May, 10 2011, 11:17am EDT
AFL-CIO, National Domestic Workers' Alliance, National Guestworkers' Alliance Announce Partnership Agreements
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka along with Saket Soni of the National Guestworkers' Alliance and Barbara Young of the National Domestic Workers' Alliance announced separate partnership agreements with the AFL-CIO today in Manhattan. The agreements outlined a framework for the groups to partner with the labor federation around issues of organizing, winning rights for excluded workers and building long term relationships.
NEW YORK, NY
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka along with Saket Soni of the National Guestworkers' Alliance and Barbara Young of the National Domestic Workers' Alliance announced separate partnership agreements with the AFL-CIO today in Manhattan. The agreements outlined a framework for the groups to partner with the labor federation around issues of organizing, winning rights for excluded workers and building long term relationships.
The agreements are part of the AFL-CIO's continued outreach to excluded workers who work in professions that are often not afforded fundamental labor rights and safety protections under the law. In 2006 the AFL-CIO signed a similar agreement with workers' centers, partnering with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. And in 2006 the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance also became the first workers' center to become a member of the New York City Central Labor Council.
"Today is a proud day for domestic workers and for the US labor movement," said Barbara Young, nanny and National Organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. "We are committing to work together to build a powerful labor movement for the 21st Century. We are proud to fight together with our union brothers and sisters to defend and expand the right to organize, win justice for immigrants, and ensure that one day the workers that makes all other work possible-- cleaning and caring for children and seniors-- will have rights, respect, and recognition."
"We are signing these partnership agreements because we can't rely on the law alone if we want to fight for the inclusion of all workers," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "And we can't win these battles alone. We have to work together and take collective action-whether it's in the streets, at city hall or at the ILO. We extend our hand to all the organizations of the Excluded Workers Congress and workers around the world who are part of this struggle in partnership and in solidarity. "
"Starting today, guestworkers and U.S. workers will work to transform workplaces across the United States together," said Saket Soni of the National Guestworkers' Alliance. "Starting today, we fight for collective dignity, and work to win 21st century rights for a 21st century economy. And starting today, we work expand the right to organize for all global workers regardless of where they were born."
This announcement kicked off the start of Excluded Workers Congress conference. The three day event brings together workers and activists from across the globe who are fighting to protect the rights of those who do essential but often thankless and ill-protected jobs. The event will examine the changing landscape around workers' rights and the conditions of excluded workers.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) works tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. We are the democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women.
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As Senate Prepares for NDAA Vote, Progressive Caucus Says It Is 'Past Time' to Slash Pentagon Budget
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CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said following the passage of the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2025 (H.R. 5009) that "it should alarm every American taxpayer that we are nearing a trillion-dollar annual budget for an agency rampant with waste, fraud, and abuse."
Jayapal, who was one of 140 lawmakers to oppose the package, emphasized that the Pentagon has failed seven consecutive annual audits.
Despite being the only federal agency to never have passed a federal audit, said Jayapal, the Department of Defense "continues to receive huge boosts to funding every year. Our constituents deserve better."
As Common Dreams reported last month, more than half of the department's annual budget now goes to military contractors that consistently overcharge the government, contributing to the Pentagon's inability to fully account for trillions of taxpayer dollars.
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Jayapal noted that the legislation—which was passed with the support of 81 Democrats and 200 Republicans—also includes anti-transgender provisions, barring the children of military service members from receiving gender-affirming healthcare in "the first federal statute targeting LGBTQ people since the 1990s when Congress adopted 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and the Defense of Marriage Act."
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the legislation "has some very good things we Democrats wanted in it, it has some bad things we wouldn't have put in there, and some things that were left out," and indicated that he had filed cloture for the first procedural vote on the NDAA.
The vote is expected to take place early next week, and 60 votes are needed to begin debate on the package.
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Jayapal noted that the funding package includes substantive pay raises for service members and new investments in housing, healthcare, childcare, and other support for their families.
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By cutting military spending, she said, the federal government could invest in the needs of all Americans, not just members of the military, "without sacrificing our national security or service member wages."
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The Constitution vests Congress, not the president, with the power to declare war (though presidents have used military force without getting the OK from Congress on multiple occasions in modern history, according to the National Constitution Center).
During the Cold War, when nuclear weapons policy was produced, speed was seen as essential to deterrence, according to Jon Wolfsthal, the director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists, who wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post last year that makes a similar argument to Markey and Lieu.
"There is no reason today to rely on speedy decision-making during situations in which the United States might launch first. Even as relations with Moscow are at historic lows, we are worlds removed from the Cold War's dominant knife's-edge logic," he wrote.
While nuclear tensions today may not be quite as high as they were during the apex of the Cold War, fears of nuclear confrontation have been heightened due to poor relations between the United States and Russia over the ongoing war in Ukraine, among other issues. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lowering the threshold for potential nuclear weapons use not long after the U.S. greenlit Ukraine's use of U.S.-supplied long range weapons in its fight against Russia.
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Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty's senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, said in a statement that "these four attacks are emblematic of Israel's shocking disregard for civilian lives in Lebanon and their willingness to flout international law."
The September 29 attack "destroyed the house of the Syrian al-Shaar family, killing all nine members of the family who were sleeping inside," the report states.
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On October 16, Israel bombed the Nabatieh municipal complex, killing Mayor Ahmad Khalil and 10 other people.
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In the deadliest single strike detailed in the Amnesty report, IDF bombardment believed to be targeting a suspected Hezbollah member killed 23 civilians forcibly displaced from southern Lebanon in Aitou on October 14.
"The youngest casualty was Aline, a 5-month-old baby who was flung from the house into a pickup truck nearby and was found by rescue workers the day after the strike," Amnesty said.
Survivor Jinane Hijazi told Amnesty: "I've lost everything; my entire family, my parents, my siblings, my daughter. I wish I had died that day too."
As the report notes:
A fragment of the munition found at the site of the attack was analyzed by an Amnesty International weapons expert and based upon its size, shape, and the scalloped edges of the heavy metal casing, identified as most likely a MK-80 series aerial bomb, which would mean it was at least a 500-pound bomb. The United States is the primary supplier of these types of munitions to Israel.
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The October 21 strike destroyed a building housing 13 members of the Othman family, killing two women and four children and wounding seven others.
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Guevara Rosas said: "These attacks must be investigated as war crimes. The Lebanese government must urgently call for a special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism into the alleged violations and crimes committed by all parties in this conflict. It must also grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over Rome Statute crimes committed on Lebanese territory."
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