Weekly Update: How to Get Main Street Working

Take Action

If you live in the Portland Metro area

Get involved on Saturday! Union members are turning out to the anti-WTO rally and to a Yes for Oregon canvass to educate other Oregonians about why we need to vote yes for tax fairness in January. Meet for the rally downtown under the Hawthorne bridge at noon, and for the canvass at the campaign office, 411 NE 19th, at 10am.

Live elsewhere? Groups are carpooling to the WTO rally, and the Yes for Oregon campaign will have a canvass in your area soon!

Learn more about the rally or the canvasses and we'll see you Saturday!

The Jobs Edition

Job Loss Claim De-Bunked

The campaign against tax fairness has spent a lot of energy telling us that Measures 66 and 67 could, might, possibly kill jobs. Breaking news, folks: their numbers are dead wrong. The Oregon Center for Public Policy released a study this week confirming what many economists have been saying for months: the taxes are necessary to keep the services in Oregon that Oregonians and Oregon businesses depend on.

These taxes won't cost Oregon jobs, but voting No will cut teachers and classes, close courthouses and other public services, and take cops that keep our communities safe off the streets. That's why we're voting Yes for tax fairness.

Check out the report and learn more!

President Talks Jobs, Unemployed Say "Now!"

From the National AFL-CIO:

As economic leaders gather in Washington for the White House Jobs Summit, working people will come together in Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico, and California to talk about their experience in communities hard hit by the economic crisis. Members of Working America and the AFL-CIO will join religious and labor leaders in Dayton, Columbus, Minneapolis, Sacramento, and Albuquerque to discuss how the economic crisis has affected them and call for the implementation of national policies that will create good jobs immediately.

The roundtable discussions are part of an initiative led by the 11.5 million member AFL-CIO and affiliates like Working America to push for the immediate creation of good jobs. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will be at the White House Jobs Summit calling for a five-point plan that will create and save at least 2 million jobs over the next year. The plan includes: • Extending the lifeline for jobless workers • Rebuilding America's schools, roads, and energy systems • Increasing aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services • Funding jobs in our communities • Putting TARP funds to work for Main Street

"The job crisis is hitting all working Americans across the country," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. "That's why every day we are calling for immediate action to turn around the economy. We need jobs now. And I'll be delivering that message from millions of working people at the White House Jobs Summit."

Working America represents 3 million members, 16.5 percent of which are unemployed, making it one of the largest organizations of unemployed workers in the country. Recently, Working America launched the Unemployment Lifeline which is a resource for people who've lost their jobs and are struggling to find a new one.

"Every night we talk to thousands of people in neighborhoods across the country and they all tell us the same thing - that they need urgent action on jobs and economy to stay afloat," said Karen Nussbaum, Executive Director of Working America. "The jobs crisis is in every neighborhood, every family. The question we're asking is what do working Americans think of the economy and how has it impacted them. That's just as important as what Goldman Sachs thinks."

In Other News...

Columbia Trade Unionists Morn Passing of Colleagues

14 trade unionists from Columbia finished a 2 month training program in the United States last week. They shadowed organizers, learned from union leaders, and spent time working together to come up with new ways to grow their movement back home.

But in the two months they were here they were all-too regularly reminded of why their movement needs help: four of their colleagues were assassinated just in the time they were here. Columbia is the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists.

Our movement for workers' rights is all too often focused on our struggles at home, in part because we still have too many struggles, even here in Oregon. But as we work it is important to remember that the advances we make, the successes we see, affect us locally, influence the wins our fellow union brothers and sisters have nationally, and in turn set the tone for labor movements around the world.

Keep up the good work!