CPD IN THE NEWS

Toys “R” Us shuttered its last stores at the end of June and its liquidation left more than 30,000 workers without expected severance payouts. That prompted months of lobbying by the employees, organized in part by advocacy groups linked to the Center for Popular Democracy. Those groups estimate that workers are owed $75 million in severance pay and they have pressed Toys “R” Us creditors Angelo Gordon and Solus Alternative Asset Management to contribute to the fund, but the hedge funds have so far declined.

Read the full article here.

FLINT, MI – A group of Flint residents who want to be heard in Washington, D.C., will leave Flint tonight.

Organizers want people who are impacted by the Flint water crisis to be able to tell their stories during the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing.

"We are going to DC so our voices aren't lost in the middle of political posturing," the message on the signup form says.

There will be a prayer vigil and news conference after the hearing where Flint residents will be able to tell their stories to the media, organizers said.

There will be trainers on the bus to help residents on how to share their story with the media.

The group will leave from the parking lot of the former Kmart at Miller Road and Ballenger Highway.

There is no cost to ride the bus, but travelers must provide for their own meals.

Signup for the bus is on a first-come, first-served basis. The bus leaves at 7 p.m. 

Online registration is available here and ends at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 2.

The trip is sponsored by the National Action Network, Flint Democracy Defense League, Michigan Faith in Action, AFSCME SEIU, Michigan Nurses Association, Progress Michigan, National People's Action Advancement Project, National People's Action, Center for Popular Democracy and Michigan United.

Another bus charted by the Michigan chapter of the National Action Network also will leave from the same location. 

Gov. Rick Snyder should have to testify before Congress, according to Michigan NAN President Rev. Charles Williams II. NAN also is calling for a $400 million appropriation from Congress to help fix Flint's toxic water. 

"We're hoping that Congress will pull Snyder and the emergency managers in to find out what they've done," Williams said. "They're trying to deflect the conversation. This was under (Snyder's) house. Under his administration. He needs to answer for this."

Williams said buses carrying 100 people each from Detroit, Cleveland and New York also will head to the hearing. 

"For a congressional committee meeting, people are invited to testify by the committee chairman," Snyder Spokesman Dave Murray said in an email to The Flint Journal. "Gov. Snyder has not been asked to testify. Keith Creagh, director of the Department of Environmental Quality, was invited and plans to speak before the committee this week, talking about challenges faced in Flint and what the department is doing moving forward to protect the health and safety of residents. That's our focus now."

Dominic Adams is a reporter for The Flint Journal. Contact him atdadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. 

Source

When I worked my way through college with a job at Chipotle, I often worked a so-called "clopen shift." I was closing the store I managed at 2 a.m. and returning to open the restaurant at 6 a.m. The work schedule didn't leave much time for sleep, let alone schoolwork. But with graduation around the corner, I figured that soon everything was going to change.

I would graduate, and I would get a job that would allow me to pay the bills, take care of my 8-year old daughter, and sleep at night.

But, since graduating this past spring, I have sent out 75 resumés but have only been invited for one interview. I’m looking for jobs that just aren’t there.

When the Federal Reserve gathers Thursday at their Federal Open Market Committee meeting to decide whether or not they will raise the interest rate, I hope they will keep me and others like me in mind.

Congress created the Federal Reserve with a two-pronged mission: to control inflation andto promote maximum employment. All the data shows that there is no risk of inflation – in fact, inflation is still running well-below the Fed’s own conservative target. But the Fed is still considering raising the interest rates, even though raising rates would do real harm to American workers who are still looking for jobs or working for low-wages, like me.

A higher interest rate means that fewer jobs will be created, and that the wages of workers at the bottom will remain too low to live on. That’s because when the Fed raises rates, they are deliberately trying to slow down the economy. They’re saying that there are too many jobs and wages are too high. They’re saying that the economy is exactly where it should be, that people like me are exactly where we should be.

It was not supposed to be this way – after all, I have a business management degree. If the Fed chooses to slow down the economy I may have to give up on getting a job I'm qualified for – the kind of job that I went to school for. I could find a job at McDonalds or Taco Bell, and go back to a work life that will leave me sleepless and struggling to support my daughter. That would be painful for me and my family and bad for the economy. I cannot imagine that this is what Fed officials are looking to do.

And yet, the Fed is considering a rate increase, even though working families – especially Black and Latino working families –are still struggling. Today, 19.5 percent of Black people are unemployed or underemployed, and 15.8 percent of Latinos are unemployed and underemployed. For Black high school graduates in the 17-20-year-old range who haven’t enrolled in college, the unemployment rate is over 50 percent.

If the Fed raises interest rates, we are ones who lose.

That the conservative powers in the Federal Reserve would even consider raising the interest rates shows us a lot about who they’re prioritizing in their decision. It shows us who the Fed is looking out for: the wealthy, Wall Street, and bankers. They are willing to sacrifice the livelihoods and aspirations of young people like me, whole communities of color, and low-income workers all purportedly to fight an inflation threat that doesn’t even exist.

The Fed’s decision on Thursday should be simple. One of the Fed’s mandates is to foster full employment, and wages still have not shown signs of significant growth since the financial crash. That’s a clear sign that America is far from full employment — and the Fed has not yet fulfilled its mandate.

Many in the Fed are claiming that our economy is in recovery, but for who? For Black and Latino Americans, the recovery hasn’t come yet. This week, we’ll see if the Fed is serious about promoting maximum employment for all Americans or just watching out for the few who are already doing well.

Source: CommonDreams

In the Senate, Kerri Evelyn Harris is challenging centrist Senator Tom Carper, one of the few Democrats in the Senate who supports Social Security cuts and who recently voted to roll back Dodd-Frank. According to my analysis of American National Election Studies 2016 survey data, 92 percent of Democratic primary voters support more, not less, government regulation of banks, and a mere 3 percent support cuts to Social Security. Given her decade as an organizer, most recently with the Center for Popular Democracy, Harris is approaching the race the way a community organizer would.

Read the full article here.