Insult To Injury, Workers Fight Wells FargoTo Keep Jobs and Suffer Arrests
with
. Keith Schribner, Pres., Local 1174 United Electrical Workers(UE)
. Leah Fried, UE Organizer

The Supreme Court Fans The Flames Of Discrimination In New Haven Firefighter Ruling
with
. Donald Day, Past NE Regional Director., Association of Professional Black Firefighters
. ReNika Moore, Associate Council NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund

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Insult To Injury, Workers Fight Wells FargoTo Keep Jobs and Suffer Arrests
with
Keith Schribner, Pres., Local 1174 United Electrical Workers(UE)
Leah Fried, UE Organizer

UE Local 1174 members and supporters from other unions
demonstrated at Wells Fargo’s Rock Island Illinois branch. Echoing the
slogan of UE members at Republic Windows during their plant
occupation, they chanted "You got bailed out; we got sold out.” Nearly
a dozen workers were arrested after they blocked a street to symbolize
how Wells Fargo is a “roadblock to recovery.” Workers are continuing
their fight to keep Quad City Die Casting open to save their jobs. The
plant is slated to close because Wells Fargo – recipient of $25 billion
in the federal banking bailout – has cut off operating credit to the company.
*****************
The Supreme Court Fans The Flames Of Discrimination In
New Haven Firefighter Ruling
with
. Donald Day, Past NE Regional Director., Association of Professional Black Firefighters
. ReNika Moore, Associate Council NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund

When their written test for promotion in the Fire Dept. produced no successful African American candidates, the City of New Haven nullified the results. White firefighters then brought a legal challenge against the City. The challenge was defeated by an appellate court that included Judge Sotomayor, now a nominee for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. The New Haven case ultimately went up to the U.S. Supreme Court who overturned the appellate court. Justice Ginsburg in a particularly pointed dissent to the majority ruling gave historic background to New Haven’s determination reminding us that "firefighting is a profession in which the legacy of racial discrimination casts an especially long shadow."

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Outrageous, The Who & Why Of The Army Coup Which Deposed Honduras President Manuel Zelaya
with
Honduran UN Ambassador & Interior Minister Jorge Arturo Reina

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The June 28 coup against President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras reminds us of the worst years in Latin America’s history, but international, regional and popular power in the streets are mobilizing against the right-wing destabilizing forces and their enablers, including the United States. Building Bridges brings you an exclusive extended conversation with Honduran Ambassador to the United Nations and Honduran Interior Minister Jorge Arturo Reina.

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Breaking The Israeli Blockade Of Gaza Is Gaining Ground
Against The Real Pirates
with.
Lamis Deek, Co-Chair, Al-Awda-NY. New York City
Councilman Charles Barron.
Father Luis Barrios.
Rev. Lucius Walker.
Kevin Ovenden, Rep. of London MP George Galloway

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After Israeli Defense Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the Spirit of Humanity abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries,including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire & former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney & seizing humanitarian
supplies, another convoy is set to take its place. Hundreds of people from across the U.S. on the Viva Palestina Caravan are setting sail to confront the Israeli pirates by successfully carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza. Viva Palestina!

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Union Buster Rite Aid, Wrongs Workers
wth
Angel Warner, Rite Aid Union Activist, ILWU

Real Health Care Reforms Or More Band Aids?
with
Dr. David Himmelstein, primary care physician, Associate
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, & Co-Founder
Physicians for a National Health Program

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Union Buster Rite Aid, Wrongs Workers
wth
Angel Warner, Rite Aid Union Activist, ILWU

For more than a year, over 500 Rite Aid warehouse workers in
Lancaster, CA have been attempting to negotiate their first union
agreement with management. Rite Aid's massive interference in
the workers efforts to form a union and its failure to bargain in good
faith with employees are prime examples of why efforts to pass the
Employee Free Choice Act are so important. NYC unions held a
rally at Times Square recently to protest Rite Aid union busting and
carried their protest to the company’s shareholder meeting held
nearby.
******************
Real Health Care Reforms Or More Band Aids?
with
Dr. David Himmelstein, primary care physician, Associate
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, & Co-Founder
Physicians for a National Health Program

House Democrats unveiled a draft bill that they said will bring down
spiraling costs and provide health insurance for most Americans. But
the draft has few details on how to pay for offering expanded insurance,
except by including billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
And in the Senate, the public health care option is in big trouble while
threats continue to the present tax-exempt status of employer health
care contributions. Is Obama’s plan viable? Is single payer the only
solution?

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Peoples’ Voices on the International Economic Crisis

. Jana Silverman, Coordinator of Campaigns of Social Watch, an NGO network monitoring poverty eradication & gender equality (headquartered in Montevideo , Uruguay )
. Gemma Adaba, Representative, UN, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), New York
. Milena Kadieva, Legal Advisor & Project Coordinator, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Plavdiv , Bulgaria . Beverly Keene, Latin American Coordinator, Jubilee South Network, Buenos Aires , Argentina
. Leo Atakpu, Deputy Director, African Network on Economic and Environmental Justice (based in Benin City , Nigeria )

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Responses to the current global economic crisis have been inadequate and fail to fully address the myriad of related global crises, such as food security and climate change. An international coalition of ‘working’ people directly impacted by these crises, and civil society organizations, met in a public forum Saturday to deliver this message to world leaders in advance of this week’s UN Conference on the economic crisis being organized by Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, the current President of the UN General Assembly (and a Sandinista liberation theology priest)

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Workers Protest Puerto Rico’s Governor ‘s Lay Off Of Tens Of Thousands
with
Benjamin Borges, Executive Director, Public Service Workers United of Puerto Rico (Servidores Públicos Unidos de Puerto Rico) Council 95, AFSCME

A Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
With
Ai-Jen Poo, Lead Organizer, Domestic Workers United And Pat Francois, Member, Domestic Workers United

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Workers Protest Puerto Rico’s Governor ‘s Lay Off Of Tens Of Thousands

with
Benjamin Borges, Executive Director, Public Service Workers United of Puerto Rico (Servidores Públicos Unidos de Puerto Rico) Council 95, AFSCME

One hundred thousand marched in San Juan to protest the recent firing of10,000 workers by prostatehood Governor Luis Fortuño. The march was organized by “All of Puerto Rico for Puerto Rico,” a new coalition that includes unions affiliated to Change to Win, the AFL-CIO, independent unions, community groups, and church organizations, who also protested Law 7, which would privatize public workers jobs and allow the government to discard contracts already signed with labor unions. Gov. Luis Fortuño plans to cut 30,000 more public sector jobs as well.
***************
A Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
With
Ai-Jen Poo, Lead Organizer, Domestic Workers United
And Pat Francois, Member, Domestic Workers United

Today, women of color, from around the world work as domestic workers. Everyday,
200, 000 domestic workers (nannies, elderly companions, housekeepers) in New York make it possible for their employers to go to work. Most are employed without a living wage, healthcare, and basic labor protections. In New York State DomesticWorkers United is mounting an aggressive campaign to have theState government enact a domestic workers bill of rights to establish
basic work standards under the law. If enacted, it will be model for the
entire country.

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