LCLAA AND COLORADO JOBS WITH JUSTICE ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.

Delegation delivering the letter to H.M. Consul General Kevin Lynch. 

DENVER—The Labor Council for Latin American Advance (LCLAA), Colorado Jobs with Justice, and community activists, led a delegation on behalf of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the AFL-CIO, the TUC, the Geneva-based federation of food and agriculture workers, IUF, and American church groups into the British Consulate to deliver a letter to British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald at the British Embassy in Washington, DC addressing human rights abuses.

The letter and delegation addressed the widespread and egregious human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers involving a British-based corporation, British American Tobacco (BAT), which owns the controlling shares in the U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American.

"These workers are scared to exercise their most basic human right.  The right and freedom to associate and collectively work to together to raise standards, living conditions, and fight for a living wage,"  stated Russell Bannan with Colorado Jobs with Justice.  "At Reynolds and out in the fields there is a culture that is conditioning this type of fear and it is unacceptable."

LCLAA Denver Metro President Solomon Juarez who organized the delegation and asked, "Is it too much to ask that farm workers be treated like human beings?" After a few seconds Kevin Lynch, Consul General, responded "No."

The delegation was part of an International call to protect human rights of U.S. tobacco farm workers. Similar delegations and letters were delivered to consulates in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. 

Tomorrow in London, at BAT’s annual shareholders’ meeting, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez will present a new report detailing the abuses of workers in the U.S. tobacco supply chain and will urge BAT to take immediate steps to ensure that all of the companies in its supply chain respect and follow the standards spelled out in the company’s corporate code of conduct.

“We are urging the company to back up its words of support for human rights with monitoring and enforcement,” said Velasquez. “Through its control of Reynolds, BAT has the power and the moral obligation to take action to end these abuses.”

AUDIO:  Listen to the interview from AM760's The Mario Solis-Marich Show with Russell Bannan

DENVER ACTIVISTS JOIN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS OF U.S.TOBACCO FARM WORKERS

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:    Wednesday, April 27, 12 NOON

WHERE:                                  British Consulate -1675 Broadway Denver, CO (

British Embassy in Washington, DC, and Consulates in Atlanta, Boston,

Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco

CONTACTS:                           In Denver:  Russell Bannan 864-978-9374 (C), rpbannan@gmail.com

                                               FLOC contact: Nancy Coleman 301-587-1034 (O); 301-537-0172 (C)

DENVER ACTIVISTS JOIN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS

OF U.S.TOBACCO FARM WORKERS

Community leaders urge British Consulate to help end tobacco industry abuses

At noon on Wednesday, April 27, union and community leaders will hand-deliver a letter to British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, asking him to urge British American Tobacco (BAT), which owns the controlling share in the U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American, to end “widespread and egregious” human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers.

In Denver, a copy of that letter will be delivered to the British Consulate by Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Denver Area Labor Federation, and Colorado Jobs with Justice. Similar deliveries are slated for the consulates in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. 

The letter cites “widespread and egregious violations” on tobacco farms in North Carolina, which supplies the largest share of the U.S.-grown crop. These include:

“.  . . tobacco farm workers in North Carolina are exposed to pesticides and nicotine poisoning in the fields—while they endure squalid farm labor housing.  There is no protection for these workers if they complain or are fired for seeking union representation to help them improve their working and living conditions. . .

“We believe you will agree that these workers’ desperate situation is something that no civilized society can tolerate, and we hope that you will use your good offices to urge BAT to take a leadership role in safeguarding human rights by insisting that the companies and suppliers they do business with must abide by the same code of corporate social responsibility they established for their own company.”

In London on Thursday, April 28, at BAT’s annual shareholders’ meeting, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez will present a new report detailing the abuses of workers in the U.S. tobacco supply chain and will urge BAT to take immediate steps to ensure that all of the companies in its supply chain respect and follow the standards spelled out in the company’s corporate code of conduct.

“We are urging the company to back up its words of support for human rights with monitoring and enforcement,” said Velasquez. “Through its control of Reynolds, BAT has the power and the moral obligation to take action to end these abuses.”

OBITUARY of Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens 1935 –2011

An Obituary by John Pietaro

The high lonesome sound that touched so many, so deeply, could only have been born of both strife and fight-back in equal proportions. Singer/guitarist Hazel Dickens’ sound was probably about as high and lonesome as one got. The soundtrack of “Harlan County USA” introduced her to the many outside of the country home she remained a visceral part of, even long after she’d physically moved on. Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause.

She was born on June 1, 1935 in Montcalm, West Virginia, one of the faceless towns dotting Appalachian coal country. Her father was an amateur banjo player who worked as a truck driver for the mines and ran a Primitive Baptist church each Sunday. Here was where Hazel first began singing, unaccompanied out of necessity and the laws of tradition. But the devotional songs melded with the mountain tunes and ballads, creating a unique personal style. Bearing a rough, at times coarse timber, her voice eagerly reflected the broken topography about her as well as the pains of poverty in her midst. In a family of thirteen residing in a three-room shack, the music was far from distant symbolism for her.

At age 16 Dickens relocated to Baltimore where she encountered Mike Seeger on the still fledgling folk scene. Seeger, working alongside his parents Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger in the Library of Congress Archive of American Folksong, began performing with the Dickens family trio, but it was Hazel’s association with Seeger’s wife Alice Gerrard that offered notable area for impact on the music. The duet of Hazel & Alice recorded original compositions and deeply explored the feminist archetypes in Appalachian song. Dickens was sure to not only raise issues such as the need for equal pay for women workers, but to actively fight for these on and off stage. Among the titles she penned were “Working Girl Blues” and “Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There”. She also composed the noted “Black Lung”, which called on the miners’ plight back home. Like Aunt Mollie Jackson before her, Dickens was able to capture the struggle of the moment in song, and this was most evident in her on-screen performances in celebrated films such as “Matewan” and “Song Catcher” and her work on the above noted “Harlan County USA”. The union cause was her cause and it lived anew each time she conjured a topical song set to a melody that sounded as old as the ages.

A clear heir to the Appalachian stylings of Aunt Mollie Jackson and Sarah Ogan, Dickens became a respected figure and was a featured singer at folk festivals for decades. Since the 1970s, Dickens had performed with a wide array of musicians including Emmy Lou Harris, Elvis Costello, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash. In 2007 she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Dickens was active as recent as last month when she was seen attending the South By Southwest Festival in Austin. Hazel Dickens died of complications of pneumonia in Washington DC on April 22. In the blackened crawlspaces of West Virginia’s mines the lament was a deafening silence as the mountain peaks seemed to bow in solemn reverence.

-John Pietaro is a musician, writer and labor organizer from New York City—http:TheCulturalWorker.blogspot.com

Print the flyer here:  FLOC Seeks Justice for Reynolds Tobacco Field Workers

National Labor-Community Conference to Defeat the Corporate Agenda and Fight for a Working People’s Agenda

Working people across the country — from Wisconsin and Ohio to New York, Oregon, and California — are facing unprecedented attacks by corporations and the rich with the help of the federal, state and local politicians that they fund.

The corporate agenda is clear: It is to bust unions and cut workers’ pay and benefits — both in the private and public sectors. It is to erode and privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It is to dismantle the public sector and social services by denying funds for job creation, education, health care, environmental protection, and rebuilding the infrastructure. It is to ensure that taxes on the wealthy are constantly lowered while the bite on workers and the poor is constantly increased. It is to perpetuate U.S. wars and occupations whenever it serves the interests of the multinationals. It is to divide the working class by race, gender, national origin, religion, and sexual orientation. It is also to limit and restrict constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. The list goes on.

In state capitals, communities and workplaces across the country, workers are fighting back. But if we're going to be successful in pushing back the attacks on collective bargaining, stopping the budget cuts and concessions, creating jobs, and defending social services and education, we need to build unity within our movement, including forging stronger ties with labor's allies: communities of color, students and youth, single-payer advocates, environmentalists, antiwar activists, immigrant rights supporters, and other progressive forces.

Relying on politicians to defend us — the so-called “friends of labor” — has proven to be disastrous. During the past three decades, working people have suffered a dramatic decline in their standard of living while the rich have amassed an unprecedented amount of wealth at the top, regardless of which of the major parties was running the government. We have had every combination imaginable: Republicans occupying the White House with a majority in Congress, Democrats occupying the White House with a majority in Congress, or some kind of “divided government.” But in each case the result for working people has been the same: conditions got worse for workers while the corporations prospered even more. Why should we continue this vicious cycle?

The working class has the power to put an end to this situation. And as the debate over the debt and the deficit intensifies, the need has never been greater for an organized campaign to demand “No Cuts, No Concessions!” whether in regard to social programs or workers' wages and benefits. We say place the burden for solving the financial crises squarely where it belongs: on the rich and the corporations. They caused the crisis, let them pay for it!

The Emergency Labor Network (ELN) was initiated earlier this year at a historic meeting of 100 union leaders and activists from around the country. Join us June 24–26, 2011 at Kent State University in Ohio for a national labor-community conference to spur the campaign to build a more militant fight-back movement and to launch a national campaign for an alternative agenda for working people. Together we can move forward on both fronts.

For more information visit laborfightback.org

Independent Philadelphia Security Officers Union Wins First Union Contract at the Museum of Art

By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on April 20th, 2011

After four years of organizing, officers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art employed by AlliedBarton Security Services have a union contract!  The agreement, ratified by a majority of guards on April 18th, will increase wages by 14.5% over the life of the 3-year contract and will institute a grievance procedure and a seniority system.

“We are proud that our 4 year struggle has resulted in a better quality of life for our coworkers and families,” says Donald Lindsey, President of the union.

The union mounted a public pressure campaign which engaged supportive city council members, the Philadelphia labor movement, student activists, Jobs with Justice, and dozens of local faith leaders to win their victory against the nation’s second-largest security company.

Security guards are prevented from joining most labor unions due to the Section 9 (B) 3 of the National Labor Relations Act.  This clause of the National Labor Relations Act states that security guards must join “security guard only unions,” of which there are few.

On October 10, 2009, the Continue reading Independent Philadelphia Security Officers Union Wins First Union Contract at the Museum of Art

Purple Lunch in Solidarity with Sodexo Workers at Regis University

Come out Tomorrow (4/19) and wear purple and bring a brown bag lunch to show solidarity and with Sodexo workers. Lets show our workers how much we appreciate them and our willingness to stand up for social justice.

Student Labor Action Project and Colorado Jobs with Justice will be out in full support of Regis Students & Workers.

Regis University Dining Hall (3333 Regis Boulevard, Denver, CO)

The Dining Hall is in the Student Center near 51st Ave and Lowell Blvd.

Link to the facebook event:  http://goo.gl/XBumj

Colorado Stands Ground to Maintain Workers Rights

by Toni Fresquez
Posted on El Seminario 04-06-2011

In 1968, Martin Luther King went to Memphis to support the Sanitation workers’ struggle to earn a living wage. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in the midst of a battle for dignity for those public employees. Decades later, in response to attacks by ultra-conservative governors, the struggle for workers’ rights is spreading from union workers in states like Wisconsin to Americans who just want the chance find a job and earn a decent living.

Several of Denver’s prominent union forces -- Colorado Jobs with Justice, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Communications Workers of America -- assembled along with students and community members who marched throughout downtown Denver on Monday, participating in a national ‘We Are One’ themed rally to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Rev. King’s last speech and assassination. 

The march ended at the Auraria Campus in Denver with an energetic rally featuring various human rights advocates carrying signs with bold slogans, some holding brooms and mops high symbolizing the depths of the service industry workers – who make up 90% of the nations workforce, according to recent research.

In conjunction with the March, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) coordinated a student “walk-out” to attend the events on campus, and to send a message of solidarity with workers.

Curious students gathered around the rally to listen to the scheduled speakers, learning first-hand on the necessity of a renewed movement.

“We are going to take back as a movement what is rightfully ours, the power and prestige of this great nation,” stated Prior Kieran of St. Dunstan's Priory in Denver, an ecumenical order of Benedictines. 
Citing prose from late civil rights leaders, Prior Kiernan recalled Rev. King’s quote, “‘Faith is never voluntary given by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed.’ Today we demand our rights, we demand our rights to organize, to bargain to not only have a say, but to have a majority say in what is produced in this great nation of ours.

“I had the honor and privilege to be arrested with my friends and companions as part of The Denver 14 last June, by the time we got out of jail we were announced in over 200 places in this great nation of ours -- so I thought I should tell the head of my order,” explained Prior Kiernan. “I’ve always believed in the old Jesuit axiom that it is better to pray for forgiveness than to ask permission. So I didn’t ask permission to go to jail, I went jail because it was the right thing to do.

“So I called the head of my religious order, I said ‘Brother Abbott I have something to tell you. I was arrested and its’ been in all of the papers so you are probably going to hear about it.’ He asked, ‘Brother why were you arrested?’ I said I was arrested to protest the immigration policy or lack thereof, at the federal level in this country. He immediately answered back, ‘Oh Brother don’t you worry about a thing, I was with César in the fields in the sixties.’”

Prior Kiernan offered a quote from César Chávez, “‘You cannot oppress a people who are not afraid anymore.’ We have seen the future, and the future is ours; and in the words of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez – Yes we can, Si Se Puede,” he said to a resounding applause.

Guest speaker Nita Gonzales, CEO of the Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios offered an uplifting speech at the Campus ‘teach-in", "Mil gracias to all of you who heard the call and stand together today. I stand here today with each and every one of you in the spirit of my father Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. In Denver Colorado we weren't waiting for superman – we had our superman in Corky Gonzales. Who thankfully lived a life that gave me the advantage of not only meeting César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, but marching, organizing rallies and supporting the work and struggle for human rights for this nations farmworkers, for human rights and for work that is not yet finished; and it isn't finished and we marched today because of that. We march in the spirit of our ancestors who overcame fear and injustice who struggled and died because they chose to live as free human beings who walked the talk.

“Chavez and Huerta grasped the essential task – organize, organize, organize – his legacy and that of my father Corky Gonzales is one of action, not words, not promises that are not kept – but action. Mobilization against injustice hatred, mobilize, unionize, so that all workers can reap the fruit of their labor,” said Gonzales to her captive audience.

“Let me teach you something about our homeland, we’ve always been here, this is our homeland, we will always be here. So let me remind you of that. We stand here today in honor of the memory of those nineteen who died right here in Colorado at Ludlow. Do you remember that? April 20, 1914? The United Mine Workers stood up against the Rockefeller corporations – they weren’t fearful. What are we afraid of,” challenged Gonzales.


“In the spirit of César Chávez, Emiliano Zapata, Dolores Huerta, Cuauhtémoc – learn those names – Crazy Heart, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr…people of destiny of courage, of sacrifice and vision. This is a global struggle for rights for all people and we must remember that this work is not yet done. Our nation continues to wage war upon its own working class and people, the powers that be make themselves richer by exploiting everyone of us – workers, middle class, poor, - in the words of Dr. King, I love these words, ‘There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression,’” quoted Gonzales.


“We are tired of being trampled, we have to stand up, stop being fearful. We need more marches, we need thousands of people blocking the streets. Nothing in the development in the history of this country regarding justice and human rights came because some President or Congress thought it was the right thing to do – it came because people marched in the streets like we do today.


“In the words of my father, he said ‘no one has the right to oppress people and all oppressed people have the right to a revolution.’ So let us send a message today, workers rights are human rights, we stand unified and tell the people of Colorado we are not Wisconsin and united we stand and united we will win,” proclaimed Gonzales.

Dock workers shut down ports in solidarity with Wisconsin struggle

by Dave Welsh 

Wednesday Apr 6th, 2011 11:50 AM

The power of workers to bring production to a halt was on dramatic display April 4th, when longshore workers of ILWU Local 10 shut down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco for 24 hours, in solidarity with the heroic struggles in Wisconsin. The big container port of Oakland was deader than a doornail Monday at 6:00 a.m. I saw a long snake-line of trucks bearing shipping containers idled on the roadway. The shipping cranes were all “standing at attention” – i.e., not working any containers. The dock workers stayed away, and no cargo was worked on any shift Monday in Oakland or San Francisco.
“This was a voluntary rank and file action – an organized act of resistance,” said Clarence Thomas, Lo.10 exec board member. 

Oakland, CA, April 4, 2011 - The power of workers to bring production to a halt was on dramatic display April 4th, when longshore workers of ILWU Local 10 shut down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco for 24 hours, in solidarity with the heroic struggles in Wisconsin. 

The big container port of Oakland was deader than a doornail Monday at 6:00 a.m. I saw a long snake-line of trucks bearing shipping containers idled on the roadway. The shipping cranes were all “standing at attention” – i.e., not working any containers. [These are same Port of Oakland cranes that gave George Lucas the idea for some of his “Star Wars” imagery.]

The ILWU hiring hall was practically deserted at dispatch time for the night shift, leaving several hundred jobs unfilled. The dock workers stayed away, and no cargo was worked on any shift Monday in Oakland or San Francisco.

The rank-and-file-initiated shutdown was part of nationwide actions on April 4th to challenge the draconian budget cuts and union busting in Wisconsin and other states.

An “organized act of resistance” by rank-and-file dock workers

“This was a voluntary rank and file action – an organized act of resistance,” said Clarence Thomas, a dock worker and Local 10 executive board member.

“It is significant that the action by Local 10 was taken in solidarity with Wisconsin public sector workers who are facing the loss of collective bargaining,” Thomas said. He pointed out that April 4th is also the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – who was killed in Memphis demanding collective bargaining for sanitation workers in that city.

“So we’ve come full circle,” he concluded. The Memphis public workers got their union, after a two-month strike. Now 40 years later their Wisconsin counterparts are threatened with losing theirs. But it is Wisconsin’s “fierce resistance that is inspiring all of us today.”

It is not surprising that the 24-hour port work stoppage came out of International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 10, a racially diverse, predominantly African American local, and the home local of legendary labor leader Harry Bridges. Martin Luther King was named an honorary member of Local 10, six months before he was killed.

Oakland teachers shut down Wells Fargo Bank for 3 hours on Apr. 4

The Oakland Education Association has been facing crippling attacks on the public school system - including layoff notices for 600 of their members. When the April 4th Day of Action arrived, the OEA chose to protest at Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Oakland, demanding “Bail out schools, not banks.”

About 100 teachers and supporters chanted, marched and sat down at the bank entrance, effectively shutting down the bank for three hours. They set up a makeshift classroom in the bank plaza to teach about the key role of the banks in bringing on today’s economic crisis. OEA President Betty Olson-Jones pointed out that Wells Fargo received a $50 Billion federal bailout, and the people chanted: “Banks took our money…Now give it to the schools!”

Protesters took turns at the bullhorn:

1. They demanded that workers' jobs, pensions, schools & social services must be safeguarded before one cent of interest is paid to the banks and wealthy bond investors. Which has priority, they asked: Profits for the wealthy, or our children’s future?

2. They highlighted Wells Fargo's role in the foreclosure epidemic – affecting many families of district school children – and demand a moratorium on foreclosures, so families can stay in their homes. An OEA press release said Wells Fargo must "stop foreclosures and lower mortgage debt to reflect homes' reduced market value."

The Bail out the People Movement organized demonstrations Monday at Wells Fargo branches in Los Angeles and Baltimore, in solidarity with the teachers’ action in Oakland. Wells Fargo is based in California, with their main headquarters in San Francisco. 

ELM - National Conference to Build Unity in the Labor Movement & Defeat the Corporate Agenda

200+ Denver Students Stage Walkout for Labor & Education

By Chris Hicks, on April 8th, 2011

On Monday, April 4^th, over 200 students from University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver, and Metropolitan State College of Denver participated in a walkout and rally in support of labor and education.   The action was in conjunction with the April 4^th “We Are One” National Day of Action that SLAP, Jobs with Justice, and United States Student Association all actively participated in as a response to the recent attack on workers and students across the country.

In Colorado, two anti-worker bills earlier this February:

• Senate Bill 12, by Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, would have prohibited public entities from collectively bargaining with a labor union, or an employee association from acting as a bargaining agent for public employees.
• Senate Bill 38, by Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, would have prohibited an employee organization from being officially recognized as the exclusive representative of state employees, barred the state from negotiating with an employee organization to create an employee partnership agreement, and terminated any existing partnership agreements.

At a time when workers’ rights are under attack around the country, many students have provided the spark for protest and fighting back. Students in Denver saw the direct impact these laws will have on them and their own livelihood, which inspired them to walk out.

Speakers at the rally came from different backgrounds and issues, but showed how our movement must unite as one in order to protect all rights. The speakers from the rally came from local radio stations, students who identify as LGBTQ, anti-war, immigrant rights, education reform, and labor. The theme of the speakers was shared struggle, shared identity, and how we must begin to view ourselves within our own communities: “We Are One”!

Learn more about SLAP.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Russell Bannan
Colorado Jobs with Justice
864-978-9374
rpbannan@gmail.com

APRIL 4TH “DAY OF ACTION” EVENTS WILL BRING TOGETHER UNIONS, ORGANIZATIONS, STUDENTS AND ACTIVISTS TO DEMAND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Commemorating 43rd Anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Last Speech and Assassination

Labor unions, progressive organizations, community leaders and higher education students will join together Monday, April 4th in several Colorado cities at rallies, marches, teach-ins and walk-outs to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to demand political and economic justice for all people.

Denver, CO, April 3, 2011 – College students, union members, organization leaders, community activists and others will join together on Monday, April 4, 2011, to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s march for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, followed by his famous last “Promised Land” speech, and assassination on April 4th, 1968.

A Justice for Janitors (SEIU) march will begin at 17th and California streets and will conclude at Tivoli Square (SW corner of Tivoli between the King Center and the Plaza Building) in Denver for a “Teach-in”. From 12:15 – 2:00pm, a panel of community leaders representing labor, immigration, education, civil rights, the inter-faith community, and other areas will speak about worker’s rights and social justice. AM760 Progressive Talk Radio’s Mario Solis-Marich will emcee the event and introduce speakers, including DeFENSE Denver’s Andrea Merida (also a Denver Public Schools Board Member), Benedictine Monk Brother David Garner, and keynote speaker KGNU radio talk show host and Civil Rights leader, Shareef Aleem.

The Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) has coordinated a student “walk-out” to attend the events on campus, and to send a message of solidarity with workers.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) will also hold a rally from 1:00-3:00 pm at 17th and Esplanade in City Park, near the MLK statue, to protest the Dex Corporation outsourcing American jobs. An evening Rally and Candlelight Vigil to honor workers, organized by Colorado AFL-CIO, will begin at 5:30pm at City Park Band Shell, on the east side of Ferrell Lake (near E. 17th and Steele Street entrance). Meanwhile, similar events will be held in Colorado Springs and other cities.

Labor unions around the United States are organizing politically in response to recent events in Wisconsin and Michigan, where Republican governors are attempting to take away collective bargaining rights of workers and to drastically cut public education.

The march, rallies, teach-in and walk-out have been organized by a grassroots coalition of labor unions and community groups including the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Colorado Immigrant Rights Association (CIRC), Colorado Jobs With Justice, New Era Colorado, and Progressive Outreach Colorado, MoveOn.org and others. Teach-In speakers will include representatives from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA), Colorado Young Workers (CYW), Democrats for Excellent Neighborhood School Education (DeFENSE Denver), Politically Active Ztudents (PAZ), Escuela Tlatelolco, and others.

The events have been promoted on radio, on the Auraria campus, and through on-line social media including facebook, twitter and email.

For more information, please contact Russell Bannan at 864-978-9374 or rpbannan@gmail.com.

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Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers’ rights. Around the country, local Jobs with Justice Coalitions unite labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations to build power for working people.