[PeoplesPotluck] Fw: [CentralILJwJ] Organizing the Unemployed - Sat. Dec. 19 [2 Attachments]

[Ricky Baldwin]

Dear peeps --

Jobs with Justice is inviting unions and other groups to send representatives to a meeting to discuss our plans to organize the unemployed and near-unemployed this Saturday, Dec. 19 at 10am.  We're meeting out at Gene's office at IEA to talk about a timeline, leading up to a big event in February if we can get the people together for it. 

Can you come?

In Solidarity,
Ricky Baldwin

---

Central Illinois Jobs with Justice
801 E California
Ave
Urbana IL 61801
 Dec. 10, 2009

   

Dear Union Leader:

   

If you, like many of us, have members who are laid off or
who have seen their hours reduced just when they need them most, then this
letter is to you..  

   

In the last three years Central Illinois Jobs with Justice
has been there for unionized workers on the picket line, raising money for
strike funds, and in many other ways. 
But more and more of us these days are facing a different kind of
problem – lack of work.  To meet this
challenge we at JwJ have launched a new initiative – organizing the unemployed
and underemployed.

   

We understand that unemployed and underemployed workers face
new complications in daily life, and have new needs, and sometimes it’s hard to
ask for help.  What’s lacking in the
process so many times is dignity, self-determination, power, which we both know
are benefits of organizing.  Our project
aims to fill that gap.  So while we are
networking with local and national service agencies, discounts, and other forms
of assistance – through a local hotline we’ve set up and other contacts – we
are also fighting back against the anti-worker anti-community agenda of the
rich and their corporations to demand different priorities: more jobs, and not
just any jobs but good quality jobs with union rights and good pay and
benefits, extended unemployment assistance and job training, mortgage and other
housing assistance, affordable health care, world-class education, and all the
things that workers know we need.

   

Sound good?  Let’s
work together.  Here’s what we
suggest:  

   

(1)  Please feel free
to spread the word, and pass on our contact information.  Our hotline number for workers who need help
finding assistance programs – or especially those who are ready to organize –
is 469-6111.  

   

(2)  If you already
know of members who need help, or could help organize their fellow unemployed
and underemployed workers, please feel free to tell us about them.  Sometimes that works best.  We can explain what we are doing directly to
them.  You can get this information to us
by email if you prefer –  baldwinricky@ yahoo.com
– or by phoning the above hotline 469-6111 or by phoning Ricky Baldwin at
328-3037, and we’d be glad to talk more about organizing the unemployed and underemployed.

   

(3)  We are having a
meeting this Saturday, Dec. 19 at 10am to discuss working together.  Please consider sending a representative to
this meeting.  The meeting will be at
IEA, 2110 Clearlake in Champaign.  [from
74 and Mattis: south to Bloomington Rd, west on Bloomington, right on
Clearlake.  IEA office on the left as you
enter.]

   

Thank you for your time and attention.  I hope we can work together on this
cutting-edge program!

   

In Solidarity,

Gene Vanderport, Co-Chair

Central Illinois Jobs with Justice



      
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