Call to Action: Your help is Needed

This just in from our friend Peter, the Executive Director of the California based org. Progressive Christians Uniting-

Dear Colleagues:

In two minutes' time we can help a group of low-wage workers who really need
help. They are the service workers at the University of Miami, which is
currently headed by Pres. Clinton's former HHS secretary, Donna Shalala. As
you know, many of the workers and their supporters are now on a hunger
strike. President Shalala has been quoted in national news coverage as
saying (a) she cannot control the labor relations policy of the university's
vendors, and (b) she believes the question of union representation should be
settled by a standard NLRB election rather than the alternative expedited
method of a card check (i.e., the employer grants union recognition based on
a majority of workers having signed a representation petition).

Obviously President Shalala CAN dictate the labor relations policy of the
vendor (she did so recently by arranging for a token raise for the workers);
she also knows enough about how employers manipulate the NLRB election
process to know that a standard election is NOT in fact the most
"democratic" way these days to resolve the representation question.
Enlightened employers across the country, including universities, allow the
alternative card check method to be used as a means of ensuring fairness.

Please join me in calling AND writing President Shalala to urge her to
change course and do the right thing. As several news stories have pointed
out, the University provides President Shalala with a very generous salary,
a $600,000 house and various other perks including special beds for her
cats. She should be willing to allow persons working full time at her
institution to be able to afford basic rent.

President Shalala's phone # is 305-284-5155. Her e-mail is
dshalala@miami.edu.

Thanks so much!

Peter

Rev. Peter Laarman
Executive Director
www.progressivechristiansuniting.org
Progressive Christians Uniting
1501 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213.989.1630