Immigration Advocates Concerned Whether President Obama's Plans Will Help Families
New York Daily News - November 15, 2014, by Celeste Katz - Local advocacy groups — eager for details on President Obama’s plan to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation — are concerned...
New York Daily News - November 15, 2014, by Celeste Katz - Local advocacy groups — eager for details on President Obama’s plan to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation — are concerned many families may still be vulnerable.
At issue is the possibility Obama may limit work permits for parents of children who are in the U.S. legally to those who have been in the country 10 years.
“It’s very important that the President acts to include that segment of folks that have been here more than five years but less than 10 years,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
Some advocates were careful to be gentle in their criticisms.
Lucia Gomez of La Fuente said, “The general consensus is everyone is extremely excited,” but added her members hope Obama goes “full force” with protections.
“We hope the Obama administration announces policies that will keep families together and allow for as many people as possible to live with dignity,” said Ana Maria Archila of the Center for Popular Democracy.
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Sexual Assault Survivors Personally Confront Senator Jeff Flake, Who Said He'll Vote Yes for Kavanuagh
Sexual Assault Survivors Personally Confront Senator Jeff Flake, Who Said He'll Vote Yes for Kavanuagh
Sexual assault survivors personally confronted Senator Jeff Flake after he said he'd vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this morning. Flake, who is a republican from Arizona and...
Sexual assault survivors personally confronted Senator Jeff Flake after he said he'd vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this morning. Flake, who is a republican from Arizona and considered a key swing vote, made his announcement less than 24 hours after both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh testified on her allegations that the Supreme Court nominee sexually assaulted her in high school.
Read the full article and watch the video here.
Already Low Wages Fell Further in February
03.04.2016
Derek Laney, Co-Director of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, released the following statement on behalf of the Fed Up coalition:
...03.04.2016
Derek Laney, Co-Director of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, released the following statement on behalf of the Fed Up coalition:
“Although the US economy added jobs last month, economic activity slowed in cities like my hometown of St. Louis. Too many workers here and elsewhere are still waiting to benefit from a sluggish economic recovery.
In December, the Fed ignored the voices of our coalition and the advice of many economists by voting to slow down the economy. We are seeing the consequences. Today’s jobs report showed that wages, which were already too low, fell further last month.
Low- and middle-income families, particularly in Black and Latino communities, know that our economy is still far too weak. There aren’t enough good jobs to go around, and millions of people are still struggling to get the hours and wages that they need. The Fed needs to pay attention to the data and pay attention to the voices of the American public. It must do all it can to let our wages grow."
www.whatrecovery.com
### Fed Up is a coalition of community organizations and labor unions across the country, campaigning for the Federal Reserve to adopt pro-worker policies for the rest of us. The Fed can keep interest rates low, give the economy a fair chance to recover, and prioritize full employment and rising wages.
The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda.
Media Contacts:
Anita Jain, ajain@populardemocracy.org, 347-636-9761
Sofie Tholl, stholl@populardemocracy.org, 646-509-5558
Fed, Rates and Sun
New York Times - August 22, 2014, by Victoria Shannon - Sun and a little fun mixed with speeches are the hallmarks of the annual retreat of ...
New York Times - August 22, 2014, by Victoria Shannon - Sun and a little fun mixed with speeches are the hallmarks of the annual retreat of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
But today was the first time participants could remember demonstrators showing up.
Protesters with green T-shirts reading “What Recovery?” were organized by the Center for Popular Democracy, a nonprofit group, to greet the bankers at their resort hotel.
“The demonstrators want to remind Fed officials, who tend to deal in abstractions, that real people are affected by their decisions,” says our Fed correspondent, Binyamin Appelbaum.
“Their presence has been mentioned repeatedly by Fed officials and speakers, suggesting that it has made an impression.”
Notably, the Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, stopped by to express sympathy. In a speech today, she said the central bank needed more evidence of growing employment before deciding when to raise interest rates.
“Historically, particularly during the 1980s, the Fed faced a lot of public pressure as it raised interest rates,” Mr. Appelbaum says, “so this may be the first sign of things to come.”
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S&P 500, Nasdaq end at records after Fed speech
S&P 500, Nasdaq end at records after Fed speech
Several protesters from the progressive group Fed Up stood outside the conference room where Powell delivered the speech.
...
Several protesters from the progressive group Fed Up stood outside the conference room where Powell delivered the speech.
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Lawmakers' Vision for the Fed: More Diversity, More Congressional Sway
Lawmakers' Vision for the Fed: More Diversity, More Congressional Sway
Democrat and Republican lawmakers on Wednesday took issue with the current structure of regional Federal Reserve Bank boards, though they couldn't agree on how to reform the quazi-private-public...
Democrat and Republican lawmakers on Wednesday took issue with the current structure of regional Federal Reserve Bank boards, though they couldn't agree on how to reform the quazi-private-public firms.
The twelve regional Fed banks have come under increased scrutiny in recent months after Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton issued a statement in May saying she supports removing bankers from regional Fed boards and increasing director diversity. Her comments heightened the public profile of an issue that otherwise hasn't received much focus.
A key point of debate was concerns by consumer groups that having bankers on regional Fed boards creates a conflict of interest since reserve bank staff supervise big and small commercial banks in their districts. This contrasts to the central bank in Washington, which is a government agency with governors that are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
For example, among the nine directors who serve on the New York Fed board are Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO James Gorman and two community bank chief executives.
House Republicans indicated during a subcommittee hearing of the House Financial Services Committee that they weren't overly concerned by bank CEOs serving on such quasi-private boards while Democrats questioned the diversity of the panels.
"I don't object to bankers being on the boards," Gwen Moore, D-Wisc., told reporters after the hearing. "I'm concerned about the voice of other directors who are there and their efficacy to participate fully and about mobilizing and empowering them once they are there."
Moore, the top Democrat on the Monetary Policy and Trade subcommittee, said she the boards need more diversity, noting that none of them have hired a Latino or African American as president of the regional Fed banks where they serve.
Meanwhile, demonstrators from a consortium of consumer groups calling itself "Fed Up" attended the hearing, dressed in green shirts with slogans such as "16 of 17 Fed leaders are white."
The group also took issue with bankers on the regional Fed boards and, in their view, a lack of board diversity.
"When these voices are excluded from the conversation, then our interests are excluded," Ruben Lucio, a representative from the Center for Popular Democracy and a member of Fed Up, told reporters outside of the hearing.
According to current rules, regional boards have nine directors divided into three classes. Three banking directors are elected by member banks, another three are designated by the same banks to represent the public and interests of commerce, industry, labor and consumers, and the final class is appointed by Fed governors to represent the public.
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said he wanted to delve more deeply into bank executives serving on the boards but noted that the Kansas City Fed, which covers the district he represents, appears to be quite diverse based on a variety of metrics.
It "has a diverse board ethnically, gender wise, labor wise, regional within the Fed and that was the template I'm using," Perlmutter said.
Two regional Fed presidents, meanwhile, pushed back against concerns about conflicts of interest during their testimony.
Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker noted that strict rules govern their conduct. "They simply have no avenue through which they can influence supervisory matters," Lacker said.
And Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pointed out that bankers who serve on reserve bank boards are prohibited from participating in the selection of bank presidents.
Republicans, meanwhile, focused much of their attention on whether too much influence over monetary policy is wielded by the East Coast, particularly the New York Fed.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., and chairman of the monetary policy subcommittee, argued that lawmakers should back legislation he sponsored, the Federal Oversight Reform and Modernization Act, or FORM, which includes a provision that would reduce the influence of the New York bank.
The Federal Open Market Committee, the branch of the central bank that determines monetary policy, has 12 voting members made up of seven members of the Fed board of governors and five of the regional Fed banks.
The president of the New York Fed, which supervises Wall Street firms from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C) , is a permanent voting member but the other regional bank presidents serve rotating one-year terms. Huizenga's legislation would put the New York Fed president into the voting rotation along with all the other regional bank chiefs.
"For crying out loud, the San Francisco bank has a tremendously important area," Huizenga told reporters after the hearing. "Silicon Valley, that stretches from LA to Seattle, has tremendously valuable input and to have them only be a voting member every two or three years doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, said she was concerned that the Western states weren't well represented by the regional Fed bank structure.
"You have members on both sides of the aisle expressing concerns and I would like to know what might be done to rebalance the Fed to ensure that all Americans are represented in monetary policy decisions," she said.
Don Lamson, of counsel at Squire Patton Boggs in Washington and a former regulator at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, suggested that if the goal is to create greater accountability to Congress, legislators should require the Fed regional bank system to be funded through congressional appropriations instead of the self-funding that exists now.
With that structure, legislators could remove the regional Fed boards, transforming the quazi-private-public entities into government agencies.
An appropriations process, however, would destroy the independence of the Fed, which is vital to setting interest rates and supervising banks appropriately, Moore argued.
Expanding legislative influence would also open Federal Reserve funding to unrelated policy measures that might be attached in an attempt to get them passed. "Come meet with me I'm the chairman of the Fed's appropriations committee," Moore said facetiously.
By Ronald Orol
Source
Report: Starbucks Scheduling Problems Remain Despite 2014 Pledge
Starbucks officials asked store managers to "go the extra mile" to improve employee scheduling in...
Starbucks officials asked store managers to "go the extra mile" to improve employee scheduling in the aftermath of a scathing report issued by an advocacy group this week.
The nonprofit Center for Popular Democracy alleged that the company largely failed to deliver on its promises to alter scheduling practices in 2014.
More than a year ago, a New York Times report chronicled the havoc wreaked on Starbucks' baristas by its sophisticated scheduling technology.
In response, the coffeehouse giant vowed to establish more consistent hours, provide more notice regarding schedules and prevent workers who close stores from having to reopen again just hours later.
According to the CPD report, however, nearly half of 200 employees surveyed reported receiving schedules with one week or less of notice.
Employees also said that although schedules generally followed the previous week's pattern, dramatic fluctuations could happen in any week.
One in four respondents, meanwhile, said that either they or their coworkers still were scheduled to "clopen" stores.
"Many Starbucks scheduling policies fail to reflect the company’s human-focused values, while other policies designed to promote sustainable schedules have been implemented inconsistently," the group wrote in the report.
Company spokeswoman Jamie Riley told the Times this week that the CPD report "doesn’t align with what we’re seeing," but that the company is "the first to admit we have work to do."
Meanwhile, Cliff Burrows, Starbucks’ U.S. chief, responded with a memo to store managers calling for a "consistent schedule — free of back-to-back close and open shifts that are less than 8 hours apart — that is posted 2 weeks in advance."
Source: Manufacturing.net
On Day of Council Hearings, Congress Members Endorse "Municipal ID" Program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 30, 2014
Contact: TJ Helmstetter,...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2014 Contact: TJ Helmstetter, Center for Popular Democracy (973) 464-9224; tjhelm@populardemocracy.org
Daniel Coates, Make the Road New York(347) 489-7085; daniel.coates@maketheroadny.org
On Day of Council Hearings, Congress Members Endorse "Municipal ID" Program Crowley, Meng, Nadler, Velazquez: Municipal IDs Will Benefit ALL New Yorkers & Provide Critical Services(NEW YORK) Earlier this year, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced plans to make city-issued identification cards available for all New Yorkers, which would particularly help residents who otherwise have limited access to identification documents, including immigrants and homeless New Yorkers. Similar municipal ID programs are in place in ten cities nationwide, as noted in the Center for Popular Democracy's report, "Who We Are: Municipal ID Cards as a Local Strategy to Promote Belonging and Shared Community Identity." Today, U.S. Representatives Joe Crowley, Grace Meng, Jerry Nadler, and Nydia Velazquez have each signaled their support for the proposal. Also today, the City Council held its first hearings on the bill introduced earlier this month. Advocates attended the hearing in support of the measure, which will improve interactions between residents and law enforcement, make cardholders less vulnerable to crime, and improve quality of life for the most vulnerable New Yorkers. QUOTES FROM MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: “Our city must be accessible to all New Yorkers, not just some. Creating a municipal ID card is a commonsense measure that will lift countless New Yorkers out of the shadows and ensure the integration of our most vulnerable communities. I commend Council Members Dromm and Menchaca for ushering along this very important effort and I look forward to New York City proving that we are at our best when everyone can participate.” “I applaud Mayor de Blasio and members of the City Council for proposing a plan to create municipal ID cards, and I urge that this critical initiative be enacted into law. Having an official form of identification is essential in today’s society. It is a must for so many things from opening a bank account to entering public buildings. It’s also critical for accessing important services and vital resources. Municipal IDs would go a long way towards improving the lives of thousands of New Yorkers, especially the most vulnerable in our city, and it would allow many to come out of the shadows. I am proud to support New York’s efforts to create municipal ID cards, and I look forward to the plan soon becoming a reality here in our great city.” "For thousands of people in New York City, the lack of meaningful, official identification is an unnecessary and damaging barrier. All New Yorkers should have access to an ID that they can use confidently with municipal authorities, private buildings, schools and other entities with which they interact on a daily basis. A Municipal ID would be a critical step in ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to be an integrated and participating member of our city. I am glad to see that Mayor de Blasio and the New York City Council are leading the way to make this idea a reality." "In New York, our diversity is our strength and this initiative would help a broader set of people engage with our city. I applaud the City Council and Mayor for moving forward to create a Municipal ID program, which will help some of our newest residents feel truly at home in joining our communities."
"Fed Up" to Bankers in Jackson Hole: Help Working People
"Fed Up" to Bankers in Jackson Hole: Help Working People
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – The nation's most powerful bankers are descending on Jackson Hole this week for the Federal Reserve's annual economic symposium, and they'll be met by a coalition of labor and...
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – The nation's most powerful bankers are descending on Jackson Hole this week for the Federal Reserve's annual economic symposium, and they'll be met by a coalition of labor and policy groups who want a say in how the economy is mapped out.
Shawn Sebastian, co-director of the Fed Up Campaign, says the biggest decision facing the Trump administration is who to pick for Fed chair.
Read the full article here.
Activists: Fed Has Power to Spur Recovery in Poor Communities
The Charlotte Post - March 6, 2015, by Herbert White - America’s economy may be in recovery, but Simone McCray can’t see it.
McCray works at a Charlotte warehouse where she earns $8.10 an...
The Charlotte Post - March 6, 2015, by Herbert White - America’s economy may be in recovery, but Simone McCray can’t see it.
McCray works at a Charlotte warehouse where she earns $8.10 an hour and lives with family to stretch her budget. A 2010 UNC Charlotte graduate with a degree in psychology, she has yet to land a job in that field.
“You don’t think you’re going to make $8.10 when you go to college,” she said. “That is not what they tell you.”More Americans are working than before the Great Recession of 2008, but African Americans are lagging. Figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor Friday showed the national unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent in February, an improvement over the previous month.“With another strong employment report, we have now seen 12 straight months of private-sector job gains above 200,000 -- the first time that has happened since 1977,” said Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. “Moreover, 2014 was the best year for job growth since the late 1990s and 2015 has continued at this pace. But additional steps are needed to continue strengthening wages for the middle class.”But for African Americans, the jobless rate is double that of whites and the wage gap between the ethnic groups is getting wider.The Federal Reserve, which sets national policy on interest rates, is debating whether to boost the rate as a hedge against inflation. Progressive activists, however, are pushing the Fed to hold the line, arguing low rates will spur a jobs rebound, especially for low-income Americans.“Don’t put any brakes on the economic recovery,” said Pat McCoy, director of Action NC, which held a press conference Thursday to press the Fed. “Not only has it not yet been a full recovery, but in community of color, particularly in the African American community, unemployment rates, underemployment rates remain extremely high.”A study authored by the Center For Popular Democracy found that women and people of color are more likely to struggle to find work that pays a living wage. African Americans are especially hard hit with unemployment rates double the nation as a whole and plummeting wages.“Creating a strong American economy must include prioritizing a genuine recovery for the African American community,” the report summarizes.McCray wants to get in on the recovery. Saddled with debt from student loans, she’s looking for work that will allow her to meet financial obligations. Until then, she’s struggling to make ends meet.“My student loans are going to start going back into repayment and you have to have a way to repay them,” she said. “With jobs that are just above minimum wage, it’s kind of hard to stay afloat and pay your student loans, so you have to stay with family longer and not be out on your own and be independent sooner.”The Fed can help, activists insist, by resisting calls to raise interest rates. Corporate America and conservatives are pushing for an increase to prevent inflation, which is the simultaneous increase in consumer prices and devaluation of currency.“We need to continue to stimulate the economy through low-interest rates in order to serve these communities that need recovery,” McCoy said.As the Fed wrestle with the pros and cons of raising rates, Americans struggling to find work with a living wage are yet to be part of the nation’s limited recovery. Without a robust economic program, millions will be left out.“Only by pursuing genuine full employment will the Fed ensure that the recovery reaches Main Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard – and communities of working people throughout the country,” the CPD report’s authors wrote. “As the Fed makes crucial monetary policy decisions in the months and years to come, it must ensure that all communities can share in the prosperity of a functional economy.”
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