Tag Archives: Reform

AFL-CIO President Trumka Speaks To Immigration Reform On May Day

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 3, 2013 - 6:15 am | ,
Comments
Richard_Trumka

May 1, 2013

Today, working people here and around the world are coming together to commemorate past struggles and gather strength for ongoing ones. In the United States, the labor movement has no higher priority this year than securing the passage of an immigration reform bill that features an inclusive road map to citizenship, protects workers’ rights, unites families, and maintains the diversity that keeps our country strong and competitive in a globalized world.

On this day, also known as International Workers’ Day, we commemorate those workers who have died or been injured on the job and vow to redouble our efforts to improve working conditions and workers’ safety across the globe. Recent tragedies such as in West, Texas, and Bangladesh are painfully fresh reminders of how we still struggle both nationally and globally to provide basic and necessary protections for workers.

America’s unions, hand in hand with our allies in the broad-based immigrant rights movement, will continue to mobilize around the country today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow until we offer all aspiring Americans a roadmap to citizenship. On this May Day, we honor those workers who have come from all over the world, for many generations, to build our nation. We stand with our brothers and sisters here and around the world in their fight for justice – because workers’ rights are immigrant rights.

United Farm Workers Endorse Immigration Reform Plans

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 13, 2013 - 11:30 am | , ,
Comments
Immigration rally Nashua 4-6-13 (credit Arnie Alpert)

United Farm Workers endorse bipartisan immigration reform plan with critical protections for U.S. agricultural workers

Arturo Rodriguez, president of the UFW, issued the following statement after reaching a deal with major grower associations and a bipartisan group of Senators on proposed immigration reform legislation: 

Keene, CA – In the same week that hundreds of farmworkers came to Washington, DC to push for immigration reform, the United Farm Workers and farm worker groups from across the country celebrate a historic compromise with the nation’s largest grower associations to provide a special route to legal status for the nation’s farm workers.  This compromise was brokered by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).   The proposal will be included as part of the comprehensive bill which will now include both a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and a separate process towards legalization and citizenship for farm workers.  The UFW has been working towards this goal for over a decade with partners in the faith, labor and non-profit communities.

“The UFW is very pleased. Under the proposed new immigration process, farm workers would be able to work in the fields without fear of getting deported immediately and will be able to reunite with their families in a relatively short period of time. The bill would give professional farm workers presently in the U.S., who have been contributing to our country, temporary legal status and the right to earn a green card in the future by continuing to work in agriculture,” said UFW President Arturo Rodriguez.

“Farm workers are the backbone of our agriculture industry here in the United States and a speedier process toward proper documentation provides an incentive for those farm workers who are currently working in agriculture to continue working in agriculture,” Rodriguez added.

Farm workers will have the option to apply for paperwork to legalize their status in the U.S. either through the regular process for non-agricultural workers, or through the special process created for those working in the agriculture industry.

Rodriguez concluded: “Farm workers are one step closer to winning legal status and the much-earned recognition for their contributions to the United States. We believe this compromise could be a vehicle for improving the working conditions and job opportunities for farm workers. We deeply appreciate the work of Senators Feinstein, Rubio, Bennet, and Hatch on this proposal and we look forward to continuing to work with them, the President and our other allies in the Congress to pass immigration reform this year. In the end, with a lot of hard work, we will win. Si se puede!”

 

Nashua: Activists Rally For Immigration Reform (From Arnie Alpert)

  By Arnie Alpert | April 6, 2013 - 6:12 pm |
Comments
Immigration rally Nashua 4-6-13 (credit Arnie Alpert)

nashua 4-6-13 100

“The Time is Now”nashua 4-6-13 012 crop

More than a hundred immigrants rights supporters rallied today at Nashua City Hall  and marched to the offices of Senators Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen to call for reforms centered on a clear and direct path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the USA. 

Rally speakers included Eva Castillo of the NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees; the Rev. Tom Woodward of the Granite State Organizing Project; Juan Zamudio, a student at Derryfield School in Manchester; Marisol Saavedra, a Nashua student; and Carols Escobar of SEIU  nashua 4-6-13 040cropLocal 615.

“In many years of working across the US, I saw time and time again bosses use the broken immigration system to mistreat, intimidate, underpay and over work undocumented workers,” said Escobar, an Ecuadoran immigrant who works as a janitor in Nashua. 

“When employers pay lower wages to some workers, all workers are affected and standards are lowered for everyone,” the Local 615 member added.

Participants included union members, faith community leaders, and otnashua 4-6-13 014cropher social justice activists adding their bodies and voices to the movement calling on Congress to act now for humane immigration policies. 

Following the brief rally, the crowd marched north into Nashua’s downtown shopping district and crossed over to the east side of the road by the office of Senator Kelly Ayotte.  There, they taped a giant letter to the window, where marchers added their signatures to a statement calling for commonsense immigration reform that fosters unity.

nashua 4-6-13 031“The time for action is long overdue and there is bipartisan agreement on moving forward,” the statement said.  “A reform package that includes a path to citizenship makes economic sense and is true to our ideals as a nation.  Taking action now makes sense politically, as well, since the American public supports immigration reform.”

Marchers continued northward to Senator Shaheen’s office where another letter was taped to the window for signatures. 

The program concluded with a statement from Germano Martins, a member of the State Employees Association (SEIU Local 1984) followed by a prayer led by the Rev. Sandra Pontoh of the Maranatha Indonesian United Church of Christ. nashua 4-6-13 109

The organizing committee included SEIU Locals 615 and 1984, the NH AFL-CIO, NH Civil Liberties Union, Lutheran Social Services, the Granite State Organizing Project, the NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, the United Church of Christ Immigration Working Group, and the American Friends Service Committee.

Another rally will take place at State House Plaza in Concord at noon on Wednesday, May 1.

nashua 4-6-13 006crop

nashua 4-6-13 019  nashua 4-6-13 021  nashua 4-6-13 028  nashua 4-6-13 051  nashua 4-6-13 076crop

 

All images credit to Arnie Alpert and Inzane Times.

Reposted with permission from InZane Times (Original Link)

GOP Block Sequester Reform Bill; How Much Are We Regretting Not Changing The Rule Now?

  By Matt Murray | March 1, 2013 - 12:24 pm |
Comments
MR Smith goes to Washington

In the beginning of the year there was a lot, I mean a lot of discussion about changing the filibuster rule in the US Senate.  Throughout the country Americans were calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use his power in the Senate to change the current filibuster rule.

Fo those who do not know or understand what a filibuster is, let me give you a little background.   The filibuster is a way for the majority to hold up legislation from passing the Senate by a a simple majority vote.  Originally a Senator would have to stand in the Senate chamber and talk, and talk, and talk, until he would win over enough votes to vote the bill down, or the Senator is overruled by a 2/3rd vote.  The best example of this comes from the American movie classic ‘Mr Smith goes to Washington’.

This ‘talking’ filibuster was the standing rule in the Senate until the 1970s.  Prior to that a Senator could do anything, including reading his favorite recipes to keep talking.  In fact in the 1930′s that is exactly what Senator Wayne Morse did for 15 hours.  The only way to stop a filibuster was to evoke a term called ‘cloture’. Cloture requires 60 of the 100 Senators to agree to stop the debate, therefore ending the filibuster.

Sadly in the 1970s  this rule was changed to the the current version of the filibuster.  Now there is no longer a ‘talking’ requirement to filibuster a bill.  Now a minority can just say they are going to filibuster a bill, forcing a cloture (60 of 100) vote before the Senate can move forward on a bill.

Of course I am going to talk about how the current GOP Leadership in the Senate is using this to literally block everything that is going through the Senate right now.  And yes I know that Democrats in the past have used the same rule to stop legislation when the Senate was under a GOP rule.

The current GOP leadership in the Senate is using this rule to stop things they have never done before.  Recently they held up the confirmation of Secretary Hagel.  For the first time ever, a filibuster was used to hold up a cabinet appointment.

Now the GOP leaders in the Senate are once again using the filibuster to stop the sequestration reform bill from passing.  They are refusing to raise revenues or close loopholes in the current tax code to balance the spending cuts they are screaming for.   When Senator Reid called for a vote on the Democratic option, it passed with a 51-49 majority, but failed to meet the 60 vote cloture requirement.  So once again the GOP is the Senate have effectively stopped this legislation from moving to the House.

I wonder how Senator Reid is feeling about his gentlemans agreement with Senator McConnell to ‘reduce the number of filibusters’, instead of changing the rules?  I wonder if he is regretting that decision now? Bring back the days of a talking filibuster. If you have a problem with the proposed legislation, let everyone know that you are opposed to it by standing in front of the entire Senate (and the country).  Say what you have to say. If you are persuasive enough your filibuster will prevail, if not then the majority rules.  Only when we can change this rule will we get to a point where legislation will once again move through the Senate.

The Education Voucher Bill is back in the NH House! Update From @ANHPE

  By New Hampshire Labor News | January 28, 2013 - 4:25 pm | ,
Comments
Bill Duncan

From Advancing NH Public Education

Two big challenges to the voucher bill

I would urge everyone to attend the public hearing on the voucher repeal bill, HB 370.  The chair of the House Education Committee, Rep. Mary Gile (D, Concord) is the prime sponsor and it has many co-sponsors.  The hearing is at 12:30 in Representatives Hall, this Thursday, at 12:30.  Voucher supporters will be there in force and, while there is a lot of legislative support for repeal, we need to do our part and make our case forcefully.  Please come if you can.

Also, we filed the court challenge to the voucher bill this month.  This editorial in the Portsmouth Herald sums up the case well.  The first court hearing will be on Friday, April 26, at 11:00 AM before Judge John Lewis, in the Strafford County courthouse.

The proposed education funding amendment is on hold for the moment.

The sponsors pulled back from the amendment proposal this session with the idea of working submitting a proposal next year.  We will continue to post on education funding from time to time.

The bills to follow this year.

There are some 30 education bills proposed so far in this year’s legislative session (all bills will have been filed in a few more days).  You can see all the bills we’re following here, listed at the bottom of the Advancing New Hampshire Public Education front page.  Click on the link to go to the page for that bill.  We’ll update those pages as the session progresses.

Tracking opportunities to support early childhood development in New Hampshire

There’s a great interest in enhancing opportunities for early childhood development in the State.  Here is some background.  Be sure to press the Follow button on the front page to stay up-to-date and join the conversation.

Hope to see you at the voucher repeal hearing Thursday,

Bill

To get the most news up-to-the-minute, be sure to click the “Follow” button in the upper left of the Advancing New Hampshire Public Education  web site.

President Obama Signs Gun Reform Orders, And Yes You Get To Keep Your Guns

  By Matt Murray | January 17, 2013 - 6:00 am | ,
Comments
Credit Pete Souza

Today only 33 days after the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook the people are finally getting real gun reform.  And no the President is not take away all your guns. He even said so today.

“Like most Americans, I believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. I respect our strong tradition of gun ownership and the rights of hunters and sportsmen.  There are millions of responsible, law-abiding gun owners in America who cherish their right to bear arms for hunting, or sport, or protection, or collection.”

In a briefing to the press the President laid out his new executive actions to reduce gun violence.  The President and Vice President both spoke about the need to stop the senseless violence and tragedies that are happening more and more.

President Obama stated: “I’m going to do my part.  As soon as I’m finished speaking here, I will sit at that desk and I will sign a directive giving law enforcement, schools, mental health professionals and the public health community some of the tools they need to help reduce gun violence.”

Some of the items include a universal background check on all weapons sales. A ban on all military style assault weapons with a 10 round magazine limit.  President Obama is also pushing funding out to schools to hire additional resource officers, increasing funding to police departments, and better mental health programs. Read all the proposals.

President Obama stated, “We will make it easier to keep guns out of the hands of criminals by strengthening the background check system.  We will help schools hire more resource officers if they want them and develop emergency preparedness plans.  We will make sure mental health professionals know their options for reporting threats of violence — even as we acknowledge that someone with a mental illness is far more likely to be a victim of violent crime than the perpetrator.”

This statement to the country won high praise from some of the more vocal organization against gun violence including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

“The Brady Campaign stands with the President and Vice President in supporting these comprehensive policy recommendations to address gun violence. The White House has shown tremendous leadership in convening stakeholders and engaging the country in a conversation that the Brady Campaign and so many Americans have been calling for in the wake of Aurora, Newtown, and the 32 gun murders that happen every day in our country …. We also re-affirm the Brady Campaign’s commitment to lead the way toward better public health and safety education programs regarding the almost 300 million guns already in the hands of mostly law-abiding citizens. I strongly believe that now it’s up to us to make real change happen.”

The President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, also commended the President on his actions today in a written statement.

“The tragic events of Newtown must serve as a clarion call for immediate action to keep our communities safe from gun violence and ensure schools are the safe sanctuaries our children need to learn and grow. We applaud President Obama and Vice President Biden for heeding this call for action with a series of common-sense, balanced proposals that will make our nation safer.”

My Congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter had this to say after hearing the Presidents plan.

“I agree with the President’s comprehensive approach to addressing gun violence,” said Congresswoman Shea-Porter.  “I will not and cannot forget the never-ending scenes of families and communities in shock and mourning, and I will not ignore the calls of our citizens to do something to help stop the violence.  I support responsible gun ownership because Americans have a right to hunt or defend themselves, and they also have a right to expect to be safe as they go about their daily lives.”

So as you can plainly see, nobody wants to take away your guns.  We all just want to see our work, our schools, our churches, and our cities be safer places.

CACR 26: Bill O’Brien’s Legislative Takeover of the NH Courts

  By Matt Murray | November 1, 2012 - 12:01 pm | ,
Comments

This November, voters will be asked to weigh in on two proposed NH Constitutional amendments.

CACR 13: no new tax on personal income shall be levied by the state of New Hampshire.
(See the NHLN write up on CACR 13)
&
CACR 26: the legislature and the chief justice of the supreme court shall have concurrent power to make rules governing the administration of all the courts of the state.

In this post I want to talk about CACR 26.

CACR 26 is a complete grab at power by the NH Legislature. The title of the amendment is very deceiving.  To truly understand what they are trying to do, you must look at the changes.

The legislature shall have a concurrent power to regulate the same matters by statute. In the event of a conflict between a statute and a court rule, the statute, if not otherwise contrary to this constitution, shall prevail over the rule.

This is another attempt by the NH Legislature to give themselves power over the courts. They are grasping at any way to have the authority to overrule the courts and ultimately overturn the Claremont Decision.

The Claremont Decision was the landmark case in which the NH Courts decided that the Legislature was not properly funding the schools and children the in town of Claremont were not getting the same education as other students due to a lack of funding.  Ever since this decision, some legislators have been working to overturn this decision and return that power to the Legislature. Education funding will again become a political football.

Even former Governor Steve Merrill said

“The court is not a state agency. It is a branch of government. By the language of the New Hampshire Constitution, the legislative branch is political, the judicial branch is not. We value an independent political branch, and we value an independent judicial branch. Everyone, nevertheless, should be concerned about a legislative takeover of the courts because political control of the judiciary is just not in the public interest.”

The Claremont Decision is not the only court decision that Speaker Bill O’Brien would overturn if he had the power.  The Fosters Daily Democrat reported that Speaker O’Brien is appealing the ruling on the new NH Voter ID law.  O’Brien has criticized the ruling, calling it “judicial activism of the worst sort.”

John T Broderick, former Chief Justice of the NH Supreme Court, understands what Speaker O’Brien is trying to do with CACR 26.

“This proposed amendment represents a step backward. The framers sought to protect the separation of governmental powers because they had lived under regimes that respected no dividing lines, when the Legislature could invade the province of the judiciary for purely partisan reasons or, perhaps, without any reason at all”

We need to ensure that this amendment does not pass or we could have Speaker O’Brien and his Tea Party extremists running two branches of the Government.

 

 

Special Edition: CACR 12 on education funding must be defeated.

  By The New Hampshire Labor News | February 24, 2012 - 4:27 pm | Uncategorized
Comments

I wanted to share with you all a very special and well run website called Defending New Hampshire Public Education.  It is dedicated to perserving our public schools.  Even though this blog is devoted to Labor and Unions, we share a lot of information about legislation.  Many of the followers of this blog are teachers (thanks AFT-NH and NEA-NH for all you do) I thought I would share this with all of you as well.

Below is the first of hopefully many posts from our friend Bill Duncan.  Even if you do not live in New Hampshire the DNHPE website has great links to other similar sites for your state.  Be sure to check them out as well.

Special Edition: CACR 12 on education funding must be defeated. 
by William Duncan

Everyone is tired of the education funding battle. That must be why the Governor has capitulated on CACR 12, an amendment that would take the courts out of education funding and essentially end state assistance to New Hampshire public schools.

We face critical questions at this juncture: Do we have common interests and priorities as a state? Is the the success of our children and future generations a critical priority that serves our common interests? Can our children succeed without a vibrant, reliably funded system of public education? How does a constitutional amendment affect our efforts to provide for the success of future generations?

Here’s what the amendment passed by the Senate says:
In fulfillment of the provisions with respect to education set forth in Part II, Article 83, the legislature shall have full power and authority and theresponsibility to define reasonable standards for elementary and secondary public education, to establish reasonable standards of accountability, and to mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity. Further, the legislature shall have full power and authority to determine the amount of, and the method of raising and distributing, state funding for public education. 

Yes, the word “responsible” is in the amendment, but so are the words “the legislature shall have full power and authority” (twice) and “reasonable standards” (twice). As a result, the amendment would leave the courts with no meaningful leverage over education funding in New Hampshire.

Senator D’Allessandro says, no, the court would not be taken out of it. The Senator Bradley almost comes clean. He says, “It does somewhat curtail the role of the courts…. If you use the word ‘reasonable,’ which we do in this amendment, that switches the burden of proof onto a plaintiff to prove the Legislature’s unreasonable.”

But here is the assessment of Andru Volinsky, who litigated the Claremont case:

CACR 12 is designed to remove the New Hampshire Supreme Court from playing any role in protecting the rights of children to an education that prepares them to effectively compete in the marketplace. The proposed Amendment accomplishes this by making clear that the Legislature has complete and unchecked power to define the standards for eduction and to determine how education will be funded. Although it assigns responsibility to the legislature for education, the unlimited discretion that is embodied in this Amendment is unlike any other constitutional responsibility in that the legislature’s conduct will be completely insulated from any form of accountability.

There is no area of state law from which we would want to exclude the courts, but certainly not education funding.

This amendment would leave decisions about what must be taught and whether and how much to fund public education in New Hampshire entirely to the whim of elected officials and the vagaries of election cycles. . K-12 public education must carefully and systematically prepare our children for life after high school. With no rule to guide funding levels or targeting and without oversight as to basic content, there would be no regularity to our system of public education. Families, employers and children will not be able to count on receiving strong instruction from year to year in core disciplines and school districts will not be able to rely on consistent funding from election to election. Each Legislature will express it’s attitude toward public education and appropriate according to ideology. The result will be seesaw state funding and, therefore, dramatic drops and rises in local property bills. Education funding will forever be a matter of divisive local and state-wide debate in New Hampshire. Rather than ending the “education debate,” CACR 12 will exacerbate it.

CACR 12 can be seen in the context of the rest of the anti-public education legislation in this Legislature. It’s been a full out assault. Until CACR 12 passed the Senate, the voucher proposal has been the center piece, . The sponsors are willing to make any compromise and start as small as necessary to get it passed. But once in place, it will grow relentlessly, sucking funding and able students out of our public schools. This current Legislature has reduced education funding in other ways as well. In a clear indication of what would happen if CACR 12 were to be adopted, the Legislature has already reduced adequacy by $200 million and the House would have done it again if they could. The push to opt out of No Child Left Behind isn’t over. That would cost $61 million. If HB 219 or one of the other bill that eviscerates DOE passed, that would be the next piece of the puzzle.

The debate will continue in the coming weeks, but the outlines were well laid out on Laura Knoy’s program, The Exchange, on NHPR last Friday. She hosted a discussion with Senator Kelly, Senator Bradley, Kevin Landrigan, Rep. Bettencourt and Rep. Hamm. Here is that broadcast and selected quotes.