Clean Water Action Invites you to ELECTOBERFEST!

Help us Elect Pro-Environment Candidates:

Wednesday, October 6th
5:30-7:30pm
Hot Club — 574 Water Street, Providence

Donations welcome. (Suggested contribution $25 and up)

To RSVP or for more information, call Clean Water Action at 401-331-6972

Call today to be listed as a sponsor for $50-1,000. (includes your ticket, too!)

Proceeds from this event with benefit Clean Water Action’s work to elect pro-environment candidates and to pass and enforce laws to protect our environment and health. Please be as generous as possible as we head into the home stretch toward Election Day!

Please make checks payable to Clean Water Action and send to:

741 Westminster St., Providence, RI 02903

Because of our extensive lobbying work, tickets are not tax-deductible.

Nolan Treadway of Netroots Nation just posted this diary to Kos, as the 2010 convention gets underway in Vegas.  They’re standing with the Westin workers, but would love to come to Providence — and the Westin — after the dispute is resolved:

As I’m sitting in Las Vegas, ready to start the last prep day for Netroots Nation 2010, we must address an open question regarding Netroots Nation 2011….

You may recall a few months ago when Netroots Nation made the unprecedented decision to go public with our venue search in the hopes that we could show the management of the Providence Westin that being good to your workers is not just the moral thing to do, but it also makes good business sense.

We would all love to have this convention in Providence in some future year, AFTER the Procaccianti Group wakes up and negotiates a fair contract with it’s employees.

Sadly, things at the Westin have gone from bad to worse.  In June, the owners of the Providence Westin, The Procaccianti Group, announced that they would be cutting 50 union jobs (of the 200 at the Providence Westin) and that those jobs would be outsourced to a (presumably non-union) subcontractor.  It’s clear that the Procaccianti Group has no interest in bargaining in good faith and, in my personal opinion, it’s end goal is to break the union at the Providence Westin altogether.

Word just in from Ocean State Action.

Jobs or Income NOW! Rally to Stop Cutoff of Unemployment Payments. Join us on Wednesday, July 7, at 4pm for a rally at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Kennedy Plaza calling on Congress to deliver federal extensions to the unemployed and COBRA benefits to Rhode Island!

Partisan bickering has repeatedly gotten in the way of Congress
extending unemployment benefits to 1.7 million Americans effectively telling us that in the midst of the worst recession in a generation we are on our own. Here in the Ocean State 31,000 people are losing their unemployment benefits. That means 31,000 people and their families will be trying to figure out how to pay their rent, put food on the table and keep the lights on and will keep $13 million per week from entering the Rhode Island economy.

Sponsored by Ocean State Action and the Rhode Island Unemployed Council.

4pm, Wednesday, Soldiers and Sailors Monument across from City Hall, downtown

David and crew are having a big kick-off bash at the Pawtucket Armory on Friday, June 25th, featuring Mark Cutler, The ‘Mericans, Chris Paddock, The Amil Byleckie Band, Josh Garcia, Dan Lilley and Scatman, and more… Reception from 6pm to 8pm, and live music follows in earnest.

A $100 contribution is requested, $25/sliding scale for students and low-income. (Nobody will be turned away, but it’s really freaking expensive to run for Congress.)

There’s more up at Facebook. And you can visit David’s website here.

Friday, Reception 6pm, Music 8pm, 172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket

The Westin announced yesterday that it’s going to lay-off a ton of workers and subcontract out to lower-paying entities:

PROVIDENCE — About 50 Westin Providence Hotel workers were notified Friday that their jobs would be farmed out to a subcontracting firm and they would be laid off at the end of the month.

The move is a blow to the 200-member hotel workers union, which has held regular demonstrations in front of the downtown hotel and called for a boycott of the hotel after the Procaccianti Group, the Westin’s managers, unilaterally imposed wage cuts, health-care cost increases and increased workloads on union workers in mid-March.

The union, whose contract expired in October, says it will continue to call for a boycott.

So say the hypocrites at Procaccianti, who haven’t taken any pay cuts over the course of the fight:

Ralph V. Izzi, Jr., a company spokesman, said in a statement that the hotel’s decision follows 11 separate negotiating sessions with the union that failed to produce a new contract.

“It was clear the union was the only sector of the hotel that refused to demonstrate a willingness to bear any sacrifice or help mitigate the effects of the worst economy since the Great Depression,” Izzi said.

Stay tuned for more news on how to help the workers as they press forward in their struggle.

Join the massive picket today, Weds, in response to the RI GOP’s “buycott,” in response to the union’s boycott of the Westin. The state GOP has asserted its support for the Westin’s management, against its workers, and will be holding and event there this weekend. From GoLocalProv:

In a rare display of pro-business activism, the state GOP is planning an event this week to show its support for the management of The Westin Providence—which has cut wages and raised health care contributions for its workers.

Earlier this spring, the hotel workers’ union, UNITE HERE 217, called for a boycott of the Westin. One left-leaning political convention, Netroots Nation, has already said it will honor the boycott, taking the $2 million it would have spent at the Westin somewhere else.

In response, Republicans are making a point of bringing their business to hotel.

This Wednesday, the Republican state central committee will hold its regular meeting around 6 p.m. at the Westin. “We are going in a quiet protest of the boycott and the picket lines,” said state chairman Giovanni Cicione. “We thought we would go there in a show of solidarity with the business owners.”

Some reminders about how we got to this point, from RIFuture:

• Hotel workers in general don’t make enough money to support a family, typically around $10-15 an hour.
• Westin workers are now making less because the Westin management unilaterally reduced their pay and raised their health insurance premiums (which they have to pay with less money).
• When the State sold the Westin Hotel in 2005 there was a commitment to maintain the salaries and benefits of the workers.
• The Procaccianti Group, owner of the Westin Hotel, just paid management huge bonuses while cutting the salaries and benefits for workers.
• The Procaccianti Group defaulted on about $14.75 million in loans in the early 1990s, financial information about these defaults were not released by the Rhode Island Division of Taxation.
• One specific $3 million loan default was on 250 acres of land in Hopkinton, which company president James Procaccianti purchased using another of his businesses, Kuehn Road Associates LLC, for $145,000. This left the state with $2.9 million in debt.
• The Mission Statement of the Procaccianti Group reads, “To hire, train and nurture the highest quality people and to assure them opportunities for personal and professional enrichment.” Yeah, right!

This is cross-posted at HuffPo and Dailykos:

The folks at Netroots Nation and RIFuture.org have done a great job of shining the spotlight on a labor dispute we are facing locally in Providence — the outcome of which will directly decide whether the Netroots Nation conference will bring approximately $2 million in economic activity to our area in 2011.

As a progressive elected official who’s worked with the hotel workers and other service employees across the city and state for nearly a decade, I want to do my part to increase pressure on management on behalf of workers.

(And as a founding contributor of local progressive blog RIFuture.org and co-founder ProvidenceDailyDose.com, I especially look forward to welcoming progressives from around the nation to Providence.)

Today, I’m asking for your help, by signing a petition in support of the workers that I will deliver directly to the hotel management — and will invite local media to cover. You can sign it here.

more »

This could be a big deal for Providence — upwards of $2 million in economic impact, and a lot of fun to boot.  Netroots Nation had been looking to host its 2011 conference in Providence, at the Westin and Convention Center.  They deserve a lot of credit for respecting the boycott.  Netroots Nation director Nolan Treadway tells PDD:

Netroots Nation supports union workers because we believe in the rights of workers to organize.  We also recognize that many of the progressive public policies that exist today came about through a strong labor movement.  And we embrace the fact that many progressive policies we hope to be enacted in the future will come about, in part, through a strong labor movement.

We won’t book a hotel in the midst of a labor dispute.  We really need to have a labor agreement between the hotel and its workers in place through summer 2011 in order to book.  We hope that the contract is worked out so we can bring Netroots Nation to a city that shares our progressive values, Providence.

more »

A press conference will be held this afternoon to announce plans for a May 1st demonstration and to denounce the recent legislation in Arizona.

On Tuesday, April 27 at 3pm in the State House Rotunda people affected by the economic crisis, the attacks on immigrants and workers’ rights across the board, and the dismantling of critical public services including education will gather to announce plans for May 1, a day recognized in the U.S. and throughout the world as a time to honor workers.  Recently the day has been marked in the United States by immigrant rights marches, including the 2006 event that drew 30,000 people in Rhode Island and denounce the enactment of SB-1070 in Arizona, also known as the “Racial Persecution Law” because of the certain impact on harassment of people of color by law enforcement.

The May 1 event is being sponsored by a number of organizations, including Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción, Rhode Island Unemployed Council, Fuerza Laboral/Power of Workers, Save Our Schools, Olneyville Neighborhood Association, RI Jobs with Justice, DARE Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Brown Student Labor Alliance, American Friends Service Committee of SE New England, and Ocean State Action.

3pm, Tuesday, State House Rotunda, Smith Street, contact Libby Kimzey 463.5368/908.304.2573

At about the 4:30 mark here he talks about the Capital Good Fund, founded by Brown grads, and now dedicated to doing micro-finance in Providence.

The Capital Good Fund is a non-profit microlender based in Providence, Rhode Island. Our mission is to create a poverty-free, inclusive green economy through innovative microfinance. We provide loans, workshops and consulting services to individuals unable to access capital through traditional sources. These products and services go to entrepreneurs seeking capital for income-generating activities and to immigrants interested in applying for U.S. citizenship.

John Joyce and other organizers from the original Tent City staged a protest in downtown Providence yesterday setting up their “NOP Tent”. When Joyce first gathered homeless individuals for the first tent city in 2009 it was because he believed there was safety in numbers. He believed that if people were going to have to be outside in the bitter cold they would fare better by banding together. Yesterday he set up his tent again, this time to protest the recent actions of the Governor eliminating the homeless prevention program, NOP (Neighborhood Opportunities Program), from the budget.

“I said in January of 2009, when we put the first tents up, that there was a solution to the Tent Cities and the state’s homeless problem, and that the solution was affordable housing,” exclaimed Joyce. “That is still true today, which makes the decision by the Governor to eliminate this critical program, which is a route out of homelessness for hundreds of people, even more infuriating.”

more »

If you were lucky enough to avoid a direct personal hit in the recent floods then maybe this would be a good year to kick in with the spring cleanup around the state.  Save The Bay is celebrating 40 years of Earth Day and 40 years of Saving The Bay. Click here for info on joining a cleanup crew or becoming a sponsor. A major Earth Day effort is scheduled for Saturday April 24, but why wait. Click here for a schedule of events that has already started and includes several locations next Saturday, and even a Woonasquatucket River cleanup on the actual Earth Day, Thursday April 22nd. You can even form your own crew — Save the Bay can get you going.

To help you in organizing your own cleanup, we have prepared several guides with companion data sheets for you to document the collected debris. Download the one that fits your cleanup needs. For more information or to work in conjunction with Save The Bay, contact Stephany Hessler at shessler@savebay.org or 401.272.3540, ext 130.

Tentatively.  Mayor and firefighters make nice:

From RI Jobs With Justice:

The owners of the Westin Hotel have imposed a contract on Westin workers that cuts wages twenty percent for all workers, raises employees’ health insurance costs (triples or quadruples the cost), and significantly cuts employees’ sick days, vacations and holidays. This contract also threatens Westin hotel workers’ job security by authorizing subcontracting.

Rally, Thursday March 18th @ 4pm
Westin Hotel, 1 West Exchange Street
Providence, RI 02903

Join Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, UNITE HERE, and other student, labor, and community groups as we show our solidarity with the Westin Workers. We will rally on Thursday March 18th at 4pm in front of the Westin hotel.

The Union Committee of the Westin workers is holding a vote to authorize action up to and including boycotts and strikes. Results of the vote will be announced at the rally.

That’s Thursday, March 18, at the Hi-Hat. Facebook here. More details on the event below, but first, Tom’s take on why you really oughtta give a hoot about who your State Treasurer happens to be:

Why should you care about the treasurer’s race? The treasurer’s office is an underused asset to our state government, with important levers of power that seldom get used. The treasurer isn’t just about finance, but also housing, education, the environment and more. We deserve a treasurer who understands that it’s not just about managing the state’s finances more efficiently, but also about using those levers to benefit the state’s working families, its water and air, housing, education and more. Read more about finance, or about me at the campaign web site, or at whatcheer.net, or — better yet — come to the party and ask me.

And the March 18 details:

A week from this Thursday, on the evening of March 18, please join me for a fundraising party for my campaign for Rhode Island General Treasurer. It will be at the Hi-Hat, in Davol Square, Providence, from 6-9, and will feature an invasion, I mean appearance, by the fabulous What Cheer? Brigade, a 16-piece street band with four drummers, three tubas and heaven knows how many trombones and trumpets. My friend Aaron Wade of the band Santamamba will also be around to fight back on the piano. And I’ll probably speak for a little bit, too. The suggested donation is $100.

There are more than fifty co-hosts helping me with this affair:
Craig O’Connor and Lauren Goddard - Melody Drnach - Dave Heckman- Matt Jerzyk - Karen McAninch and Steve Markovitz - Rachel Miller - Jane Murphy and Jim Dean - Marvin Ronning - Marti Rosenberg - Roxie and Tom Sgouros Sr. - Jim Tull - Councilman Seth Yurdin - Representative Frank Ferri - John Roney - Senator Rhoda Perry - Ray Rickman - John and Letitia Carter - Robert Walsh, Jr. - Harry and Alice Beckwith - Marc B. Gertsacov, Esq. - Jim Harris - K. Nicholas Tsiongas - Lawrence Purtill - Ric McIntyre - Paul McNeil - Dave Ortiz - Representative David Segal - Henry and Peggy Sharpe - Bruce Vild and Faith Lamprey - Jay Walsh - Rick Brooks - Bert Crenca - Brian Hull - Representative Scott Guthrie -Representative Art Handy - Ed and Cathy Hardie - Meg Kerr and Bob Vanderslice - Nancy Evans Lloyd - Lynne McCormack and Al Chin - Garrett Bliss - Patrick Crowley - Representative Bob DaSilva - Johnny Dollar - Scott Duhamel - Representative Jay Edwards - Alisa Gallo - Roberta Hazen Aaronson and - Michael Aaronson - Representative Edie Ajello - Michael Alper - Representative Chris Fierro - Representative Rod Driver - and Dan Bass

These celebrities have it right on:  This video really makes me regret dropping out of camp, every single summer from the ages of 7 to 14.  I think I just enjoyed watching the Price Is Right too much to spend my mornings spinning lopsided pottery.