Weekly Bulletin August 2, 2012

Workers Stand for America -- join your brothers and sisters at Eakins Oval on Saturday, August 11th

Have you signed onto the Workers Bill of Rights and made your plans to be on Eakins Oval with thousands of your brothers and sisters on August 11th? Even the media is beginning to catch on about what this event means: it's a bold, public statement that our political and economic systems aren't focused on meeting people's basic needs, and that those needs should be at the center of politicians' goals. And as Philadelphia AFL-CIO President Pat Eiding explains, Philadelphia is the perfect place to hold this rally. Don't sit at home wishing that you'd been with us, making history! Email mobilize@philaflcio.org to tell us you'll be there on August 11!

Voter ID Update -- judicial hearing wrapping up, canvassing to begin later this month

The lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of Pennsylvania's Voter ID law went to trial last week. You can read daily updates on the hearing, and watch video interviews of some of the voters affected by the law on the PA ACLU's blog. No one knows what the judge's decision will be, and in order to protect the rights of the hundreds of thousands of voters who might have their rights denied in November by this law, the Philadelphia AFL-CIO will be conducting a 2-week voter registration and voter education canvass starting on Monday, August 13th. The goal will be to register new voters and to educate every voter we talk to about what kind of ID they'll need to bring to the polls this November. If you or your organization would like to participate in the door-to-door blitz, email mobilize@philaflcio.org!

Labor's 2012 Election program

Quick quiz: do you know how many days we have left before the November elections? The correct answer is 95 days. So let's get to work! The Philadelphia AFL-CIO will be kicking off our program of door-to-door voter contact and phonebanks in a few weeks, and many of our affiliates are already distributing the AFL-CIO's voter information leaflets to their members on the job. The AFL-CIO's national office in Washington DC has developed some new outreach tools, tested in Wisconsin, Ohio, and here in Philadelphia, that will make our voter contact program more effective, more efficient, and more fun. And on August 24-26, you can join the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO's COPE Institute at Linden Hall in the beautiful Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania. Email us at mobilize@philaflcio.org for more information about Labor 2012 or the COPE Institute!

Updates on workers on the front lines of the struggle for economic justice

• A few weeks ago the Bulletin brought you news about 8,000 members of the Utility Workers Union of America who were locked out of their jobs by Consolidated Edison, New York's largest utilities company. Last week, with a storm about to arrive, Con-Ed and the UWUA reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, bringing 8,000 of our brothers and sisters back to work.
• A major battle for justice continues in Houston, Texas, where 3,200 janitors, members of SEIU Local 1, have been on strike for over 3 weeks. The Houston commercial property market is strong, but despite renting office space to some of the world's wealthiest corporations, the building owners and cleaning contractors have refused to raise rates for janitors to $10/hour. The strike has grown since it started in early July, and this struggle for basic, economic justice has started to attract attention nationwide. To learn more about the workers and what's at stake for them in their struggle, and to find out how to support them, check out the SEIU Local 1 website.
• Hyatt Hotels have made themselves the worst employer in the hotel industry -- replacing experienced housekeepers with minimum-wage, temporary workers; introducing dangerous speedups on the job; abusing their staff; and running expensive, brutal anti-union campaigns when workers choose to organize. We encourage all affiliates, union members and allies to boycott Hyatt hotels until further notice as part of the national Hyatt Hurts! campaign led by UNITE HERE. You can read full details of the campaign at the Hyatt Hurts website. Note that a small number of Hyatt hotels with union contracts are not part of this boycott, and that one of the hotels that is not being boycotted is the Hyatt Penn's Landing in Philadelphia.