[Peace-discuss] Fwd: & the winner of the 2009 national Scrooge of the Year election is...

[Karen Medina]

Bill Richardson would have made a good Commerce Secretary.
Sigh.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jobs with Justice National <jwjnational at jwj.org>
Date: Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Subject: & the winner of the 2009 national Scrooge of the Year election
is...
To: Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu>


     <http://www.jwj.org>       *

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Elected 2009's National Scrooge of the Year
*

*The Chamber's narrow, radical agenda advocating for anti-worker,
profit-focused solutions to the broken health care, labor, and environmental
systems garnered them the most votes for the national Jobs with Justice
"Scrooge of the Year" award.*

Thousands of votes were cast in the Jobs with Justice annual contest to
determine which greedy, cold-hearted organization or person deserves the
title "Scrooge of the Year." Voters chose the Chamber of Commerce as their
winner this year as it's became increasingly clear that the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce has developed into a front group for a few narrow interests, not a
membership association that represents the voice of mainstream American
businesses. The Chamber has spent millions of dollars lobbying against
legislation that would benefit workers and families like the Employee Free
Choice Act, health insurance reform, paid sick days, and environmental
regulations. Their extreme positions have led some companies and local
chapters of the Chamber to disaffiliate from the national group.

This year's Scrooge contest pitted the Chamber of Commerce against Bank of
America, nominated for their role in the sub-prime lending crisis and
failure to extend credit to small businesses, Hyatt Hotels for their
Scrooge-like firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston and other anti-worker
actions, Publix Supermarkets for their resisting the call to be part of the
solution to human rights violations in Florida fields by continuing to buy
tomatoes from growers prosecuted for modern-day slavery, and student loan
lenders Sallie Mae and Citibank for their expensive, variable rate loans for
students. An impressive write-in campaign was also waged for United
Airlines, for their slashing of workers' wages and pensions while continuing
to award lavish bonuses to top executives.

"There was plenty of competition for the award this year," said Jobs with
Justice Executive Director Sarita Gupta, "but the similarities between
Scrooge and the Chamber of Commerce were hard to beat. The ghost of years
past would show that the policies they've promoted including deregulation
and maximizing profits at the expense of workers are directly connected to
the destruction of America's middle class."

Throughout the country, many people remain unemployed and more are working
harder and longer than ever before to make ends meet, as highlighted
in our recently
released report
<http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/battered-by-the-storm>examining the
impact of the economic crisis on working people.

Over the holidays and in the coming weeks, Jobs with Justice will begin a
campaign to engage working people in the fight for the creation of a
national jobs program.

"We fully expect the Chamber of Commerce to come out in opposition to our
demand for good paying and family sustaining jobs," said Gupta, "but we will
not cede this moment nor shy away from this fight. The ghost of future years
will show that in this time of crisis, it was our efforts that helped put
people back to work."

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-- 
karen medina
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
"In this universe, we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the
ability to ask questions." (Mary Oliver, American poet)
A third gift is the ability to laugh. (Jenifer, a friend)
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