Labor and Community Spring Offensive! Celebrate International Workers Day

It is very exciting that many unions, community groups and individuals are joining together this spring to organize on behalf of the 99% for the future of our country.  The deaths of Trayvon Martin and many others to racial profiling and violence highlight the urgency of economic justice, equality and peace.

 As a part of this great effort, the People's World in Connecticut is hosting its annual celebration of International Workers Day on Sunday, May 6 at 4:00 pm at the Peoples Center, 37 Howe Street, New Haven. Please mark your calendar and help make the day a big success.

 The program will include a slide show of May Day Around the World and solidarity messages from Connecticut workers resisting corporate greed on strike, in contract negotiations or organizing drives A Labor-Community Organizing panel will place experiences in the on-going struggles for jobs and union rights, ending racial profiling and attacks on women, ending the wars and taxing the 1% into the context of the 2012 elections.

Music performances will inspire and unite us. A home made buffet and a raffle will round out the family day. Tickets are $5 or what you can afford. No one will be turned away.

 The celebration /rally is a fund raiser toward the annual $10,000 People's World Connecticut fund drive goal to keep the paper's working class news and views going and growing.  Donations large and small will be welcomed and appreciated.

Don't miss Sunday, May 6 at 4 pm at 37 Howe Street in New Haven. To reserve tickets or for information e-mail: ct-pww@pobox.com or call 203-624-8664.

SECURITY GUARDS STRIKE VOTE

Guards employed by one of the security contractors to the State of CT are set to release support petitions and announce their vote to authorize a strike at a press conference at the Capitol Wed., 4/4 at 6:00PM in room 310...

The strike vote is being authorized by the guards based at the Capitol Avenue complex and 25 Sigourney Street in Hartford who are employed by SOS Security only.

Urge your lawmakers to contact the contractor's CEO in New Jersey and settle the dispute now.

SOS: SAVE OUR SECURITY.
Security officers who keep State of Connecticut buildings safe have been ignored and disrespected by our employer, SOS Security. Despite working hard to maintain secure facilities, we face:

***Low wages,
***Unaffordable healthcare, and
***No retirement security.

Our employer is not making pension contributions for their employees as required under their contract with the State. That's one reason why we've called for an audit by DAS. Instead of addressing our concerns, SOS has responded by interrogating some of us about our efforts to organize for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions. Stand with us and demand that SOS invest in its security officers with livable wages, affordable healthcare, and pension contributions.

TELL SOS: SAFETY FIRST!

The security of the officers who guard State of Connecticut facilities should be the concern of SOS, too. Contact their CEO today and urge him to make pension fund contributions, and treat us with dignity and respect.

CEO Edward B. Silverman - (973) 402- 6600

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Local 32BJ, SEIU Connecticut District
196 Trumbull St. 4th Flr., Hartford CT 06103
(860) 560-8674 – www.standforsecurity.org

Source: The Greater Hartford Labor Council Website
Posted by Tom Connolly

Care 4 Kids Providers Fight for Collective Baraining Rights

Connecticut’s Care 4 Kids Program Leaves Family Child Care Providers Struggling -Providers Make Their Case for Collective Bargaining Rights At State Capitol

This past Tuesday, family child care providers, who care for children in home based daycare settings, converged on the state capitol in Hartford to ask the Labor & Public Employees committee to support a bill granting them collective bargaining rights. Family child care providers accepting Care 4 Kids, Connecticut’s low income child care assistance program, voted overwhelmingly, 1603 to 88, in an election conducted by the American Arbitration Association to join together in CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 back in December, but under current labor laws they lack the right to negotiate for a contract. Senate Bill 352 will allow family child care providers to negotiate for a contract with the state over wages and working conditions, while not make them state employees.

After testifying in support of the Bill 352, New Haven based provider Queen Freelove spoke of the challenges facing providers. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and it’s getting harder every year to provide quality childcare. The work I do allows other families to go to work, but because the families who qualify for the Care 4 Kids program are struggling, many can’t afford to pay their child care providers on top of the Care 4 Kids reimbursements, which have not seen a rate increase since 2002. This creates a very difficult situation for us.”

“To give you an idea of how low the Care 4 Kids rates are; a provider caring full time for an infant would make about $4.54 an hour in Fairfield and only about $3.42 an hour in Eastern Connecticut. Collective Bargaining rights would give these providers a voice in the process that affects their businesses and an avenue to address the problems they struggle with daily.” said Cathy Sarri, an expert on state child care programs.

Outdated reimbursement rates are not the only issues facing Family child care providers; Late payments, lost paper work and long waits for a child’s approval are frequently cited problems. And because they are considered independent businesses, family child care providers are on their own to find affordable health insurance, and many end up on the state HUSKY or Charter Oak health plans. Thousands of providers have left the field in the past decade as a result.

Granting family child care providers the right to collectively bargain has created win/win situations in other states for both providers and local governments. In Washington and Illinois, child care providers were able to improve their wages through their contract, while streamlining the system and saving the state money. And as the field became more desirable, more providers started accepting state subsidized children, creating greater access for parents.

The service delivered by home based family child care providers is essential for working families around the state who work irregular hours when most childcare centers are closed. The providers often open their doors at 6am and don’t close until the last child leaves at night, sometimes after midnight on both weekdays and weekends.

Posted by Tom Connolly

"We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest"

People’s World 38th Annual African American History Month Celebration

'We who believe in freedom cannot rest'-- Reclaiming the Struggle in 2012

HARTFORD Saturday, February 25 at 6:00 PM at 405 Capitol Ave

NEW HAVEN Sunday, February 26 at 4:00 PM at 37 Howe St

The 38th Annual African American History Month Celebration, “'We who believe in freedom cannot rest' – Reclaiming the Struggle in 2012” expresses our hope and determination to remember the past and our pledge to continue the fight against rising inequality and racism in this election year.

The celebration hosted by the People's World will take place on Saturday, February 25 at 6:00 pm in Hartford at La Paloma Sabanera, 405 Capitol Avenue and on Sunday, February 26 at 4:00 pm in New Haven at the Peoples Center, 37 Howe Street.

Guest speaker Raglan George, Executive Director of AFSCME 1707, represents day care, Head Start and home care workers in New York City. Active in the labor movement for over 40 years, he was raised in Harlem where he learned that the greatest contribution anyone can make to society is to fight for labor rights, peace and justice. With these convictions, he embarked on a journey of political, social and labor activism to eradicate the ills of our society, and is a national leader today.

Tribute will be paid to the legacy of Henry Winston in his 100th birth year. Winston organized African American youth in the South in the 1930s and became National Chair of the Communist Party USA in 1966. Blind due to racist denial of health care while imprisoned for his ideas in the 1950s he proclaimed, “They have taken my sight but they can never take my vision.” Winston led in the world-wide effort to Free Angela Davis and the solidarity movement to dismantle apartheid in South Africa.

In New Haven, prizes will be awarded to participants in the high school arts and writing competition, “What is your vision for the future? How can being involved in the struggle for freedom and equality bring positive change to your life and the larger community?” [Submissions must be received no later than 5 pm Friday, February 17, 2012] Drumming will be performed by Brian Jarawa Gray. Children's posters drawn on Martin Luther King's birthday at the Peabody Museum will be on exhibit.

Both programs will include a light buffet. Tickets are $5 or what you can afford. Information: 203-624-8664

ICE JAILS OVER 13,000 IMMIGRANTS

No Conviction, But No Freedom: ICE Jails Over 13,000 Immigrants
Posted by Daniel M. Kowalski

"On a single day this past fall, the United States government held 13,185 people in immigration detention who had not been convicted of a crime, some of whom will not be charged with one, according to information The Huffington Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Instead, at a cost of roughly 2 million taxpayer dollars per day, the innocent men and women were detained while immigration authorities sorted out their fates. This case stands in stark contrast to the stated goal of immigration policy under the administration of President Barack Obama: to detain and deport unauthorized immigrants who've been convicted of crimes. ... " Locking people up is big business.

The Corrections Corporation of America, which gives heavily to both parties, is explicit about the connection between immigrant detention policy and the private prison company's bottom line. "[T]he demand for our correctional and detention facilities and services ... could be adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws," the company wrote in an analysis for investors filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission." - Elise Foley, Jan. 27, 2012.-- LexisNexis Communities Immigration Law Community
Posted by Tom Connolly