAKEACTION:EZ Click-to-call: http://j.mp/uZOqhp Tell Congress #ExtendUI Oppose HR 3630 #HERvotes

#ExtendUI! #Women speak up 4 #unemployed workers #HERvotes blog carnival http://t.co/kfQlC0qA

The HERvotes actions also included taking part in last week’s prayer vigil for jobless workers and a Friday gathering on Capitol Hill focusing on unemployment that featured Eleanor Smeal, president, Feminist Majority; Linda Hallman, executive director, American Association of University Women (AAUW); Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president, National Women’s Law Center (NWLC); Nancy Kaufman, CEO, National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW); Gloria Lau, CEO, YWCA USA; Donna Norton, national campaign director of Mom’s Rising; Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; and CLUW President Karen See. After the event, many of the participants joined in a prayer vigil that took place outside the U.S. Capitol building.

Image by JR of Truthout.org.

By Amy Dean

The last five years have been grim and isolating ones for immigrants and working people, right? Overall, this may be the case, but if you talk with organizers at Fuerza Laboral, an independent workers’ center in Rhode Island founded in 2006, you might get a different impression.

Despite difficult times, the group has taken on some bold and determined organizing. And they have some important victories to show for their efforts.

“Fuerza’s roots are really and truly the essence of what the labor movement is: workers organizing themselves and getting together with their communities to identify some real injustices that are systemic throughout the country,” says Josie Shagwert, the group’s executive director. “They got together to say, ‘How can we put a stop to this? Because the system is failing us.’”

Not long ago, workers’ centers were seen as service providers, staff-driven organizations where individuals could go to have caseworkers help with their problems. That has changed over the past decade, and the Rhode Island group is part of the transformation. “Fuerza Laboral builds worker power,” the organization’s web site explains. “[We] organize to end exploitation in the workplace. We train workers in their rights, develop new community leaders, and take direct action against injustice to achieve real victories.”

This work sounds a lot like what unions do. And, yet, Fuerza Laboral is not formally affiliated with the labor movement. Instead, it is an affiliate of National People’s Action (NPA), and shares with other NPA members an organizing model rooted in communities. Fuerza Laboral’s campaigns show two things: why organizing among workers remains essential, and how the labor movement still has work to do in bridging the gap between its traditional practices and new groups doing cutting-edge organizing, especially among immigrants and low-wage workers.

What Good Are Laws Without the Power to Enforce Them?

When Fuerza Laboral first started organizing, it focused on the abuses of temp agencies in Rhode Island, “employers who were underpaying, not paying, taking illegal deductions,” Shagwert says. Having first coalesced around this industry, the group soon moved to take on other businesses with unjust labor practices – notably a local manufacturer called Colibri. On a cold morning in January 2009, some 280 workers showed up for work at the Colibri jewelry factory, a nonunion shop in East Providence. They found a handwritten sign taped to the factory door reading, “Plant Is Closed. Go Home.”

“Shock turned to anger pretty quickly,” says Shagwert, “with people asking, What kind of treatment is this? People had worked there for 5, 15, 20 years.” One of the workers called a local Spanish-speaking radio station and complained on the air about the closing. The radio host suggested that he get in touch with Fuerza Laboral.

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“For the first meeting they had 12 people,” Shagwert says. “By the time they got together for a second meeting there were 60 people in the living room of one of the workers, crowded in to talk about what to do and what an organizing campaign would look like.”

The group discovered that Colibri’s closing violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which mandates that any business with 100 or more employees must give 60-days notice before closing. (The WARN Act was in the news during the December 2008 occupation of the Republic Windows factory by the Chicago company’s laid-off workers, which Kari Lydersen chronicles in her book “Revolt on Goose Island.”) The law affords an important protection for employees. Unfortunately, there is no federal agency to enforce it. The Colibri workers decided that they would take it upon themselves to make the company obey the law.

“The vast majority of those workers had never organized before,” Shagwert says. Yet, in the course of the campaign, they pulled together a 250-person rally at the Colibri site and also began engaging in direct action. “The workers practiced civil disobedience at the auctions [of company assets],” says Shagwert, “which resulted in 13 people getting arrested.”

During the action, one observer told the local NBC affiliate, “I’d like to see them get justice … This is another AIG deal. The rich get richer, and the workers get the shaft.”

The activists subsequently brought 100 people to the headquarters of the private equity firm in New York that had purchased the company, and workers held a sit-in in the firm’s lobby. “As a result of all those actions,” Shagwert explains, “a prominent labor lawyer in Rhode Island, Marc Gursky, felt inspired by this grassroots surge of energy. He stepped forward and said, ‘I know that to enforce the WARN Act you are going to need a lawyer.’”

For two years, Fuerza Laboral pursued the case in court, and it ultimately reached a settlement. The precise terms of the agreement have not yet been made public. Nevertheless, Shagwert notes, “I will say that the workers felt really happy that after two years they were vindicated.”

“Unity” and Unions

Fuerza Laboral’s efforts show why, even with only 7 percent of workers in the private sector of the American economy covered by traditional unions, there is no substitute for organizing among working people. Even with pro-employee laws on the books, there is little hope of justice without a grassroots demand. Prior to the labor laws enshrined in the New Deal, mutual aid among workers was the very essence of union life. With collective bargaining in decline, the revival of this type of action may be important for labor’s future as well.

Asked what Fuerza Laboral takes from the organizing model of National People’s Action, the national coalition of which it is a member, Shagwert says, “Networking and constantly building leadership. It’s a real belief that everyone who belongs to your organization, or wants to belong, has the potential to take leadership.”

In addition to developing leadership through their campaigns, Fuerza Laboral has also actively pursued a program of political education. “The essence of Fuerza Laboral is having the passion to develop leaders who will confront social injustice,” says Heiny Maldonado, a community organizer at the group. “We have a year-round calendar of trainings for our members and leaders.”

Shagwert adds: “Since 2006, we have put at least 3,000 workers through a really aggressive popular education model within which our members and leaders get trained to teach basic workers rights. We also hold democracy schools: a multi-week school that teaches about organizing, the history of the labor movement, and the history of immigration. Many of our leaders have come through those courses. They take a course, get fired up, and then we look for ways to plug them into the regular organizing we do. That feels like a huge victory.”

If there’s going to be a progressive revival in this country, having a broadly inclusive approach to worker education and developing community leadership will be just as important to traditional unions as they are to workers’ centers. Currently, the labor movement is engaged in efforts to reach out beyond its established membership in shops covered by collectively bargained contracts. From the AFL-CIO’s Working Americaprogram to Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU)Fight for a Fair Economy, labor organizations are seeking to expand their reach into working-class communities at large, recognizing that if they are perceived as a narrow special interest that benefits only a few workers, the movement will be destined to permanent decline.

Operations such as Fuerza Laboral represent another strain of organizing among workers that is taking place outside of traditional labor structures. A decade ago, the relationships between emerging workers’ centers in different parts of the country and traditional labor unions tended to be mistrustful – if not outright hostile, as Janice Fine discussed in her book “Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream.” Few ties existed in most cities. Since then, both sides have made inroads into this challenge and have strengthened their relationships with one another. In the past five years, the AFL-CIO has formed partnerships with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and with Interfaith Worker Justice.

Yet, gaps in organizational cultures and strategies still remain. The relationships between traditional unions and workers’ centers are continually being redefined, and the interaction of the groups represents a vital ongoing conversation.

As for Fuerza Laboral, Shagwert says: “Our board president has started calling us Unity Union. Which is what we are doing: Representing people in terms of grievances, doing a lot of the things a union would do for its members. But we’re not a union. We don’t identify with workers based on where they are working, we identify with them based on the abuses they are experiencing.”

While she cites alliances with unions such as SEIU and labor groups like Jobs with Justice as crucial to Fuerza’s work, she views her organization differently: “It’s the way I compare working on human rights to working on the rights of one small minority,” she says. “It doesn’t feel right to throw our hat in the ring and fight for one particular group of people. We are fighting for all of us because we are fighting for the most vulnerable.”

She adds, “I want to find a way to say this that isn’t critical of unions. Without unions what would our country be? But I see Fuerza as able to be a little more flexible than a union can be because we don’t represent one particular group of workers.”

Fuerza Laboral at once embodies an impulse toward mutual aid that has deep roots in the history of workers’ struggles and represents a new breed of organization that is expanding in areas where traditional union structures have not been able to reach. For a labor movement that desperately needs to make clear its relevance for all Americans, the task of deepening partnerships with such community allies could not be more urgent.

Amy Dean is co-author, with David Reynolds, of “A New New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement” and is president and founder of ABD Ventures. She worked for nearly two decades in the labor movement and now works to develop new and innovative organizing strategies for social change organizations. You can follow Amy on Twitter at @amybdean, or she can be reached via www.amybdean.com.

Chicago police officers arrest Occupy Chicago protesters—including the author, at right—for breaking Grant Park's 11 p.m. curfew on Saturday October 15. (Photo by Brett Jelinek via Facebook)

Originally posted at Working In These Times.

The Occupy movement and struggling workers want the same thing

CHICAGO—As I was ushered from a police wagon into a station on Chicago’s near South Side early Sunday morning—along with about 174 other protesters in zip-tie handcuffs who had refused to clear our belongings and ourselves from an Occupy Chicago encampment downtown—a Chicago Police Department officer told me to wait by an entrance while other activists had their cuffs cut off.

She paused to stare at the written message affixed to the front of my chest: “Take Our Country Back from the Rich—Take Back Chicago!” Her eyes scanned from my chest to my eyes, and she slowly nodded. “I can’t say nothin’,” she said, turning her head to glance at the other officers collecting protesters’ belongings and leading them to a holding cell, “but…” She nodded again, silently communicating her agreement as another office patted me down.

Through similar gestures and words, it was a message we heard throughout Occupy Chicago protesters’ short time in jail from a police force whose name is not exactly synonymous with sympathy toward protesters.

But it was a message that made sense. Cops are workers. Our arrests made sense to them because the Occupy movement is, at its heart, a labor struggle.

Most labor struggles, of course, don’t see mass arrests of people of various ages, races, occupations and political orientations trying to camp out in a public park. They don’t usually spread to cities and towns around the world with earnest but at times unfocused messaging. They don’t usually involve puzzling hand signals and consensus-based decision-making and human echo chambers called “People’s Mics.” It’s rare for them to even see arrests for civil disobedience, much less beatings and the use of pepper spray by police.

The Occupy movement doesn’t look like a typical labor fight. But most of its various issues–unemployment, underemployment, jobs that don’t pay enough for workers not to be up to their eyes in debt, the general sense that the overwhelming majority of the population has been vanquished by a small group of wealthy elites—are the same issues the labor movement has always struggled around.

The initial call from the Canadian magazine Adbusters to Occupy Wall Street stressed the need for a straightforward ultimatum: “democracy not corpotocracy.” And, despite the baffled, absurd questions from pundits about what the heck this Occupy stuff is all about (as Glenn Greenwald recently asked, “Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest?”), protests have largely stuck to this message: that the rich—the 1 percent, as the protesters have so geniously dubbed them—have hijacked our democracy and are lining their already bulging pockets with record amounts while the 99 percent are suffering, unable to meet their basic needs.

Variations of this message have been labor’s cry since the movement’s inception. Sometimes it has come from rank-and-file radicals, other times from over-paid communications consultants. But it has always been present.

Many of the other issues raised by protesters can be traced back to labor: Recent college graduates can’t find work. People with graduate degrees are lucky if they can find jobs at minimum wage. Folks who used to think of themselves as “solidly middle class” are suddenly jobless and unable to make their mortgage payments. Public-sector workers like teachers are so demonized you’d think they were the originators of the credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations that helped run our economy into the ground.

The demands so often come back to work: protesters want more work, and better work that provides for their needs. And they want workers’ voices to be heard in a society that seems to only listen to the wealthy. It should be no surprise, then, that unions have resoundingly endorsed the Occupy protests on Wall Street and elsewhere: unions and occupiers are fighting for the same goals.

The week before Saturday’s attempted occupation of Grant Park, I participated in a week of action with a coalition of community groups and unions called Take Back Chicago. (The organization I work for, Arise Chicago, is a member.) Throughout the week, we paid visits to bankers schmoozing at a gala, wealthy recipients of taxpayer city revenue originally designed to help develop blighted communities, and to Chicago’s Bank of America headquarters. (The bank charges Chicago’s public schools unjustly high interest rates.)

But almost every day, we ended up at Occupy Chicago, in front of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Federal Reserve, with union members and community activists and immigrants marching alongside out-of-work twentysomethings. On Tuesday, I watched an African-American union member recently laid-off after 15 years as a traffic aide downtown give a high-five to a young white Occupy protester with a somewhat irregular haircut.

“I’m so glad you all are here!” the occupier exclaimed.

“So am I!” the traffic aide responded.

I thought of that high-five as police made their final announcement after 1 a.m. on Sunday in Grant Park that those of us who would not leave would be arrested. I thought of the union members who talked about the young protesters in front of the Board of Trade as members in the same struggle, fighters for the same causes. And though I hadn’t planned on it beforehand, I decided to keep occupying. I linked arms with a good friend—incidentally, a union member at a cafeteria where workers had recently won their first contract—and sat down on the edge of the tent city, awaiting advancing police officers.

If we are going to live in a country where 99 percent of people don’t suffer at the whim of the top 1 percent, we’ll need more union members high-fiving occupiers. After all, both are fighting the same fight.

Today marked the end of a week-long strike at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and Hyatt Regency McCormick Place  held simultaneously with Hyatt workers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu.  This morning I walked the picket line at the Hyatt Regency and had the honor of participating in an interfaith solidarity service with local Chicago clergy.  That’s me in the pic below, together with Rabbi Victor Mirelman (left) of West Suburban Temple Har Zion and Rabbi Larry Edwards (center) of Congregation Or Chadash. Above you can see Victor sounding the shofar in a dramatic start to our service.

As I’ve written before, the situation facing Hyatt workers in many cities throughout the country is deplorable. Hyatt has eliminated jobs,replaced career housekeepers with minimum wage temporary workers, and imposed dangerous workloads on those who remain.  Although the strike will be over today, the boycott of eighteen Hyatt hotels nationwide continues.

Again, I encourage you to read “Open the Gates of Justice: A Clergy Report on Working Conditions at Hyatt Hotels” for more information.  The report contains the direct testimony of hotel workers themselves, who speak eloquently to the injustices they endure – as well as their desire only to be valued as workers for the important work they do for Hyatt hotels.

At the interfaith service today, I read an “Avinu Malkeinu” High Holiday prayer that I reworked in honor of the striking Hyatt workers. Click below to read:

Avinu Malkeinu, help us to stand with our brothers and sisters who seek a fair wage, safe working conditions and a secure future;
Avinu Malkeinu, help us to remain firm as we hold the Hyatt corporations such to account.

Avinu Malkeinu, remind us that all workers are worthy of respect and dignity;
Avinu Malkeinu, remind us that those who do the work of hospitality are doing sacred work.

Avinu Malkeinu, let us never waver in our support for those who seek to organize unions in their workplaces;
Avinu Malkeinu, let us never falter in our support of power equity and collective bargaining.

Avinu Malkeinu, bring healing and comfort to those workers who have been needlessly injured on the job;
Avinu Malkeinu, bring the truth of their suffering out of the darkness and into the light of day.

Avinu Malkeinu, we say shame on the kind of employer who would turn heat lamps on striking workers;
Avinu Malkeinu, we say it’s time to turn up the heat on the Hyatt corporation until it treats its workers with decency and respect.

Avinu Malkeinu, help us to remind Hyatt that workers are not commodities to be acquired and discarded;
Avinu Malkeinu, help us insist that Hyatt cease outsourcing its jobs to subcontractors.

Avinu Malkeinu, let us remind Hyatt that its ownership does not extend to public sidewalks and passways;
Avinu Malkeinu, let us remind the world that the right to freely assemble is a basic and inalienable right.

Avinu Malkeinu, we stand with all who have become vulnerable during these years of economic hardship;
Avinu Malkeinu, we stand with the poor, the unhoused, the uninsured, the undocumented.

Avinu Malkeinu, we stand with all workers, the ones who make our beds, serve our food, police our streets or teach our children;
Avinu Malkeinu, we will stand up against all those who would demean the sacred cause of worker justice.

Avinu Malkeinu, may this be the year we bring justice and equity for the workers of Hyatt;
Avinu Malkeinu, may this be the year we bring justice and equity for all who labor throughout the land.

Contacts: Rev. C.J. Hawking, Arise Chicago: 773-937-1824

Stephanie Gadlin, Chicago Teachers Union: 312-329-6250

Nick Kaleba, Chicago Federation of Labor: 773-458-0958

TEACHERS TO SPEAK IN FIFTY RELIGIOUS SERVICES OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND

            In a program sponsored by Arise Chicago, the ChicagoTeachers Union, and the Chicago Federation of Labor, religious leaders will invite fifty teachers to speak in worship services during the Labor Day weekend.  This special “Teacher in the Pulpit” program is in addition to the annual program sponsored by Arise Chicago and the Chicago Federation of Labor in which labor leaders are placed in over 100 services.

CTU President Karen Lewis asserted,  “We will be out Labor Day weekend to strengthen the ties between the cornerstones of our communities – the churches and the schools.  We want congregants to know that a good classroom environment for students and a good working environment for teachers looks exactly the same.  We are grateful for the support of community leaders who, with our teachers, want to bring joy and respect back into the classroom.”

Who:              Teachers, Clergy, and Congregants

When:            Labor Day Weekend

What:             Teachers in pulpits

Where:          Chicago congregations

Visual:   Chicago Teachers Union members and leaders speaking in pulpits

Contacts:                                

Rev. C.J. Hawking, Arise Chicago: 773-937-1824

Stephanie Gadlin, Chicago Teachers Union: 312-329-6250
Nick Kaleba, Chicago Federation of Labor: 773-458-0958

The Honorable Tom Cross, House Minority Leader

The Honorable Kay Hatcher, State Representative

The Honorable Pam Roth, State Representative

The Honorable Randy Hultgren, U.S. Congressman

The Honorable Dennis Hastert, Former Speaker of the U.S. House

Ken Toftoy, Chairman of the Kendall County Republican Party

Cc:

The Honorable Christine Radogno, Senate Minority Leader

The Honorable Pat Brady, State Republican Chairman

Dear Honorable Elected Officials, Candidates and Party Chairmen:

We recently became aware of the Kendall County Republican Party Picnic scheduled to occur on August 27, 2011, which we understand will include the participation of numerous Illinois elected officials and party leaders.  According to the event’s website, https://sites.google.com/site/kendallcountyrepublicans/home/family-picnic, the featured speaker for the event is Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County.

As you may know, Sheriff Arpaio has a long history of constitutional violations, corruption, and racial discrimination. We believe that as present and future leaders of Illinois, you would agree that the welfare of all of our state’s residents must be protected, regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, country of origin, or immigration status – and that the U.S. Constitution should be a sacred text.  We must not let ourselves be divided by hatred and extremism and for the sake of our nation we must all stand together and SAY NO TO HATE.

Below are a sample of Sheriff Arpaio’s most egregious attacks on the Constitution and human dignity:

• Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a well-documented policy of racial discrimination and racial profiling of Latinos.  An independent 2008 study showed an active bias in his department, [1] which was subject to 2700 discrimination lawsuits between 2004 and 2007 alone – 50 times the number of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston combined.[2]
• Sheriff Arpaio has famously required his inmates to wear pink underwear and pink jumpsuits – he sells copies of these products for his private gain.[3][4]
• Sheriff Arpaio has faced a raft of election law violations[5], misuse of funds allegations[6], and abuse of power charges, some of which have come with penalties and fines – including a $153,978 fine to his election campaign in 2010 for misusing funds.
• In 2008 and 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake ruled that Sheriff Arpaio’s jails violated the constitutional rights of inmates, by failing to provide basic medical care and food.  From one report: “Arpaio routinely abused pre-trial detainees… by feeding them… contaminated food, housing them in cells so hot as to endanger their health, denying them care for serious medical and mental health needs, and keeping them packed as tightly as sardines.”[7][8][9]
• From 2009 to 2011, Sheriff Arpaio refused to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division on their investigation of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.[10]
• Arpaio faced a federal discrimination lawsuit in 2009 for firing a Muslim employee who refused to shave his beard for religious reasons.[11]

There is no room for the Sheriff’s anti-immigrant, anti-Latino, and anti-Muslim actions in Illinois – one of the most diverse states in the union.  As civil rights, Latino, immigrant, and faith organizations, we call upon you to stand with us against the unconstitutional tactics of Sheriff Arpaio in two ways:

1)    We ask the organizers to withdraw their invitation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

2)    And we ask those who have been invited to attend, to decline and refuse to endorse the Sheriff’s record.

The Kendall County GOP website states that “Our country was founded, and continues to be based, upon the belief that freedom resides deep within every human heart.  As exemplified by the first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, the ideas that every person matters, that each individual is due dignity and the opportunity to take personal responsibility, has been at the center of our society.”  We could not agree more.  Sheriff Joe Arpaio has spent his career undermining these Lincolnian values.

The Tri-Count-Teas site also states, this event “isn’t a ‘Republican’ or ‘Democrat’ event – it’s an American event,” and so we urge you to please help all Americans feel welcome at your event.

Sincerely,

Rev. C.J. Hawking, Executive Director, Arise Chicago

Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Jane Ramsey, Executive Director, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

Fr. Brendan Curran O.P., Pastor, St Pius V Catholic Church; Priests for Justice for Immigrants

Tuyet Le, Executive Director, Asian American Institute

Hatem Abudayyeh, Executive Director, Arab American Action Network

Maria Pesqueira, President & CEO, Mujeres Latinas en Accion

Rev. Lois McCullen Parr, Pastor, Broadway United Methodist Church

Ahlam Jbara, Associate Director, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago

Monika Tietz, Chair of the Board of Directors, Polish Initiative of Chicago

Rev. George Wadleigh, Pastor, Christian Science Church

Tom Balanoff, President, Service Employees International Union Local 1

Rev. Audrey deCoursey, Associate Pastor, Highland Avenu Church of the Brethren

Mary Shesgreen, Steering Committee, Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice

John Laesch, Steering Committee, Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice

Ron Maydon, Chicago Metro Charter President, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement

Mireya D. Luna, Program Coordinator, Family Focus

Ron Powell, President, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881

Jim Robinson, Director, United Steel Workers District 7

Jennifer Arwade, Executive Director, Albany Park Neighborhood Council

Carl Rosen, President, United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, Western Region

Dr. Vince Gaddis, Executive Director, Youth Believing in Change

Michelle Young, President, Action Now

Corey Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer, Laborers Local 149

Abraham Mwaura, Executive Director, Warehouse Workers for Justice

Rev. Jean Siegfried Darling, Minister, The People’s Church of Chicago

We all know the phrase “going postal,” right?  It’s when someone becomes extremely angry to the point of become violent, usually in the context of work.  It came about in response to a number of horrific incidents of violence committed by postal workers in the 1980s and ’90s.*

But this past week the Chicago Tribune ran a revealing story about the risks of violence posed to postal workers just doing their jobs.  In a place like Chicago, the workplace for mail carriers–the outdoors–presents natural health and safety risks, such as heat illness.  Being in Chicago, extreme weather conditions can be expected and prepared for.  But when routes run through high-crime areas, carriers’ work can become life-endangering from human factors of violence.

In the Tribune story, mail carrier Khalalisa Norris tells her story of being nearly gunned-down in a drive-by shooting (watch a video here).  Rodney Nelson, another mail carrier, describes being taken into an alley and held at gunpoint to hand over his mail bag.  And Berenda Walker was assaulted while organizing mail in her truck.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that an average of 1.7 million people were victims of violent crime while working or on duty in the United States each year from 1993 through 1999 according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).”

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration notes that “Violence in the workplace is a serious safety and health issue. Its most extreme form, homicide, is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 521 workplace homicides in the preliminary count of 2009 in the United States, out of a total of 4,349 fatal work injuries.”  (For more information, see the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries summary).

More than simply a neighborhood safety story, the Tribune article shows that this is a workers’ rights issue.  Mail carriers have had to battle management to be transferred to other routes after being the victim of a crime.  And there is currently no policy that requires supervisors to inform carriers when co-workers are robbed or assaulted.   According to the Tribune, the carrier’s union, the National Association of Letter Carriers, (NALC) “is pushing for a better system of reporting incidents, more flexibility for carriers who have experienced violence, and a system that would notify all carriers after an assault, robbery or shooting.”

The story shows how local residents are not the only victims of neighborhood violence.  Norris reports that now some of the residents on her route will stay on their porches until she finishes delivery on that block, to ensure her safety.  This suggests the need for a coordinated effort between local community groups and worker organizations like the NALC.

* Despite this spate of tragedies, research has shown the phrase “going postal” to be unwarranted: “Researchers have found that the homicide rates per 100,000 workers at postal facilities were lower than at other workplaces. In major industries, the highest rate of 2.1 homicides per 100,000 workers was in retail. The next highest rate of 1.66 was in public administration, which includes police officers. The homicide rate for postal workers was 0.26 per 100,000.”

- Adam is the Worker Center Director at Arise Chicago.