Time To Get Things Done
The best way to defend American democracy is to build up our essential democratic institutions, and those institutions are mainly unions and our allied organizations.
The number one national priority is to get the Senate to take up the Heroes Act, the comprehensive COVID-19 and recession relief package that was passed in the House last May. Sign up to call your senator at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/heroes-act.
The best Texas news source, Ed Sills of the Texas AFL-CIO, has listed some of the priority legislation we can work on in the state legislature beginning in January. Here are a few:
—HB 60 by Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, would raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour. HB 383 by Rep. Leo Pacheco, D-San Antonio, would raise the minimum to $12 an hour. HB 224 by Rep. Lina Ortega, D-El Paso, would allow local governments to set local minimum wages;
—HB 145 by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, would eliminate the waiting period for receiving Unemployment Insurance benefits;
—HB 190 by Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, would establish a Texas database of employers who commit wage theft;
—SJR 15 by Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, and several other similar or identical proposed constitutional amendments and bills by Sens. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and others would pave the way for Texas to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands more working poor families;
Start receiving labor news free by emailing ed@texasaflcio.org.
Win Another Election
The United Teachers Political Action Committee, representing school employees, has endorsed Nancy Rodriguez for DISD Trustee in District 2. According to teacher activist Andrew Kirk, the incumbent running against Rodriguez has “CONSISTENTLY voted against us on nearly every major issue...”
The campaign can be contacted at http://nancy4disd.org.
KNON Asks for Funding
“What’s Next?” That’s the topic of the panel discussion Saturday evening at 6 PM on Facebook: http://facebook.com/genelantz.7. Sponsor is the “Workers Beat” weekly radio talk show. It is the only pro-labor broadcast in Texas. Unionists and our allies bring our message to the public at 9 AM every Saturday on knon.org and 89.3FM.
The community radio station finances itself with a quarterly fund drive. Donations can be made at http://www.knon.org/pledge-now/. Respond to the question about “your favorite program” with “Gene Lantz” so the “Workers Beat” program will get credit.
More Actions Coming Up
Nov 14, 9A: “Workers Beat” radio program on knon.org and 89.3 FM
Nov 14, 6P: KNON fund raiser on Facebook with Justin Chen, Gene Lantz, Bonnie Mathias, Jeanne Schulze and Kenneth Williams discussing “What’s Next?”. http://facebook.com/genelantz.7
Nov 17, 6P: “Foro de ciudadanía virtual” citizenship forum presented by Texas AFL-CIO. Register in advance at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QPEXGQ_4THiRjD3xWx3PIw
Nov 18, 5:30P: “A Seat at the Table: the Legacy of RGB” round table discussion from the Texas AFL-CIO Women’s Committee. Register in advance at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvcOyhqD0qHdcQ5CFaRglBojOE2Wk8rlUD?fbclid=IwAR1OVJIPvEHfv7p1JuwI9EXB6dbKD0pT9Rw7nitP2yTsM9pR66X9D0fthbA
Nov 19, 7:30P: Dallas AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. Contact genelantz.dallasaflcio@gmail.com
Dec 8: “Safe harbor day” deadline to end state arguments on their vote counts
Dec 14: Electors meet in their states and cast paper ballots. Governor certifies the results
Dec 23: Governors send electoral votes to Congress
Jan 6: Newly elected Congress meets in joint session to officially accept the results from each state and count them. This is the formal end of the Presidential/VP race
Jan 20: Inauguration Day
