Posted on 06/02/2010 4:59:42 PM PDT by Chickensoup
I cannot get this to format and cannot figure out how to fix the formatting in Word.
Probably,,, although the one I found is a union monopoly.
This appears to be a Union Funded leftist organization that wants to unionize farm workers and wants open immigration to obtain more members. Socialist in beliefs.
A Voice for Rural America Since 1985, the League of Rural Voters has joined its voice with rural Americans, working to create change by harnessing the power of the ballot box. We believe in the power of a grassroots approach – strengthening the capacity and capabilities of those with the most at stake. Using culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies and materials, the League of Rural Voters provides information, communications and organizational tools to a growing network of rural advocates.
We work together to increase participation and demand accountability in all levels of government by: Creating public service and earned media campaigns -- to help raise awareness of the policies that have led to current rural economic challenges. Providing online advocacy tools -- to help turn up the volume on rural issues for the media and our elected officials. Challenging candidates to take clear positions on farm and rural policy issues. – to allow rural voters to support and elect representatives committed to increased investments in rural education, health care and sustainable economic development.
TAKE ACTION: Support a stronger rural economy. Support the Employee Free Choice Act. Higher wages are good for farming, good for rural communities, and good for the nation’s economy. That’s because we need good wages to rescue the middle class. Think about the way large-scale corporate farms are pushing family-sized farms into the economic ditch and bringing rural economies along with them.
Would corporate farms have the same cost advantage if they paid union-scale wages to everyone who worked for them? Think about all the people who work in rural processing plants and other businesses that support farming. Are the communities they work in better off with residents who are paid middle-class wages, or with people struggling to make it on rock bottom wages?
Think about farmers who want fair prices for what they sell. Who is more likely to be able to pay those prices – middle class consumers or those living on the edge? The Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for workers – both rural and urban – to join labor unions. And bargain for higher wages and benefits. And rebuild the middle class.
Corporations have launched an all-out effort to mislead, misinform and defeat this important legislation. It’s time our representatives heard from the rural communities and supporters they represent. Send the letter below and ask Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Mark A. Anderson
Mark Anderson, currently with the Wessel Group Inc., has more than 30 years of experience working in the U.S. labor movement on a wide range of international, economic policy and collective bargaining issues. Most recently, Anderson held elected leadership positions at the Food and Allied Service Trades Department (FAST), AFL-CIO, a coalition of unions representing some 3.5 million workers. He began his union career as a construction worker out of Laborer’s Local Union 230 in Hartford, Connecticut.
Kevin Ristau
Kevin Ristau is education director of Minnesota’s JOBS NOW Coalition, which is the oldest and largest employment policy coalition of its kind in the nation. He is the principal writer and editor of JOBS NOW’s pioneering “Cost of Living in Minnesota” series. In the 1980s, Ristau was education director for the League of Rural Voters. Between 1973 and 1984, he farmed in southern Minnesota.
John Thorson
John Thorson serves as the Political Representative for AFSCME Council 5, AFL-CIO, advocating for tax, local government and health care issues for a union of 40,000 state, university, local government and health care workers throughout Minnesota. Thorson serves as a board member of Progressive Minnesota, a community-based non-profit coalition focused on issues affecting immigrant and low-income communities. He has served on the board of the Selby Avenue Community Development Corporation (St. Paul) and the St. Paul neighborhood network, overseeing community-access television.
Immigration
Most people think of immigration as an urban experience. Yet, most of today's (im)migrants are choosing to settle in rural places and small towns. In the last few years, rural areas have witnessed enormous changes in their racial and ethnic demographics. Far from random and haphazard, the movement of (im)migrants to rural communities has almost exclusively been due to jobs which have attracted families to areas of the country that have never seen these populations before.
Meatpacking, poultry processing, large-scale dairies and traditional agricultural fieldwork are just a few of the types of employment into which this new population has been heavily recruited. In many cases these new rural residents are helping to revitalize rural communities which otherwise struggle with low incomes, an aging population base, limited access to services, and weak infrastructure. It is against this backdrop that we support the work of individuals and community institutions to welcome newcomers and to ensure that the rights of all are respected.
http://www.leagueofruralvoters.org/
"Begrudging the unemployed"
Nearly one-half of Senate Republicans voted no on what should have been easy and obvious support for workers during such bleak economic times. Cynthia Moothart writes in the April 1 issue of Progressive Populist.
BINGO!
TIME TO DO SOME RESEARCH FREEPERS !!!!
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