The rest of the banking industry should follow JPMorgan Chase’s example and declare a nationwide moratorium on home foreclosures, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said today. Chase has announced it is temporarily halting the processing of home foreclosures.

In rallies and town hall meetings across the country, union members have demanded that the banks pursue alternatives to foreclosure such as modifying homeowners’ mortgages to more affordable levels. In July, Holt Baker and Atlanta-North Georgia AFL-CIO President Charlie Flemming were part of a panel in Atlanta that listened to area residents about to lose their homes explain the Big Banks’ role in the foreclosure crisis. After the hearing. Holt Baker and others met with Wells Fargo Wachovia officials and urged them to declare a moratorium on foreclosures.

Last Friday, UAW President Bob King and several faith leaders announced their intention to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from JPMorgan Chase, among other reasons, over its refusal to declare a moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan.

In a statement, Holt Baker says:

Millions of working families are on the precipice of losing their homes, and we must stop the avalanche of foreclosures if we are going to save our communities from further economic harm.

The AFL-CIO is working with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) to help union members keep their homes. NACA, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure, will host two “Save-the-Dream” workshops—one in Los Angeles, which began today and runs through Oct.4 at the LA Convention Center,  and another in Sacramento, Calif., Oct. 8–12 at the Cal Expo Pavilion. Counselors and lenders will be on hand to provide assistance to individuals, including union members, who cannot afford their mortgages.

These workshops will run 24 hours a day. You can get more information and register for the workshops here or call 1-888-499-6222.

Says Holt Baker:

Unemployment is the leading cause of foreclosure, and millions of homeowners have lost their jobs because of the financial crisis and economic recession. Foreclosures hurt the property values of neighborhoods, the credit ratings of homeowners, and the possibility of an economic recovery. The same banks that caused the financial crisis must now do the right thing and stop home foreclosures.

Senate Republicans turned their backs on workers one more time before they left town for the Nov. 2 elections when they refused to allow a vote to keep alive a jobs program that has created nearly a quarter of million jobs. Many of those jobs were in some of the communities hardest hit by the nation’s unemployment crisis.

The program was a small part of the economic recovery package known as the TANF Emergency Fund and it  directly subsidized jobs in government, nonprofit organizations and small businesses for unemployed workers.

On Tuesday, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)—with the backing of Republican leaders—used Senate rules to block an extension of the TANF fund. The program expired today and the layoffs are beginning.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the program subsidized jobs in 37 states for nearly

250,000 otherwise unemployed parents and youth—helping families, businesses, and communities across America weather the recession…. The fund has been a “win-win-win,” helping unemployed families find work, businesses expand capacity in a difficult economic environment, and local economies cope with the recession.

The New York Times reported that the jobs program created some 400 new public- and private-sector jobs in Perry County, Tenn.

But in a county of 7,600 people, those jobs had a big impact: They reduced Perry County’s unemployment rate to less than 14 percent this August, from the Depression-like levels of more than 25 percent that it hit last year after its biggest employer, an auto parts factory, moved to Mexico.

Brian Davis, a 36-year-old father of four, who got a stimulus-subsidized job with the City of Lobelville after he lost his job of 17 years at an auto parts plant, told the Times:

This was a huge help, the way the economy’s been and the way people are struggling, you’re worried about putting food on the table for your children and keeping the electricity on.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) sought to include the TANF extension in the temporary spending bill the Senate and House passed yesterday to keep the government operating though December. Before Enzi blocked the bill, Kerry said:

It’s inconceivable to pull the rug out from under the same families who have been devastated by this recession. It makes no sense to shred a program that’s been creating jobs and helping low-income parents make ends meet for the last two years.

In a guest column for Politico, Christine Owens executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), writes that allowing the TANF jobs program to expire

means killing jobs when we should be saving them, throwing hundreds of thousands back into joblessness at the very moment we need to put America back to work

While some states plan to use their own funds to continue the program most are not.

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee has a great idea for a reality television show. He suggested it as part of a conference call today where participants outlined efforts to strengthen Social Security and combat attempts by the federal budget deficit commission and others to raise the retirement age, cut benefits or even privatize Social Security.

The show would star three people: Deficit Commission co-chair Alan Simpson, who has called seniors “greedy geezers”; House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) who wants to raise the retirement age to 70; and former Lehman Brothers chief executive Peter Peterson, who has bankrolled a major PR campaign to convince the public Social Security is on the brink of disaster. But McEntee admits it might be short-lived.

Give each of these guys the average annual Social Security benefit of $14,000 and make them live on it for a year. But deduct $100 a month for Medicare part B premium and $200 a month for Medigap insurance. When do you think they will stop calling for benefit cuts?  Probably after the first episode.

Others on the press call  sponsored by the Strengthen Social Security coalition included Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Rep Raul Grijalva and Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling.

Sanders and Brown have introduced a resolution opposing raising the retirement age, risky privatization schemes and cutting Social Security benefits, while Grijalva is circulating a letter in the House to the president opposing privatizing Social Security, raising the retirement age and cutting benefits.

Easterling said that with the elections just a month away, the resolution helps voters better understand the issues and where the candidates stand.

There are many who say they support Social Security, but yet choose to be vague and cagey on the details.  The Sanders-Brown resolution helps people press someone for more details:

• Does  a candidate support raising the retirement age?

• Would they cut benefits?

• Would they privatize Social Security and throw it to the whims and greed of Wall Street?

Click here for a copy of the resolution and here for the Grijalva letter.

More than 100,000 people marched in Brussels, Belgium, yesterday to demand a priority on creating jobs.

With nearly 200 million people jobless across the globe, working men and women face a worldwide economic crisis and are speaking out on both sides of the Atlantic to change it.

In the United States, tens of thousands of working families will take part in the One Nation Working Together march and rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Oct. 2. The AFL-CIO is joining One Nation Working Together, a progressive grassroots coalition of dozens of unions and civil and human rights organizations in calling for jobs, justice and education for all.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who will speak at the One Nation rally, says:

During this economic downturn, creating good jobs and helping those who have lost their jobs are defining issues not only for Americans–but for all workers throughout the world. We need a global economic recovery that works for all working people.

In complimentary events around the country Saturday, union members will walk door to door in targeted states around the country, mobilizing union members for the fall elections.

In Brussels, more than 100,000 people from across Europe marched yesterday to protest the rising global unemployment rate and cuts in public services in Europe and around the world. There were joint actions in sevewral countries throughout Europe.

John Monks, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) says:

Trade unionism is on unstoppable march for progress, equality and justice, determined to build from the debris of the current crisis, a new, better society where those who are too big to fail cannot be allowed to continue to ignore those who they have regarded as too small to matter.

Workers will take to the streets again Oct.7  for the World Day for Decent Work. More than 100 events worldwide are planned in the days leading up to and on Oct. 7. A major international conference the following week in Geneva will focus on countering the threat to quality public services posed by the growing obsession of governments to implement austerity measures without regard to the consequences.

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Sharan Burrow adds:

Governments, especially the G-20  (the 20 top global economies), pledged to regulate the finance sector, to create jobs and put the world economy on a sustainable and productive pathway. Yet they are not showing the common will needed to meet these goals. We will continue and step up the pressure until they do.

The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) today praised the Senate’s confirmation yesterday of former Air Line Pilots (ALPA) President Duane Woerth as U.S. ambassador of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The ICAO is an United Nations agency that fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.

In a statement, TTD President Edward Wytkind said:

For decades Woerth has demonstrated his deep understanding of the complex issues that stem from the globalization of air transportation.  Having a skilled and forceful ambassador during ICAO deliberations will serve the Obama administration well and will ensure that U.S. aviation concerns, including those of aviation labor, are brought before this important U.N. global aviation policy forum.

This post appeared here first.

The United States is a country where hard work is supposed to be rewarded. If you agree with that, would you be shocked to learn that there are more than 1.6 million homecare workers who are being denied federal minimum wage and overtime protections under current labor laws? And it is almost 2011!

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South Florida Jobs with Justice achieved a historic victory in our fight to keep Miami-Dade County from cutting public sector jobs and funding for community based organizations!  With unemployment in Miami at over 14%, labor and community came together to say that in these harsh economic times:  If you cut one of us, you cut us all.

A network of labor and community allies stood together to fight the loss of 1,200 public sector jobs and a 25% cut in funding for community based organizations.  Forty community based organizations and twenty unions signed on to a Letter of Unity published by the Miami Herald on September 11th.  The coalition then held a 300-person Unity Rally in front of the Government Center in opposition to draconian budget cuts on September 13th, the first day of the County budget hearings.  The coalition brought the energy of the rally into County Hall when the President of the South Florida AFL-CIO, Andy Madtes, led a delegation from labor and the community to deliver our Letter of Unity to Mayor Alvarez and to individual County Commissioners and demanded solutions!

On September 23rd, labor and the community achieved a huge victory!  The Commissioners voted to rollback millage rates,

Continue reading Jobs Victory in Miami!

The United States is a country where hard work is supposed to be rewarded. If you agree with that, would you be shocked to learn that there are more than 1.6 million homecare workers who are being denied federal minimum wage and overtime prot…

Washington, DC– Thousands of low-wage workers are poised to take on Sodexo, one of the largest employers in the world, over the company’s pattern of interfering with, restraining, and coercing workers who are fighting to form a union. The wo…

Despite claims from business groups that paid sick leave for employees is bad for business, two new reports show everyone benefits from sick leave, including workers, the public and employers.

When workers cannot take off of work to recover from illness, or to care for a sick child or other relative, they are more likely to go into work when sick or to send a sick child to school. This represents a threat to public health due to the spread of contagious disease. A report released today by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) bears that out. The ROC-United found that more than one-third of restaurant workers (38.1 percent) reported that a whopping  87.7 percent don’t receive paid sick days and, as a result, more than 63 percent of all restaurant workers reported cooking and serving food while sick, thus impacting consumers’ health. Check out the ROC-United report here.

Three-quarters of Americans say paid sick leave should be a “basic workers’ right” and  Congress should pass legislation that guarantees workers paid sick leave, according to a survey by the Public Welfare Foundation (PWF). More than 160 countries provide paid sick leave, but not the United States.

A second report by the Drum Major Institute  (DMI) looked at San Francisco’s first-in-the nation law requiring paid sick leave. Since the law was passed in 2007, both job growth and business growth in San Francisco have consistently been greater than in the five neighboring counties of the Bay Area, none of which have enacted paid sick leave. Business growth has been greater in San Francisco for small businesses as well as large businesses.

The report shows total employment in the five neighboring counties fell by 5.2 percent between December 2006, immediately before the paid sick leave law went into effect, and December 2009, compared with only 3 percent in San Francisco. Instead, San Francisco experienced stronger employment growth than the five counties from December 2006 to December 2008 in the industries that are most affected by paid sick leave: retail, leisure and hospitality, and accommodation and food services.C

San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are the only two cities with paid sick day laws in place, but paid sick leave campaigns also are under way in more than two dozen states.

You can download a copy of the DMI  report here.