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2000
It was a whirlwind year for the PJC – from major victories in the
Vermont Legislature with the passage of a comprehensive livable wage
bill (Act 119) to mobilizing wide-spread community support
for a union organizing drive of nursing home workers at the Berlin
Health & Rehab Center (the 1st in the state!); from helping people
of color find good paying jobs in Chittenden County to educating the
community about racial harassment in our schools; from providing
technical / infrastructure support to grassroots activist groups to
reporting in the P&J News on major demonstrations in Seattle,
DC, and other cities hosting talks on expanding global trade deals.
In addition to building on our statewide livable
wage efforts, we also added two new projects under our umbrella:
The Vermont Workers’ Center – which was started 2 years ago by
Central Vermonters for a Livable Wage; and Vermont Faith
Communities for a Just Economy – a joint project with the
Vermont Ecumenical Council. The PJC is providing essential
administrative and financial support for these projects, while both
have independent Steering Committees to help make staffing, resource
and activities decisions.
The Vermont Workers’ Center continues to build an
organization that can undertake the slow process of building a
strong workers’ movement in Vermont. We continue to raise public
awareness of labor issues through our work on the Workers’ Rights
Hotline, and our efforts in community organizing, labor solidarity,
public relations and education. Over the past year we have assisted
workers at Berlin Health & Rehab Center, Capital City Press, Verizon,
Ethan Allen Furniture and have received over 550 calls to our
Workers’ Rights Hotline.
We also released Phase 6 of the Vermont Job Gap
Study entitled The Leaky Bucket: an Analysis of Vermont’s
Dependence on Imports. The report focuses on Vermont’s
reliance on outside sources of goods, services and capital and
quantifies the outflow of dollars, as well as opportunities for
import replacement. Throughout state government, agencies are
incorporating livable wage language and goals into their work plans.
Many businesses have called us to say that they have decided to pay
livable wages to their employees. We worked with Vermont Businesses
for Social Responsibility to release a Livable Jobs Toolkit
for small business owners in March.
The Board of the PJC took this past year to
examine each of our programmatic areas in-depth and is in the midst
of writing a new 5 year strategic plan for the organization. We
reached out to the community to help us change and grow internally
as well. We held a focus group of peace activists to assist us in
thinking about how to revamp our peace and international human
rights work. And we assembled two focus groups of supporters to
provide critical feedback on the Peace & Justice News and on
our overall image in the community.
2001
Because of the need for a variety of
strategies to address systemic economic problems, the Peace &
Justice Center has three distinct, yet interconnected programs - the
Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, Vermont Faith Communities for a
Just Economy, and the Vermont Workers’ Center. Each program has
its own organizing agenda and we work together on a common
legislative agenda.
Here are some highlights from our efforts in
2001. As a result of hundreds of people involved in the community
campaign supporting workers at Berlin Health & Rehab Center (the
first private nursing home to unionize in Vermont), the State of
Vermont is beginning to implement staffing standards for the nursing
home industry. Livable Wage Resolutions passed at eighteen town
meetings in March 2001, with about 10,000 voters considering the
issue. Over 400 people attended Burlington’s first annual Labor Day
Weekend Parade and Picnic 2001. In January 2001, public and private
employees joined together at a statehouse rally that drew 250 people
to support Green Mountain Power workers who were on strike and VT
State Employee Association employees’ negotiating a contract. Both
unions won contract settlements with the help of the VT Workers’
Center community campaigns. Vermont State College support staff
launched a livable wage campaign and, with community support from
the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, won wage increases up to 35% for
the lowest paid workers, as well as reduced health care costs and
more. Over 900 people across Vermont attended workshops offered by
the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign on livable wages and economic
inequality. Vermont Faith Communities for a Just Economy made
presentations to over a dozen congregations, educating 250 people of
faith on livable wage issues. And Vermonters sent 600 postcards and
made over 150 calls to U.S. Senators in support of increasing the
federal minimum wage $1.50 per hour. The Vermont Livable Wage
Campaign printed a full-page advertisement advocating for this
legislation.
The Racial Justice & Equity Project continues to
make strides towards improving race relations in Vermont. The
Project assisted about 30 people of color with job placement
services, advice on how to handle workplace harassment, and advice
about career development and job openings. One of the biggest
barriers to the economic advancement of people of color in Vermont
is access to jobs due to existing hiring practices.
The Project is working with a
number of local employers to help recruit job applicants of color.
Enlightened employers such as Verizon and Key Bank understand that
in today’s multi-racial world, their employees must be
representative of this reality.
We also continue to educate elected officials,
school administrators and the media about the growing problem of
racial harassment in our schools. To date, several hundred copies
of the report on the problem, published by the Advisory Committee in
Vermont for the US Civil Rights Commission, have been distributed
around the state.
Our newly reenergized Peace & Human Rights
Project works to connect Vermonters to global issues, through
education, statewide and regional coalition building,
demonstrations, and advocacy. This past year has focused on the
campaign against National Missile Defense – known as the Vermont
Campaign Against Star Wars. The campaign has identified the
local and global dimensions of the issue and has developed a
strategic plan for mobilizing Vermonters.
Since the terrorist attacks on September 11th
and the subsequent military response against Afghanistan, the Peace
and Human Rights Project has been the center of a lot of organizing
activity. For over 3 months, we organized daily silent peace vigils,
with 20 to 100 people regularly in attendance, to be a witness to
the desire for a non-violent resolution to the conflict. We are
collaborating with other global justice groups to mobilize a
coordinated community response. And we are working on an
alternative news resource book to connect US policy, defense plans
and alternatives to war with the September 11th attack.
Together with our Racial Justice & Equity Project, the Peace & Human
Rights Project has reached a larger community, including high school
students and teachers. The collaboration of these two projects has
enriched and broadened the focus of the campaign and the response to
the attack.
CLICK HERE for 2003 to
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