Tell Congress to pass Pres. Obama’s American Jobs Act and KEEP GOING

Wow! What a week!

First, a victory in our campaign to end hiring discrimination against the unemployed! This week, Indeed.com, the largest job listing website in the U.S., announced it will stop posting job ads that refuse applications from unemployed candidates.

Then, last night, President Obama laid out an aggressive agenda to put millions of Americans back to work by investing in programs that USAction/TrueMajority members have been demanding — investing in infrastructure, rebuilding schools, extending unemployment benefits and prohibiting discrimination against unemployed workers.

President Obama’s American Jobs Act is a ray of hope for millions of struggling Americans, especially in opposition to the job-killing, cuts-only approach of the right wing.

Congress should quickly pass these provisions and then it should keep going and pass a robust public job creation plan.

NOW is the time for Congress to act. Please tell Congress to put America back to work.

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Ross Wallen, September 9th 2011 | Posted in Action, Economy, Jobs, Progressive Policy, Workers' Rights

Stop hiring discrimination against the unemployed? “Indeed” we can!

By David Elliot

Indeed.com, reportedly the largest job listing website in the U.S., has announced it will stop posting job ads that refuse applications from unemployed candidates.

Earlier this summer, USAction launched an online petition drive to outlaw hiring discrimination against the unemployed. Although we were the first to launch an online drive, we weren’t the first to document this egregious practice. That distinction goes to our friends over at the National Employment Law Project, which released a report showing that employers of all sizes and staffing agencies are using recruitment and hiring policies that expressly deny employment to the unemployed – simply because they are not working.

The NELP study reviewed job postings that appeared on four of the nation’s most prominent online job listing websites: CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Indeed.com and Craigslist. NELP identified more than 150 ads that openly discriminated based on employment status. The overwhelming majority of the discriminatory ads required that applicants “must be currently employed.”

After the NELP study was released and widely distributed, USAction’s petition drive targeted companies like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com and asked them to stop posting ads that discriminate against the unemployed. Later, Change.org, CREDO Action and ColorofChange.org launched their own petition drives, and together we’ve gathered more than 243,000 signatures!

At first, we didn’t get the answer we wanted, although Monster.com did help generate some publicity by sending us a “cease and desist” letter.

But now, momentum is growing against hiring discrimination. Legislation is pending in both chambers of Congress and has been introduced in several states. Late last month, President Obama endorsed the legislation during an appearance on the Tom Joyner Show.

And with Indeed.com’s announcement this week, the good news continues. The company’s announcement was first reported by Change.org:

“Indeed.com strives to provide the best job search experience for job seekers,” said Indeed.com Communications Director Sophie Beaupere. “Our policy is to exclude job listings that do not comply with federal or local laws related to discriminatory hiring practices as well as job listings that discriminate against the unemployed.”

So what’s next? USAction realizes that even if the practice of employment discrimination ended today, we still would not have enough jobs in our country for the almost 14 million unemployed and 25 million un- or under-employed Americans who want them. That’s why USAction is ratcheting up its “Good Jobs for Everyone in America” campaign, which calls for ending hiring discrimination, extending federal unemployment insurance beyond 2011 and passing robust jobs legislation like Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, which would create two million public-sector jobs over the next two years.

David Elliot is the Communications Director USAction / USAction Education Fund.

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Ross Wallen, September 8th 2011 | Posted in Action, Corporate Accountability, Economy, In the News, Jobs, Progressive Policy, Workers' Rights

USAction supports Rep. Schakowsky’s Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D), a progressive champion from Illinois, this week introduced The Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act. USAction endorsed the jobs bill immediately:

“We built the middle class by decisions we made together, as Americans,” said Alan Charney, USAction director of strategy and policy. “But today, working and middle-class families are struggling, while the rich get richer and at the expense of the rest of us. It’s up to us to fight for good jobs, strong communities and shared prosperity. Congresswoman Schakowsky’s bill will put America back to work.”

We need more leaders in Washington D.C. like Jan Schakowsky, unafraid to lead where others have failed and fight for what the American people and the American economy so desperately need, jobs to drive the economy back to where it belongs. That’s exactly what this bill does, as Jordan Howard writes in the Huffington Post:

The congresswoman said that her plan would create 2.2 million jobs and decrease the unemployment rate by 1.3 percent.

“If we want to create jobs, then create jobs,” Schakowsky said in a press release. “I’m not talking about “incentivizing” companies in the hopes they’ll hire someone, or cutting taxes for the so-called job creators who have done nothing of the sort. My plan creates actual new jobs.“

How does it put America back to work? Check out below:

 

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Ross Wallen, August 11th 2011 | Posted in Economy, Health Care, Jobs, Progressive Policy, Taxes