WHAT IS THE LABOR COUNCIL?
The South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council is currently celebrating over a half-century as a chartered organization. The Labor Council represents over a hundred unions in Santa Clara and San Benito counties and over 110,000 union members.
The Labor Council is involved in many programs that are directly intended to improve the lives of working families in the Bay Area.
LABOR COUNCIL NEWS
Added February 5th, 2010
Journalist Gabriel Thompson spent a year working alongside Latino immigrants from Arizona lettuce fields and an Alabama poultry plant to the kitchens of New York City restaurants, forced to live with chronic pain for $8 an hour.
His co-workers initially thought he was crazy or as an undercover immigration agent. He was really working on his just-published book, "Working in the Shadows: A year of doing jobs (most) Americans won't do."
Come hear him speak about the book at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, at First Christian Church, 80 S. Fifth St., in San Jose. The event is sponsored by Working Partnerships USA, First Christian Church, the Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform and San Jose Peace and Justice Center. For more information, call (408) 836-5756 or email hietala.s@gmail.com.
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Added February 3rd, 2010
The same coalition that created the nation's first health insurance program for all children -- Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA), the Santa Clara Family Health Plan and Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System -- has now developed Healthy Workers, an affordable employer-based health plan for small businesses and their employees.
Healthy Workers offers comprehensive coverage with low premiums and no deductibles at roughly half the cost of competitive plans. The Santa Clara Family Health Plan will begin enrolling employers and employees in Healthy Workers on March 1, 2010.
For more information, call Ann Gray at the Santa Clara Family Health Plan at (408) 410-0811 or email at agray@scfhp.com.
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Added February 3rd, 2010
Are you due a tax refund?
IRS-certified tax preparers will get you the refund you deserve at more than 180 Bay Area sites. If you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, your refund could be more than $5,000 for a family of five.
The United Way of Silicon Valley is sponsoring these free tax sites for a limited time. To find a site near you or more information, call 211 or (866) 896-3587.
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Added January 15th, 2010
Sen. Joe Simitian and Sen. Alan Lowenthal will co-host an important State Senate informational hearing on high-speed rail at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21 in the Palo Alto City Council Chambers.
Sen. Simitian, Sen. Lowenthal and others need to hear from us that:
-- High-speed rail between San Jose and San Francisco will create thousands of jobs and add 21st Century green transportation to the Peninsula.
-- We applaud elected officials and all citizens working to find constructive ideas for bringing high-speed rail to Peninsula communities.
-- It would be irresponsible to delay this project and cause our region to miss out on the unprecedented opportunity to bring hundreds of millions of federal dollars to our local areas to support local jobs and sustainable, green transportation.
Join us for this important hearing and please pass this on to anyone who will help us get this vital message out. To learn more, please visit www.alliancestj.com.
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Added January 15th, 2010
Monday, Jan. 18, is Martin Luther King Day, which many people will honor as suggested by his widow, the late Coretta Scott King: "The greatest birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others."
Join Assemblymember Paul Fong in honoring Dr. King's legacy by helping clean up the Ulistac Natural Area in Santa Clara between 9 a.m. and noon Monday. The Ulistac Natural Area is on Lick Mill Boulevard between Hope Drive and Tasman Drive. For more information, call (650) 210-2000 or (408) 277-2003.
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Added January 15th, 2010
Within hours of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, elements of the labor community stepped up to help the Western Hemisphere's poorest country recover from a disaster Californians are all too familiar with.
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams composed of International Association of Firefighters members from across North America were dispatched within three hours of the 7.0 magnitude quake, which struck near Haiti's most populous city, Port-au-Prince, on Jan. 12. A USAR team from Los Angeles County arrived in Haiti at 4:30 a.m. Haiti time Jan. 14.
Santa Clara Firefighters IAFF Local 1171 has nine members on a USAR team called California Task Force 3, which is not normally deployed internationally, but is on standby pending a needs assessment from teams already on the ground. That team was sent to New York following 9/11 and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has many Haitian immigrant members, is developing a relief initiative, Help Haiti, to direct donations and organize SEIU Healthcare members for direct support. The union suggests monetary donations be made to Partners in Health at https://donate.pih.org/page/contribute/haiti_earthquake?source=earthquake&subsource=seiu. More SEIU information is available at http://www.seiu.org/2010/01/haiti-relief-initiative--how-you-can-help.php.
AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison and Labor Agency Programs is working with the United Way Worldwide Disaster Fund and recommending donations at https://volunteer.united-e-way.org/uwwwdisaster/donate/.
Leonard Joseph of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security contacted the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council with additional advice and information for union members wishing to help.
Joseph recommended against sending canned goods or traveling to Haiti itself but suggested donating to local charities or the American Red Cross. The White House website at www.whitehouse.gov has a list of charities helping in Haiti. Red Cross donations may be made by texting 90999 and an automatic $10 donation will be posted on your cell phone bill.
Americans trying to find friends or relatives in Haiti may call the U.S. State Department toll free (888) 407-4747 or email Haiti/earthquake@state.gov. Please provide the person’s full name, date of birth, any passport information you may have and where the person was believed to be in the country.
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Need to search endorsement info on the go?