Campaign News

01.13.2020 

SAN JUAN, PR -- Following the recent series of earthquakes since the start of the new year in Puerto Rico, causing an island-wide blackout, leaving thousands homeless, and causing structural damage to hundreds of buildings, schools, and main roads, an estimated two thousand people have been housed in shelters, and thousands more have pitched tents in their backyards. The Center for Popular Democracy - a national network of community organizations - and the Maria Fund  - created after the historic 2017 hurricane - made a call to funnel resources to community groups on the ground and address the real issue at hand. 

“From the Hurricanes of 2017 to the earthquakes of this year, Puerto Rico continues to grasp for recovery under decades of political mismanagement and budget cuts that have crippled its infrastructure and driven hundreds of thousands out. In order to ensure that Puerto Ricans achieve a just recovery, we must address the root of the issue,” added Julio Lopez Varona, co-director of community dignity campaigns of the Center for Popular Democracy. “The debt is a burden to the recovery of the island and it must be canceled to put the needs of the people first, not Wall Street. Long-term investments in infrastructure, including building schools and shelters up to code, solidifying the power and water grids, securing hospitals and roads, protecting pensions, and providing safe housing alternatives for low-income families, are just a few of the basic needs that should be immediately championed. Anything less is placing a band-aid on an open wound, expecting it to just go away.”

The Maria Fund plans to move rapid response funding to the network of social justice initiatives and grassroots community organizing groups that are supporting the people most impacted by the recent earthquakes that have devastated areas of the south of Puerto Rico. Here is more detailed information of the immediate needs of the organizations located in these areas. 

“The disastrous response of the local and federal governments are connected to an agenda that doesn’t center the lives of the people of Puerto Rico. This agenda has created a crippling debt, promoted budget cuts, poor maintenance of infrastructure, privatization, and displacement. The frontline groups who are stepping up at this moment know this, and the relief response they are organizing is part of a commitment to demanding structural changes for the long-term”, added Xiomara Caro, Executive Director of the María Fund. 

These rapid response funds will also be made available to the network of 49 organizations, many of which have already decided to step up and organize needs assessments, delivery of emergency supplies, service brigades to refugee camps, legal education, emotional support, and demanding equitable and systemic changes to improve their immediate and long-term reality, among other strategies. See here this broader list of organizations. 

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Media Contact: Inarú Melendez, imelendez@populardemocracy.org, 413-331-9530  

11.20.2019

WASHINGTON -- Today, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced legislation in the United States House of Representatives that would supply 12 million units of affordable housing, including 8.5 million units of public housing, over the next 10 years. The $1 trillion investment would create public housing and private, permanently affordable rental units, virtually ending our current affordable housing crisis. Representative Omar’s legislation also prohibits discrimination against residents based on sexual orientation, gender, criminal history or immigration status, and invests in services for those experiencing homelessness, like employment or education assistance, childcare and financial literacy classes. Lastly, the legislation would create a Community Control and Anti-Displacement Fund within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to protect families from the worst effects of gentrification and displacement.

The Center for Popular Democracy and members of our network endorsed the legislation and released the following statements:

Dianne Enriquez, co-director of community dignity campaigns, Center for Popular Democracy

“Representative Omar’s bill proves that it is possible for every person in the United States to have a stable, affordable place to call home. Not only does the legislation create 12 million units of affordable housing, it also makes sure that all future funding needs are fully met so that public units do not fall into disrepair. This provision, plus wrap-around services for people experiencing homelessness, would help to end our housing crisis. We are already paying the costs for the affordable housing crisis through skyrocketing rents and a growing homeless population. Instead of allowing our crisis to worsen, let’s invest in the affordable housing we need. I am proud to endorse the Homes for All Act because we need a broad reimagining of our affordable housing system.”  

Elianne Farhat, Executive Director, Take Action Minnesota

"Every person has dignity and deserves a place to call home. The Homes for All Act that Rep. Omar introduced today and is an important step forward in providing enough housing for everyone to thrive. Homelessness and affordable housing shortages affect every urban and rural area in our country. It requires large scale investments and bold action from Congress. We are proud to endorse this bill.”

Other organizations within the Center for Popular Democracy network who endorsed the legislation include: Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, Take Action Minnesota.

 

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Media Contact: Lia Weintraub, lweintraub@populardemocracy.org, 202-618-2482

October.30.2019

WASHINGTON, DC -- In response to the introduction of the New Deal for New Americans Act by U.S. Reps. Grace Meng (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL), the Center for Popular Democracy released the following statement from Natalia Aristizabal, Director of Immigrant Justice: 

“We’re excited for legislation that would make it easier for residents to secure citizenship. This is a step forward to ensure we are moving past the inhumane and cruel policies implemented by the Trump administration. Our fight is for a country that protects and nurtures every immigrant’s right to move, to stay, to create a future where our loved ones are free to thrive.” 

The bill aims to implement a federal office to lead inclusion and integration strategies for refugees and immigrants, cut down financial barriers for citizenship application, expand economic prosperity programs centered on workforce development and English language programs, and increase access to due process and legal services. 

Read more on the New Deal for New Americans act here. 

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Media Contact: Inarú Meléndez, 413-331-9530, imelendez@populardemocracy.org

10.17.2019

WASHINGTON -- In a roundtable discussion today with retail workers, sociologists and policy advocates, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) announced her intention to introduce the Schedules that Work Act to provide predictable work hours for hourly employees in low-wage industries. Representative DeLauro and Senator Elizabeth Warren will jointly reintroduce the bill in the coming weeks.   

"The biggest economic challenge of our time is that people are working in jobs that do not pay them enough to keep up with the rising costs of healthcare, child care, housing, and education,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “That problem is compounded when working people do not have a voice in their schedules, which not only impacts them, but also their families. That is why I will be reintroducing the Schedules That Work Act with Senator Warren. Working people deserve to have dignity in their work and the ability to plan their lives, and our legislation will ensure that they do."

The discussion, hosted by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, the Center for Popular Democracy, United for Respect and the National Women’s Law Center, addressed a new report from University of California researchers Daniel Schneider and Kristen Harknett documenting how widespread unstable work hours are in the service sector, and the severe impact of this instability on U.S. workers and their families. In their survey, of 30,000 retail and food service workers at 120 of the largest U.S. retail and food service companies, they found significant negative impacts of unpredictable schedules across a worker’s life and family. The survey was first reported in The New York Times.

According to the report, having an unpredictable work schedule:

Raises the likelihood that workers will experience material hardship, including food and housing insecurity; 

Destabilizes children’s routines and care arrangements, heightening children’s anxiety and behavioral challenges and forcing parents to rely on inconsistent and low-quality child care; 

Increases the likelihood a worker will quit their job; and

Perpetuates racial inequality: workers of color, particularly women of color, experience more unstable work hours than their white coworkers at the same employer.

In the course of the roundtable conversation, workers shared how their experiences with unstable schedules impacted their families and other areas of their lives.

“At Big Lots, my work schedule wasn’t made available to me until the day before our workweek began. It made it so stressful and difficult to plan ahead  for the week, because I’m the sole provider for my children and my mom,” said Brandy Powell, United for Respect leader and mother who works retail in California. “I deserve a say in when I work, and I deserve advance notice when I’m expected to work. When I told Big Lots I wouldn’t be available because my kids had doctor’s visits, they ignored my shift requests and called me into work. I was forced to quit my job after 11 months because it was too much stress for me and my family.”

The workers were joined by representatives from the National Women’s Law Center, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and One Pennsylvania.

“When so many women don’t have enough notice of their schedules to plan their lives and care for their kids, when they don’t have enough hours to pay for rent and groceries and child care, it’s no wonder that we’re still seeing gender wage gaps—gaps that are especially wide for women of color and women who are moms, and for moms who are women of color most of all,” said Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. “That’s why we need the Schedules That Work Act and the Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights.”  

The Schedules that Work Act would require employers in the retail, food service, cleaning, hospitality and warehouse sectors to provide two weeks’ advance notice of work schedules and compensate workers for employer-initiated shift changes. The bill would also protect workers’ right to input into work schedules and at least eleven hours of nightly rest between work shifts. The forthcoming Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights, to be introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-09), will allow part-time hourly workers to pick up additional hours before the employer can hire new staff, along with other protections for part-time workers--who typically experience lower pay and access to benefits, as well as greater scheduling instability, than their full-time counterparts.

States and cities are also moving forward with introducing legislation to guarantee a fair workweek. Last year, Philadelphia and Chicago became the latest cities to pass fair scheduling legislation. Similar measures are already law in Oregon, Seattle, WA; Emeryville, CA; San Francisco, CA; and New York, NY. 

Los Angeles, Washington state, and New Jersey are considering similar bills during their upcoming legislative sessions.

“Workers from New York to Oregon and Los Angeles to Chicago have been standing up to demand a Fair Workweek so that they and their families can thrive,” said Rachel Deutsch with the Center for Popular Democracy’s Fair Workweek Initiative. “We hope members of Congress will pass the Schedules That Work Act and Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights to ensure that millions of workers can rely on predictable and stable hours.” 

In June, the Los Angeles City Council directed the City Attorney to draft a fair workweek ordinance, and workers with UFCW local 770, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and other community groups urged the council to act quickly during a hearing on October 15. In Washington, a coalition led by UFCW Local 21 and Working Washington is backing policy championed by state senator Rebecca Saldaña and representative Nicole Macri. On October 16, New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg announced her intention to introduce fair workweek legislation at a press conference with Make the Road New Jersey, United for Respect, Unite Here, SEIU, NJ Citizen Action, and other allies. 

 

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Media Contact: Lia Weintraub, lweintraub@populardemocracy.org, 202-618-2482