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Dear Sisters and Brothers, The endorsement by the South Carolina State AFL-CIO of the call for labor to organize a Solidarity Day III demonstration in Washington, DC has served to inspire others to join this campaign. We have recently received additional important endorsements that we are listing here: The Council of New Jersey State College Locals (CNJSCL), AFT AFL-CIO. (We have included their letter and its resolution below.)
We are reprinting below excerpts from some of the notes we have received from these recent endorsers: Dear WERC organizers: We appreciate the good work you folks are doing. The resolution is very useful, especially in for us in New Jersey with our new Governor. We were able to raise the resolution as one small substantive step we could take right now. We were also able to present it as a concrete example of how the rank-and-file can apply pressure in National to take a more activist stance. Thanks, again. Terry Epperson Sisters and Brothers of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign, I think your call for this demonstration is a good idea — long overdue. Alan L. Maki Director of Organizing Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council Dear WERC organizers: Please sign me up individually as well as my organization, Prosperity Agenda (www.ProsperityAgenda.US). Our agenda is consistent with yours and we would be very interested participating and promoting the event. We have an email list in the tens of thousands Kevin Zeese Executive Director Prosperity Agenda We now need to redouble our efforts to move this campaign forward, and for that we need your support: 1) Please endorse the model resolution -the South Carolina AFL-CIO resolution -and get your union and/or community organization to endorse. We need to keep these endorsements coming in every day. You can obtain this model resolution from our WERC website. You will also find an updated list of initial campaign endorsers below. 2) To broaden this effort, we need your financial support. We need to publish new campaign materials, do mass mailings to unions, and carry out the countless other tasks necessary to get our message out widely to the trade union movement. Please fill out the endorsement / financial coupon below and return it to us as soon as possible. Many thanks for your ongoing support, Alan Benjamin and Bill Leumer Co-Conveners, Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign WERC ENDORSEMENT / FINANCIAL SUPPORT COUPON [ ] I endorse the South Carolina Resolution Urging Support for a Solidarity Day III March in DC. [ ] My union / organization endorses the South Carolina Resolution Urging Support for a Solidarity Day III March in DC. [ ] I pledge a contribution of $ _____ toward your WERC financial campaign. My check will be made payable to "WERC" and mailed to WERC, P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140. NAME UNION/ORG (for info purposes only) CITY STATE ZIP TEL EMAIL (please fill out and return to wercampaign@gmail.com) Council of New Jersey State College Locals (CNJSCL) Endorses March on DC Dear Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign folks- I'm delighted to inform you that the The Council of New Jersey State College Locals (CNJSCL), AFT, AFL-CIO http://www.cnjscl.org/ voted unanimously in our state-wide meeting of delegates on February 12, 2010 to endorse the resolution calling upon the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III March on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, healthcare, housing, full funding for public education and social services, and peace. The CNJSCL is comprised of 11 Locals and represents over 8,000 faculty, adjunct faculty, librarians and professional staff at the following nine institutions of higher education: 1) The College of New Jersey, 2) Kean University, 3) Montclair State University, 4) New Jersey City University and the A. Harry Moore School, 5) Ramapo College of New Jersey, 6) Richard Stockton College, 7) Rowan University, 8) Thomas Edison State College and 9) William Paterson University. I have attached both Word and pdf copies of our resolution to use as you see fit. Please feel free to contact me directly if you need more information. Hope to see you in D.C. soon. Solidarity Terry Epperson Member, Executive Board AFT Local 2364 The College of New Jersey Resolution in Support of a Labor-Sponsored March on Washington WHEREAS in the aftermath of the Massachusetts special senatorial election, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued a statement declaring, "It's time to organize and mobilize as never before to make every elected or aspiring leader PROVE he or she will create the jobs we need in an economy we need with the healthcare we need. I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver;" and WHEREAS despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated, with growing unemployment and underemployment, rising home foreclosures and evictions, and the underfunding of public education and vitally needed social services; and WHEREAS the government has bestowed billions of bailout dollars on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis and who are rewarding those responsible with obscene gigantic bonuses; and WHEREAS the labor movement's legislative priorities a massive program for jobs, true universal healthcare, and enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act are all in great peril; and WHEREAS while the government has no problem allocating a trillion dollars for two wars thousands of miles away, it has not committed funds critically needed to put America back to work, with healthcare and quality education for all; and WHEREAS right wing, anti-labor forces, such as the Tea Bag movement, have brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets to advance their reactionary demands; and WHEREAS there is a growing movement within the House of Labor to counter the right-wing offensive against workers' living standards with our own massive mobilization; and WHEREAS various union bodies, including the South Bay Labor Council (CA), acting on a resolution submitted by Plumbers and Fitters Local 393, Troy Area Labor Council (NY), and the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, have adopted resolutions calling upon the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III March on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, healthcare, housing, full funding for public education and social services, and peace; now therefore be it RESOLVED that the Council of New Jersey State College Locals, AFT, AFL-CIO (CNJSCL) joins with our brothers and sisters in calling for a labor-sponsored march on Washington for jobs, peace and justice, which would have the capability of mobilizing the kind of massive army Brother Trumka spoke of; and be it finally RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and to all CNJSCL Locals for their consideration. Respectfully submitted Nagesh Rao, Member, AFT Local 2364, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Terry Epperson, Member, Executive Board, AFT Local 2364, TCNJ Adopted by The Council of New Jersey State College Locals, AFT, AFL-CIO, Feb. 12, 2010 Updated list of initial endorsers of Call for a Labor-Sponsored Demonstration in Washington for Jobs, Peace and Justice
(* titles & org. for ID only) WERC Interim National Committee Members Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Gulf Coast Reconstruction activist Alan Benjamin,* Executive Committee member, San Francisco Labor Council Mike Carano, Progressive Democrats of America Colia Clark, Veteran, Civil Rights Movement Donna Dewitt*, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO Pat Gowens, National organizer, Welfare Warriors Bill Leumer,* International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.) Luis Magaña, Coordinator, Organization of Farmworkers of California (OTAC) Cynthia McKinney, Former Member of Congress, 2009 Green Party presidential candidate Jack Rasmus, Economist, Professor at St. Mary's College Al Rojas, Coordinator, Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior Marc Rich, United Teachers of Los Angeles Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, antiwar activist Clarence Thomas, Member, ILWU Local 10 Mark Vorpahl*, SEIU Local 49, Portland, OR Nancy Wohlforth*, Co-Pres., Pride at Work/AFL-CIO, Vice Pres.,California Federation of Labor (* titles & org. for ID only) |
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WORKERS EMERGENCY RECOVERY CAMPAIGN P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140 Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 626-1217 email: wercampaign@gmail.com website: www.wercampaign.org |