The National
Jobs for All Coalition is dedicated to the propositions that
meaningful employment is a precondition for a fulfilling life
and that every person capable of working should have the right
to a job.
The Coalition
not only fights to make these propositions facts of life, but
it publishes invaluable research by noted scholars to support
them. It regularly produces short, readable articles and pamphlets
on such subjects as the phony Social Security crisis, the moderate
costs of a full-employment program, the importance of labor
unions, and the undercounting of the unemployed. These publications
are invaluable tools for those of us engaged in popular and
labor education as well as for those teaching in traditional
high school and college classrooms. I urge everyone to support
and join the Coalition.
Michael
Yates, author of Why Unions Matter and Longer Hours,
Fewer Jobs (both Monthly Review Press), labor educator
and professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh at
Johnstown.
What
is the Coalition?
The National Jobs
for All Coalition is committed to building a new movement for
full employment at livable wages. This goal unites a diverse group
of otherwise divided, single-issue constituencies. The Coalition
includes individuals and organizations with a wide range of interests--workers',
women's, children's and seniors' rights, civil rights, and economic
justice. Others work on health care, the environment, economic
conversion, are academics, social workers and lawyers, artists
or simply concerned individuals. The goals of all of us would
be easier to reach if there were jobs for all at decent wages.
The Coalition is committed
to a sustainable peacetime economy and to a democratic workplace
that is supportive of families and communities. We believe in
equality for groups traditionally disadvantaged in the workplace:
women, minorities, youth, the elderly, the disabled, immigrants,
and gay men and women. Coalition policies would also enhance the
economic security of a middle class suffering from downsizing
and work stress.
Coalition members
believe in the dignity of work and in a nation where everyone
who wants to work can find a decent-paying job. Although
the need for certain government benefits will be reduced when
we get jobs for all, some public income support will still be
needed. Full employment would be real welfare reform. In the meantime,
we must strengthen our safety net.
Why We Need Jobs
for All at Decent Wages
Even when the official
unemployment rate is considered low, millions of people are unemployed,
working part time for lack of full time jobs, too discouraged
to look for work, or earning poverty wages. Others can find only
temporary jobs or must hold several jobs and work long hours to
make ends meet. More and more workers have no health benefits.
Downsizing continues to destroy economic security for many
workers. Profits are up, but real wages are lower than they were
twenty-five years ago. Many inner cities are urban wastelands
with few jobs, and welfare "reform" is adding job seekers but
not jobs. Little will be done unless people demand jobs
for all at decent wages. Joining the Coalition is a way to do
just that.
The Coalition's
Program
Our environmentally
sound program requires fiscal and monetary policies directed toward
the creation of sufficient jobs, both public and private, paying
decent wages. We need policies that inhibit inflation without
curbing job growth, and many other measures. These include increased
public investment, affordable child care, paid parental leave,
and other family-friendly policies. The list also includes reduced
work time, protection of workers' and union rights, living wages,
adequate income support, anti-discrimination policies, rebuilding
our cities, sound government finance, lifelong learning, military
conversion, fair trade, and working towards a global New Deal.
Our Vision of a Just Economy:
• Economic security
• A democratic workplace
• Rising living standards
• Adequate income support
• Family-friendly policies
• Equal opportunity
• Shared prosperity
• A healthy environment
• Safe and vibrant cities
• Sustainable development
• More leisure time
• A peaceful world
The Coalition
provides:
Uncommon Sense,
a series of briefings on declining wages, unemployment,
public job creation and related topics such as the deficit, the
environment and jobs, and family policy.
Good Jobs for All
Newsletter with the latest national and international job-related
news and grassroots activities.
goodjobs email list--occasional messages and information on employment,
wages, inequality and other issues related to jobs for all at
decent pay.
Speakers for local,
national, and professional groups, as well as for radio and TV
Dissemination of information
to organizations, media, and policy makers
A forum for discussion
of employment and related issues
Assistance in setting
up local groups.
Jobs For All:
A Plan for the Revitalization of America, the Coalition's
comprehensive program for full employment
Occasional and position
papers.
Our history
The National Jobs for All Coalition was founded in June 1994
at a National Leadership Consultation for Full Employment that
brought together representatives from over 70 regional and national
organizations. The convening group, New Initiatives for Full Employment
(NIFE), consisted of an ethnically and racially diverse group
of social activists and academics who had worked together since
1986 to develop a feasible plan for full employment, suited to
the economic realities of the late twentieth century and to the
new millennium that was then around the corner. The Coalition's
plan takes into account the increasing globalization of trade
and financial markets, a post-industrial economy in which service
employment predominates, and a workforce comprised not only of
all male job seekers but of all such women as well. New Initiatives
for Full Employment began meeting in New York City in 1986 and
established a Seminar for Full Employment as part of the Columbia
University Seminars Program that enabled it to confer with scholars
doing cutting-edge work on problems of employment and related
issues in the U. S. as well as other countries. As a result of
the Seminar, several conferences featuring leading economic thinkers,
and our own deliberations, we developed the plan that was set
forth in Jobs for All: A Plan for the Revitalization of America,
a short book with which we launched the National Jobs for All
Coalition. The organizing consultation was hosted by the Center
for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, City University of
New York. |
