Mr. Green's Neighborhood: Five Years After Katrina

by: Erica Brody

Thu Aug 19, 2010 at 10:22:26 AM EDT

After BP (and Katrina): Rethinking the Economy of the Gulf Coast
By Jeremy Burton

I met Robert Green, a resident of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, this June. He lives just blocks from a levee where, on August 29th, 2005, a barge flowed through the break and came to a halt just behind his home. His mother and his 5-year-old granddaughter died in that flood.

I sometimes lead groups of Jewish volunteers to perform community service in neighborhoods still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. That’s how I met Mr. Green. When my group was visiting his block, he came out to talk with us and noticed my kippah. He told us how pleased he was to see a Jewish group and about how a Solomon Schechter class from New Jersey had cleared out the debris on his property and prepared it to be rebuilt.

In front of his house, near where we were standing, was a memorial marker and flagpole honoring the women his family lost during Katrina. We had noticed stones at the base of the marker, just like you would see at a Jewish cemetery. He told us that the Schechter kids had explained the Jewish tradition of placing stones to honor the dead and asked if they might honor his family in this way. A new tradition was born in the community, and we too placed stones on Mr. Green’s memorial.

What Mr. Green really wanted to talk about, however, was his new house, built on his old property with help from the Make It Right Foundation. He brought us inside, to show us the ways in which his house was built for a sustainable future: elevated above the flood line, it features solar water heating, low-wattage lighting systems, and temperature-regulating windows.

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Mr. Green’s passionate interest in sustainability might at first seemed out of place in a neighborhood in which many homes remain unbuilt, and many families are still unhoused. As we listened to Robert Green talk about his community, however, his passion for sustainability brought home to us what many Americans recently learned as a result of the BP oil spill – the damage that 100 years of short-sighted business decisions have had on the Louisiana bayous.

The decisions made by our nation decades ago to foster oil and shipping industries are all too tragically coming back to haunt us and pull our economy down now. A country hungry for the fuel to drive our economic growth in the past century allowed drilling, first in the bayous – cutting through these wetlands to pipe oil out – and then off the coast on the deep horizon of the continental shelf. A nation eager to export the grains of the Great Plains sent the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge canals from New Orleans to the sea, most infamously the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet , to shorten the route to open water and cut hours off the journey to market.

Fair pay beats flowery bouquets -- and other post-Mother's Day reflections

by: Erica Brody

Mon May 10, 2010 at 12:05:08 PM EDT

I spend every Mother's Day I can with my mom — and there are, to be sure, fancy-pants meals and spring walks. But she and I both know the holiday was born out of less flowery sentiments, ushered into the world in part by a native New Yorker, poet, abolitionist and suffragist named Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) — yep, of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic" fame. Her lesser-known “Mother’s Day Proclamation” of 1870 begins:

Arise then ... women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!

Well, women have been rising up for some time now, securing the vote, breaking glass ceilings (go Mom!), transforming expectations and daily lives in ways Julia Ward Howe could barely have dreamed.

But we’re not there yet. 

PJA Summer Internships, 2010

by: pjalliance

Thu Apr 15, 2010 at 13:21:02 PM EDT

Summer Internship
Los Angeles

The Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA), a dynamic and growing statewide organization dedicated to the Jewish traditions of pursuing peace, promoting equality and diversity and working for social and economic justice, seeks summer interns for its Los Angeles office.  

PJA summer interns work with the PJA staff on a variety of campaigns and development projects, depending on interest and need.  Possible areas of focus may include (but are not limited to):

Economic and Worker Justice
Muslim-Jewish Community-Building
Young Professional Leadership Development and Engagement
Development and Fundraising
Membership Recruitment and Engagement
General Office Support

This unpaid internship is a great opportunity for anyone interested in social justice, Jewish tradition, and the nexus of the two.  We seek creative, organized, and energetic self-starters with a passion for social justice. Writing and verbal communication skills highly desired.  In exchange for your contribution of time and energy, we offer a unique and vibrant learning environment with a knowledgeable and friendly staff.  Tasks may include organizing and attending community meetings, event planning and implementation, program research, marketing, and data-entry.   And while some tasks can be administrative, we hope to create a balance of our current projects and your interests.  

School credit may be available (depending on your school’s requirements).

For more information about our programs, please go to our website at www.pjalliance.org.

Our office is located in the Olympic and Fairfax area.  As some work takes place outside of the office (meetings, events, etc.), access to a car is preferable.

Please email cover letter, resume, and your availability to jfeldman@pjalliance.org or fax to: (323) 761-8355 attn: Josh Feldman.

Was there a heroic age of gentrification?

by: Mae Singerman

Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 13:51:58 PM EST

Went to a great reading and talk yesterday at Bluestockings Bookstore for the release of the newest n+1 journal. Nikil Saval read his piece on gentrification which was thought-provoking and nuanced. Most of the people I know, including myself are against gentrification theoretically and displacement of poor people, but would be considered gentrifiers. 

A highlight from the article: "Middle-class couples, affluent in the postwar boom, took over the upkeep of old housing stock after the poor, without much choice in the matter, had let pilings, stoops and columns decay. In the heroic age of gentrification, the property buyers looked like pioneers and integrators. Banks had 'redlined' largely black neighborhoods like Park Slope, Brooklyn, which meant that the gentrifiers couldn't acquire easy credit that banks would one day lavish on their children...[White residents] adopted neighborhoods that were not only 'mixed use' but mixed race." 

ALSO:This is an awesome interactive map so you can check out which income levels make up New York neighborhoods.

http://envisioningdevelopment.net/map

Faith and Workers Rights

by: Mae Singerman

Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 13:52:42 PM EST

Recently, the service learning team had a training and I learned about Uri L’Tzedek. Uri L’Tzedek is a social justice organization that brings workers, restaurant owners and community members together to create just workplaces in kosher restaurants.

I love this idea and am so excited to see how it develops. This work reminds me of an organization I’ve been working with for a few years called Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida (IA). IA works with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve sub-poverty wages and end modern-day slavery and human rights abuses in the fields.

Celebrate Labor Day by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act

by: Arieh Lebowitz

Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 14:15:36 PM EDT

By Sybil Sanchez

Aug 29, 2009: NEW YORK (JTA) -- This Labor Day, take a moment to remember people like Lupe Hernandez.

When she toured a Jewish family's apartment in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, she felt connected to our history as immigrants struggling to make better lives for ourselves and our families. Hernandez is one of the immigrant workers on strike in the 2007 film "Made in LA" struggling to receive a fair wage and stop sweatshop abuse by organizing.

Labor Day might seem like a quaint throwback, but the struggle for workers' rights is still being fought today in our own backyards.

Our community's relationship to labor is very different today than in yesteryear, but the Jewish obligation to remember our history remains relevant. As Jews, we must respect and support workers' rights, whether it's those of our ancestors or today's immigrants.

While most headlines are focused on health care reform, labor law reform should stay on our agenda -- specifically, the Employee Free Choice Act. This much-needed legislation has three important principles: Workers would more easily be able to join or form a union; employers who break the law in efforts to stop union organizing would face more stringent penalties and workers who have chosen to form a union would have a clear path to an initial collective bargaining agreement with their employer.

Today, 44 percent of newly formed unions are unable to reach initial agreements, a serious problem the current law fails to address.

The majority sign-up route to union recognition provided by the Employee Free Choice Act has a long history and is in widespread use today in the United States and many other countries. But there's a catch: Under current law, workers can form a union via majority sign-up only if their employer agrees to it - which most employers refuse to do, even when worker support for the union is overwhelming.

Supporting this legislation is a no-brainer if one supports workers' right to collectively negotiate for decent wages and working conditions.

The Jewish Labor Committee has been a longtime supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. We're not alone. A number of other Jewish organizations also have endorsed it, including the Progressive Jewish Alliance in Los Angeles, Chicago's Jewish Council for Urban Affairs, Philadelphia's Jewish Social Policy Action Network, Washington's Jews United for Justice and New York's Uri L'Tzedek. A visit to Rabbisforworkerschoice.org reveals the support of dozens of rabbis.

Ofer Eini, chairman of Israel's federation of labor, the Histadrut, also has weighed in on the issue, conveying his support In a recent letter to John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO.

"The Employee Free Choice Act will bring U.S. law for union recognition into conformity with Israeli law and international human rights standards on the freedom of association in the workplace," Eini wrote. "We believe that U.S. workers, and all workers, should have the same rights as Israeli workers, to organize unions free from employer interrogation, intimidation and harassment.

"In Israel, when workers seek to bargain collectively, they just join together into a union, in the same manner that they join any other organization," he added. "When a sufficient number of workers have joined a union, they can demand recognition from their employer. If the employer refuses, the Labour Courts of Israel can investigate, and when it has determined that the required number of the workers are union members, that they have joined freely and without coercion, the court can require the employer to recognize the union."

According to Eini, the Employee Free Choice Act will "reform U.S. labor law so that the U.S. National Labor Relations Board is, like the National Labour Court of Israel, empowered to protect freedom of association, instead of thwarting it, as it is currently compelled to do by U.S. labor law."

"Unlike the National Labour Court of Israel, the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB] of the United States has no power to require the employer to recognize the workers' union except by first imposing an NLRB election," he said. "But NLRB elections are a cruel violation of the fundamental principles of free and fair and secret elections. In practice, they effectively prevent workers from exercising their right to freedom of association.

"Paid supervisors are trained by anti-union consultants to act as spies in the workplace. Thousands of workers are harassed, intimidated or fired each year by employers who do everything in their power to rob workers of their right to join unions and bargain collectively.

"So long as the employer-employee relationship remains one of power imbalance there is no way to reform an NLRB election to make it approach the standard of a free, fair and secret election.

"But as the experience of Israel teaches us, there is no reason to force workers through such a process. The National Labor Relations Board of the United States, like the National Labour Court of Israel, is fully capable of assessing the validity of union membership and verifying that membership was achieved without intimidation and coercion. It can do so without being required to impose an undemocratic and workers-rights-violating NLRB election. But it can do so only if the Employee Free Choice Act will pass as written."

The Histadrut leader concluded by calling on "all who desire that our countries' laws reflect our shared ideals of workplace social justice to support Employee Free Choice."

In this respect, Israeli law is pointing the way to a society that treats its workers with justice and dignity. Can we do any less?

Victory (for now) for Stella D'Oro workers

by: Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 23:20:23 PM EDT

The New York Times reports that the company that owns Stella D'Oro cookies has been ordered to reinstate the 134 Bronx-based workers who have been on strike since their contract expired last summer, and to pay the workers back wages plus interest.

As I wrote in a post on The Jew and the Carrot, Brynwood Partners bought Stella D'Oro in 2006 and, when the workers' contracts ran out last summer, demanded that workers accept pay cuts of up to 26% and begin contributing to their health insurance costs. 

As far as I can tell, Jews are just about the only consumers of Stella D'Oro cookies, whose major advantage is that they're parve (dairy free) and therefore can be eaten after a meat meal. A few years ago, the company decided to begin using dairy chocolate in some of its cookies; the ensuing outrage from the kosher-keeping community forced a return to (more expensive) parve chocolate. 

As I suggested in my earlier post, the Jewish community can use this economic power not only to hold onto parve chocolatey goodness, but to make sure that the workers who help satisfy our sweet tooths are paid decent wages.

While this victory is a huge step forward for the workers, the fight might not be over yet. The company still can appeal the decision to the National Labor Relations Board, which is notoriously slow in hearing cases. In the meantime, it's still worth it to shoot a note to Henrik Hartong, Jr., the senior partner of Brynwood at huppsy@brynwoodpartners.com to let him know how glad you are that the workers will be getting their jobs and their wages back. Can't hurt to tell him that you're now more likely to buy his cookies. 

Tax Time Service Opportunity!

by: Jesse C. Biringer

Fri Jan 16, 2009 at 15:27:39 PM EST

This call to Take Action is no longer active.

I am starting an exciting and timely volunteer opportunity that I would like to share and recommend—

On Monday, as part of the Martin Luther King Day of Service, I will be training as a tax volunteer for the Campaign for Families—a partnership that provides free high-quality tax preparation and financial services for Philadelphia’s low wage earning families and households.  In the last 6 tax seasons the Campaign has trained thousands of volunteers who have prepared 68,500 tax returns, providing low wage families with $106 million in federal and state refunds and saving them $17 million in tax preparation and other fees.
 
The Campaign focuses on ensuring that eligible consumers receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—a refundable tax credit available to low wage working families.  In the 2009 tax season, the refundable credit will be worth up to $4,824 and available to families making less than $42,000 per year.  EITC is one of our nations’ most effective anti-poverty initiatives and gives families the opportunity to pay off debt and save toward their financial and personal goals.

And the Campaign for Working Families is not alone—it is part of IRS’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or VITA Program.

Position Announcement Executive Director Jewish Labor Committee

by: Arieh Lebowitz

Tue Jun 17, 2008 at 13:09:07 PM EDT

The Jewish Labor Committee is seeking an individual to fill the position of Executive Director of a national agency that is the liaison between the labor movement and the organized Jewish community.

The Jewish Labor Committee mobilizes support from the Jewish community for issues of concern to the trade union movement and mobilizes support from the labor movement for issues of concern to the Jewish community. The JLC works to assist labor federations, unions and their locals in diverse campaigns and to maintain the support of the Jewish community for the broad social goals of the labor movement. At the same time, the JLC works to mobilize support from the American labor movement for a secure Israel, Holocaust education, combating anti-Semitism and other issues of Jewish concern.

See more here:
http://www.jewishjobs.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=uvj&job_id=9550

Go Watch "Recount" on HBO

by: Hannah Farber

Wed May 28, 2008 at 19:08:22 PM EDT

I've spent the last two days trying to figure out the, ummmm, policy angles that would allow me to write about the HBO movie Recount, which I watched last weekend and which was vivid enough to make me have to go take an angry nap as soon as it was over.

For me, the points that emerge most vividly from reliving the 2000 election are these:

Our attention spans are short. Eight years after the election, all that talk about how the prolonging of the dispute would have irreparably damaged our democratic process seems very odd. What would another month have mattered, in comparison with the huge decisions that were made shortly thereafter by the president who was chosen? Today, who even remembers? Yet I remember this being a very serious point of discussion for people in both camps.