June 4, 2009

The last twelve months have been busy ones for the JWJ coalition in East Tennessee. We have begun several important projects, and we have continued to work with our partners in support of workers' rights, union organizing campaigns, and issues of economic justice in our area. Our work reflects the five primary issue areas of the JWJ national organization:
· Defending workers' organizing and collective bargaining rights
· Universal, affordable healthcare
· Global justice and solidarity with workers throughout the world
· Immigrant rights and opposition to attacks on immigrants and their communities
· Economic recovery

What follows here is a review of our recent activities and a look ahead at the challenges we will face in the next year.

See Coalition Members.

CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS

1. DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF INDIAN GUEST WORKERS. Last year JWJET actively supported the Indian H2B guest workers who were being held in Texas and Mississippi in virtual slavery by a Gulf Coast corporation. These brave workers continue to demand justice from the federal government for the violation of their rights by their employer. In June, 2008 some twenty workers began a hunger strike in D. C. to protest Justice Dept. foot dragging in certifying them as material witnesses to labor violations so that they could remain in the U. S. while their case is moving through the courts. On June 11 JWJET members conducted a demonstration at the federal building in downtown Knoxville in support of the Indian workers. At the demonstration's conclusion the demonstrators hand-delivered a letter to Rep. Jimmy Duncan, requesting his assistance in getting the Justice Dept. to act.

2. "PEOPLE'S BAIL-OUT" RALLY AT THE BANK OF AMERICA. Thirty sign-carrying JWJET demonstrators spent the noon hour on Friday, Dec. 12, in front of the BOA downtown on Main St. They advocated a "People's Bail-Out" instead of the billions in give-aways to large financial institutions. BOA took a $25 billion taxpayer hand-out the same week it called in loans to Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago, putting the company out of business, and instructed it not to pay the 300 workers losing their jobs the compensation to which they were legally entitled. The "People's Bail-Out" advocated an immediate moratorium on housing foreclosures and emergency action so that workers losing their jobs in the economic meltdown would not also lose their access to healthcare. At the end of the demonstration participants entered the bank and delivered a letter protesting BOA's illegal treatment of Republic's workers.

3. COUNTER TO SEN. CORKER'S ATTACK ON THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS. At the end of the "People's Bail-Out" demonstration, JWJET members crossed the street to Republican Senator Bob Corker's office and delivered a letter contesting his intemperate remarks blaming the UAW for the collapse of the American auto industry. Corker demanded that the union be brought to heel before the federal government could provide relief. As the letter pointed out, Corker had no qualms in approving the $25 billion give-away to his friends at the Bank of America, but begrudged the auto industry about the same amount in loans that would preserve the jobs of American workers.

4. SECOND DEMONSTRATION AT THE BANK OF AMERICA. SEIU Local 205 supplied the signs and JWJET supplied the demonstrators for a second demonstration, on March 19, 2009, advocating government programs to address the suffering that ordinary citizens were enduring as a result of irresponsible behavior by large financial institutions like the Bank of America.

5. DEFEAT OF AN ANTI LIVING-WAGE LAW IN THE TENNESSEE LEGISLATURE. JWJET members worked for over a month in partnership with the Middle Tennessee JWJ coalition, the Worker's Interfaith Network in Memphis, and the state AFL-CIO, to defeat House Bill 311 which would have repealed existing living wage ordinances and prohibited any new living wage laws in the state. Thanks to effective lobbying and lots of hard work, the bill died in committee on April 21.

6. PRAYER VIGIL AT UT FOR WORKERS THREATENED WITH LAY-OFFS OR TERMINATION. On Feb. 17 we participated in a prayer vigil, sponsored by the United Campus Workers, in front of the Volunteer Statue on the UT campus. Several JWJET members representing faith communities were present and several offered public prayers in support of UT workers threatened with job loss.

7. RAPID RESPONSE COALITION. JWJET continued to provide leadership for the Rapid Response Coalition of East Tennessee, a "preparedness network" that we co-founded with the Tennessee Immigrant &Refugee Rights Coalition (TIIRC) in the fall of 2007. The Coalition grew out of JWJET’s concern that immigration enforcement at worksites not only terrorizes immigrant communities but also undermines the labor rights of all workers. We have continued to provide follow-up assistance to families affected by the April 2008 raid on a chicken plant in Chattanooga. Although we are hopeful that a changed administration and comprehensive immigration reform will make mass raids at workplaces a thing of the past, we remain committed to responding if the need arises. JWJET also continues to work on other matters related to justice for low-wage immigrant workers.

8. SUPPORT FOR NASHVILLE H2B GUESTWORKERS’ CAMPAIGN. JWJET collaborated with Middle Tennessee JWJ to support a campaign organized by the New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice and the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity. The campaign exposed conditions of debt servitude and other gross abuses of H2B guestworkers by a Nashville-based labor broker. We provided a Worker Rights Board member for a hearing convened in Nashville on March 3 by Middle Tennessee JWJ, and a JWJET volunteer drafted the Board’s findings and recommendations. Building in part on the success of the Nashville hearing, the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity was able to gain an April 23, 2009 Congressional hearing where several guestworkers testified, including one of the men who had stepped forward to protest the Nashville situation. Organizers have since reported to Tennessee JwJ groups that the Sub-Committee has already moved to send a letter to the Department of Labor asking for a prompt report on what the Department intends to do about the workers’ complaints.

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS

1. CONFERENCE ON "NEW NEIGHBORS IN APPALACHIA." JWJET helped to sponsor a conference, held on Sept. 22, 2008, organized by the Center for Strong Communities at Maryville College. JWJ members staffed a table and distributed information on a variety of injustices suffered by immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, such as ICE raids on workplaces and wage theft.

2. COMMUNITY CONVERSATION ON ECONOMIC VIOLENCE. On Jan. 16 JWJET co-sponsored an evening gathering, organized by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, on the topic of economic violence. The event was one in a series marking Knoxville's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. JWJET supplied seven discussion facilitators as participants divided into small groups. Groups discussed forms of economic violence as well as some proposed remedies, such as the Employee Free Choice Act.

3. BLOUNT COUNTY CELEBRATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING'S BIRTHDAY. JWJET co-sponsored an evening meeting in Maryville on Jan. 19, commemorating King's birthday and set up an information table. Several JWJET members served as panelists.

4. PUBLIC FORUM PRESENTATION ON THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT. JWJET members made a presentation and led a discussion on EFCA on Feb. 22 at the downtown public library. Thirty people attended the forum.

5. PRESENTATIONS ON IMMIGRATION AND LABOR RIGHTS. JWJET speakers served as presenters in a number of programs over the last year related to immigration and labor rights, including activities at UT related to National Farmworker Awareness Week, talks for anthropology and sociology classes at UT, and talks at churches, including Concord United Methodist and Westminster Presbyterian.

ORGANIZING ACTIVITIES

1. PARTICIPATION IN THE TEAMSTER'S LABOR DAY PICNIC. JWJET co-sponsored a day-long Labor Day picnic organized by Teamsters Local 519. JWJ members set up a tent and information table, sold JWJ and IWJ tee shirts, and circulated through the crowd collecting signatures of EFCA One Million Mobilization postcards. The event was attended by an estimated 1,800 union members, friends of labor, and their families. Picnicers helped us reach our goal of 450 signed postcards, which we sent to the JWJ national office. From there they were delivered to Congress.

2. CONTINUING SUPPORT FOR UCW ORGANIZING ON THE U.T. CAMPUS.
The vigorous recruiting efforts of the United Campus Workers (CWA Local 3865) on the UT campus have resulted in an exhilarating 25% increase in union membership over the course of the last year. 900 UT employees are now members of the UCW. JWJ volunteers have participated in numerous leafleting efforts and have deployed to speak with workers at the end of shifts. They have also volunteered to knock on faculty office doors and talk with faculty members, who have been joining the union in growing numbers.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

1. PARTICIPATION IN SOCM'S "GOOD JOBS' CAMPAIGN. Six months ago the board of directors of Save Our Cumberland Mountains declared the creation of good jobs in Tennessee to be the organization's top priority. JWJET has been pleased to participate in SOCM's new initiative. Efforts have focused on the potential for good jobs in the federal stimulus package, and particularly in the "green jobs" federal money will create. JWJ participants have stressed that part of the definition of good jobs is that they respect worker rights, particularly the right of workers to collective bargaining.

2. PARTICIPATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF JWJ'S NATIONAL STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS. In order to respond effectively to new and continuing threats to worker rights and the well being of working families in a rapidly changing world, JWJ undertook a far-reaching strategic planning process during the last year. All 41 local chapters of the national JWJ organization, including JWJET, participated in the planning process. JWJET members spent the evening of July 21 with Treston Davis-Faulkner, national JWJ field director, and Krista Hanson, field organizer for the southern region, and shared with them our views on new problems we face and how JWJ can become even more effective in its work across the nation. After gathering information from all JWJ chapters, the national staff drew up a strategic plan to guide the organization for at least the next three years. At the end of February representatives of all 41 coalitions gathered in Baltimore and approved the plan. Details of the strategic plan can be found on the JWJ national website at http://www.jwj.org/about/strategicplan.html . One suggestion we made is reflected in the new strategic plan: the need for chapters in the South to work more closely together to develop a "southern strategy" that can help us to respond to the strong anti-union and anti-worker bias of Southern culture and politics. Erica Smiley, our new field organizer for the South, is already hard at work improving communication between the nine local JWJ chapters in the South.

3. JWJ ORGANIZES WORK DAY TO IMPROVE FACILITIES AT THE WORKERS UNITED UNION HALL. JWJ members joined Workers United union members in a day-long project to refurbish the large meeting room downstairs at the Workers United (formerly the UNITE HERE) building. After a day of scraping, scrubbing, and painting, we now have a bright new meeting space for groups large and small.

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JOBS WITH JUSTICE OF EAST TENNESSEE

ANNUAL REVIEW OF COALITION ACTIVITIES