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Letter to Labor Union Representatives for March for Jobs

Partial List of Conveners

Rev. Thomas Smith, Pastor, Monumental Baptist Church, Pittsburgh; Pres., Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)

Bill Robinson, Allegheny County Commissioner, Pittsburgh

Rev. Graylan Hagler, Pres., Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice of the United Church of Christ

Donna DeWitt, Pres.,
South Carolina AFL-CIO Council


Abayomi Azikiwe,
Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Detroit


Rob Robinson,
Picture The Homeless, New York


Katie Robbins,
Ass. Nat’l Coord. Healthcare-NOW!


Frantz Mendes, Pres. USW
Lo. 8751, School Bus Drivers, Boston


Cheri Honkala, Nat'l Organizer,
Poor People's Economic
Human Rights Campaign


Rev. Bruce Wright,
Refuge Ministries


Charles Barron,
New York City Council Member


Brenda Walker, Operation POWER

Chris Silvera, Sec-Treas., Teamsters Local 808, NYC

Clarence Thomas,
ILWU Local 10, San Francisco


Brenda Stokely, NYC Katrina &
Rita Hurricane Survivors Network


Rev. Lucius Walker,
Pastors For Peace


Cynthia McKinney, DIGNITY

Fr. Luis Barrios,
Human Rights Activist


Saladin Muhammed
,
Black Workers For Justice


Ramsey Clark,
Former U.S. Attorney General


Bishop Felipe Teixeira

Cindy Sheehan,
Anti-war & Human Rights activist


Darren Graves, Humanities Comm. Chair, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen*

Lawrence Hamm, Chairperson, People's Organization For Progress

Dave Welsh, Delegate,
San Francisco Labor Council


Barbara Vedder,
County Board Supervisor, Dane, Madison, Wisconsin


Bill Reuther, Trustee, Ohio Valley Trades & Labor Assembly,* Wheeling, WV

BREAKING NEWS: The (USW) United Steel Workers union and (U.E.) United Electrical Workers have endorsed and will be mobilizing for the March for Jobs on Sept 20th.

Dear Union Friends,

We urge you to join a broad cross section of community, labor, religious and progressive activists in Pittsburgh for a National March for Jobs to help revive Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of a movement for full employment.

The March will assemble after church services at 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20, in front of
the Monumental Baptist Church, Soho and Wylie Streets, in the historic Hill District of Pittsburgh.

Buses, cars and vans will be coming from all over the country — from as far away as
Los Angeles and the Bay area and as near as Warren and Youngstown, Ohio.

Please endorse the March for Jobs. More importantly, encourage your members to participate. Bring your union banners and signs. Help those hardest hit: the jobless
and homeless by donating funds for transportation and food.

MOVEMENT FOR JOBS NEEDED

Today we need a movement for the right to a job more than ever. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that rising unemployment and underemployment are
“by far, the nation’s biggest problem and should be its No. 1 priority,” in a recent piece entitled “A Scary Reality.”

Union advocates have rightfully pointed out two major facts: the official unemployment figures do not include workers who have given up looking for jobs and a huge number
of higher-paying union jobs will be permanently lost.

PUT ON OUR MARCHING SHOES

As we get ready for Labor Day let’s recommit ourselves to organizing and mobilizing for all things that are important to working people -- both organized and un-organized.

The enemies of labor have been doing just that this summer. We cannot allow them to drown out our voices. Health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, a moratorium on home foreclosures, and Dr. King’s vision of a world where peace and justice triumph over war and greed must be put clearly on the agenda.

Dr. King devoted the final months of his life to opening what he called the second civil rights movement: the fight for the right to a living wage job. This vision is more urgently needed now than at any other time. It was the central goal of the poor people’s campaign and the reason that brought him to Memphis where he was cut down on that terrible day.

We implore the labor movement with its tremendous resources, traditions and experience to extend its hand to the community and the unorganized. Join us on Sept. 20, in remembering and renewing the dreamer’s final cause that all will have a right to
a living wage job.

In the spirit of unity, justice and peace,

Rev. Tom Smith, Monumental Baptist Church

Sharon Black, Union coordinator, March 4 Jobs

Call us at 412-780-3813 or 410-218-4835

Email March4Jobs@gmail.com

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UPDATED Sep 2, 2009 9:41 AM
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