Occupy Seattle, We're With You

Hundreds stood with the 99 percent at Westlake Park to demand one thing: good jobs now. Susan Wilkinson speaks at Occupy Seattle in Westlake

Susan Wilkinson has worked her whole life. She never had trouble finding good work until policy makers, banks and greedy CEOs decided to change all the rules, not hire and ship jobs overseas.

Wilkinson is now two years unemployed and is on the verge of running out of the only support she has, but she is not going to take it sitting down. Wearing her green Working Washington T-shirt, she talked to the crowd about what she thought was a solution: passing the American Jobs Act.

“I’ve never not worked in my life,” she said. “We need good jobs now and the American Jobs Act will help get us back to work. I need to work!”

Susan had arrived back from Occupy Wall Street in New York to attend the event in Westlake.

“I see democracy in action at these Occupy events,” she said. “This is what democracy looks like. We don’t want handouts or gifts, we want good jobs and we want them now. We need to pass this American Jobs Act.”

The American Jobs Act is a bill supported by President Obama. It would get people working right now on the work that needs doing around the country. In fact, here in Washington, 9,600 people would be hired to build roads, repair bridges, upgrade schools and do more to invest in the country right now.

We need to let our Senators and Representatives know that we need to work and the American Jobs Act is a way to get us back to it.

Many of us have been part of the "99%" movement in Seattle for weeks. We were gathering to stand against corporate power that has rewarded layoffs, encouraged CEO greed and left the rest of us out in the cold, sometimes literally. We were staying and not backing down as we’ve seen the influence of greedy CEOs drive this economy into a ditch.

Imam Mohamed Sheikh Hassan of Masjid Afrique Mosque stood up to show his support. He wore a traditional fez hat and started his speech pointing to the large group of Somali immigrants standing at the front of the crowd.

“We work hard,” he said. “We work long hours and we never complain, but the airport is firing us for no reason.”

The Hertz rental car company had suspended 32 Somali workers for praying at the workplace even though they had negotiated permission to do so.

“How can we raise our families?” he said. “We need to change the culture and reward hard work, not fire us. We want to work! Put us back to work!”

Then, a five piece brass band playing songs as we danced our way into the night. We marched, sang and held lit candles as we rallied more people to get involved and call their Senators to pass the American Jobs Act.

Leonard Sims took the microphone his voice breaking as he described how his family had suffered from the corporations and CEOs sitting on money instead of investing in our communities.

“I tell my children to work hard,” he said. “Work hard and you’ll be rewarded, but I’m not seeing that. I can’t even get a job.”

He paused.

“Something is wrong,” he said. “Something is wrong when we can’t find work and we want to work. We need jobs right now! We’ve done our part. Now they need to do theirs.”

Even the Mayor of Seattle took to the stage to show his support for the 99 percent to keep fighting for their rights.

“Keep organizing,” he said into the microphone waving his fist. “Keep fighting for good jobs; keep fighting for justice.”

We need the work that the American Jobs Act could provide. We have the talent and the skills, we just need the opportunity. Won’t you call your Senator and ask them to stand up for good jobs right now?

Work That Needs Doing

If you ignore it, it won’t go away.by Nate Jackson

Holding "Build Bridges" signs on an I-5 overpass

They say when something becomes familiar it’s easy to ignore.

We are so used to our crumbling roads and bridges that we forget that it took people to make them and people to maintain them. We just roll over them day in and day out, forgetting that without routine maintenance and constant repair, those roads and bridges will start to weaken. That’s work that needs doing and we need the work.

On November 17th we’re showing people what is right in front of them.

Working families are getting out of their houses and onto bridges. These last few weeks, families and community members have made signs and banners and taken the message that we need to invest in our communities first, not cut more and more services.

Build bridges that are sound. Repair roads that are crumbling. Hire locally and get us back to work doing things that we need right now.

Folks in Tukwila braved the ”structurally deficient” Boeing Access overpass of I-5, a series of bridges built in the early 40’s and 50’s, to spread the word that we need this important work right now.

Other community members in partnership with the Backbone Campaign rose balloons showing the top 1% owning the vast majority of the wealth that working families create. The balloon raised more than just eyebrows over the I-90 Bridge.

Somali airport workers also took to the streets in support of work that needs doing. They donned signs and banners stating that they need good jobs, fair treatment and an opportunity to use their skills to better their community.

I-5 got a double dose when community members marched on Yesler Avenue and dropped a large banner over the highway. Semi-truck drivers and working families honked in support as the community members waved American flags and hoisted signs saying “Good Jobs,” and “Stop the War on Workers.”

We see the needs every day and we are starting to recognize it. We can’t ignore the infrastructure anymore and we will keep getting out there to remind everyone else.  Come join us on November 17 and take a good long look at work that needs doing.

Monday, 5pm, be there!

     Tell Congress

       We Stand with the 99%

     We Need Good Jobs!

Monday Oct. 10 5pm Westlake Park

The economy is rough and the jobs still have not come back. Monday at 5pm in Westlake Park, we are standing with the 99 percent of Americans who have not received bailouts and $1 million bonuses. We stand to tell Wall Street no more bonuses. No more tax cuts. Invest in good jobs, and invest in us.

President Obama has proposed to create jobs by putting $50 billion into our bridges, roads and transit systems. This would be paid for with a tax on millionaires.

But Congress says "NO". It wants to do nothing.

 

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Work That Needs Doing: Union Gospel Mission

Nonprofits struggle to stave off suffering as CEOs refuse to hire. by Nate Jackson

Unfortunately, the Union Gospel Mission is having a busy year.

Lines of people outside Union Gospel Mission

The Union Gospel Mission is a nonprofit that provides emergency shelter as well as other “last resort” services to folks who have been hit hard by this still continuing recession. State services have been chopped and many nonprofit organizations in the area, including the Mission, have had to pick up the slack created by politicians gifting tax giveaways to CEOs while cutting off public services.

Policy makers need to reinvest in us instead of handing out money to CEOs who don’t need it. There is work that needs doing and we need good jobs in our communities.

The Mission provides emergency shelter to over 500 people per night, which is up from previous years. It’s privately funded through individual donations and foundations, but has seen more working families turn to its services. The Mission is partnering with other community groups and is asking for those with the means to help support the organization.

It is cleaning up the mess made by policy makers who have sided with CEOs instead of struggling working families.

We’ve seen savings disappear and back up plans dry up as we’ve stayed unemployed. We’ve fallen through the cracks of social services as state money is ripped away due to budget cuts. We want to work, but when corporations are giving bonuses to millionaire CEOs instead of creating good jobs in our communities we’re stuck.

We are potential wasted.

Without fully funding basic services, education, health care and holding corporations accountable to hire instead of rewarding layoffs we cannot move forward. The work that needs doing is not just roads and bridges, but also growing and supporting workers. How many of us are stuck, forced to rely on services, instead of living up to our full potential?

We have the talent and the skills. We have the potential and the experience; we just do not have the opportunity to get back to work. Society can’t afford to forget us. We the working families are the strength of our economy, not greedy CEOs or out of touch policy makers. We need to invest in our communities not just by building bridges and fixing schools, but also by funding public services that help us get back on our feet and back to work.

We can’t afford to wait anymore. No more tax giveaways to greedy CEOs and out of state corporations. No more rewarding companies for firing people. No more bonuses for putting working families out on the street. We have work that needs doing right here and giving a helping hand to those of us who feel forgotten is a good place to start.

Invest in Infrastructure; Invest in Us

By Nate Jackson When a puddle pulls down a power pole, we’ve got problems.

Telephone poles are Work That Needs Doing

On 15th Ave in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, a power pole finally fell to the ground after what neighbors called a “perma-puddle” eroded its core.

The pole literally rotted from the inside out. Even though inspections supposedly happen on a routine basis, the pole plummeted. Luckily, no one was hurt, but this pole problem shows how far politicians have let our infrastructure sink.

When something as basic as a power line falls to the ground because of a puddle, we have work that needs doing--and we need the work.

Infrastructure is the backbone of any working economy. It’s workers building roads, bridges, water-treatment plants and monitoring power lines. It’s teachers educating our kids and health care workers providing quality healthcare to their patients. When infrastructure is built, repaired and maintained we build a stronger, fairer economy where people have good jobs and a better future.

State, federal and local politicians have not invested in the work that is necessary for our everyday lives. They’ve allowed schools to crumble, roads to shred and hospitals to kick out patients because they’ve decided that banks and CEOs deserve tax handouts more than funding these good jobs and services we need. That’s not right and we should show them where their priorities should be.

There is so much work to be done, but they slip under the radar. We’ve all seen rusted swing sets and cracked pavement. We’ve seen potholes, homeless camping on the sides of freeways, foreclosed homes, overcrowded unemployment offices and patients denied because the hours of hospital staff have been cut. Let’s shine a light on these problems. We can tell our elected officials about the work that needs doing by snapping a photo and telling the story.

We need to rebuild this economy and the best way to do it is for us to get back to work. There is work that is needed and we have the skills to do that work. What we need is for politicians and greedy CEOs to stop scratching each other’s backs and instead invest in the real “engine of economic growth”--the workers.

No more power poles crashing to the ground. No more bonuses. No more tax cuts. Invest in our bridges, roads and schools. Invest in good jobs.

Bridges to jobs and a Better Future

by Anne Martens

Working Washington holds banners above 520

Holding a banner reading “Build Bridges” in front of the failing Evergreen Point bridge (SR 520), dozens of Working Washington members joined construction workers from the Seattle Building Trades to send a clear and simple message to our elected officials: it’s time to create good jobs by investing in infrastructure.

Our bridge-building event came on the same day as President Obama spoke from a bridge in Ohio to push for the infrastructure investments that are a key part of the American Jobs Act he has proposed to Congress. This would invest an estimated $741 million and create an estimated 9,600 jobs in Washington state alone — jobs that we desperately need, to fix structures that desperately need fixing.

The members of the building trades who joined Working Washington on Thursday represent the men and women who weld the steel, lay the concrete, and do all the other work that builds our roads & bridges and keeps them safe. But because banks and corporations have drastically cut back their investment in making things, construction workers have been especially hard hit by the bad economy. In many trades, unemployment rates have jumped into the double digits, as good jobs that paid enough to raise a family have simply disappeared.

And yet everywhere you turn, you see broken bridges, unsafe roads, and other infrastructure--schools, hospitals, parks and libraries--that are falling apart. In fact, a recent national report shows that there are a staggering 69,000 bridges across the country which have been deemed structurally deficient by the Federal Highway Administration. This includes the SR 520 bridge where we stood yesterday, and hundreds more across Washington State.

The economy isn’t getting any better on its own, and the big banks and corporations aren’t doing much to help. That’s why we need our elected officials to step up and take action to create the good jobs we need.

There’s work to be done. There’s people to do the work. Let’s tell our elected officials to make it happen: get us to work building bridges.

 

Not So Sunny in Suncadia

Woman holding"no more corporate greed" sign CEOs Hide From Working Families

by Nate Jackson

Cle Elum, Wash.—Waving American flags, over 150 Washingtonians greeted CEOs and business leaders as they sped into the swanky Suncadia resort on Wednesday, avoiding eye contact. They didn’t want to face up to the fact that their bottom-line-only decisions hurt working families.

Those rich CEOs were out in rural Washington to attend the annual meeting of the Association of Washington Businesses. We crashed their party because the business leaders were discussing how they were going to get more money from working families while avoiding taxes, stripping workers’ rights and focusing only on the bottom line.

They had a selfish agenda, but we have our own ideas on how to make this economy work again. It’s simple:  working families need good jobs and respect.

Truck drivers, janitorial workers, land maintenance crew and other workers who were on their way to work at Suncadia honked and waved in support. Even the sheriffs that barred our way told us they were on our side. They knew that the decisions being made behind closed doors would hurt them.

We don’t want to keep hurting. We’ve taken enough hits. We’ve sacrificed every time they cut budgets, laid us off or ship our jobs overseas. It’s time we, the working people, set the agenda.

Workers hold a sign saying "Cut Corporate Tax Loopholes, not Social Services"

What we want are good jobs, fair treatment and a seat at the table when decisions about our economic future are being decided. Working people are the ones who create the wealth and we want to see that hard work rewarded with full time work, good American benefits and a voice in real decision making.

Governor Chris Gregoire was in attendance to give a “pretty please with sugar on top” speech to the CEOs and business leaders who broke our economy. The governor snuck into Suncadia around us, ignoring the people she should be talking to, and then sent out a staffer to parrot talking points.

The staffer talked about shared sacrifice, everyone doing their part and some other claptrap we’ve heard over and over again, but he never answered our real questions. “Will the governor make corporations and CEOs pay taxes?  Will she close tax loopholes that are bankrupting our economy?” we asked. He stuck to his rehearsed statements and we sent him on his way.

We wanted to hear something true, so we shared our own stories of how the greedy CEOs have lost all credibility. They couldn’t be trusted with such important decisions.

Dixie Mitchell told us how she had been taken advantaged of by Chase Bank, one of the many corporations represented in Suncadia. Mitchell is 71-years-old and has owned her house that Chase is trying to snatch away for over 20 years.

“I’m still in foreclosure, but I’m still fighting,” she said grasping a microphone. “I ain’t going out without a fight.”

Greedy CEOs and big corporations are scared of a fight. They hide behind their closed gates and pretend that working people will just take whatever they hand out. No more. We know that the only way to get a more fair economy, where people are treated with the respect they deserve, is to get louder, to get out of our homes, into the streets and take the fight to them.

We’re not going away. We’re not shutting up and we’re just getting started.