Campaign News

New York Daily News – Thursday, October 24, 2013 -

Just 41% of all construction workers in New York City identify themselves as Latino — but they account for 74% of the fatalities from accidents.

One worker was pouring concrete in a construction site on Brooklyn’s Brighton 5th St. when the building’s fourth floor collapsed, smashing down to the second floor and crushing him to death.

Another was removing pipe from a warehouse when it suddenly shifted, causing him to fatally fall 10 feet to the ground.

A third was up on a ladder installing safety gear for a construction site when he accidentally touched a live electrical wire and fell through the building’s ceiling. He dropped 92 feet to his death.

All of these incidents happened in New York City in 2011, and when inspectors looked into the deaths, they found multiple workplace violations and, on a form, checked the same box — identifying the workers as “Latino and/or immigrant.”

Latino and immigrant construction workers are dying on the job in New York City in disproportionate numbers, according to a new study set to be released Thursday.

A review of all of the fatal falls on the job investigated by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2003 to 2011 found that 74% of construction workers who died were either U.S. born Latinos or immigrants.

According to census figures, just 41% of all construction workers in New York City identify themselves as Latino.

“The data we have demonstrates that Latinos and immigrants are more likely to die in these types of accidents,” said Connie Razza from the Center for Popular Democracy, which compiled the report.

Safety violations are more common at job sites run by smaller, non-union contractors — which in turn are more likely to hire immigrant day laborers, the report’s researchers said, citing a New York State Trial Lawyers Association study.

“Contractors aren’t taking simple steps to protect their workers,” said Razza. “They are not providing the training and the safety equipment that are required by law.”

Immigrant workers — especially day laborers — may be reluctant to report safety hazards because they are afraid of being told to leave for the day or losing their job altogether, advocates say.

Razza’s group is fighting potential changes to New York state’s scaffold law, which holds owners and contractors who did not follow safety rules fully liable for workplace injuries and deaths. They say the law gives businesses a strong incentive to keep workplaces safe.

“We really see that law as a necessary stopgap for the workers who work at elevations,” she said.

But contractors who are seeking to modify the law — so that jurors can consider evidence from contractors when making monetary decisions instead of holding them strictly liable — say it goes too far and has caused their insurance costs to skyrocket.

State Assembly leaders have historically blocked proposed changes.

“All we’re looking for is the ability to have the same right as anybody else would in the American jurisprudence system,” said Louis J. Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association.

“Over the last 3 years, insurance costs for general liability on the private sector have increased over 300%.”

Source

02/08/2016

WASHINGTON — Today, the Center for Popular Democracy released a report, State Takeovers of Low-Performing Schools: A Record of Academic Failure, Financial Mismanagement, & Student Harm, showing that all statewide takeovers of low-performing schools have failed to achieve positive results and have instead resulted in harm to students and communities.

Kyle Serrette, the Director of Education Justice at Center for Popular Democracy, released the following statement:

“An education strategy that consistently has not been able to achieve its intended results doesn’t make sense.  The data is clear: state takeovers harm students, families, and communities.”

Despite the poor track record of statewide school takeovers, lawmakers in seven states -- Wisconsin, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Utah -- have introduced bills to expand the number of takeover districts in 2016, following 2015, when nine states introduced legislation to create statewide takeover districts: Arkansas, Georgia, Nevada, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.

In 2003, Louisiana established the “Recovery School District,” the first statewide district of this kind. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the state rapidly expanded its takeover district. Tennessee followed suit, creating its “Achievement School District” in 2010 and expanding it in 2012. Finally, Michigan established its “Education Achievement Authority” in 2013, explicitly modeling it on the Louisiana precedent.

Louisiana Recovery School District: In 2014, there were 136 charter schools operating in Louisiana, attended by over 65,000 students. Of those schools, which accounted for 21,000 students, 41 percent, received a letter grade of D, F, or T (Transitional School), with a School Performance Score (SPS) below 69.1. Only 9 percent of Louisiana’s charter schools, enrolling just 8,700 students, received the letter grade A.

Tennessee Achievement School District: Only six out of the 17 takeover schools had moved out of the bottom performance decile by the end of the 2013-2014 school year. 2015 was the first year that statewide test scores in the takeover schools had improved after two years of either zero gains or actual decline. Reading scores in takeover schools have been consistently lower than pre-takeover levels all three years of the ASD, down over four percentage points in 2015.

Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority: The chancellor of Michigan’s EAA, Veronica Conforme, recently admitted that, “three years into this [the EAA], achievement hasn't improved.” In fact, it has actually set students back rather than delivering positive educational outcomes. Between 2012 and 2013, 36 percent of students in EAA schools saw declines in their performance on Michigan’s MEAP mathematics tests, and another 43 percent saw no improvement. Over the same time period, 36 percent of EAA students also saw declines in MEAP reading performance, with another 26 percent showing no improvement. Even worse, nearly half (46 percent) of students who had previously been proficient in the MEAP mathematics exam saw significant declines in their performance. Among these previously proficient students in the EAA, 82 percent of previously proficient students saw declines in their math test performance and 11 percent saw no change.

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www.populardemocracy.org

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 Contact:

Asya Pikovsky, apikovsky@populardemocracy.org, 207-522-2442

Anita Jain, ajain@populardemocracy.org, 347-636-9761

The Wall Street Journal - August 22, 2014, by Pedro Nicolaci Da Costa - A group of activists has descended on the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo.,  to tell central bank officials that any move to raise interest rates soon could wreak havoc on the lives of Americans still struggling with a weak economic recovery.

U.S. unemployment has fallen fairly rapidly in recent months, to 6.2% in July, down from its post-recession peak of 10%. However, the activists said those numbers mask much deeper troubles in the country’s poorer neighborhoods. The unemployment rate for African-Americans, for instance, was 11.1% in July.

Reggie Rounds, 57 years old, came to the conference from Ferguson, Mo., the site of recent violent protests following the killing of an unarmed teenager by a police officer. During a brief conversation here with Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, Mr. Rounds, who is unemployed and says he hasn’t had regular work for years, urged the central bank to keep poor Americans on their minds as they make policy decisions.

“I deal with people who have educated themselves. These people, sir, are inundated with student loans. They’re making just not livable wages or not wages at all,” Mr. Rounds told Mr. Fischer. “We’re desperately needing a stimulant into this economy, and job creation, to get us going.”

Mr. Fischer responded: “That’s what the Fed has been trying to do and will continue to try to do.”

The Fed has kept interest rates near zero since December 2008 and bought more than $3 trillion in government and mortgage bonds to keep long-term rates low, spur investment and boost hiring.

However, recent improvements in the job market and a pickup in inflation have revived debate about when the central bank should begin lifting interest rates from rock-bottom lows. In her speech here Friday, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said if the labor market keeps improving faster than the Fed forecasts the central bank could raise rates sooner than expected. Many investors anticipate the first move in the summer of next year, a perception some top Fed officials have encouraged.

Representatives of the Center for Popular Democracy, a left-leaning national nonprofit organization, said they organized the activists’ trip to Jackson Hole. The participants argued that near-term rate increases could have a deep negative impact on the most vulnerable sectors of the population.

Reuben Eckels, 51, a reverend from Wichita, Kan., said he had come to the conference to tell policy makers “how raising interest rates would affect the community in which I serve.” He and other activists played down the notion of a “skills gap” where workers might not have the qualifications for the jobs available.

“We have young people who are college students in our church who have a 4.0 [grade average], Dean’s list, they can’t find jobs,” he said. “So this is not about just raising the rates so we can offset an imbalance for those elderly who are trying to save their portfolio. This is about people on the street, everyday people … who are just trying to live a good quality of life.”

Shemethia Butler, 34, is one such individual. Hailing from Washington, D.C. the mother of two says she is dealing with extreme stress because the wages she earns at McDonald’s aren’t enough to cover her rent, much less basic expenses like food, electricity and transportation.

“I have no vehicle. My housing situation is stressful. I’m about to lose my apartment. I’m struggling really hard,” she said. “Things may be fine on Wall Street, but they’re not fine on my street.”

Source

Housing advocates have attracted a prominent ally in their push to change the federal government’s policy of selling distressed mortgages at a discount to private equity firms and hedge funds.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, will join other lawmakers, advocates and community activists on Wednesday in a Washington rally to oppose the loan sale program.

The senator is expected to call on the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the federal overseer of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to make it easier for nonprofit organizations to bid for the bundles of distressed mortgages put up for auction, people briefed on the matter said.

The sale of distressed mortgages by HUD and the government-sponsored mortgage finance firms is drawing growing criticism from housing advocates and lawyers in recent months. The critics are concerned that the private buyers of distressed mortgages are moving to quickly to put borrowers into foreclosure as opposed to modifying the loans as housing officials had hoped.

The investors are buying loans often at a 30 percent discount.

One of the biggest buyers of distressed mortgages is Lone Star Funds, a $60 billion private equity firm based in Dallas. The firm, which is also buying soured mortgages directly from banks, has raised billions of dollars from investors, including public pensions to invest in distressed home loans.

The private equity firm’s practices in dealing with delinquent borrowers was the subject of a front-page article in The New York Times this week.

The housing advocates said that, in addition to noon rally with elected officials, they intended to protest outside of Lone Star’s offices in Washington.

Source: New York Times