ECONOMIC JUSTICE COALITION

ACTION TEAMS

May, 2010

1) Civic engagement and voter registration

Purpose: To get lower income people into positions of greater influence with elected officials

Activity: Recruiting non-voters to register to vote and then vote; and then become involved with elected officials in their decision making.

Leaders: Caryl Sundland, Joseph Smith, Dolores Lee-Hill, Helen Smith, Linda Lloyd,George Patrick

2) Unity: Cooperative Labor Partners. Job training and job development. Multi-ethnic organizing for jobs. Quality jobs with a minimum of $10 per hour wage. Landscaping, handyman work, simple construction, and personal home care.

Purpose: To promote employment and then more secure employment among workers who are left out of the secure job market.

Activity: Job training and job development through marketing of UNITY, sustainable dispatchers, and crew leaders

Leaders: Linda Lloyd, Clothilda Barnett

3) Workers' Rights Center: Connections to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Another Focus on Wage Theft, Another Focus on Discrimination with the Connection to EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).   The US Department of Labor is waking up! And, the EJC is Waking Up with them.

Purpose: Education of workers on their rights under the laws that protect workers' rights; assistance in filing legitimate complaints of abuse by employers.

Activity: Promotion of laws that protect workers from problems of wage theft, occupational safety and health, and discrimination. Engage workers  who need to know more about their rights and need assistance in pursuing their claims.

Leaders: Keith Johnson, Ron Wynn, Nicolas Stanojovich, Ray MacNair

4) The University of Georgia Living Wage Campaign. Joining with students at rallies at the Arch every Thursday eve at 5:00pm . In the face of the budget cuts, promoting cuts at higher levels of salaries, cuts in unnecessary construction projects. Promoting a policy of no cuts among the lowest wage workers who can not survive without their jobs.

Purpose: promotion of job security, living wages and benefits, respect by managers for the lowest wage workers in the University

Activity: activities formulated by student and faculty leaders; rallies and negotiations with University administrators

Leaders: Pamela Voekel, Maggie Kilgo, Matt Boynton

5) Fund Raising and Grant Making. The budget of the EJC is slim. Every effort to raise money has a major impact. One view of fund raising: "Let's Get 1,000 People to Donate $25." Various grant opportunities crop up. Research is done on the possibilities, and then grant writing assignments are taken.

Purpose: gaining donor support for staff, rent, equipment, job development activities and acquiring through foundations or government agencies that support our activities

Activities: solicitation of donations to achieve $25,000 through 1,000 donations of $25 each (packaged in different ways per donor) and through fundraising events; research on grant possibilities, selection of possible grant funders, writing and approval of proposal, and meeting the funders' guidelines for     proposal and deadlines

Leaders: Joseph Smith, Ray MacNair, Linda Lloyd, Clothilda Barnett, Keith Johnson, Glenda Colbert

6) ESL for Immigrant Workers. Learning English makes the immigrants more marketable in the job market. They are grateful for this voluntary effort. A grant of $350 came from the Athens Literacy Council for materials to be used in teaching. Shadow learning is relatively easy--and it is fun.

Purpose: promotion of job readiness among Latino immigrants, as well as ability to connect throughout the community through language skills

Activity: conversational lessons at the Day Labor site for the workers, and at the community room at El Banco de las Opportunidad for Latino family members

Leaders: Tracy Yang, Dustin Christensen, Maria del Cayuela, Ray MacNair, George Patrick, Humberto Mendoza

7) Honoring Employers that are Worker Friendly in wages and benefits. Link to the web site: www.workerfriendly.org Applications by public, private, and nonprofit employers can be made online at that web site. Various types of employers have been approved.

Purpose: to encourage a change in the culture of business employment among private, public, and nonprofit employers (including churches)

Activity: recruiting employers and encouraging them to fill out the form, gaining approval in wages and benefits, and publicizing their approval, in order to have an impact on consumers, workers, and employers

Leaders: Ray MacNair, Patty-Freeman-Lynde, Jessica Magnarella, Dan Everett, JoBeth Allen, Johanna Nichols of Common Ground

8) Office management and volunteer coordination: volunteering to keep the office in good shape . Connection to Free IT Athens; Connecting Board Members and volunteers to the Action Teams.

Purpose: to build and maintain the responsibilities of EJC programs through a grounded and steady office responsiveness, and to extend the reach of EJC programs throughout the community and among the lowest wage workers

Activity: managing records and managing communications among the various Action Teams; also, recruiting volunteers, making assignments, setting up sociable events; promoting the   enjoyability of the volunteer work.

Leaders: Maria del Cayuela, Johnnie Hunter, Linda Lloyd, Glenda Colbert, Tom Walker, Ray MacNair, and other Action Team leaders

9) Web Sites Action Team for EJC, Unity, and Workerfriendly: the web sites serve as communicators to the public, to potential volunteers, potential funders and donors, and potential Unity employers and workers.

Purpose: to serve as a facile and accurate portrayal of the activities of the Economic Justice Coalition, in promotion of our activities, goals, objectives, and accomplishments.

Activities: designing the web sites, updating the web sites, and verifying the accuracy of the content of the web sites, as well as responding to people who express interest in the activities, plans, and work that can be done.

Leaders: Linda Lloyd, Jacqueline Bosby, Jennifer Clegg, Dan Everett, and Jessica Magnarella