The best way to reduce the growing federal deficit is to [1] create 10 million jobs now—the number of jobs needed to close our jobs deficit—not to cut vital programs such as [2] Social Security and [3] Medicare, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

President Obama yesterday signed an executive order creating an 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to propose ways to reduce the growing national debt. Click [4] here to read the executive order.

Trumka cited data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that most of the deficit over the next 10 years will come from the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the rich, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, spiraling [5] health care costs and the recession.

The main driver of the recent increases in deficit projections is worsening economic conditions—in short, the present deficit crisis is largely a symptom of the jobs crisis.

Solving the jobs crisis and the deficit will require large amounts of public investment in the short term, which should be paid for in future years by taxing Wall Street, Trumka said. Read the full statement [6] here.

Also, it is critical that the newly appointed commission not focus on cutting entitlements, Trumka said. The problem with perennial proposals for entitlement commissions and deficit commissions is that they are too often premised on the mistaken assumption that short-term stimulus and entitlement spending are the root causes of burgeoning budget deficits. But that is not the case, he said.

Social Security is fundamentally sound and does not contribute meaningfully to our long-term deficit. With the decline of defined-benefit pensions, the sudden loss of retirement savings for millions and the dramatic increase in economic uncertainty, strengthening Social Security’s core guarantee of retiring with dignity is now more important than ever.

Problems with Medicare financing are a symptom of the larger problem of rising health care costs and can be solved by comprehensive health care reform, not benefit cuts, he added.

Commissions have been, and can be, serious and useful mechanisms to grapple with difficult problems. But the true test of this commission’s success will be whether it helps fix our budget deficits by attacking the jobs deficit, or whether it makes our budget problems worse by sacrificing jobs and urgently needed long-term public investment.

Librarians Guild  AFSCME Local 2626  514 Shatto Place, 3rd Floor  Los Angeles, CA  90020

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 Carolina AFL-CIO, 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 Librarians’ Guild, AFSCME Local 2626, 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 and Change to Win.

(Adopted by  the Librarians’ Guild, AFSCME Local 2626 Executive Board  -  February 11, 2010)

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 JerseyResolution 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

SolidarityDayIIIresolution

1. South Carolina State AFL-CIO
2. San Francisco Labor Council
3. South Bay Labor Council (San Jose, Calif.)
4. The Council of New Jersey State College Locals (CNJSCL), AFT, AFL-CIO NEW
5. Chris Silvera, Secretary – Treasurer, Teamsters Local 808 NEW
6. Chris Driscoll, Recording Secretary, The Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics NEW
7. National Jobs for All Coalition   NEW
8. Prosperity Agenda   NEW
9. Kevin Zeese, Executive Director, Prosperity Agenda  NEW
10. Alan L. Maki, Director of Organizing Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council (for identification only)   NEW
11. Joe Tonan, Claremont Faculty Association, a Chapter of the California Teachers Association (for identification only)   NEW
12. Gregory W. Paquin, Business Manager, Native American Indian Lab or Union #12 (for identification only) NEW
13. San Mateo Central Labor Council
14. Hartford (CT) Central Labor Council
15. Troy (NY) Central Labor Council
16. AFT Local 1021 (Los Angeles)
17. Executive Council, AFT Missouri
18. California Peace and Freedom Party
19. Harlem Tenants Council
20. Harlem Antiwar Coalition
21. Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
22. Ohio State Labor Party
23. Railroad Workers United
24. Painters and Dry Wall workers Local  93 (Bay Area)
25. Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)
26. Donna Smith, American SiCKO, American Patients United
27. Harry Kelber (Labor Educator)
28. Sharon Black (Organizer, Bail Out the People Movement)
29. Monadel Herzallah (Arab American Union Members Council)
30. Andy Griggs (UTLA member)
31. Don Bechler (chair, Single Payer Now!)
32. Larry Duncan (Labor Beat-Chicago)
33. Allan Fisher (AFT 2121)
34. Fred Hirsch (South Bay Labor Council)
35. Jerry Gordon (Ohio State Labor Party)
36. Bill Balderston (Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice)

Rank-and-file unions from various parts of the country, as well as Central Labor Councils, have been passing resolutions calling on the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a massive Solidarity Day III demonstration in Washington to demand job-creation programs as well as other programs vital to working people. [See initial list of endorsers below.]

This campaign just took a qualitative leap forward when the statewide South Carolina AFL-CIO passed a similar resolution, which you will find below.

These resolutions have a receptive audience. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently argued: “It’s not time to leave it to any political party to take care of us once we put them in office. 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. Š I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver.”

Together, these developments signal that now is the time to act. We want to encourage all of you to raise similar resolutions in your union locals and labor/community organizations. Every resolution will help, and any single resolution might just provide the essential tipping point that results in a nationwide call for a Solidarity Day III demonstration.

Every recent poll has concluded that job loss is the top concern of the American public. If we succeed in winning a call for Solidarity Day III march in Washington, this diffuse sentiment will achieve concrete expression in the streets as working people across the country mobilize under the banner of a demand for job-creation programs, single-payer healthcare, an end to home foreclosures and evictions and war, money for education and vital social services, and so on.

The labor movement in this country represents the interests of the majority of the people in this country. The bankers do not. We have a solemn duty to press for Solidarity Day III so that the collective voice of the majority of working people can be heard across the nation.

In Solidarity,

Alan Benjamin and Bill Leumer
WERC Co-Conveners

********************
SOUTH CAROLINA AFL-CIO
Post Office Box 39 * Swansea, S.C. 29160 *
(803) 798-8300 * Toll free 866-798-8300 * FAX (803) 798-2231 *
E-Mail: scaflcio@bellsouth.net
———-

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 South Carolina AFL-CIO 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 and to Change to Win.
(Adopted by the SC AFL-CIO Executive Board – February 2nd, 2010)

********************

Initial list of endorsers of Call for a Labor-Sponsored
Demonstration in Washington for Jobs, Peace and Justice

- South Carolina State AFL-CIO
- San Francisco Labor Council
- South Bay Labor Council (San Jose, Calif.)
- San Mateo Central Labor Council
- Hartford (CT) Central Labor Council
- Troy (NY) Central Labor Council
- AFT Local 1021 (Los Angeles)
- Executive Council, AFT Missouri
- California Peace and Freedom Party
- Harlem Tenants Council
- Harlem Antiwar Coalition
- Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
- Ohio State Labor Party
- Railroad Workers United
- Painters and Dry Wall workers Local 93 (Bay Area)

- Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)
- Donna Smith, American SiCKO, American Patients United
- Harry Kelber (Labor Educator)
- Sharon Black (Organizer, Bail Out the People Movement)
- Monadel Herzallah (Arab American Union Members Council)
- Andy Griggs (UTLA member)
- Don Bechler (chair, Single Payer Now!)
- Larry Duncan (Labor Beat-Chicago)
- Allan Fisher (AFT 2121)
- Fred Hirsch (South Bay Labor Council)
- Jerry Gordon (Ohio State Labor Party)
- Bill Balderston (Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice)

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)

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

All Out For March 4 Rally at the Civic Center in Defense Of Public Education and All Public-Sector Services!

The San Francisco Labor Council calls on all labor affiliates, community organizations, and student groups to mobilize their memberships to attend the 5 p.m. rally and demonstration at the San Francisco Civic Center on March 4. This rally is being organized and sponsored by United Educators of San Francisco, AFT Local 2121, and the California Faculty

Association as part of the statewide March 4 Strike/Day of Action in Defense of Public Education that was called by a statewide conference of students, faculty, and staff unions held in Berkeley on October 24, 2009.

Responding to layoffs, furloughs and widespread cutbacks, the October 24 conference summoned all sectors of education to struggle collectively to save public education in California. The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and California Teachers Association (CTA) have endorsed the Day of Action. Massive demonstrations are being organized across the state on March 4.

The San Francisco Labor Council believes that those who work in the education sector should not be placed in competition with state workers, where each fights against the other for scarce funds.

That is why we are urging that California enact a program of progressive taxation. This could ensure that all our communities can thrive. We could create ample funds so that everyone has the opportunity, through quality, accessible education, to fully develop their potential and become productive members of society. And, at the same time, we could establish fully funded social services and job security for public workers.

Note: UESF is calling on all teacher unionists and K-12 families to gather at 4 p.m. at the State Building on the corner of Van Ness & McAllister before joining the mass rally at the Civic Center.

PDF from the San Francisco Labor Council

Despite its control of the presidency and its super-majority in Congress, the Democrats have done little to alleviate the suffering of working people, while bestowing trillions of dollars on bankers.  Accordingly, those who caused this economic crisis through their recklessness and greed have been reimbursed for their losses and are back to business as usual, rewarding themselves with huge bonuses once again.  In contrast, working people, who had nothing to do with creating this crisis, are bearing the burden of suffering through the loss of our jobs and our homes and the erosion of public education and social services.

The recent Democratic Party loss of the Senate seat in Massachusetts reflects the growing disconnect between the policies of the Democratic Party and the needs of working people. There are already indications that the Democratic Party plans to move even more to the right in pursuit of a corporate agenda that further attacks the rights and working conditions of the rest of us.

As Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, recently announced in response to the Massachusetts elections: “It’s not time to leave it to any political party to take care of us once we put them in office. 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 health care we need. I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver.”

Now is the time to organize a massive Solidarity Day III demonstration in Washington, D.C. and possibly on the West Coast to make our voices heard in favor of:

• a massive job creation program
• single-payer health care
• a stop to foreclosures and evictions
• passage of EFCA, with card check
• peace

The history of the labor movement is filled with massive mobilizations of working people that won the eight-hour day, the right to unionize, civil rights, unemployment insurance, welfare, and so on.  When the challenges were enormous, working people rose to the occasion.  We can turn things around today by employing the same successful tactics. And we should insist that since working people constitute the majority of the population, society should operate in the interests of the majority!

It was a loud and clear message that our elected leaders-and our labor movement-must do more for working people, do it fast and do it smarter.

An AFL-CIO poll taken Tuesday night shows without doubt:

Voters are fed up that elected leaders have done too little to help working families.

They said Democrats have NOT overreached on jobs, the economy and health care-they have underreached.

Voters have seen too much help for Wall Street and not nearly enough help for Main Street.

Unless Democrats demonstrate that fixing the economy is their overriding priority, and begin to create more jobs for working Americans NOW, we’re going to see more results this November like the Massachusetts election.

For the union movement and activists, the message was also clear: It’s not time to leave it to any political party to take care of us once we put them in office. 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 health care we need.

I am not discouraged by Tuesday’s election results. Actually, I’m energized and I want you to be, too. Working America is demanding major change NOW-not timid, go-slow, partial solutions.

I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver.

Let’s do it-starting NOW.

P.S. I’m sending this same message in a YouTube video. Please take a look and share it with other fighters for working families.

In solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

Building the March 4 Strike/Day of Action in Defense of Public Education and all Public Sector Services
Whereas, a powerful labor-student-faculty coalition to defend public education has formed statewide in the aftermath of the Sept. 24, 2009, 5,000-person-strong mass student walkout and university workers’ strike at UC Berkeley — organized around the main demands of “No Budget Cuts! No Layoffs! No Fee Hikes!”; and

Whereas, on October 24, 2009, more than 800 students, unionists and activists from more then 50 cities across the state gathered at UC Berkeley and issued a Call for a March 4, 2010, Strike/Day of Action to Save Public Education; and

Whereas, the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California Faculty Association (CFA), and dozens of public education and public-sector unions have endorsed the March 4 Strike/Day of Action; and
Whereas, AFT 2121 and UESF, among others, have called for a 5 p.m. rally at Civic Center in San Francisco on March 4 to impress the demands upon the public; and

Whereas, the January 4, 2010, Executive Board meeting of the San Francisco Labor Council voted unanimously to endorse the March 4 Strike/Day of Action, and the March 22 March in Sacramento (spearheaded by the Community College students and unions); and
Whereas, the attacks on public education and all public-sector services are deepening as a result of the growing state budget deficit, with public education workers being pitted against other public-sector workers, with the threat of increased privatization of services, and with more so-called “reforms” aimed at gutting union contracts and destroying essential services; and

Whereas, the January 4, 2010, SFLC Executive Board meeting affirmed that the Council must call upon all public-sector unions to join in the fight on March 4 to defend public education and all public-sector services, and to secure essential funding by taxing the rich and the corporations, by (1) breaking with the tyranny of the 2/3 vote in the State Assembly and reinstating majority rule, and (2) restructuring Prop 13 (to separate commercial property rolls from residential property rolls, as Phil Teng has proposed); and

Whereas, securing funding for public education and the public sector demands redirecting bailout funds to the state — not to the bankers and speculators; and ultimately requires calling for an end to war funding in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council calls for a citywide mobilization of affiliated unions and community allies on March 4, 2010, in defense of public education and the public sector — with day-time actions to be carried out in the manner deemed appropriate by every union and local, and with a 5 p.m. Rally at the Civic Center; and

Therefore be it further resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council will form an ad-hoc committee, open to all delegates, in close consultation with the teacher/faculty unions and the Council’s Executive Board, with the aim of (1) preparing or distributing existing educational materials on the impact of the budget cuts on the city’s public education and public sector, (2) organizing a speakers’ bureau to make outreach presentations at the membership and/or leadership meetings of the Council’s affiliates, and to affected community groups, and (3) coordinating the actions on March 4 and building the 5 p.m. Civic Center Rally; and

Be it finally resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council asks all Bay Area Councils to take similar action on March 4, and calls upon the California Federation of Labor to promote a statewide Day of Action on March 4 in defense of public education and the public sector, so that we can expand the unity and increase the power of the movement to halt and reverse the attacks on public sector unions in California.

Respectfully submitted by

Alan Benjamin, delegate OPEIU Local 3

Allan Fisher, delegate AFT 2121

Denis Mosgofian, delegate Local 4 GCC-IBT

Ann Robertson, delegate CFA (San Francisco State University)