SAVE THE DATE! FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24: TJC HAPPY HOUR

SAVE THE DATE!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24:  TJC HAPPY HOUR
Invited Guest: Howie Hawkins, Green Party Candidate for Governor, and Julia Willebrand, Green Party Candidate for State Comptroller and a former UFT Delegate.
Place: TBA in downtown Brooklyn Time: 4 PM until they kick those rowdy teachers out!
 As soon as Andrew Cuomo got the Democratic Party nomination for governor, he went on the offensive against public employee unions.  “We’re going to be tangling with public employee unions going forward,” he announced.  Now that Cuomo has come out swinging against us, we’d be crazy to support him.  We say the UFT should support a candidate who supports us, and the candidate for governor that gives us unqualified support is Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate. 

 

YOU ARE INVITED TO AN EVENING TJC PHONE MEETING
ATTEND OUR MEETING FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME!
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25 AT 8:30 PM  - Among the urgent issues we will be discussing are how to address the targeting of new teachers, supporting Howie Hawkins, a pro-labor candidate for Governor, and kicking off our fall contract campaign.  Reply to this email for more information on how to participate.

 

VETERANS IN THE LINE OF FIRE?
Are you, or do you know, a teacher or other UFT member, who has been targeted because you are a veteran, very senior, or older?  TJC is looking for specific cases and patterns, so we can evaluate a campaign for UFT action on this front.  Please email us with your story. 

 

JOIN THE GROWING LIST OF UFTers WHO SUPPORT
A CANDIDATE WHO SUPPORTS US!
 We are asking you, as a TJC supporter to add your name to a statement supporting Howie, as several of us have already done.
 We urge you to read the statement below, to which several of us have already added our signatures, and to join us.  Please reply to this email, so we may add your name to those of us who are ready to support a candidate

 

Below is the call of the Labor Committee for Howie Hawkins and the initial signers.
Labor Committee for Howie Hawkins for Governor of New York State

 

We, the undersigned New York State labor union members, support the Green Party campaign for governor by Howie Hawkins.

 

Environmental, financial and political crises rock the nation. But measures taken in response by those elected to power have made things worse, not better.

 

Taxpayer bailouts for the Wall Street rich combined with reductions in public programs are not the answer. Endless wars and environmental catastrophe blister on top of job losses. We have suffered
progressively unaffordable costs of living in the face of a real decline in our benefits and wages.

 

With the state and the nation plainly headed in the wrong direction, we need a strong labor movement more than ever. But where is the voice of working people in the elections?

 

Labor has no voice when it is ever more difficult to tell the difference between the Democratic and the Republican Parties. A prime example: Andrew Cuomo's proposed austerity policy for New York State.

 

Andrew Cuomo intends to cap state spending while rejecting higher taxes on the rich. His anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-democratic platform is unacceptable. It echoes the big-banker proposals of his Republican opponents.

 

Working people must have a voice in the November elections, independent of the Republicans and Democrats. The race for Governor of New York is a good place to start.

 

Howie Hawkins can help us find our voice. Because he is a rank and file unionist, a member of Teamsters Local 317, Howie Hawkins understands workers' concerns in a way that the professional
politicians never can and never will.

 

Howie Hawkins' platform includes:

 

PROGRESSIVE TAXES
Take the Rich Off Welfare!
The Wealthy Must Pay Their Share to Erase the Deficit and Fund Jobs,
Schools, Health Care, Homes, the Environment, and Revenue Sharing with Local Governments

 

REFORM ALBANY
Replace the Two-Party Corporate State with Multi-Party Democracy
through Proportional Representation, Democratize Legislative Rules,
Strengthen Disclosure Laws for Lobbying and Election Expenditures

 

FULL EMPLOYMENT
Jobs for All at Living Wages

 

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL
A Single-Payer, Community-Based Health Service
Howie Hawkins complete platform can be seen at
http://www.howiehawkins.com/2010/index.php/platform.html
It is time for working people to give up choosing between bad and worse.

 

It is time to find our own independent voice.

 

It is time to support a genuine working class alternative to the parties of corporate rule.

 

It is time to support one of our own, a worker who understands our problems and issues and who will fight with us.

 

It is time to support Howie Hawkins for Governor of New York State.

 

Please join us in the Labor Committee for Howie Hawkins.

 

Initial Labor Endorsers of the Hawkins Campaign for Governor
The following members of the UFT and other unions in the American Federation of Teachers have signed this statement: 

 

Stanley Aronowitz Former Exec. Council, Professional Staff Congress, AFT
Michael Pelias Exec. Committee, Long Island University Faculty Federation
Tom Siracuse Member, Social and Economic Justice Committee, UFT
Kristin Schall Member, Professional Staff Congress, AFT
Ron Ehrenreich Member, NYSUT
Stanley R. Scobie UUP/NYSUT, Sgt at Arms, Broome-Tioga Federation of Labor. AFL-CIO
Mark Daigle Member, NYSUT 10-175, Delegate Troy Area Labor Council
Anthony Gronowicz Delegate, Professional Staff Congress, AFT
Katharine Dawson NYC NYSUT, Retired
Tim Wolcott NYSUT, Waverly Central Schools
Kit Wainer, Chapter Leader, UFT
Megan Behrent, Delegate, UFT
Marian Swerdlow, Member, UFT
Rachel Cohn, Chapter Leader, UFT
Alex Zhang, Member, UFT
E. Ezutah, Member, UFT
Jason Agosto, Delegate, UFT
Matt Schley, Chapter Leader, UFT
Jason Norman, Chapter Leader, UFT
Chris Asch, Member, UFT
Don Anderson, Chapter Leader, retired, UFT
Tom Crean, Chapter Leader, UFT
Gloria Brandman, Chapter Leader; Social & Economic Justice Committee Member, UFT
John Yanno, Chapter Leader, UFT
Corrine DeMolli, Member, UFT
Peter Lamphere, Chapter Leader, UFT
Ross Hogan, Chapter Leader, UFT
Dionisio Camacho, Member, UFT
Michael Wotypka, Member, UFT
Marjorie George, Member, UFT
Nick Licari, Retired Chapter Leader, UFT

 

* Organizations listed for identification purposes only