Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Clean air, good jobs. We can have both.

- Mayor Fischer has promised a fix for the sorry ass notification system existing today in Rubbertown that is supposed to alert residents to any danger emanating from nearby industry. The problem is, the residents have to call a line that has to be updated by the companies doing the emanating. That's like making people call the Weather Channel for a prerecorded message to find out exactly "where" the tornado is.

I hope they figure out a system that makes sense and is effective. Either that or, as some of us have proposed many times in the past, find the cash to buy out the residents of Rubbertown. If they can do it over airplane noise, they can do it over something like this.

The work there is hazardous and the production of some materials there puts the health of the neighbors at higher risk than normal. But these are good union jobs -the type we are fighting for- and that also has to be taken into account. The emission standards cannot be made so stringent that it forces the companies located there to move out to somewhere like Mexico, where there are no standards whatsoever. Clean air and good jobs...we can have both. Here's the story in case you missed it. [CJ]

- On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME.

On Monday April 4, unions, people of faith, civil and human rights activists, students and other progressive allies will host a range of community and workplace-focused actions. As part of this nationwide action, there will be a rally held downtown at 6th & Jefferson. The event begins at 5:30pm.

Join us in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for. It’s a day to show the power of our movement. We are one.

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