1) National Picture. There is still a high probability that some major labor law reform will pass Congress and be signed by President Obama this year. We need to keep up the outreach to and education of both our members and the public.
2) Political Strategy. We continue to have the strong support of our entire delegation. The Greater Boston CLC will be setting up a meeting with Senator Kerry and we will be meeting with the staffs of Senators Kerry and Kennedy. Anyone speaking to their Congressperson should also reinforce the importance of passing EFCA.
3) Media Strategy. We continue to respond to local media opportunities with letters to the editor and op-eds. We have gotten excellent coverage of our recent actions and were able to send out several letter in response to editorials across MA. Willie Desnoyers of the UAW MA CAP Council was able to get his published. Thank you to all who volunteered to send in letters.
4) Enemies of Change. The next actions will be exposing Bank of America’s opposition to EFCA (again!) on April 29 across the state. Just now we have Somerville, Merrimack Valley, Worcester, Springfield, and Boston confirmed. Please let us know if you can participate.
5) Community Support. We have over 100 community and religious leaders in Massachusetts along with 45 community organizations signed on to support EFCA, the highest number of any state. We also have over 100 local professors signed onto an EFCA letter and local political leaders.
6) On to Two Million! Unions and community allies have collected over 1.5 million EFCA cards and we are going for 2 million. We will be sending out an electronic card that you can forward to your email lists for any members or their families that haven’t yet signed up. We can also provide a speaker at your next membership meeting to update your folks on where we stand today.
7) Steering Committee Meeting. The next Statewide EFCA Steering Committee will be Wednesday, May 6th at 10am at 1199/SEIU, next to the Bayside Expo Center in Boston. If you can’t attend but would like to call in we will send out the info.
Thanks again for all of your hard work. If we keep up the pressure we can win justice for working people in 2009!
For any questions or to plug into ongoing activities contact Jennifer Doe at 617-524-8778 or jennifer@massjwj.net
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