News
Rural Child Poverty Widespread
Published October 03, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT
Thanks to Diane, we get a glimpse here of rural poverty in the U.S., a topic typically overshadowed by a national focus on urban poverty. Not surprising, given 80% of the country is classified as metropolitan, meaning there's a significant density of people and homes in the majority of the nation. But rural poverty is just as troubling and worrisome as poverty in the cities and suburbs, particularly given how many children are poor in rural America.
The Economic Research Service provides some #s from the recession's impact on rural America: Unemployment rose more sharply in metro regions, though it's about 9% nationwide. In rural communities, minorities and teens have the highest unemployment rates. Almost 1 in 4 kids in rural areas are poor, especially in communities with high minority populations. And well more than half of all rural counties have high child poverty rates where at least 1 in 5 children are poor. Child poverty is highest in well-known chronically poor areas: the Mississippi Delta, on Native American reservations, and along the border with Mexico.
Childhood poverty in rural America is a chronic problem; one that activists, advocates and policymakers are still trying to understand. It appears to be a perennial lack of educational and job opportunities, particularly for rural African-Americans, who have lived for generations with resources bypassing their communities and no particular means to get out. This is a topic I know very little about, but I do know this: the recession is by no means over, and if there was ever a time to refocus our priorities on these chronically poor, chronically forgotten communities, it's now.
Media Layoffs Hurt the Poor
Published October 02, 2009 @ 05:03AM PT
Yesterday, within the span of an hour, I spoke with 4 persons connected to 3 different media--2 newspapers, 1 TV news--who fear, or have experienced, job loss. These are people who think it important that poverty and homelessness, and other social issues, get coverage. They will likely feel the pain of job loss on the other side of the camera. And, I fear, people in poverty will suffer even more as this trend continues nationwide. Good journalists, already hard to find, are disappearing like snowflakes in summer.
Since the financial meltdown began a year ago, journalism jobs have gone away at almost three times the rate jobs have disappeared in the general economy, according to a report by Unity: Journalists of Color. (Editor & Publisher)
America's New Needy
Published October 01, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Imagine this:
Six months ago you are standing in line at the grocery store, flipping through a trashy celebrity magazine while on your way to pick up your kids at soccer practice. Your new SUV is outside in the parking lot. You are the model of the American middle-class--a large and increasingly diverse group of self-reliant families and individuals.
Now, flash forward to the present. You're standing in line at the local food pantry, looking at everyone standing around you, wondering how in the world things got so bad.
For many of Americans, the scenario above is not a dream (or rather a nightmare). It is instead an unfortunate reality that is just starting to be dealt with by hunger activists and organizations dealing with what can only be called the nation's "new needy."
Victory: Hyatt Workers Given New Jobs
Published September 25, 2009 @ 02:23PM PT
Hyatt announced today that the 98 workers it "unceremoniously" laid off last month will be given new jobs in Boston at their previous rate of pay - the positions will be through the staffing agency that employs their replacements. This is a good but qualified victory: their current pay is guaranteed through the end of 2010, and Hyatt has extended their health benefits through March 2010. For workers who opt instead to go through a career retraining and placement program, they will receive their previous wages through March 2010 or until they secure new employment, whichever comes first.
Many thanks to those that joined the boycott against Hyatt; it was a small but important movement here at Change.org, and part of a much larger response in Massachusetts and beyond.
Join the Hyatt Boycott: Tell the Hotel Chain to Rehire Housekeeping Staff Now!
Published September 24, 2009 @ 06:30AM PT
On August 31, 3 Boston-area Hyatt properties laid off 98 housekeeping staff, many of them seasoned employees earning $15/hour, and replaced them with outsourced staff from a Georgia company that pays $8/hour and offers far fewer benefits. The hotel chain cited financial difficulties as justification for laying off these vulnerable workers, and threatened compromised customer service if they were forced to walk back this low-road economic decision. Particularly at issue is the false pretenses the housekeeping staff alleges in which they were laid off and tricked into training their own replacements, a charge the corporation denies.
MA Governor Patrick isn't buying it - and neither should you. Governor Patrick has enacted a boycott of Hyatt properties by state employees - a move more symbolic than financial in impact - but one that has already forced Hyatt to extend severance benefits and work more closely with laid-off workers on re-training and job placement assistance.
That's not enough - if we allow companies to pursue these low-road strategies, where they pursue profitability mainly through cutting worker costs through outsourcing to the latest lowest bidder - we're condoning the permanent insecurity of the lowest-wage, lowest-skilled workers, who are already hit hardest during economic downturns.
Join Governor Patrick and the National Employment Lawyers Association in this boycott - and send a letter to Hyatt President and CEO Mark S. Hoplamazian today, telling him that you don't support these low-road business measures and that you will not be patronizing Hyatt properties until these 98 housekeepers are reinstated.
(Photo of the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, one of the targeted hotels, by mathplourde)
NYC to Get FRESH Supermarkets
Published September 24, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
In the spirit of National Food Desert Awareness month, yesterday morning, the New York City Department of City Planning voted unanimously in favor of an initiative that will bring fresh fruits, vegetables and other all-too-rare perishable goods to some of the city's most under-served residents.
The Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (or FRESH) program will give various zoning and tax incentives to retail companies that open supermarkets in designated communities throughout the five boroughs.
For example, new stores that meet the FRESH eligibility requirements will be given sales tax exemptions, real estate tax reductions and be required to provide less parking than is mandated for other retail food operations by the city's zoning laws.
Truthout Unionizes Virtually
Published September 19, 2009 @ 10:28AM PT
With little fanfare, at the end of August Truthout became the first online-only news organization to unionize, with employees joining the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America. Organizers worked 80 hours/week for months to organize workers after card check signaled employees were interested in joining a union. Skype and Google Docs were essential tools in organizing the virtual company. "'We've certainly represented wire services for years that were far-flung, but we've never done any organizing where the group never saw each other or the organizers face to face,' [NG/CWA President Bernie] Lunzer said."
This is a really exciting development for today's workers and unions, as one of the major arguments against unionization now is that it's an outmoded form of workers' rights in an era of telecommuting, globalized companies, a service-based economy, and more flexible work arrangements. The desire for and success of unionization at Truthout reveals the flaws in these arguments - workers at on-line organizations, or workers in more flexible jobs, need the power to control their work hours, work-life balance and ability to negotiate with management just as much as workers centrally gathered on a shop floor or in a corporate office. In some cases, more so, as virtual work arrangements erase the solidarity possible in water-cooler chats or on company softball teams.
Organizers at Truthout credit their "progressive" Board of Directors for committing to card check as the single step needed for unionization. Congrats to the workers at Truthout, for their hard work and success, and for modeling for workers in the 21st century economy that unionization can work.
For those of you interested in learning more about the Employee Free Choice Act, the story is worth reading, as it breaks down very clearly the political struggle in Congress over card check.
(Photo of today's organizing tools by Peter Kaminski)
