December 12, 2023
Dear friends,
There is a light dusting of good news today, which may lead to some accumulations.
Let’s start with good news for workers:
Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, is dreaming of “a bigger, bolder, better union movement.” In a livestream on Facebook, he reported that workers are signing union cards by the thousands as the union strives to organize workers at ten companies, including Volkswagen, Toyota, and Tesla.
More than 30% at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., have signed up and gone public with their local campaign.
In March, a law went into effect to protect highway workers from motorists who disregard work zone signage and enter a closed portion of roadway. The law was passed because of the high proportion of injuries — more than 1 in 8 — that resulted from hundreds of work zone intrusions in 2021.
The first six months of enforcement have yielded over 130,000 work zone speeding violations. Let us hope that the continued enforcement of this law will prevent injuries to workers.
The minimum wage in New York is going up beginning in January.
“If you are a minimum wage worker and you don’t see this increase in your paycheck next year, I urge you to file a wage complaint with the Department of Labor to make sure that you are getting the wage increase you deserve," Governor Hochul said.
Workers can and should make a file wage complaint by calling 833-910-4378 or online here.
When good news makes a tangible difference in people’s lives, it gives us something to hang on to. So many problems seem insurmountable.
As of November, the city council of Cleveland, OH — in partnership with RIP Medical Debt — eliminated $33 million in personal medical debt owed by nearly 16,000 city residents. And they’re just getting started.
The initiative is expected to eliminate $181 million in medical debt owed by roughly 50,000 Cleveland residents.
Give the gift of debt relief through RIP Medical Debt! You will change someone’s life and you will feel sooooo good.
Methane emissions, which leak into the atmosphere from oil and gas plants, animal agriculture, and gas flaring, are responsible for some 30 percent of current warming. Because methane does not stay in the atmosphere nearly as long as carbon dioxide (a decade or so, instead of centuries), reductions to methane are considered an important measure to ease warming in the short term.
Yay.
Marvin Haynes was released from prison yesterday after serving almost twenty years for a murder he was wrongfully convicted of when he was 16. Haynes received a formal apology and said that his first stop was to visit his mother.
The Great North Innocence Project worked to exonerate him, obtaining affidavits from the witnesses whose testimony led to his conviction, despite a lack of “forensic evidence, surveillance video, or murder weapon linking him to the deadly shooting.”
Support the Innocence Project, which is dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
The governor of Missouri, Mike Parsons, has pardoned more than 600 people who were convicted of crimes in his state. Parsons is a former sheriff.
“I still believe in law and order. I believe criminals need to be treated as such, and they’ve got accountability,” Parson said. But “it doesn’t mean they’re a criminal all their life,” Parson added. “I think you’ve got to be able to look at it.”
Governor Tony Evers has set a new state record for pardons in Wisconsin this year.
Here in New York, clemency reform has not yielded big changes, although Governor Hochul has delivered on her promise not to wait until the end of the year to act. The Governor has issued 43 clemencies since her inauguration.
Tell Governor Hochul to grant more pardons to release older people from prison.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said this about Mayor Adams’s calls for budget cuts:
[t]hese cuts are not fiscally responsible. They are irresponsible and ineffective governance,” Williams said at a rally of roughly 100 labor leaders, youth group members and left-leaning advocates ahead of a City Council hearing on the cuts. “This is not the way you govern a city [responsibly].”
Williams is next in line for the mayoralty, should the mayor leave office before the end of his term.
Submit written testimony to NYC council to support #CareNotCuts. Deadline is tomorrow! This action is from People’s Budget.
A contest is over for members of the public to make something interesting with ‘einsteins’ —hat-shaped tiles that can cover “an infinite flat surface in a pattern that does not repeat” — and the results are cool. Although this isn’t really justice news, it is delightful!
Check out einstein designs for cookies, textiles, games, ravioli, hats, and more!
with love,
L