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President Obama Speaks : Affordable Care Act
AFL – CIO : Tell Verizon to treat workers &customers with RESPECT
Recently, we launched our CEO Pay and the 99% website1 to expose the outlandish practices of companies giving huge compensation to CEOs while cutting jobs and sitting on record amounts in cash holdings and short-term investments. One of the most egregious examples of corporate excess and greed is Verizon. While Verizon tripled the salary of CEO Lowell McAdam to $23.1 million last year,2 it also was cutting U.S. jobs, gutting worker pensions and charging current and retired employees and their families thousands of dollars more for health benefits while reducing disability coverage. This is unacceptable and we need to let Verizon know it. Call 800-229-9460 now to record a message that will be delivered directly to Verizon executives. Today, while Verizon holds its shareholders meeting in Huntsville, Ala., working families and Verizon customers in Huntsville and across the country will be calling on the company to end these “VeriGreedy” practices, respect its customers and the workers who keep the company running and save good, middle-class jobs. Because of the hard work of tens of thousands of customer support representatives, technicians, electricians and other workers who provide the best quality service they can to customers, Verizon has enjoyed success. Verizon workers are part of the solution, not the problem. They should not be punished with job cuts and increased health care and benefit costs while Verizon executives get huge pay raises and the company sits on $14 billion in cash holdings and short-term investments.3 Call 800-229-9460 now and tell Verizon to treat workers and customers with respect—by negotiating a fair contract. Corporate greed on this scale is bad enough, but when combined with neglecting workers, it’s completely unacceptable. Together we can put an end to these terrible corporate practices—but only if you speak up and make your voice heard. In Solidarity, Andy Richards P.S. After you have left your message for Verizon executives, make sure to click here to find out if an event is happening in your area today you can attend to support Verizon workers. 1 http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/CEO-Pay-and-the-99. |
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The Untold Story … Horne of Africa
The recent images of men, women and children starving in the Horn of Africa tell a painful story of famine and suffering. How does a nation recover from a devastating food crisis? To find out, Chip Duncan and Salim Amin returned to a Ethiopia, to a place where famine caused a massive death toll over 25 years ago. What they discovered was surprising and hopeful. In partnership with One, they created a documentary showing the contrast between 1984 and present-day Tigray. Read their words below, view a preview and watch their powerful short film. << click on link for VIDEO
In Somalia, innocent people are dying needless deaths due to a famine driven by politics and war. Those who are dying need our help and our voice.
Drought is a challenge faced by people around the world. Climate change is now making droughts more common and less predictable. But drought shouldn’t equal famine. Famine is the outcome of poor infrastructure, corrupt governments and warring factions who choose to use food as a weapon.
During our recent work in Ethiopia, we had a chance to revisit the site of the 1984 famine. Our film uses footage and stills from that famine to remind us of the suffering and of its causes. Our story also chronicles the policies and infrastructure put in place during the last two decades to build sustainable agriculture. Water retention systems, irrigation, improved transportation systems, terraced farming, training programs, improved seeds and fertilizers – this is the new legacy in Tigray Province. It’s a story worth sharing so people everywhere can promote small scale agriculture while motivating governments to make similar investments in the future.
Chip Duncan
Director, “The Untold Story”
I made a journey following the footsteps of my father from 25 years ago. When Mohamed Amin made that journey a quarter of a century ago, he never imagined it was one that would change his life forever. He had covered every major story in Africa over four decades, but nothing prepared him for what he saw in Korem in October 1984.
A famine of biblical proportions, with more than 5 million people on the verge of starvation. A famine that was, to a large extent, man-made. The ruler of Ethiopia at the time, Colonel Haile Mariam Mengistu, was using the famine as a tool to suppress the rebel movement that was rising against his brutal regime from the north of the country. He didn’t want the world to know this famine existed.
The pictures that my father shot on the plains of Korem changed his life and changed the world. They prompted the greatest single act of charity of the 20th century and saved the lives of millions of Ethiopians. After this story, he changed the way he looked at news coverage. He cared for the first time in his life and did everything he could to keep the story in the headlines. Those images were amongst the most powerful and iconic images in television history.
I was expecting to see Korem still reeling from the effects of that massive famine. It takes generations to repair that kind of damage, but I was in for a shock. I went in with the best TV production team I had ever worked with, and what we saw stunned us all! A massive drought is taking hold of the Horn of Africa once again, but Korem and Tigray Province is an oasis of crops. Irrigation schemes that have been put in place over the last decade. There’s also a new awareness of the types of crops to grow and how to market and sell them for the best prices; and new resilient seeds have all transformed a community from being “takers” to being “providers”.
The farmers of Tigray Province have proved that drought doesn’t have to equal famine, and smart aid can work.
Salim Amin
Chairman
Camerapix/A24 Media
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