Burlington - No amount of snow could hold back over one hundred and eighty people attending the 2007 Vermont Workers Rights Board (WRB) Hearing on “The Race To The Bottom” at Burlington City Hall. Organized by the Vermont Workers Center and Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, over two dozen people testified from a broad range of different jobs, including local school support staff workers, nurses, teachers, restaurant staff, construction workers and people who work for UVM, Verizon, COTS and other large local employers.
While hearing the many stories of the struggles of people trying to support their families on poverty wages and the impact on losing their jobs to corporate globalization, the emphasis on the evening was on pushing for positive change. The Burlington Livable City Coalition includes a broad range of local unions and community organizations who are committed to truly making Burlington work for everyone. With active campaigns to establish livable wages for all staff and contracted workers at UVM, school support staff workers in Burlington, including paraeducators, cafeteria workers and custodial staff fighting for livable wages, efforts to establish Responsible Contracting construction policies at local public institutions, legislation to increase the Tipped Worker Wage and to protect all workers falling under the Vermont labor law have the right to organize – the fight to reverse the race to the bottom is on. Email info@workerscenter.org to find out how to get involved.
WRB members included Sen. Bernie Sanders, Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss, Rabbi Joshua Chasan, Rev. Roddy O’Neil Cleary from the Burlington Unitarian Universalist Church, Rev. Michael Cronahue, Society of St. Edmundites, State Rep. Mark Larson (D-Burlington), State Rep. Floyd Nease (D-Johnson) , State Rep. Helen Head (D-S. Burlington) , State Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington), State Rep. Jason Lorber (D-Burlington), State Rep. Rachel Weston (D-Burlington), State Rep. Johanna Leddy Donovan (D-Burlington), State Sen. Diane Snelling (R-Chittenden) and Burlington City Councilors Jane Knodell and Tim Ashe.
Media coverage:
Channel 3 - CBS news (with video)
Burlington Free Press
Audio of Vermont Workers' Center TV Show
180+ Attend February 19th 2007 Vermont Workers Rights Board Hearing
The Race to the Bottom
Jonathan Kissam
Most working people in Vermont are faced with economic insecurity on a daily basis. Fewer and fewer workers enjoy health care coverage, real retirement security, or even a livable wage. Too many workers are forced to work two to three jobs, taking a toll on families and communities. And we are seemingly always caught between the rock of rising regressive taxes (such as the property tax, sales tax, and user fees) and the hard place of cutting public education and public services -- illustrated no more clearly than in our Vermont town meeting debates over school budgets every year.
Some people, especially the few who are benefitting from the situation, would like us to believe that economic insecurity for the many is simply a byproduct of uncontrollable forces of the economy, and that there is no other option to the status quo. However, the reality is that economic insecurity is a result of specific policies promoted by large corporations, the wealthy and their far-right allies. Federal trade policy has promoted outsourcing, off-shoring, and plant closings that have devastated many communities. Health insurance and pharamceutical companies have poured millions of dollars into defeating any kind of health care reform. Billions of dollars have been wasted on an unneccesary and unjust war in Iraq. These policies add up to a "race to the bottom" for workers, and a race to the bottom is one that no one wins.
Throughout history, whenever economic elites have defended the status quo with the argument that there is no other option, working people have stood up for an alternative vision, a vision of an economy that works for everyone. We can see that happening locally in the Verizon workers who are standing up to stop a sale that could not only destroy good jobs but frustrate Vermont's aspirations for quality broadband, in the fight that Specialty Filaments workers made for a just severance when their factory closed, in the struggles of nurses at Fletcher Allen for quality care, of COTS workers for a voice at work, and of school support staff for livable wages.
On February 19th, the Vermont Workers' Center, the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, and dozens of other local sponsoring organizations will be holding a Workers' Rights Board Hearing, where elected officials, faith leaders and community leaders will hear testimony from those workers, and engage in a critical community discussion regarding poverty wages, livable wages and the future of jobs in our community. It is only by linking our struggles together to create a common vision of economic and social justice, and a movement based on that vision, that we will be able, as a community and a nation, to stop the race to the bottom.
Jonathan Kissam is Secretary-Treasurer of UE Local 221, the Vermont Nonprofit Workers' Union.
Don't Break My Heart with the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement!
Today, a small delegation of activists from the Vermont Workers' Center and Students for Peace & Global Justice at UVM braved a snowstorm to deliver a Valentine's Day message to Vermont's Congressional Delegation: "Don't Break My Heart with the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement!" The action was in solidarity with the week of action organized by Korean-Americans Against War and Neoliberalism. The US Trade Representative's office is in a 7th and possibly final round of negotiations with South Korea this week in order to create the largest free trade agreement since NAFTA (more information on the proposed agreement).
We first tried to visit Senator Patrick Leahy's office, but his staff were apparently more deterred by the blizzard than we were, so we decorated the outside of the office door for them, and slipped the rest of the 100+ Valentine's cards we had brought for the Senator under the door.
Then we visited the office of Congressman Peter Welch, whose staff cheerfully accepted the Valentine's cards and told us that the Congressman has been asking a lot of questions about the US-Korea free trade agreement and issued several major statements supporting fair trade in the past few weeks.
Finally, we were cordially received at the office of Senator Bernie Sanders, a long-time ally of working people, where his local chief-of-staff assured us that Bernie would lead the fight against this and any other unfair trade agreements in the Senate, and that he felt good about taking on that fight in the Senate as several strong fair-trade advocates had been elected in November.
Feb 19 Workers Rights Board Hearing: The Race To The Bottom (Bernie Sanders will be speaking)
Vermonters Facing The Race To The Bottom
Vermont Workers Rights Board Hearing with Senator Bernie Sanders
6:30PM, Monday, February 19th
Contois Auditorium, Burlington
Where did the good jobs go?
Should every business pay a livable wage?
How many of us are working full-time for poverty wages?
How do we support and create more livable wage jobs?
How do we raise the bar for wages in low-wage sectors in Vermont?
COME SPEAK OUT!!
The Vermont Workers’ Center and Vermont Livable Wage Campaign along with dozens of other local sponsoring organizations would like to invite your organization to this important event. The Vermont Workers Rights Board is made up of dozens of elected officials, faith leaders and community leaders. Come speak out and hear testimony from area restaurant & hospitality workers, area school support staff, construction workers, laid off factory workers, workers at UVM, Fletcher Allen, Verizon, COTS and many more. Please come participate in this critical community discussion regarding poverty wages, livable wages and the future of jobs in our community.
If you would like to learn more you can contact:
James Haslam, Vermont Workers' Center at 802-272-0882 or james@workerscenter.org
or
Emma Mulvaney Stanak, VT Livable Wage Campaign at 863-2345 ext. 8 or livablewage@pjcvt.org