The changes to the Board’s procedures contained in this Notice of Proposed Rule Making will make a modest but not insignificant contribution to addressing current barriers to the American right of collective bargaining. The proposal contains significant changes in two areas. First, it updates the board’s requirement for employers to make available a list of all workers eligible to vote in a union election. Second, it eliminates unnecessary delays in the holding of NLRB supervised union elections.
The American Dream is about working hard in return for decent wages, economic stability, and being able to provide a better life for your kids. But the kinds of jobs that can provide a solid middle-class life in return for hard work are in short supply in Texas. Unemployment is still high, earnings have been stagnant for a decade, and many workers lack health insurance and retirement savings to protect them financially during a serious illness or when they can no longer work.
A mandatory government-issued photo identification requirement would clearly substantially burden the voting rights of the young, the elderly, renters, non-drivers, racial minorities, and the poor. It would also be used as a tool by groups hoping to intimidate voters away from the polls due to uncertainty about having the proper documentation.
Pennsylvania's middle class is in jeopardy. Once the home of a thriving manufacturing sector, robust union participation, and an example of smart policy choices and a stable middle class, the state has been caught in a downward spiral that mirrors unfortunate national trends. And though Pennsylvania has weathered it better than most, the Great Recession has intensified this spiral in the Keystone State as well.
Now is the time for citizens, workers, employers, and policymakers to come together once again to rebuild pathways to the middle class, create good jobs with fair pay and decent benefits, and ensure that prosperity is broadly shared for the next generation.
Dear Attorney General Holder,
We are concerned about the restrictive voter identification legislation pending or already signed into law in a number of states.
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Washington's strong and vibrant middle class didn't just happen. It was built brick by brick in the decades after World War II-by the hard work of our parents and grandparents and the strength in numbers that came from the unions that represented them. Unions made sure that as our nation's wealth and productivity grew, so too did the income and benefits of the people who worked hard to create that wealth. For decades, our nation's prosperity was widely shared-wages increased and more employers provided their workers with health insurance, pensions, and paid time off.
The fear of poverty and outliving one's resources is an increasingly common experience among today's senior citizens. For millions of American seniors this fear is justified. In only four years, the number of seniors at risk of outliving their resources increased by nearly 2 million households. Using the Senior Financial Stability Index, economic insecurity among senior households increased by one-third, rising from 27 percent to 36 percent from 2004 to 2008. This steady and dramatic increase occurred even before the full force of the Great Recession hit.
Research
Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University
A preliminary analysis of the United States Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) biennial report to Congress on the NVRA shows the dramatic impact that stepped-up oversight and enforcement of voter registration mandates at state agencies can have in reversing the long decline in registration among low-income and working class Americans. Individual states clearly show the impact of enforcement activity although the data in the recent EAC Report also show that many states continue to ignore their responsibilities.
TOP FACTS:
Demos is a national, non-partisan research and advocacy organization headquartered in New York City. Our Democracy Program works with policy makers, advocates and scholars around the nation to strengthen democracy by reducing barriers to voter participation and encouraging civic engagement. We appreciate this opportunity to testify on SB 641, the Same Day Registration (SDR)[i] legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Calderon.
Today's young adults are coming of age in a tough economy, on the heels of 30 years of declining economic opportunity and security for all but the most affluent and most highly educated. These changes are quite evident in Michigan, where the once-mighty manufacturing sector that provided better-than-average jobs in the 1960s and 1970s has eroded, hitting young adults particularly hard.
This report reveals the extent of credit information “mission creep,” examines troubling shortcomings in the for-profit credit reporting industry, and recommends common sense steps to reform the credit reporting system.
On the manner in which incarcerated populations are counted for purposes of redistricting. This issue has become increasingly important to the fairness of redistricting around the country.
For far too long, brokers have been selling their older clients complex investments known as structured products. These products are so risky, and so costly in fees, that some of them are almost sure money losers. They entered retirement portfolios like Trojan horses, and then destroyed people’s life savings. Yet the financial meltdown of 2008 has not chastened Wall Street. Brokers and banks continue to sell these high-risk investments to people who can’t afford major losses.
How Maine can use deposits of state tax revenue to tilt the economic playing field back toward Main Street businesses, our community banks, and long-term job growth.
A Hawaii Partnership Bank will generate new revenue for Hawaii, save local governments money, and make us less dependent on big offshore banks that are dramatically reshaping life for families and businesses in Hawaii.