Walmart Workers Protest on Black Friday

This event was supported by members of the Dallas Workers Rights Board and is connected to the last WRB hearing on Wage theft and Wage Depression.  Thanks to all who participated for making a difference.


http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Walmart-Workers-Protest-on-Black-Friday-180641191.html

Workers' Rights Board Hearing Sept.1, 2012

On September 1, 2012, the North Texas Jobs with Justice’s Workers’ Rights Board (WRB) convened a hearing entitled, “Wage Theft and Wage Depression: The Jobs Crisis Continues.” The hearing began with an introduction by Dr. Joerg Rieger who talked about the basic values and aims of this group. He reminded the group that these issues are rampant in Dallas, and that as one member of our community suffers, everyone suffers. While Wage Theft is morally wrong and has no official support, Wage Depression is often defended by employers and workers alike as a necessary evil. Yet both Wage Theft and Wage Depression are connected because they show that we fail to appreciate the value of work and the accomplishments of workers, while employers take credit and gain. As the following testimonies show, both problems are rampant.

photo by Helen Rieger

Rosemarie Rieger then offered a “state of the community” report. Since last year unemployment has declined minimally, though other factors indicate substantial problems remain. The panel consisted of Allison Prochnow, who works for the Workers’ Defense Project, Scott Gleeson with the Los Manos Negras project, Roberto Corona from Pueblo Sin Fronteras program, Stacy Cottongane and John Burnane from OURWalmart (Organization United for Respect for Respect at Walmart), and Ryan Haney with the Iron Workers Union. Gene Lantz, who is President of the Alliance of Retired Americans and a long-time organizer of Jobs with Justice, and Isabel Docampo, Workers’ Rights Board member also spoke to the group.

Prochnow initiated the Wage Theft portion of the hearing, discussing the launch of the new Workers’ Defense Project (WDP) in Dallas. WDP has fought wage theft in Austin for 10 years with great success, enabling some 1100 workers to recover over $900,000 in wages. WDP’s primary goals, however, involve training workers about their rights and advocating for legal change. They have effectively promoted policies at local and state levels using direct action of visits and protests as well as looking to developers for accountability and responsibility. Prochnow noted that in Dallas, ¼ of all workers have experienced wage theft. They anticipate more resistance in Dallas, with the city council not as willing to work with WDP and workers, but they will work tirelessly to educate workers and live the reality that “in unity there is strength.”

Gleeson followed with a description of his project, which received funding from the prestigious 2012 Idea Fund Andy Warhol Foundation Grant. As a visual artist and art historian specializing in public art projects directed toward marginalized constituencies, Gleeson developed Los Manos Negras, “the black or dirty hands,” to highlight workplace injustice among migrant day laborers in East Dallas. Gleeson’s project advocates for and communicates with migrant workers, trying to be a vehicle for worker expression as opposed to representation of them. In addition to harnessing the long history of revolutionary iconography and the tradition of Chicano art, he also distributes information about how to get in contact with groups that can help with recovery of wages and offers training in remittance letter writing. He offered one story of an undocumented worker who runs a successful lawncare business. The worker was stabbed while he was working, but was afraid to go to authorities. He discovered he might be eligible for a visa as the victim of violent crime, and Gleesons’s group connected him with Catholic Charities, who successfully followed up. Don’t miss the full-scale exhibition of his work at Eastfield College, running Oct 8-Nov 2!

Next, Corona spoke about the work of Pueblo Sin Fronteras. PSF, an entirely volunteer organization with many student workers, also helps workers learn rights, educates the community about their rights, and helps workers stand up for themselves individually and communally. The also educate the broader public about migration and the reasons persons leave their countries of origin. The group meets every Thursday morning at 9am and the 1^st Sunday of every month.

Cottongane and Burnane shifted the hearing’s attention to the issue of Wage Depression. Cottongane, who has worked at the Ennis Walmart for 12 years, testified to the store cutting hours or asking workers to work extra hours while being cut hours at the end of the week in order to pad profits. Walmart also requires employees to cut an hour out of every shift on days during a holiday week to make up for holiday pay on Labor Day. She also pointed out that Walmart will lower wages when accidents are reported—even ones not requiring medical attention—creating an incentive for employees to withhold accident reports. Cottongane reported that $30,000 gets knocked off bonuses immediately. She asked supporters to come to the Rally on Sept. 22 in Dallas. Burnane spoke more broadly about the OUR Walmart mission, which is about education, laws and rights, as well as policies of the company (which are often shrouded and inaccessible). For instance, in January Walmart changed its policy so that new hires do not receive bonus pay for work on Sundays. Managers began immediately primarily scheduling new hires to work on Sundays. Corporate executives for Walmart also changed its policy so that full-time employees have to work a full year before becoming eligible for benefits. Managers, consequently, have been waiting until just before that year arrives and then cutting hours, rendering employees ineligible for benefits. This group in Dallas has support from many organizations and will be ramping up efforts to make these injustices visible to the broader community so that Walmart will be pressured into creating more humane policies and practices.

photo by Helen Rieger

Finally, Haney reported on his research with the Iron Workers Union. These workers reinforce concrete shells of buildings, bridges, and facilities. Reinforcing iron is skilled work, requiring years of training. It is also dangerous, hard work, creating back issues, fall dangers, and heat exhaustion. In Dallas, water is not regularly supplied by employers like Great Western Erectors, who are also not required to provide rest breaks and who often deny legally-mandated safety training and equipment. The Iron Workers Union is working hard to organize in Dallas where there are currently no unionized reinforcing iron contractors.

Gene Lantz followed Haney with a call to celebrate the recent decision by the federal government to turn back Texas’ re-districting of voters as well as the proposed voter id law. He also expressed hope in the presence and active involvement of so many young people in the various efforts represented at the hearing.

Docampo closed the hearing by opening up the floor for audience feedback and by reminding attendees of the role of WRB in uniting groups with overlapping interests and commitments. We hope to consolidate our efforts to strategically work for change, advocacy, and solidarity. We would love to see even greater cooperation and alliances.

The hearing hosted a number of groups and community members, including WRB, WDP, Occupy Dallas, Environmental Groups, Jobs with Justice, Alliance for Retired Americans, SMU faculty and students, Iron Workers Union, OUR Walmart, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, Los Manos Negras, various clergy, and workers.

It was a day to expose problems, share resistance struggles, support one another, and celebrate these many efforts demanding justice living in oppressive systems that negatively impact each and every one of us in different ways. The Worker’s Rights Board and North Texas Jobs with Justice are dedicated to supporting workers and their struggles and to connect them with the community.

Report by Julie Mavity Maddalena

Workers’ Rights Board Members Visit Representative Hensarling’s Office

Last Tuesday Isabel Docampo, Ed Middleton, Annika Rieger, Helen Rieger, and Rosemarie Rieger visited the office of Representative Jeb Hensarling in Congressional District 5. All are constituents of the district and members of the North Texas Jobs with Justice’s Workers’ Rights Board. The group met with District Director Michael Garcia and presented him with the findings of the Board’s past two years of investigations on the economic and jobs crisis. These investigations based on testimony from unemployed and employed workers, worker rights advocates, union organizers, community activists, and others lead to the following conclusions:

-There is no such thing as a jobless recovery.

-Unemployment/underemployment is not a personal problem.

-The wealthy and the corporations are benefitting from this crisis.

-There is something we can do.

Therefore, the group asked District Director Garcia to pass on five items that the Workers’ Rights Board would like to see Representative Hensarling support, namely:

-The creation of good jobs with living wages, green jobs while rebuilding and modernizing America and its infrastructure;

-the implementation of fairer tax rates (such as taxing the wealthy), ending tax breaks for corporations, and introducing a Wall Street speculation tax;

-the termination of the wars;

-the protection of social security;

-and investments in public education.

Mr. Garcia listened patiently to the presentation, but he reiterated Hensarling’s stance on not supporting any new jobs legislation until its payments are secured without increasing taxes. In Hensarling’s view, this can be achieved by closing corporate tax loopholes and cutting corporate taxes to stimulate economy. According to our research, however, cutting corporate taxes has not led to the production of jobs and has not brought significant stimulation to the economy. On the contrary, the yield for every Dollar spent is only 20 cents.

Representative Hensarling is co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, which is in charge of reducing the federal deficit by an additional $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. For this reason the delegation felt that it was extremely important to pass on the findings of the Workers’ Rights Board.

Two days earlier a delegation sent by the Alliance for Retired Americans met with the same office to deliver a similar message. Seven members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, six of whom live in District 5, talked about their concerns that the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction would have negative effects on seniors and others. Cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits would greatly increase poverty among seniors and other recipients.

Later this week Move-On.org has called for a rally to fight for the American Jobs Bill outside of Representative Hensarling’s Dallas office. The motto is: Jobs not cuts!—Make them pay!

By Rosemarie Rieger 10/11/11

Workers Rights Board Meeting Sept. 3, 2011

On Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend representatives from the workforce, labor unions, state government, schools, and churches gathered at the Beckley courthouse in Dallas to attend the latest Workers’ Rights Board meeting. Presentations from Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger, Rev. Dr. Joerg Rieger, Elaine Lantz, and the honorable state representative Roberto Alonzo offered perspectives on the current jobs crisis, the impact of the crisis on the unemployed as well as on job-holders, and practical suggestions on approaching elected officials. This meeting built upon the foundation of information garnered through testimonies and research over the last few years concerning labor issues amidst the growing crisis.

Dr. Joerg Rieger, Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology at Perkins School of Theology-SMU, introduced the meeting by posing the questions, “What is going on in the Jobs Crisis and how does it effect not only those who lost their jobs but all of us? How do we respond? How do we deal with these issues when we understand that all are affected?” He asserted that community organizations and religious communities have a role to play in the solution. The disconcerting trend of a growing gap between the rich and the poor, which is now at record levels, only accentuates the need for cooperation and communication of those who are not experiencing the benefits.

Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger, who spent many years in the bio-tech industry and teaching elementary through high school grades, presented research collected by North Texas Jobs with Justice and findings based on testimony heard during the Workers’ Rights Board meetings over the past few years. The research emphasizes four main points:

- There is no such thing as a jobless recovery

- The current problem is NOT a personal problem. This is affecting all of us.

- Someone has to be benefitting from all of this. Who is it?

- There are solutions. We often think, “What can we do? It’s the economy and out of our hands.” However, there are actions that can be taken for constructive change.

The staggering numbers within this research indicate that the wealthiest 5% in the nation hold almost 65% of the nation’s wealth. One of the primary problems in the crisis is that even in the midst of the recession, the incomes of the rich and the profit margins of many national corporations have had banner years. At the same time, all sectors of the economy have experienced a declining ratio of jobs to job seekers. Thus, while many seeking jobs cannot find them, the brunt of the recession is loaded onto the backs of those working who are now expected to maintain growth and to be more productive with fewer full time workers.

Elaine Lantz, working as a union organizer for National Organization of Legal Service Workers (NOLSW), expounded on what the unemployment crisis does to people who are still employed. She noted that the situation is much more vicious for those not protected by a labor agreement, as they are susceptible to the increased and often unjust forms of discipline and layoffs which have been exacerbated as the crisis has intensified. Lantz accentuated many aspects of the jobs crisis that fly under the radar of prominent unemployment statistics. Throughout the jobs crisis, there has been an influx of part-time work and temporary employees as many businesses are sub-contracting work out to temps in order to avoid the provision of full-time benefits. The average hours worked per week has dropped again: it is now at 34.2 hours in August. It was noted that the official unemployment had stayed unchanged at 9.1 percent nationwide. This number, however, only counts people actively looking for work while having filed for unemployment and does not include part time workers who are not receiving benefits and those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits still seeking work. When the under-employed and those who remain unemployed without receiving benefits any longer are considered, the “un-official” unemployment rate rises to a shocking 23 percent.

The Honorable Roberto Alonzo, a Texas State Representative, provided insightful advice on how we can speak to lawmakers on these issues of concern. His first exhortation was to “be persistent—that’s how things get done.” He emphasized the role of the voter in the elections and the need for involved communication with political officials making decisions as the primary means for change. The people decide who gets the political positions. He encouraged everyone to utilize the resources of this technological age to share thoughts with political officials through email, texts, phone calls and whatever means possible, asking the question, “For whom among us is this a crisis?”

In response to the issue of job creation he stated that a major issue is that companies are paying fewer taxes than ever before. Verizon is one such example, as they posted a 2009-10 income of $24.2 billion, paid $0 in taxes, claimed a refund of $1.3 billion, paid a combined $46 million to its top 6 executives, and outsourced thousands of jobs to lower wage contractors in the United States and other countries. Many jobs could be created by working together with political officials to address fair taxation of major corporations.

In conclusion, the Workers’ Rights Board acknowledged that within a crisis that is as large as any since the great depression, “what we are after is of historic proportions.” With historic crisis comes historic opportunity for the afflicted to rise together on behalf of nation, state, and neighbor as a movement for change. As more and more laborers are affected by the downturn of the economy, the increasing number of voices from the community might address law makers, companies, and partners in solidarity, striving for life and hope with the acknowledgement that the unemployment crisis truly affects everybody.

The Worker Rights Board members committed themselves to form delegations that will visit with government officials in order to present the findings of the Board and to ask for increased commitment to resolve the unemployment crisis.

At the meeting Jann Aldredge-Clanton shared prophetic lyrics that she has written to be sung to the tune of traditional Christian hymns. These challenging lyrics which connect the life of faith to the current jobs crisis are listed below:

Where are Liberty and Justice?

Amos 4:1, 5:11-12,24; Proverbs 1:20-23, 3:13-18

Where are liberty and justice when so many live in need?

Let us rise to caring action, showing faith and love through deeds.

Holy Wisdom, give us courage; help us be Your prophets bold,

Joining You to end oppression, truth and fairness to uphold.

Now the rich are growing richer, while the poor cry in distress;

heads of corporations flourish, while the poor have less and less.

Unemployment still is growing; many more are underpaid;

give us power, Holy Wisdom, so that changes can be made.

How unjust that some make millions, crushing others with their greed,

basic rights of workers flaunting, never hearing those in need.

Holy Wisdom, come to help us faith communities unite,

moving hearts and changing systems, joining hands to work for right.

Holy Wisdom, send us forward, working for equality,

economic fairness bringing, making dreams reality.

As we join with those who suffer, fill us with Your loving care;

may we take Your peaceful pathways, bringing justice everywhere.

Word copyright 2011 Jann Aldredge-Clanton EBENEZER, or BEACH SPRING or AUSTRIAN HYMN 8.7.8.7D

We Hear the Cries of Millions

Amos 5:11-12, 21-24

We hear the cries of millions, weighed down with stress and strain;

the rich are growing richer; the poor cry out in pain.

Come, Sister-Brother Spirit, and help us all unite,

to join in loving kindness and faith to work for right.

Now jobs are getting scarcer, while corporations thrive;

the unemployed are struggling to keep their hope alive.

Come, Brother-Sister Spirit, and guide us to be fair,

to change oppressive systems so everyone will share.

Join hands for jobs with justice, with workers' rights ensured,

with safe and fair conditions, health care for all secured.

Come, Sister-Brother Spirit, and fill us with Your power;

inspire our words and actions in this most urgent hour.

Now let us walk together to bring equality,

so all are fully nourished to be all we can be.

Let justice roll like waters, like ever-flowing streams;

come, Brother-Sister Spirit, awaken hopes and dreams.

Words copyright 2011 Jann Aldredge-Clanton PASSION CHORALE, or AURELIA, or ANGEL'S STORY, or WHITFIELD 7.6.7.6 D

Rise and Speak Out

Proverbs 1:20-23, 3:13-18; Luke 4:18

When we look all around, unemployment abounds,

and we're filled with distress, fear, and doubt.

Then we hear Wisdom say, "We can show a new way."

And She leads us to rise and speak out.

There are millions in need, crushed by others with greed,

who abuse and oppress with their clout.

Wisdom calls us to go,

And Her justice to show,

And She leads us with love to speak out.

There'll be fairness and peace; worker's rights will increase,

when we wake up and hear Wisdom shout.

Let us come and unite, working daily for right;

join together to rise and speak out.

Refrain:

Rise up and shout,

for its time to speak out;

let us cry out for justice;

let us rise and speak out.

Words copyright 2011 Jann Aldredge-Clanton TRUST AND OBEY

Irregular

Emily Everett, Joerg Rieger, and Elaine Lantz at the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast

Crisis in Wisconsin and Texas: Workers’ Rights Board Investigates Growing Pressures on Jobs Affecting the Community and Possible Solutions

article by Kevin Minister
photos by Helen Rieger

With concern about workers’ rights rising up across the country, the Dallas workers’ rights board met to hear about the struggles workers are facing here in Texas and what is being done to protect these workers’ rights. The workers’ rights board hearing, convened by the Rev. Dr. Joerg Rieger, Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology at SMU Perkins School of Theology, packed the courtroom of the Beckley Courthouse beyond capacity with local clergy, labor leaders, workers, and concerned citizens.

The community leaders on the workers’ rights board arraigned the hearing to find out how proposed budget cuts in Texas affect not only workers and the unemployed but everyone in the community. The testimonies of the hearing were clear: the proposed budget cuts by the state of Texas are not only going to increase unemployment and pressure on workers, the budget cuts are going to have ripple effects that increase the stresses on all persons in Texas. But those that spoke out were also clear that something can be done to make a difference if enough people join together.

The workers’ rights board heard testimony from April Cumberbatch of the Texas State Employees Union, Hobie Hukill from the Executive Board of Alliance AFT (American Federation of Teachers), and Elaine Lantz representing the National Organization of Legal Service Workers (a UAW local) about how the budget cuts would not only cause big problems for workers in their industries but also pose mounting issues for our communities at large. Cumberbatch testified that the proposed budget cuts will result in approximately 9,600 layoffs of social service workers that serve the community through Child Protective Services (CPS), in nursing homes, healthcare, and education.

Cumberbatch was clear though that her concern was not only for jobs but for the well-being of the most vulnerable citizens that these workers serve: “More important than our jobs are [the safety of] our children and babies having enough formula.” Because budgets are already tight, CPS workers such as herself already manage a hundred cases at a time and do not have adequate resources to help provide enough infant formula. This will only get worse with further budget cuts and layoffs that will not only endanger the welfare of our children in the short term but will increase the cost of caring for children in state foster homes and medical programs long term.

Hukill testified that the budget cuts to education will result in the firing of 100,000 public educators in Texas and the drastic increase of already overfull classrooms. When Texas fails on its “most important constitutional obligation” to educate its children, our communities really end up paying big in the long term through the costs both social and financial of increased crime and incarceration.

Lantz shared that the budget of legal services in Texas, which helps provide legal services for those living near or below the poverty line who have for example been wrongly evicted or fired, has so few resources they have to turn away “4 out of 5” people in need of legal advice. The US House of Representatives has already approved a further 17% cut to the budget of legal services and they expect more cuts from the state. It is becoming increasingly clear that when we cut the jobs and services that protect the most vulnerable in our communities, our communities become leaner and meaner for everyone with costly long term effects.

Rieger summed up the testimony heard by the workers’ rights board, saying “This is not a natural crisis; some people are benefiting [by using the crisis to ratchet down wages and benefits where it may not be necessary]. The point is not to blame someone but to organize for change.” From a religious perspective, he noted, it was organizing common people for change that made Jesus and early Christianity dangerous to the Roman Empire, not just the radical preaching. While the concerns over job loss and long term social costs were high, the energy and commitment to solutions stirred through the courtroom.

Cumberbatch and Hukill advocated a balanced approach to resolving the budget shortfall that taps the State of Texas’ rainy day fund to cover short term losses of revenue while fixing Gov. Perry’s new franchise tax to provide the long term funds he said that it would. Lantz emphasized that a government jobs program like the one that helped end the Great Depression could make a difference in unemployment by fixing our national infrastructure today. Furthermore, she advocated protecting what rights still exist for workers here in Texas and around the country and the need to be educated and share with others the widespread benefits organized labor has had in our communities (like creating the 40 hour work week with weekends off).
But, everyone was adamant that solutions such as these are only possible if concerned citizens organize together to make their voices heard. Lantz believes that the politicians really do listen to what people have to say but emphasized that people would have to organize together to make sure that their voices are heard. Rieger encouraged people to continue organizing by making sure everyone they know, in their families, work places, neighborhoods, and especially their churches that are often oblivious to these issues, is informed about what is going on.

Those in attendance shared that opportunities to speak out were going to be happening regularly in Austin over the coming weeks and invited everyone in the community to join in at least one rally and to contact their representatives to make sure their voice was heard.

WRB HEARING INVESTIGATES UNEMPLOYMENT IMPACT AND SOLUTIONS – FINDS REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS WHOLE COMMUNITY

With the unemployment rate at 9.6%, the Worker Rights Board in Dallas held a second annual Labor Day hearing that was as much about responding to the jobs crisis as it was about improving working conditions for laborers. The hearing explored how unemployment and labor issues are a community wide issue that affects everyone. The co-convener of the Worker Rights Board, Rev. Dr. Joerg Rieger, identified the objectives of the hearing, saying “We want to know what is actually happening, what is happening to [unemployed] individuals”, but we also want to know “what is this doing to the community”, and what are some solutions that we can be part of. After hearing testimony, it became clear that the economic situation for the unemployed, laborers, and the whole community is under a lot of pressure, but it could get much worse for everyone if alternative options are not enacted soon.

The hearings on September 4th, held in the courtroom of the honorable judge Luis Sepulveda, were attended by leaders from religion, labor, and community organizations around Dallas, along with concerned citizens. Those in attendance represented a blossoming coalition between religion and labor, many of whom share pews with one another and all who share a concern for promoting just working conditions for everyone in Dallas. Religious groups represented included the Perkins School of Theology, the Dallas Area Christian Progressive Alliance, the D. L. Dykes Foundation, Progressive Christian Center of the South, Jobs with Justice, and several local pastors.

Co-convener of the Worker Rights Board, Isabel Docampo, set the hearings in the context of the economic facts of the situation of laborers and the unemployed today: 15 million are looking for jobs of which 6.2 million have experienced extended unemployment and who average 33.6 weeks unemployment on the average. But Docampo was clear that this is not just a problem for the unemployed, because even those who have kept their jobs are experiences losses in wage growth.

The Worker Rights Board heard testimony from three individuals connected with labor and issues of unemployment: Mickey Morris, Gene Lantz, and Perry Forshee.

Mickey Morris, the president of the Texas Letter Carriers and a retired postal carrier himself, expressed concern about the plan to cut between 600 and 700 jobs from the postal service in Dallas County. Morris testified that large scale job loss in the postal service will not just hurt letter carries, but will “bring down wages everywhere and affect community livelihood” because more kids will not be able to go to college and more families won’t be able to put dinner on the table. Morris proposed that a solution to the problem cannot come from unions alone that it would have to come through community coalitions, emphasizing the importance of bring unions together with religious communities. Morris said how proud he has been of the Dallas community that has supported decent wages for postal employees in the past and proud to be part of the postal service who has a strong record for employing a diverse workforce, but worries about the future of Dallas if the trend of cutting jobs to cut spending continues.

Gene Lantz, the head of Jobs with Justice in Dallas, spoke on behalf of the UAW 848 (United Auto Workers) in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who are currently in the process of contract negotiations. The UAW 848 contract expires October 3rd and sets the terms for some of the highest paying production jobs in the area, many of which are in the aerospace industry. Lantz emphasized that the situations of those with jobs is closely tied with the situation of those who are unemployed or underemployed, because those with jobs “can’t have a better working environment when there are many people unemployed or [underemployed].” Lantz said that restoring employment through political action like the Local Jobs for America Act currently before congress or returning to proven job creation programs likes the Works Progress Administration (WPA) will benefit the working conditions of employees across the board.

Forshee is the head of the Fair Budget Campaign which is concerned to ensure that the current budget hearings in Dallas serve to benefit the whole community. In the budget hearings, Forshee testified that “overwhelmingly we hear people talk about the quality of life.” The outcome of the budget hearings will have a major impact on life, work, and community well being in Dallas. Facing a budget shortfall, the city council is deciding between raising property taxes and cutting jobs and reducing services likes public pools, libraries, youth recreation facilities, and senior citizen services. Forshee emphasized that the decision to cut jobs and services would not just increase the already high unemployment in the short term, but would be detrimental for job creation, working conditions, and community well being long term. Forshee said “People want to know who’s going to create jobs . . . Companies that are considering coming in [to the community] want to know about education, public facilities, and want to see people working.” Forshee’s point was that cutting jobs and services now will make the community undesirable for new companies that could create jobs while putting our youth under increased pressure that will reduce the long term quality of life in Dallas. The Fair Budget Campaign, with the support of many local community organizations, is advocating a minimal 1¢-5¢ raise on property taxes to offset the budget shortfall. Forshee said, “citizens are saying they wouldn’t mind paying a little more to restore our city.”

While the testimony painted the economic situation in stark terms, the witnesses were each clear that there are solutions and there is hope if the community can organize together to enact the solutions. The witnesses and the conveners emphasize the important role religious communities can play in educating the community about economic injustice and collaborating with labor to make the community’s voices hear. In response to the testimony, the Worker Rights Board adopted a resolution calling on the state and federal government to acknowledge the current unemployment situation as a crisis and act accordingly by passing the Local Jobs for America Act currently before congress and by creating federal programs like the proven WPA to put the unemployed back to work at a fair wage, improve the working conditions of those with jobs, and secure the livelihood of our communities.

Area Leaders Speak Out About the Jobs Crisis

Hear local Dallas leaders and workers speak out about unemployment in their own words. Hear how they are getting involved in the jobs crisis and some ways that we can all get involved.