Connecticut Working Families

It’s been a month since a group of bold and passionate demonstrators set up to Occupy Wall Street in New York City’s Zuccotti Park. Since then, the movement has spread to 105 cities across the country. A few blocks from where I live in Hartford, the encampment is growing at Turning Point Park.

People are raising their voices against corporate greed. One of the best examples is here in Connecticut. GE has made billions in profits – while somehow managing to avoid paying any federal income taxes. CEO Jeff Immelt, took home $21 million in 2010. And, even though the company is sitting on nearly $100 billion in cash reserves, GE has shed more than 19,000 U.S. jobs since 2008.

But that didn’t stop Immelt from being named to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness early this year.

CEOs like Immelt don’t know what life is like for the other 99%. He needs to hear from you: If you or someone in your family is struggling, tell him about your lost jobs, your depressed wages, your struggles to keep your home and your healthcare.

Click here to share your story.

We’ll be delivering your stories right to Jeff Immelt.

CEOs like Immelt don’t understand what it’s like to live in these difficult times without a huge corporate income. While their paychecks have been getting bigger, ours have been getting smaller – if we’re lucky enough to still be getting one. They collect multi-million dollar bonuses while millions of us only collect unemployment. We need to make sure they understand what their corporate greed has done to our economy.

The message of Occupy Wall Street has struck a deep chord around the world and changed our idea of what we, the people, can accomplish by doing one simple thing: bearing witness on the very doorstep of those responsible for the global economic crisis.

The movement is catching hold with the public. Despite our growing strength, the Wall Street CEOs who crashed our economy still act like they can ignore us. So we’re raising our voices directly at the corporate bigwigs who caused this global crisis by delivering stories of how their greed has led to suffering for ordinary Americans.

Click here to explain to Jeff Immelt and other executives who just don’t get it how their boardroom decisions affect the other 99%:

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4913

Thanks for all you do,

Jon Green
Executive Director
www.connecticutworkingfamilies.org

PS – Thanks for sharing your story. On Saturday, we’ll deliver some of them to Jeff Immelt personally. We hope you can join us. You can RSVP here.

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Verizon is up to their ears in cash: $19 billion in profits in the last four years. But they’re demanding workers give back unprecedented concession, including healthcare cuts that will cost each employee thousands of dollars a year.

Why are they doing it? Because in a tough economy, they think they can get away with it. They’re kicking workers when they’re already down, because they don’t think that workers will have the courage to fight back. But I think it’s time to stand up to bullies.

45,000 Verizon workers are on strike. And we’re standing with them. Read the rest of this post.

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Yesterday evening, President Obama signed the debt ceiling deal, marking an end to one of the most disheartening episodes we’ve seen yet from Washington.

A group of Tea Party extremists morphed a routine procedure to keep the nation’s lights on into a high stakes crisis. The result: trillions (that’s trillion with a t) in cuts to infrastructure and services, without asking multinational corporations or multimillionaires to pitch in even a single red cent.

And the “deal” was supported by majorities of Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

How did this happen? Columnist Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast gave one explanation[1]: “Since the economy collapsed in 2008, only one grassroots movement has emerged in response, and it’s been a movement of the right.”

I think it’s time we had a movement to go toe to toe with the Tea Party. That’s why I’m asking each of our supporters to help, and contribute $10 to Working Families today.

Make a $10 contribution to Working Families today.

If anything positive emerged from the wreckage of the debt ceiling debate it’s a renewed recognition that we need a movement too. Money and political power has not been so concentrated in the hands of few since the Gilded Age. We just can’t count on the politicians to solve our problems for us. We need to make them do the right thing.

That’s why Working Families was formed: to put the needs of ordinary families ahead of the wants of banks and billionaires once again. And today, that mission is more urgent than ever.

The Tea Party has heavy-duty corporate money to back it up, not to mention at least one cable news network dedicated to legitimizing its extreme views. We just have you. Hardly seems like a fair fight, to be honest, but we’re not backing down. I’m asking you to do the same. In fact, I’m asking you to step up.
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After a grueling debate, the House of Representatives gave final passage last night to the paid sick days bill.  It could never have happened without the support of people like you.

The bill will allow hundreds of thousands of low wage service-sector workers to earn paid sick leave for the first time to care for their own health or their family’s health, without losing pay or risking their jobs.

As a supporter of the campaign, you should feel proud today, because together we made a real difference in people’s lives.

The debate drew late into the night and into the early morning, and the ranks of supporters and opponents alike at the Capitol thinned. But as Representative Zeke Zalaski entered the 11th hour (literally) of answering questions and defending the bill, we were still there outside the House chamber cheering him on.
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The Senate has just begun debating the paid sick days bill. This is the biggest hurdle the bill faces. There are more business lobbyists here at the Capitol today than you can imagine.

With your help, we’ve come this far. Over the past months, thousands and thousands of Connecticut residents have sent letters and emails and made phone calls.

We’re at the Capitol now to support our allies in the Senate, and to show the groundswell of support for paid sick days. Can you join us here right now?

Stand up for Paid Sick Days — NOW
State Capitol Building
210 Capitol Ave, Hartford
We’ll be here until the Senate votes — it could be a while. If you’re able to join us, you can find us on the third flood of the Capitol Building, outside the Senate Chambers, or call Lindsay at (203) 278-2828. And if everything goes smoothly, you’ll be here to see something big happen.

If you can’t make it, you can still help: we need to keep the flood of messages from constituents coming in.

It’s not too late to send your Senator an email:
Tell your Senator to pass the paid sick days bill tonight.

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Below is a detailed letter from the chair of the Connecticut Public Health Association to the Connecticut General Assembly explaining why the lack of paid sick days is unhealthy for all of us — and for our healthcare system.

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Below is a fascinating letter signed by 16 Connecticut economists in support of paid sick days. It’s worth a read.

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Profits on Wall Street are back at record levels. Giant corporations like GE are getting away with paying no federal taxes at all. Meanwhile, most working families are still taking it on the nose. All the while, politicians clamor for austerity and some push to cut social security and eliminate Medicare as we know it.

Are you starting to feel like enough is enough?

Tomorrow is May Day — internationally, a day that working families stand up and make their voices heard. Please join us tomorrow (Sunday) in Bushnell Park:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH Rally
Sunday, May 1, 2011 From 1 – 3 PM Rain or Shine
Bushnell Park Pavilion, Hartford, CT

The weather should be perfect. There’s no excuse to sit this one out.

See you tomorrow.

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Employees at Friendly’s — like most food service workers in Connecticut — don’t get paid sick days.

That’s not very friendly, is it? Not for the employees who are forced to go to work sick, and not for the customers who might unknowingly order a grilled sneeze sandwich.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has been a national leader fighting for paid sick days legislation. She’s joining us for a rally outside Friendly’s Restaurant in West Haven this Wednesday.

Rally for Paid Sick Days
Wednesday, April 27th, 11AM
Friendly’s Restaurant
340 Saw Mill Road
West Haven, CT
(google maps)

If you can come, please reply to let me know, so we’ll know how big a crowd to expect.

If you can’t make it, you can still make a difference by telling your state legislators that you support paid sick days.

A big rally will remind our legislators in Hartford that this is an issue that matters to all of us. Paid sick days protect the public health, and help provide economic security for law wage workers. But when huge profitable corporations try to save a few pennies and endanger all of us, that’s just not right.

We’ve been holding rallies all around the state to highlight workers without paid sick days at stores like WalMart, McDonald’s and Starbucks. But this rally with Representative Rosa DeLauro on Wednesday at Friendly’s should be our biggest one yet. I hope you’ll join us.

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Two years ago, over a thousands people came together at Hartford Union Station to call for healthcare reform and launch Sustinet, Connecticut’s home grown healthcare reform plan.

That groundswell of grassroots support sparked the momentum to win the campaign’s first big victory: passing legislation, over Gov. Rell’s veto, to put together a Board to design a plan for quality, affordable health coverage for all.

Now the plan is done, and it’s time for the legislature to act again, to put the plan into motion. But to make it happen, we’ll need an even bigger groundswell of support.

Can you join us for a giant rally for Sustinet at Hartford’s Union Station?

Click here to register for the rally for Sustinet.

Can’t make it? We still need your help:

Take a moment to call your State Senator and ask them to support the Sustinet plan.

What is Sustinet again?

It’s Connecticut’s home grown healthcare reform plan.

The centerpiece of the plan is a non-profit public healthcare option that municipalities, small businesses, non-profits and individuals could buy into. It would be a low cost, high quality plan like the kind elected officials get. After all, if our elected officials get great healthcare coverage, why shouldn’t we all? And with economies of scale, it’ll drive down costs and also compete with unaccountable private insurers.

Combine that with smart reforms to make healthcare delivery more efficient and provisions to make sure we get every penny of federal healthcare funding Connecticut is eligible for, and that makes Sustinet.

But big changes that are worth fighting for take major efforts. And that’s why I’m asking you join the healthcare4every1 campaign, along with Working Families and countless other unions, non profit organizations, small businesses and concerned citizens in converging on Hartford’s Union Station to tell our leader’s that we demand healthcare reform. And it’ll be fun too.

Click here to RSVP to the rally right now.

And if you can’t make it, you’re not off the hook. We still need your voice:

Click here to tell your State Senator that you support Sustinet.

Thanks again. We can’t make big change without you.

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